with liberty and justice to all. At this time we'll now move on to motions direct the city manager to add agenda items to future agendas. Do we have anybody? Okay, public invited to be heard. We'll take a couple minute break here to allow people to call in. The screen will be put up with the number. I believe we have two guests. The Chamber supports City Council submitting to voters this fall an amendment to the Home Rule Charter to allow for the lease of city property up to 30 years. The Chamber is interested in furthering conversations on this and is happy to help with communications on this important tool for future city projects. Thank you. Calling in to voice my support for Longmont Public Media, of which I'm a member. I don't personally view myself as creative in the way that people who are into making podcasts and videos are, but I'm interested in lots of community-focused things like local politics and community organizations. What I love about Longmont Public Media is that it takes the mission of public access seriously. Next up we have special reports and presentations, so I think I'll throw this over to Harold. This is what's happening on a daily basis in terms of the number of cases. Again, this is by state. That really we're moving through cumulative numbers and at this point we're really watching what's happening on a day-by-day basis. This is again the movement that we've seen in the number of deaths related to COVID-19. Again, an important slide. I'm going to show you this in Boulder County when again you look at where the number of cases are in terms of the state and you can see that it's in a 20 to 29 year old group where it's over 8,000 cases. And then you're starting to see that they've had 11 deaths, 368 hospitalized in terms of this age demographic. And then if you remember what this looked like the other day, there's been looks like some growth in this category as well from a 10 to 19. This is the PCR percentage on a weekly basis and you can see that when they look at it from on a weekly basis it's somewhere around 4%. This is the five-day rolling average on the percentage of COVID-19 PCR tests with positive results. So you can see that you know, we've stayed below that 4% as Boulder County. Saw that peak where we got close and then we moved and then you see a rise. When you looked at the state numbers it was sort of this general trend that moved like this. In case of Boulder County you see a high peak in the age groups of 20 to 29 drops and 30 to 39 goes up and then you can see the move back. And so we look different in Boulder County in terms of where those cases are coming from. And you're really seeing the growth in this area based on what that charts look like. As a system you can see that we're still tending to move in the green. When you look at the state numbers it's very similar to that. Kind of wanted to touch on a couple of points. So many of the questions that you all talked about came up. We closed the west side of the Civic Center today based on the very issue that you talked about in terms of testing. So the finance side in that area, we had to make the decision to close it and go through our protocols. It's not the first time we've had to do it. It won't be the last time we've had to do it. But we just went through and followed our processes in terms of how we needed to approach it. And I was actually going to bring it up to answer many of the questions you asked. So thanks for doing that. So when we look at Safer at Home and we look at Protector and Neighbor, the governor has delayed the consideration of any request to move into the Protector and Neighbor phase. Which for a couple of weeks, which we know that's now going to put us into the month of August, we know the case growth numbers that we have to look at in all the parameters. And so we know the month of August is probably highly unlikely based on what we're seeing that we'll move into Protector and Neighbor, which means we're still in Safer at Home. And so at this point, at least as I've talked about it with my staff, we really think we probably would be best in August to stay in this Zoom environment based on everything that we're seeing and what we're doing. So that would be my recommendation. I just wanted to get council's feedback on that or answer any questions I could on it. Councilmember Peck? Thank you Mayor Prottam. I agree that we should stay virtual and I have to hand it to Susan and your staff that I think we've got a pretty good handle on how to work this now. And I think it would be the wrong message if we're at a safe at home, stay at home through the governor, but we don't do that. So I'm all for doing the virtual until the governor lifts that protocol. After much ado, I would like to introduce Scott Converse from Longmont Public Media. Scott, go ahead. Hi guys, can you hear me okay? All right. General Manager, Longmont Public Media. And what we're going to do tonight is a six month update on where we're at with Longmont Public Media and where we're headed. So these are some numbers. We started from zero. As you know, the LongmontChannel.org was the old contract holders website that they'd run for 20 years and they would not forward that to us or give us any access to it whatsoever. By what we can tell it's effectively shut down, which is a shame because people knew it was there. So we started from zero with LongmontPublicMedia.org. We broadcast 24 hours a day, seven days a week on Channel 888, as well as on our website, as well as on YouTube, and as well as on what's called T-Vision, T-Mobile's Comcast competitor. So we actually send it out to four channels 24-7 currently.  So challenges and risks. As you know, COVID-19 has kind of stopped everything in its tracks. Maker spaces are and co-working spaces have pretty much had their business model ripped out from under them. People don't want to congregate in spaces. So I'll give you an example. Tinker Mill had 800 members at one point. It's down to about 600 now. That's not all COVID related, but a big chunk of it was COVID related that has since leveled out and is starting to climb back up again, but it really was a hit. And we'd never had that luxury of having a large user base in place already. We started at zero and we had just started to take off from COVID hit and it just knocked us dead. We have less community content than we planned on because we don't have a maker space. The maker space, the plan was to have the maker space and all those people with all their great ideas and all of their energy and enthusiasm to create these shows isn't there. So we haven't been able to make as many long specific Longmont focused shows as we would like to. We will again, but right now it's really hard to do without the maker space, without the members in the community, in the space. I mean it's just an amazing amount of variety that you have done and added to this city. And I'm very grateful to you because this modernization is exactly what we needed and much as I'm fond of the cable guys, and I am, they're nice guys, but we really needed to take a fresh look at everything. Sandy, I was just wondering this would be stuff that would generally come up when the contract is up for renewal, is that correct? Actually Mayor Pro Tem, I believe that Scott is asking for that advisory board member anytime, not necessarily as part of the contract. And we are not planning to bring you back that decision about the contract tonight. Tonight was really a presentation from Scott. I did send you all survey results from our public engagement that Council Member Peck asked for when we did sign the contract and so our intention is to bring it back in a month or so. But if you had some specific direction you'd like for us to pursue tonight that would be that would be great to hear otherwise we'll work with Lamont Public Media and bring you back a contract later in the year. Item 6B, Sales and Use Tax Simplification Code Changes. Alright Mayor Pro Tem, I'm Jim Golden and the City's Chief Financial Officer and I'll be making this presentation tonight but I'm also had a couple of staff members who will also be here to help assist our answer questions. Richard East is our Sales Tax Administrator and Jamie Roth is the Assistant City Attorney for the City and they've been working hands on on this project. So a few years ago the state decided to put together a task force to address the sales tax simplification to move the state of Colorado towards a position to make it easier for businesses to do business with cities in Colorado. So this task force did work and put together some standardized definitions and Lamont was involved in that and we did implement those standardized definitions about three years ago. So part of what we're bringing forward in a couple of weeks are amendments to the code that will address our licensing requirements. So we currently are we require any business doing any business doing business in the city of Lamont to have the retail sales tax license. So we have contractors who have been required to file an application for a license with us and they do most of their business their building contractors and so when the only sales tax collections or payments if they make they are making when they are pulling building permits. So they're really not remitting any sales tax to us in our sales tax system. They're also licensed elsewhere under the code as contractors excuse me. So what we're proposing to do is to exempt them from the business license requirement because part of the cost for our new software system is driven based on the number of licenses we have in tax from this that will probably generate more sales tax and certainly from a staff efficiency perspective we believe once we get this new system in place it's going to help us with our processing of returns. Certainly going to help the tax filers as well and they'll be able to easily make electronic payments and file their returns online. And so I believe that we'll be now moving on to item 6c the discussion to resubmit the ballot item concerning 30 year leases as a charter amendment for the november 3rd 2020 ballot. Essentially what we did is we just took the item that we presented to you all during last year when you put this forward so you could start the discussion and advise staff in terms of what you would like us to do with this item in the future. You know I will support it if I think it needs to be on the ballot people need to vote for it one way or the other. I don't think it's wise for us to put it on the next ballot but you know if that's what everybody else thinks then I will support that. We're going to have a recovery to manage and we're going to need partners in that recovery and like other cities who engage in public-private partnerships which really weren't a thing in the 1960s as far as I can tell. We're going to need those 30 year leases and I think that we are able we need to be able to communicate to the public that this is important to the recovery this is important to the quality of life in Longmont in enriching the city and and attracting people who are willing to invest in the city. Our private investors need a 30-year mortgage too they need a 30-year lease to get it done. Councilmember Waters. Thanks Mayor Frutian. Yeah I don't think among the council there's it would be disagreement about the value of changing the charter because we agreed to put it on the ballot for for the very reasons that councilmember Waters described and I want to I think councilmember Christiansen's concerns I share about how how soon you would go back to the ballot and not having it appear as though we're going to keep coming back you know over and over again. I do remember that Nexlite failed the first time and came back successfully subsequently and was one of the great decisions that this community made to support the creation of our own bandwidth and as a utility. So I think even with minimal organization behind it it's a no-brainer to help the community understand the value doesn't cost anybody anything positions Longmont to compete at least equally with municipalities around us that have already done this to attract investment to Longmont so I hope that we would as a council give our community a chance to support it get behind it and give us a chance to put us in the same kind of competitive position that we see other Boulder County municipalities. Councilmember Beck. Thank you Mayor Frutian. I also agree we we already voted unanimously to put this on the ballot before so I don't think there's going to be any real discussion about should we or should we not put it on the ballot Okay just from my perspective I guess I do share the same concerns as far as putting something back on the ballot so quickly after it lost real quick question I don't know if anybody has the numbers but what was the spread on the votes for when it lost? 16,000 votes against versus 13,000 votes for so it was really pretty close only a margin of 3,000 votes with no messaging whatsoever. Thanks councilmember Martin that's 45.47 percent for and 54.53 percent against. Do you have the direction from council to then bring that back to you all place it on the ballot yep. Yep I definitely see the head nods all right councilmember Beck. I feel like I've talked a lot tonight but thank you Mayor Frutian and so I didn't know at what point in the agenda to bring this up because there really wasn't any I asked Don to Don Quintana to forward to you a an email that I got with a petition from 350.org Colorado and basically it is from about 50 30 individuals and 20 some organizations that would like us to sign on these organizations these 30 organizations are not coming to elected officials and city council and commissioners to see if we will sign on a petition to ban fracking in Boulder County and the reason I think this has come up is because Erie is being overrun with with all kinds of gas and oil sites that are just outrageously large and if you don't want to do it as a council I will do it individually so that's what I would like to know this is this has to be done by Thursday which is why I'm bringing it up very late here according to council rules of procedure the city should not be taking a final position or official action at study sessions I would recommend that you suspend the rules of procedure and if it's representing the city I I do think a motion and vote would be needed okay I move to suspend the rules of procedure so as to be able to make a motion on this second back okay thank you we have a a motion on the floor by council member peck to suspend the rules of procedure in a second but I think council member you don't go faring I heard a couple then the people and the organizations uh about which council member peck is referring you know to cooperating with one another not one of them uh approached us to ask how did we feel about being sued to enforce what the court had already told us we couldn't force and to spend more tax dollars I mean I don't want to get too wrapped up in it but I I still honestly have a little bit of an edge on about being sued by our friends to cover the cost for other people who would like to see tracking bans imposed in vulgar county um so that doesn't feel like in the spirit of of cooperating with one another that's the way it should be approached but that's the way it was approached and now on short notice the question is would you sign a petition to do exactly what people didn't do for us so um I have an issue with that but I'm I'm more concerned about the legal status as defendants in a lawsuit in which we've chosen to take a written position um so I guess seeing no other discussion on the motion on the table all those in favor of suspending rules of procedure to allow for a motion in vote during a study session say aye aye all opposed say nay the motion passes five to one with councilmember waters dissenting and mayor bagley absent councilmember peck okay I moved that as a uh as a council we sign on to the 350 350 dot org colorado petition to ban fracking in vulgar county second uh motion by councilmember peck to sign on to the petition as referenced to ban fracking in vulgar county or be in support of banning fracking in vulgar county in a second by councilmember christensen councilmember martin I have a number of concerns the the first one is I'm hesitant to vote for anything I haven't read and I don't think that even if we took a moment for us to all read what's in our mailboxes now um game under the pressure I'm not sure I would consider that a a thorough reading at least not the way my my mind so I will not be voting to endorse this motion as a body sometimes think longer than things take longer than uh we thought and so maybe there will be an opportunity for us to do that when we're prepared to do it but I'm not going to vote for it tonight vote all those in favor of signing out as a body to the 350 dot org petition to ban fracking in vulgar county say aye aye all those opposed say nay nay motion passes four to two with councilmember's water councilmember martin dissenting with count with mayor bagley absent all right I move adjournment second all in favor of adjournments say aye aye all opposed motion passes unanimously we are adjourned thank you everybody


helpful tip for you guys right off the bat here go ahead and smash that like button electronics cleaning vinegar that is the key a little bit of vinegar in a mixture that will take the water spots right off all right we're gonna be using the electronics today so go ahead and give it a little pre-wipe and I don't think we're gonna be dealing with a lot of waves and splashing today so keep the screens nice clean welcome all back to the channel today we're going to be addressing brush piles how to find them with the electronics and how to approach them the reason I want to focus on brush piles today is because this is the time of year where brush piles become very good a lot of fish move towards brush piles but what I was first getting into fishing and I got a boat and I would hear about people catching fish out of brush piles it was very intimidating you know first of all how do you how do you find a brush pile and then how do you really fish it so now that I have some years of knowledge I just want to show you guys how I look for brush piles and some ways that you can fish them for bass and crappie and we've got to try out the new Doppler man the new life scope turret so we're gonna take this off of our trolling motor right now we're gonna place it on the turret we're going to put this to use out of the way so what I want to look at today and show you guys is where do you even look for a brush pile I haven't planted a brush pile in years there's so many people that do plant them just just saw one right here you saw one on the on the down scan one little pile right there so what I'm gonna do I'm gonna go in here I'm gonna mark that just a little thing just a little thing okay mark it with that symbol the tree and we keep going and sometimes they are random but really what you want to look for is what is your lake's good offshore depth that's one of the first things you need to figure out where do you see a lot of the bait and how deep is the lake you know a lot of our lakes here in Texas reservoirs they're like 50 60 foot deep some get out to like 80 90 100 feet and really clear deep water those were those were like very clear deep water lakes here for Texas but most of the time they're gonna be around 60 feet and that good depth to look for is gonna be anywhere from about 15 out to 25 and that's where I see a lot of the baitfish moving in the summertime and look for the little irregularities on offshore points so when you look at a map you want to look for the little little nodes that are coming off of points sometimes they're they're right on the big main lake point and then sometimes the guys that are smart that plant brush piles they'll put them just off to the side of the juice and in today's day and age the obvious stuff gets hit so hard and fish will move off to the sides of the juice and feed because they're so used to getting hit right on top of the best-looking stuff you don't have side scan that is the biggest game changer in finding brush piles you can use 2d I used to find them with 2d it just takes a lot more time to idle over those spots and you just kind of zigzag back and forth but when you have side scan I've got mine set on 110 120 feet and I'll look for the things that are casting shadows not necessarily looking for fish because a lot of times you can be fooled with carp and catfish and other species and you can utilize one of these babies I don't use these anymore because I've got spot lock and all the you know latest and greatest in electronics but if you don't have life scope and all that you can use this and this is a marker buoy it will basically show you line you up keep you lined up where to cast so once you find that brush throw this out and then you can keep in that position with the troll motor you don't have to throw this on top of the brush you can throw it off to the side or where you want your boat position and keep casting that spot so it's just a it's a way to keep reference on your spot what we're going to be utilizing today is the new live turret which is awesome because I can just spot lock and I can zone in and it's game over but right now I'm on a huge huge offshore point this thing comes out it's hundreds of yards long and I'm going in the little areas between 15 and 25 and I'm looking with the side scan for any irregularities so I'm looking for those brush piles that somebody that was sneaky is gonna put out here and that's gonna hold fish on this huge flat there's no timber out here there's some rock cover that holds some fish but if you find a brush pile that is amongst a lot of nothing you're usually gonna find fish on it's just a great attractor so I'm running garments here y'all but the color palette that I love to use is this lime green this kind of crazy green it just really stands out to my eye everybody has their preferences on color palettes but right now I'm in 20 foot that's a good depth because I can see them off a little deeper or if there's something up shallow I can see that coming up right here this is an old foundation I have never fished this in my life it looks like there is something else right here to maybe another foundation I'm basically going right over here if we look right here on our down scan I can see some fish that are on that foundation so we're actually gonna fish that right here all right we're just gonna pick up a spoon and toss it out here it's a good thing to note the general depth of activity this looks like about 22 to 24 to keep that in mind and this this foresight turret is much faster just got hit it's much faster than my other one hooked up first cast see what we got here a little white bass first cast got a fish it's never terrible so I'm locked in position here I'm on the apex of a point and I haven't even pulled up to the structure that I found it looked like there was some foundation and then off from that someone had planted some brush so we're gonna search for that I'm just gonna try to pick these fish off might be a bass or two roaming around here as well as a little buddy I'm gonna come off on his own alright so we got some general feeding activity on this point that's good okay looks like I just spotted spotted the edge of it's like some brush possibly I usually will keep my settings around 75 I'm really looking I'll go to 100 I just saw that there's a bass coming out we're getting a little too close for comfort for him all right I'm seeing it just a ball of fish right there that's not moving that's telling me it's most likely crappie we've got some baitfish above them which is perfect so I'm gonna switch to a crappie jig and realign myself here come on eat it there we go you got a crappie that swam out from the pile yeah I'll grab that snacky we go nice little crappie let him go I'm a little far right now about 40 feet away 35 40 feet typically when I'm crappie fishing I like to get about 20 to 15 but I just wanted to see if I might get one of those sneaky little bass okay something else I'm also gonna do is go ahead and rig up a mondo worm so it looks like there's a bigger mark in there could be a bass I'm gonna go red bug mondo I remember to pack some mondo worms but as you can tell I'm running low Guggen Squad comm news code LFG and save on your mondo worms another summertime wigglies and jigglies mondo worm is a central summertime worm all right there we go you can see the bass sitting on top just waiting for a big worm come on that typically when I'm working a brush pile for bass I am not gonna wait too long for that fish to bite and I'm not necessarily just watching the scope the whole time I'm looking for the brush pile to kind of angle up my cast I like to stay you know 40 feet plus away from it work that worm through there the worm is so great on the Texas rig because it gets through all that stuff if you're fishing something like a Carolina rig or a crankbait crankbaits can be good and it's nice with life scope you can see your crankbait coming through there but you do tend to get hung a lot so brush pile fishing a worm a Texas rig worm is really your best friend I can't get those bass to bite now crappie I approach a little differently and I will spend a little time on them with a bass it's usually reactionary for me I don't sit and plug away I might come back to the pile and try to fish it later if the fish isn't firing the bass aren't firing on it but I typically do not spend too many casts on the bass if they're not firing away and what I've been seeing lately like this past year see that bass swimming away right there it's like if you if you go into crappie mode on these piles you'll often see the bass from away it's like they notice the electronics and they start swimming off so you definitely want to stay farther away so whether using life scope or whether you're using you know 2d side scan marker point put your put your your buoy out you want to stay a pretty good distance away basically as far as you can cast I've never never fished this spot before so I'm interested to see if we can catch any decent crappie off of it switch up to a dart this is my favorite summertime when it starts getting sticky they want that direct vertical presentation love this right when they start getting on the brush piles the crappie they really like that swing in presentation I'm throwing well past the brush palm swinging it in and that little snacky swimmers is great for that we go just floated that one real slow over the over the heads there's decent keeper crappie I'm leaving for a trip in the morning go up to flares so I'm not gonna keep any today but this is a good this is good little warm-up right here for when I get back go full blown fill the cooler crappie mode there's another one coming got him there we go looks a little better pulling it's a good crappie right there it's a big one look at this slab y'all it's even better when you find a new one catch catch one that size that feels like a crime putting that one back look at that tiny little hole in his mouth that's why you got to use a light rod nice keeper crappie better than nice it's excellent those are fun to catch that size all right something I'm gonna do here on my live scope as I'm going to adjust it face more down I'm gonna go one notch down because I've kind of had it set on spring live scoping early summer at this point I'm getting more into getting close to the brushpiles for crappie want to be able to see see basically more straight down rather than out ahead I had it out ahead before because you can actually see your lure at the surface so the way I had it adjusted I could see I could see fishing a topwater they could really get those jerk bite jerk bait follows get a great read on them but now fishing deeper I'm gonna adjust it notch down and I can already tell it's you can see a lot better with it golly that was a dog a dog crappie dog that's that's nice okay definitely going to so another thing that I like to do when I find a spot get a general area with this the side scan but I will get right on time as I'm leaving the area I'm done fishing it I'm gonna get right on top of it with the nose of my trolling motor and then I'll remark it it's one thing I love about the garments crappie and there's another spot oh my gosh just ahead of me here I'm gonna spot like that because it looks like some juices darling see if I can dangle a couple of these snickerdoodles up here that's gotta happen oh my gosh these are towed these are towed crappies oh yeah baby Tony this is like the size down there that's the size what a fish they're a little trick here these bigger ones I really had to float that one on top but I'll let you go let you go that hurts that hurts letting that fish go but sometimes those bigger ones you just have to you just have to hover it above them the dangled art's just irresistible you just got to put it right in the spot and I'm 10 feet away my pole just holding it over and this little pile is it's not very big all this this pile is probably the size of a bike the size of a bicycle and there's probably eight to ten fish on it but they're just big they're just bigger fish so see if we can get another one here all right this should be it ladies and gentlemen jig entering perfect trajectory I'm just gonna try to float it right above those marks there we go oh my gosh big and big croppy just came off right there this is where the turret is the program I got a light wind my spot lock is keeping me in place but I don't have to move the turret or move the trolling motor with my feet which allows me to put all my focus oh there's a good one coming up to tag it oh my gosh that actually could have been a white bass it's coming way out for it I can put all my focus oh gosh drag got walloped there's a good big and I can put all my focus in in trying to present my lure the right way and that's what it takes right now on this particular spot oh man you had a hard spawn dude have your tails missing all right let you go hang out with your big buddies down there we'll go try to find another pile maybe try to get a bass off one pause for a jet skier run through right here probably here in the background every time jet ski or boat comes through get a little caddy mampus but here's what I will say about live scope cuz live scope gets a lot of and I'm I'm one of those that has often played devil's advocate about it because it is transforming fishing the way that we fish but here's what I'll say and anyone that has been on live scope for a while will will recognize this you have to be dialed on your casting so if any if anyone talks smack about live scope and has never used it I want you to understand for casting you have to be precise there is a beam that is like that wide I don't really know how wide it is but I know it's probably close to about that that you have to cast in to be able to line up and follow your lure on live scope or follow the fish or whatever so you have to be precise with the life scope in order for it to be effective a bass lure shows up pretty well a crappie jig is pretty difficult especially when you start pitching it out 20 30 feet you'll notice it gets hard to track if you get live scope you have to really practice with it and you have to be in tune with it just it doesn't mean you're gonna start catching fish now once you get dialed with it it is a it is a force to be reckoned with and then I will say it will affect fisheries and it does affect fisheries and there's no putting that genie back in the bottle folks I'm finding these piles using the the side scan but to really step it up and get precise with these crappie I don't know if you just saw that but had to I made multiple casts 10 15 casts or it was just a little bit off few inches off in order to get those bigger crappie have to get it right on their nose like they do not want to move and by the way that's I've say this a lot but that's one of the ways that you tell that fish are crappie because white bass are moving all the time you'll see catfish kind of moving around bass on a brush pile you'll see them kind of circle around they kind of hunt it but a crappie just sits in it and they don't move and that that makes them easy targets with life scope kind of but you still got to hit them right on the nose if they're smart and pressured so I just wanted to say that just put that out there because just because you have life scope doesn't mean that you're gonna start catching fish another area that you really want to look at if you have this on your lake is docks people love to plant brush piles under their docks and also fishermen love to plant brush piles out away from the docks there's a lot of lakes I've been to where you're fishing the dock you know you're flipping the dock and then you you look at your electronics right below the boat just 2d you look at it and you're sitting right on top of a brush pile you're sitting right where the fish the bigger fish are and so get on your side scan idle out in front of those docks and you'll probably find some sneaky ones that are away from it that are just less obvious when you start island around in this deeper water in the summertime you get in that zone where the fish like to hang you will see fish everywhere not necessarily bass but you are going to see all sorts of species and it's really confusing and it can it could put you off track it's just so hard to know that their bass are not so you can get on a wild goose chase chasing around fish that look like bass but I guess the best advice to that is if it's something that looks like good cover close a hard bottom bass love hard bottoms a lot of predatory fish love hard bottoms then you're most likely gonna have a few bass in there but if it's just like silty sand areas that you're going around but there's a there's a drop then it's probably catfish and carp and drum and all of that stuff I just went over this with down scan obvious tree looks looks like we got fish in it so we'll give a shot now I want you to just look at this son of a D coming right between me and another but a shot very pleasure bees are coming out oh yeah big old big old over the bow come on finally oh my god he got off son of eight biscuits not get the best long range hooks out on that caught me off guard had to run to the back of the boat because I had so much stretch in my line there's just a little bit of brush on a point and as soon as I started coming into the little brushy spot I got bit and it's not a it's not a real tall brush pile it's kind of or laid over okay we got one more spot I want to show you guys it's brush that I have fished before and it just looks different so I want to show you what it looks like on the electronics what's it look for here this is 2d old-school standard that's what brush looks like and when you're sitting over the top of it not moving very much you're gonna see the lines get flatter and if you're moving over it it's going to obviously make an arc but that's what the brush looks like you can see the lines going up those are the different branches it kind of tapers off it looks like there's some bait in here a couple of individual fish that you can see and then this is the down scan so you can see the tall brush see a couple of fish in the top not not a whole lot going on but I wanted to show it to you guys so now with the scope you can really see it open up like there is that Christmas tree we were looking at and see just a couple fish in top it's mostly like bluegill back behind it there's just a series of those trees that are just bunched together studying that brush is kind of important because it will help you understand how to fish it you know there's very snaggy tangly brush like cedar trees that will just catch your lures and there's not much you can fish in it you know bass wise except a soft plastic Texas ring you don't want to have your hook exposed but other brush like PVC and things like that you can fish open hook lures through it just fine and so it really does help to to understand what kind of treat is what kind of brush it is and how aggressively you can fish it last spot guys one more little section there's a drop-off that's got a couple of different brush piles on it there are some crappie here looks like there's a few bass here and I'm gonna position my boat off the ledge throw up behind the brush and bring it through with the worm if we don't get any of bass and I'll switch to the crappie jig but I'm gonna just stay backed out first about 60 70 feet cast up there bring it through and see if we can get a big old Mando this shad look like they've been pilfered a little bit which is great look bass bass chasing the shad right now got a bussing them up going through there this would actually be a good call for crankbait and bringing it through the jam session and it's not getting the bass not getting the bass to go got something oh yeah they're hooked up on a good oh yeah oh my god it came off dear lord that felt like a big old bass I don't have my don't have the trebles the barbs on the trebles here oh my god smoked it it's probably gonna be a crappie it hit it so hard oh it's oh yeah it's a giant crop here we go fellas just hit it so hard we caught it we're gonna lose that spoon dead gum it oh we got it out when you snag up and brush if you pull into it real hard obviously it's gonna go into the brush it would go into my finger right here but if you get over top of the bay and you just shake it like that a lot of times it will just come out the weight of the lure itself we'll get it to come out back at the treehouse everybody got to give you a chicken check got to do it because these little chicks they're growing by the second there they are they were hiding in the woods they have been demolishing bugs so good for the yard just nice to see my little little exterminators out there doing their work and they go in a few times a day to chow down on the feed but you know honestly they prefer to be outside and just scratch around and find bugs it's nature's way and the rest of flock gets along with them beautifully there's there's no discrepancies just yet when they start getting a little older maybe they'll start picking at them when they get in that pecking order phase but right now we're Gucci and let's talk about the turret y'all the the new Doppler love how quiet it is very quick need to move this out a little bit so it will basically not make contact with the shaft of my trolling motor and be able to almost go 360 essentially so thank you guys for tuning in to today's somewhat educational video stay tuned for more outdoor adventures right here you know what to do I'll see you on the next one


I think in America, we minimize the degree of the illness that is caused by various types of chemical exposure. The idea that children are coming down to one element after another because they're breathing chemicals in the air clearly is not acceptable to me. And if elected president, this is an issue, we will put a lot of resources into any situation we will try to end. And certainly it's not just California. In urban areas all over this country, we have outrageously high rates of childhood asthma. And this is something that when we talk about health care, we have to understand that these type of pollutants cannot be allowed to continue to poison the children of our country. Second of all, it is my view that not only because of the pollutants, not only because of the release of methane, but because of the concern that many of us have about the future of clean water in the United States of America. We have got to end fracking. It is just not worth the risk to poison our aquifers at a time when we are seeing the kind of damage we are from climate change and drought. We have to be very, very conservative in making sure that we protect our water supply and fracking moves us in exactly the wrong direction. So I applaud the families who have come out, the individuals who have spoken out against this very serious problem here and we look forward to working with them. Any questions on environmental issues? Senator, you heard from the families from Porter Ranch who are regular by the natural gas leak. What can be done on the federal level to help these people? Well a lot can be done. We have to hold the companies accountable. And most importantly what we have got to do is transform our energy system away from fossil fuel to energy efficiency and sustainable energy. There is huge potential and we are seeing it here in California. We are seeing the growing utilization of wind turbines and of solar. If elected president we will greatly accelerate that transformation. We have the technology now, we have the knowledge and research and development will only make sustainable energies even more cost effective. But right now we can do a lot more with solar, we can do a lot more with wind, with geothermal and with other technologies and we can create in this process just a whole heck of a lot of good paying jobs as we move away from fossil fuel to energy efficiency and sustainable energy.


Aloha. I'm Marsha Joyner and these are the ties that bind today because this is such a special time and we are going to talk to a dear friend, dear friend of mine and it's going to be hard to get all of this in and the time allotted. We have spent years, hours talking about the very subject we're going to talk about today and that is the community interaction with our local issues and representatives because it's an election year. So what else do you do but talk about the candidates, the issues and so the event on Friday on this week the June 29 is Friday at the Waikiki Community Center and we are inviting all of you to be there. It doesn't cost you anything just show up at two o'clock and join us as we talk about the issues that are important in building a community and being a part of a community. So my dear friend, what's your name? Mr. O'Neill. Yes, thank you. Okay, we're going to do this right. Dwight O'Neill, who is now let me read this so I'll get it right. He is an organization consultant, educator, scholar, visionary and futurist and he is the educator for Noble Purpose Network. Did I get it right? Yeah, you did. You got very good. Other than the word scholar, I put a little asterisk around that and see if that's true or not. I try to be informed, but being a scholar, I don't know if that's a good description for me. Well, we'll make it with a small L. Oh, good. Thanks. Appreciate it. So tell us about Dwight. So you want to know about me or you want to know about this event that we're doing. Well, real quick, tell us about Dwight, then we'll get to the event. Well, that's a long story. It's 73. It could be a lengthy story, but I'll try to shorten it up for you. My father was a police officer and he was a top executive in law enforcement in Washington, D.C. My mother was a school teacher. So the conversations that we had around the kitchen table were a little bit different than maybe the conversations that you and your parents had around your table. My father's focus was on law enforcement. And so all the conversations were about it was like being on a detective mystery show all the time because he was always sharing those stories about what happened on a daily basis. And he was also a humanitarian. So at the same time that he's locking people up and catching people doing things wrong, he has a different thought about what's the future of this person and what can we do for this person and where did this person come from? My mother was a school teacher. So that was about just being informed and having degrees and getting a good job and what have you. But those conversations formed my thinking. And so when I went to college, I wanted to be a psychiatrist because I wanted to understand why people did the things that they did. You know, my father would have story after story about people doing things that were just unfathomable, but they were doing them anyway. And so I had this curiosity about that. And so I developed a career in psychology, basically. I wanted to know what made people tick, what causes people to do great things and what causes people to do not so great things. And so over the years what I've done is I've developed seminars and workshops and I have over 150,000 graduates of these programs who came in one way and left a different way. And so I label myself as a transformer that what I love doing is assisting people in changing their thinking about what's possible. So, okay, we are going to look at changing what's possible, taking this old, tired thought process and making it new. Is that correct? Or just changing it? Well, if you ask the question, what kind of country do you want this to be rather than compared to how do we get to where we are? It's a different conversation. It is. Okay. So I thoroughly believe in all the research, look, look, we know more about how we respond to issues and how we respond to people and how we respond to ourselves. We know more about how that works, the mechanisms of that than ever before. One example of it is this accusation that the Russians meddled with our election. So let's say they did, and not for me being retributive, but for me just making up a what if. You mean to tell me that a group of people from thousands of miles away influenced people's thinking in this country with either a letter, an ad or a promotion? How significant is that? Not about the threat to America, but about the fact that that was possible, that you can change a person's thinking or you can influence a person's thinking with just a few words from thousands of miles away. They don't have to be in the room. They don't have to be in the room for nine hours. You don't have to brainwash them. You don't have to propagandize them for a year. It could be a couple of letters. So for me, that's a breakthrough. That's a huge breakthrough in this conversation called what's really possible. Well, so we're going to find out what's really possible. Yeah, we are Friday at this event. And it is a conversation. What is it a conversation of conversations that matter? Right? What is the future of the Waikiki community? Right. And we say Waikiki community because the Waikiki community center is in Waikiki and most of the people that visit live in the area. However, it is open to everybody. So anybody that wants to come join us on Friday. So tell us what what do you mean when we talk about conversations that matter? What what do we do? What what is that? Well, there's a national conversation around politics right now. Yes, it's around Russia. It's around politics. It's around this side versus that side. It's who's right and who's wrong. And that conversation reminds me of a dear friend of mine. Now, his name is Edwards Deming. And I call him a dear friend because we developed a relationship along the way of our spending time together. He's the guy who put Japan on the map. Okay. When I say put him on the map, he introduced this concept called quality. So 25 years ago, 30 years ago, if you bought something from those made in Japan, it probably lasted a short very very short period of time. But now when you buy something that's made in Japan, it's quality and it's sustainable for a long period of time. And the price reflects its sustainability. Well, what changed? You know, how did a group of people, a nation of people in Japan, move from developing really lousy products to developing the best products in the world? And it was a change of thinking. That's basically what it was. It was just a change of looking at the world. It was a different viewpoint that was authored in by Edwards Deming. And so this is an example of how a nation of people can move from one place to another in their consciousness and their awareness. And so this conversation that we're having in YGT is the beginning of those kinds of conversations. You know, in my experience when my father used to tell me there's two things that you don't talk about. One is politics and the other is religion. Yes. And some of you out there have tested what your parents told you about that. And you learned that when you have those conversations, usually conflict shows up very fairly quickly. Okay. So how can you have a conversation about politics and religion that does not cause the conflict, that does not end in one side walking out one door, another side walking out another door. There's a science to it. And so these conversations that I'm introducing to the YGT community center are based on conversations that when we say conversations that matter, conversations that can produce the results that you want to produce rather than the results that show up because of the methodology of having the conversation and the subject matter that's in the conversation. So we're going to obviously have these conversations. Right. And we're moving forward into this election period. Right. Right. So will we get a chance to look at those very what you're saying look at it and how it weighs on our thought process on our conversations about what where we are about to go into this primary season into this election season. Right. Right. Which is which is what we want people to participate. Obviously, we want people to participate, not just on Friday, but there will be several others Tuesday, July 10 at 2 to 4 p.m. There will be candidates in this conversation in the conversation. And Tuesday, July 26, there will be more candidates. Right. So how do we get from where we are wherever that is to looking at or thinking about the issues that are important in Waikiki to not so much that this candidate or that candidate, but how we impart whatever we come up with to them so that the candidate understands this is what the community feels, not what the candidate feels, but what the community feels, what the community wants out of our does that make sense? Yeah, it does. I mean, it's a it's a it's a tough question. You know, my experience about being an American is that we're usually ahead of the curve compared to the rest of the world. We're usually ahead of the curve. I think we're behind the curve on this. Oh, we are. And and let me explain that back to my friend Dr. Deming. System thinking is a different kind of thinking. It's not individuated thinking. It's the whole thinking. So if you ask yourself, what's the purpose of a system, a system of election, a system of voting, a system of education? What's the purpose of a system? He would always say that the purpose of a system is what it does. It's not what the vision statement says. It's not what the mission statement says. It's what it actually does. Okay, so if you look at our our election system, what it does is not necessarily what we like and what we want. As an example, if you look at this last election, there were three, the losing candidate had three million popular votes more than the winning candidate. Right. So that system of voting has somewhat of a flaw in it. Yes. Okay. And if you look at the the system that is in place that won the election for the candidate that won the election, it's called the Electoral College. Obviously, that's not in alignment with the popular thought processes of the people of the country. Okay. So, and just so people know, the Electoral College was 1882. Yes. When it was created and the world was a totally different place. Yes. So it has outlived its usefulness. Yes. So I'm not here to bash systems. I'm just I'm just so the audience understands. Yeah. When that came into being, it was 13 states. Right. Who knew? Right. But that's an example of a system and what's the purpose of a system is what it does. Okay. So what's the purpose of a conversation around politics? Yeah. So is the purpose of the conversation to get into a debate or is it in dialogue? And there's a distinct difference. Debate is one side wins and the other side loses. And that's the effort of the debate. We have a winner and we have a loser. Okay. The effort of dialogue is to come up with something new. It's to come up with an idea that hasn't been expressed, an idea that hasn't been thought. So there's a difference in dialogue and there's a difference in this regular conversation. So what we're beginning to do is recognize that community is where those conversations that are dialogue versus debate need to occur. They need to occur in the community. Not necessarily just once a year or twice a year or now that we have cable news all year long in a debate about who's wrong and who's right and who's right. Look, the opportunity is what a favorite word of mine is called synergy. Synergy, an example of synergy is if you take five different metals and say one's copper and one's brass and one's silver, each one of them has a tensile strength. It's a strength at which if you pull it, it will snap. And it is each one of them has a specific tensile strength. And let's say you add up those five metals and their tensile strength together is 50. But if you put them together and you integrate them, that 50 turns into sometimes 500. And it's the same metal. It's just a method. So these conversations are all about reaping the asset that is the community in the conversation about something that's so important to all of us. Okay, we need to take a break. We'll be back in a minute. And let's talk about community. And how do we build community? Right. Okay, we'll be right back. Right. This is Think Tech Hawaii, raising public awareness. Hi, I'm Bill Sharp, host of Asian Review here on Think Tech Hawaii. Join me every Monday afternoon from five to five thirty Hawaii Standard Time for an insightful discussion of Contemporary Asian Affairs. There's so much to discuss and the guests that we have are very, very well informed. Just think we have the upcoming negotiation between President Trump and Kim Jong-un. The possibility of Xi Jinping, the leader of China, remaining in power forever. We'll see you in one. Aloha. I'm Marcia Joyner, and we are back. And today we are talking to my dear, dear friend and all of you that know I only talk to dear friends, my dear friend Dwight O'Neill. Dwight is very interesting because he has this world view. And instead of thinking like us ordinary people, he always sees it all of the ordinary. He sees it in a different light. So that's why we're asking him to talk about these conversations that matter and the event that is going to happen on Friday at the Waikiki Community Center at two o'clock. And we're inviting everybody to join the conversation to be a part of the community. Right. Then I'll Dwight. And so what is your question? My question is, okay, where do we go from here? What can we, can we expect anything? What are we going to do? What happens? Yeah, one of the, I have been in business most of my professional life. And so I've dealt with businesses and the new currency for business today is speed. And how do we get to it yesterday? How do we get to it tomorrow rather than a week from now? How do we get to it a month from now? How do we change as quickly as we can so we can capture whatever this market is that we're after? And that's the thinking. That's really the thinking. That kind of thinking will not work in this in creating the world that we want. Although it looks like that kind of thinking works everywhere and in all arenas, you know, if you go to a business and you look at the business and you ask the question, what is the biggest asset that a business has? What is it? Is it their reserves? Is it their inventory? Is that their customers? What is the biggest asset that they have? The biggest asset that they have is their people. That's the biggest asset that they have. And more and more corporations are recognizing that every day that no one knows more about the business than the people that weren't in the business. And so what's the biggest asset that this country has? It's its people. It's not its reserves. It's not its dogma. It's not its values. It's not his beliefs. It's its people. And its people drive all of those things. And so this this conversation is the beginning of a new kind of a conversation around the assets that exist in every community. And so rather than having people come and look at a problem and try to solve it and having no ability to do that, we're having a different conversation about what they really want in their life. What they really want to have happen in their communities. What they really want to have happen in their country. It's just a totally different conversation and it's held differently. You know, if I could get everybody in a room, let's say we have 30 people in a room talking at that at the at the same time, it would probably be optimal, but it wouldn't be functional. It wouldn't be practical, but it would probably be optimal. So how do you do that? So over the years, various people in the in the world of psychiatry and psychology and group dynamics have died have developed algorithms or patterns or models of how to do that exactly. How to engage the the population of a community in a conversation like never before. You know, most conversations you speak and like what we're doing right now, I'm speaking, you're listening in the audience who's listening. What if that conversation was all of us speaking and all of us having an opportunity to share our thoughts and share our insights and share our belief systems? What if you could do that? And so what I'm suggesting is that there's a whole toolbox of tools that allow and support people to do that and that's what we're bringing to this series of conversations. It's it'll be something, it'll be experienced for the people that come like they've never had before in the standard quote unquote meeting format. This is not a meeting. So what can we expect? That's a great question because measurement is another property of the old thinking. We've got to measure exactly what we get and when we get it and how fast we get it. I think there's a short term response to it and there's a long term response. The short term response is this. I said before I used to have a seminar business and I have over 150,000 graduates and they come in one way and they leave thinking differently. It takes three days. Oh but we're going to do this in three hours. Well see that's the impracticality of it. But you can start the process. Yes. So the short term value is they'll feel people that will attend this event will feel totally different about what their future could hold. Totally different about what if they're listening to the national conversation today. Fear is rampant. It is. It is. Fear and upset and unsettlingness is rampant. We're not going to have that kind of conversation. We're going to have a totally different conversation that speaks to the issues but in a different way and so it's a series of conversations and over the next two months we should have six different episodes of this conversation that lead to a change in community. We are looking forward to a change in community. Change in community. We again, there's several meet the candidates. Yes. The Statehouse District 22. Right. Senate District 12. Right. City Council District 4. Right. And OHA Oahu at large. Yes. OHA the 17 candidates. Yes. Can you believe that? Yes. So out of that should come some really interesting stuff with with 17 different people with different thoughts, different ideas because one of the things that all of them have in common is that there needs to be a new way of of being OHA. All of them have that in common. And what does OHA stand for? Office of Hawaiian Affairs. Good. Good. Okay. And so there's so that there is that energy in all of them. I mean they they've all said that in one way or another. So that should be quite interesting and then there is this event on the Constitutional Convention, the con con, which again sparks all kinds of stuff in lots of people. Right. Lots of people are totally against it and lots of people are totally for it. Right. And those that are against it say why would we touch the Constitution? It's okay just like it is. And then the other people say no no no let's make it new, let's do this, let's do that. And so that becomes quite an interesting dialogue. Yes. Well over the last and again we don't know how that comes out. Well we don't know how it comes out and you know one of the things that business loves to do is put predictability into every effort that they make. Right. And I'm going to put some predictability. Nothing's going to change. Nothing's going to change until we change our way of thinking about what nothing is and what something is. If we don't change the way we think about those things nothing changes. You know the example is this, here's a little example that I have. I have a large kitchen and I have a swinging door that goes into the kitchen and when my kids were young they used to hang on the swinging door and kind of swing on the door and of course that would pull the screws right out of the right out of the wall. And so I'm you know I'm trying to repair it and I have this screw in my hand and I see the hole and I'm saying well I'm just going to screw it deeper.  So after months of trying that off and on with failing because the door keeps coming off and the door keeps coming off I asked a friend I said well what would you do in this situation?  So the minute I put the thicker screw in everything changed and it changed for the good right. So my thinking in the front end of this had some limitations to it because it was just my thinking I just kind of thought it up I just kind of made it up based on what I know. When I brought somebody else into that conversation that may have known something differently everything changed and so what I'm suggesting is our patterns of having meetings our patterns of having conversations our patterns of sharing information don't support the transformation of thought it just does not support it. You're right and to have a group of people sitting down and the candidate standing up here does not allow for a give and take for exchange of ideas so that the candidates still doesn't know what the community wants. The candidate is saying I will do this and I will do that without any input.  It's a different conversation. Yes. Yeah and the pattern is not to have those kinds of conversations in fact I was driving the other day and there was a candidate standing on the corner waving a sign right you know waving at people and that's the conversation right basically you know that if you I'm running for office and this is the conversation and we can no longer do that we have to change the conversation and we have to involve the biggest asset that we have and that's the community members. Well again we are going to have conversations that matter right on Friday right June 29th that's just coming Friday at the Waikiki Community Center Parking is free yes the event is free we want you all to be there it is necessary if we are going to make a difference in this election year we need to begin the process now we begin we need everybody's input everybody's thoughts everybody's feeling it's important that we do this if we are going to make change. Thank you Dwight it's always a pleasure spending time with you and we'll see you next time. Thank you.


I remember the day that I bought the helicopter. I logged on to LinkedIn. I actually found Jason Hill, and I just wanted to personally thank him. Told him how grateful I was, told him about my eyes, just the journey to get to this point. He actually rode back. He invited me to fly out to England, to meet him, to tour the facility, to really get to see behind the scenes of everything that's going on to make the HX-50 work. Usually, it's fear that limits us, and so in this situation, took 20 seconds of insane courage, and I bought a ticket. And I am flying to England to meet Jason Hill and to continue my journey to the HX-50. So I'm on the flight right now. I got to get some sleep, and I will see you in England. I got there, we got a rental car. I've never been to England before in my life. And obviously, in the UK, they drive on the other side of the street, the steering wheel is on the other side of the car, and this was a major wake-up call for me. Pray for us, Nate. There's roundabouts everywhere in the UK.  Follow the other cars, follow the other cars. Oh, and here we go. Here's another one. Focus. We finally have arrived. We made it to the Premier Inn here in Rougeley, England.  All right, good morning. It's day two here in England. We got some really good sleep. I think we've synced up on the time zone change, and we're headed out to some really cool castle called Sandin Hall, and we're gonna start the day and meet some really cool people. We got there, and it was literally an image from a storybook. Pheasants in the fields, bunnies hopping around, and then over the hill is this massive castle, and there's six helicopters, one's coming into land, and I'm like, this is probably what heaven will be like for me. This is a piece of history right here. You don't see a lot of these. The gazelle. Classic tail number. Look at that. One of the things that I noticed the most about the community of Hill was the authenticity, the warmness, the kindness, the friendship that I instantly received the moment that I walked into that castle. How are you? How are you? So good to see you. Hey, so this is connected with Izzy, and we were talking, and I said, can you introduce me to Jason? And she said, well, of course. Yeah, yeah, come on over. And I said, Clint, I'm so glad that you're here. You gave me a hug. We connected. It was just a surreal experience to have a connection with an individual just as genuine and as kind and as humble as just wonderful as you would hope someone would be. I was so excited. It's the best thing in the world. I've been doing it for 25 years now, and I still get excited every time. It never goes away. Yeah, thank you, Jason. Yeah, it means a lot. It's so nice to meet you. So far, the experience here has been unreal. I've already made a ton of friends. I've met some incredible pilots, business owners, and people that are just passionate about helicopters to the same level that I am. And so I think when you get a bunch of people that sense of community that has that common thread with this being the HX-50, it's just powerful. It's a group that's full of passion and everybody that wants to fly, wants to share the gift of flight and do good in the world. And it's just been an amazing experience so far. This is absolutely unreal. I had the opportunity to go and actually tour the facilities where they're building the HX-50. This was an incredible experience because it's one thing to be able to watch a YouTube video or to get the monthly updates and see the development via online. It's another thing to actually be in the room where it happens. Listening to Jason Hill explain it. To be able to touch the helicopter, to see what's going into the development, the blood, the sweat, the tears, the hours, and the passion behind this project was truly significant. I think one of the coolest parts of the whole facility tour was to meet the backbone behind everything that is taking place. The fabricators, the engineers, the mechanics, the designers, the software engineers. There's so many people that believe in this project and they are equally putting in their time, effort, talent and trust and hope and passion into making this possible. Just incredible people. There is the monologue of one of the first HX-50s. I actually leaned over to Jason and I said, can I sit in it? He said, well of course you can. Sitting in that monologue was just magical. So we got back to the castle and all of the helicopters are taken off and this one R-44 starts spooling up. He pulls up the collective, raises, and I look over to my right shoulder and I'm sitting right next to Jason Hill watching this helicopter take off. It was just a very, very cool moment to be with the guy behind it all. You hear the horror stories of when you actually meet your hero. Meeting Jason Hill, one of my heroes was an incredible experience. Jason said, hey, we're going to have you come over to the warehouse tomorrow but actually I want to invite you over to the house. I've got my helicopter in the garden and if the weather's looking good, we'll go flying. Man, I don't think I have smiled that big. I said, absolutely. I said, we're in. He said, okay, well early in the morning, let's make it happen. This is completely unreal. Like this moment, the sun setting, helicopters taking off, this beautiful castle, Jason Hill, amazing people. This is it. This is the dream and it doesn't get better than this. Unless Kelly and my kids were here. But other than that, yeah. Okay, so we just pulled up to Jason's home. He was kind enough to let us come and visit and look, there's the helicopter out in the garden. It was awesome. Hey, Jason! I showed up to their home and I was invited in as if I was a part of their family. This is absolutely beautiful. 15 years of hard work, this is. It's gorgeous. Their home was beautiful and Izzy was just the perfect host. It made me some tea, showed me the grounds. They have this super awesome mill in their backyard that's got tons of history to it. We went down to a local bakery and just it was the warmth and the hospitality of the community but again, a place where I just felt like family. I had heard that Jason was a little bit of a drummer, has dabbled in percussion throughout his life, even plays in a band. I was able to present Jason with a signature Yamaha snare drum. So it's all maple shells and it has a layer of wenge, so African wenge wood. It just is the Christmas most beautiful sounding instrument in the world. An expression of gratitude for a man that really has done so much in the realms of helping my dreams to become a reality.  We just started to talk. For me, the motivation has always been about building the best helicopter in the world, building the helicopter that I want. We seem to be in a race to mediocrity in so many areas of the developed world. I think just doing something really well, I think it will serve as a real booster to people that just needed a reminder that you can do great stuff and that's been the biggest revelation to me that there are people out there that will support something just because they believe in it. It would not be possible unless the brave forward-thinking people that recognize that this needed to be done were prepared to stand up behind me and say, yeah, I'll run that race with you. Come on, let's go and have a go. The saying time flies when you're having fun was 100% true in this conversation. He looked down at his watch and he goes, I knew we were going to go fly. I've got a meeting that I've got to get to. Let's see if the weather is going to hold out. We'll see if we can still make this work. But I've got to go and get to the office so I can build your helicopter. Okay, you guys, I just got finished at Jason Hill's home. It was absolutely beautiful. They are some of the most genuine, authentic and inspiring people that I have ever had the chance to meet. Jason, Izzy, and the whole family, thank you, thank you, thank you for inviting us to your home. It was amazing. The weather is not looking the greatest. And we got back to the hotel. I'm looking out the window. I'm checking the weather app. It's just not looking good. And then all of a sudden... Jason texted. He said the weather is pretty rubbish but we can have a go at something really local. I'm heading home now. We're driving like a kid on Christmas morning. And we pull up to his house again. Jason meets us in the driveway. We go walking out to the helicopter. My feet weren't even hitting the ground. I swear I was floating on Club 9. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We sit in the helicopter, get buckled up, and he fires on that turbine engine and the blades start spinning. One thing to meet Jason Hill, it's another thing to go flying with Jason Hill. In your life, you don't remember days. You don't remember moments. This was a moment that was truly legendary, something that I will never forget. Thank you, Jason. I think I could just die right now and call it good. Thank you for just going above and beyond and just being great people and our friends. Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you for your trust. Yeah, that's just the beginning. Good luck on this last stretch to December. We're rooting for you, cheering for you. It'll be okay. When you see him in December, I'll have even more gray hair. He'll come in on a walker. He'll be really broken. I'll be there from my hospital. Yes, yeah. Thank you so much. Send me a flight details. All right, we just landed with Jason. This trip has been life-changing. It was incredible. You know, flying with Jason Hill, the whole experience, he's the real deal. Hill is the real deal. And I'm just honored to be on the journey. And this journey is unforgettable. So it was incredible. Now let's see if we can get on the right side of the road. As I took the long journey back home, I just had the opportunity to think about everything that happened, the experiences, the moments. And I think at the end of your life, all of us will be surrounded by two things. We'll be surrounded by the would-a-should-as and the could-as, or we'll be surrounded by the do-it-did-it-done-its. And as cliche as that may sound, for me, I'm really grateful that I did this. I'm really grateful that I took a chance. And I stepped into the unknown, exercised the 20 seconds of insane courage, and through that process, what was a dream is slowly chipping away at becoming a reality. And that is fun. That is passion. That is excitement. That is hope. And I think we need to dream more while we're awake. And so I hope this video has inspired hopefully you to do the same thing. We are just getting started. I mean, what a ride it has been thus far. If you thought this video was great, wait until you see the next video. I am going to fly to England in December, where Jason and the entire Hill team will reveal the HX-50 prototypes to the world. This will be a moment in aviation history that I promise you do not want to miss.


In this study, scientists used atomic force microscopy, AFM, to investigate the interaction between a lignocellulosic material and a polar matrix. They found that the interactions between the two were stronger when the matrix was made from poly, butylene succinate, a type of plastic, and hyperlignified fibers than when it was made from poly, butylene succinate, and lignified fibers. This suggests that the strength of the bond between the two materials depends on the type of fiber being used. This information can be used to optimize the design of bio-based composites with enhanced characteristics. This article was authored by Carlos Marquello, Bridget Chabert, Francoise Burson, and others.


Good day, fellow investors. Today, I decided to do things a little bit differently. And as many of you always ask me, what's the process behind the research? Today, I will do a start, a four day vlog on a new sector that I'm researching. I'll show everything that I do about the sector, everything that I think about any stock, and you'll see the process of how am I doing this. So we're going to research the timber, wood, pulp, packaging, paper, corrugative paper, sector, see about the stock, see whether there is value. This is a sector that is very cyclical, ups and downs, depending on supply and demand. But the structural long term trend is clear. People are going to consume more and more of those things. We just need to find when something is undervalued and when something is overvalued, then you sell, of course. So an interesting sector, easy to analyze if you know what to look for. And during the blog, I'll discuss what are we going to look for. So I always start, I have done a little bit of research. I have already researched the timber industry somewhere in 2015. So I know a little bit. I was long capstone, paper and packaging before it was taken over. So I know some stocks, I know some reports, I know what's going on, I know the supply and demand. So that's what I know. I'll try to explain it also to you. But the key is, okay, how do I start to research such a sector? I start always with reading a little bit online, finding a list of stocks and then building that list. And this is my list. So it's still incomplete. But I start from here. And then I look, okay, look at the stocks, look at their financial statements, look at their investor presentation and listen or read the conference call. Because the analysts usually answer the questions that you want to know in regards to the competition. If pulp prices go up, you know, okay, pulp stocks and trying to find that balance. So it's now eight o'clock in the morning, I just drove my child to daycare. And let's start digging into these stocks, digging into the research and see where we come out. I'll try to update, I'll try to do a video every few hours as I go along to give you the new insights. Now I'm going to look at the stocks, write a little bit of comments next to them, look at the investor presentation statements and conference calls. So I'm going to work and I'll update you later. So I start with my list of companies. This is the conclusion after a few hours and looking at these seven companies. Some have high debt, some have made a lot of acquisition in a growing sector with high margins, the paper corrugated paper, etc. But the valuations are pretty low. Things seem very stable, expected earnings are very stable, but price to free cash flows of seven nine lead to believe and I have from what the analysts are asking from some reports that have seen that are paid so I cannot show them here. But the expectation is that the margins that have been very, very high in the past will go down. Let me show you what's going on. If I start I started with international paper, the results look good, operating earnings look very good, very high for 2018. The free cash flow stability is always nine to see around 2 billion 1.7 billion. So things are going good. But things could also go much, much worse, like it was the case up till 2010. Now, there is a lot of industry expansion, a lot of potential coming production potential coming online, which might recreate the situation that was there from 2005 to 2010, especially if we have one economic slowdown in the meantime, then you might see this coming back. And this is what the analyst and this is what the market is worried about. And this is why you see those low valuations. So for the company, the analyst and the management are always very much focused on the short term, the pulp prices, the wood prices. So also they have been doing a lot of acquisitions, which makes the company very levered to these small short term changes in prices. And if we see a bigger hit to margins, then such companies like IP also would be very, very hardly hit. The debt is really high 10 billion debt on 23 billion in revenue and 2 billion in free cash flows is pretty high and risky. And they have done that in order to grow, do a lot of acquisitions. Plus also the free cash flow part is a little bit skewed as they have to do big contributions to the pension plan if it's not fully funded, like it wasn't in 2016 and 17, 2018, it was fully funded. But that's another risk that you have to keep in mind. If you're investing, so I would look at what are the return for the pension fund expected ones, what are the differences if they don't hit it, where are they invested and what could be the cash outflows if it is necessary in the future, because those are very significant on this table as I see it. So all in all, the industry earnings per share consolidation, it has been a growth industry, it will probably continue to grow globally. But there are also some headwinds, but more about that later. The stock as it is levered to prices leveraged for acquisition is very volatile, and you can expect always volatility. So the goal of the management from the conference call is to balance that cash and rewards to shareholders. But there is also a lot of rewarding management issuing shares, so they didn't do much with the buybacks. And they say the GDP is not their own measure for performance, but actually it is. So if there is a hit to GDP, there will be hit too. A very good example of how typical Wall Street is really focused on the short term, it's more important that it is sustainable the dividend rather than really increasing or maximizing shareholder returns. They want now 10 years of constantly growing dividends so that they can get into a new, let's say screening and get those dividend investors that like dividend investors. However, I also look they spent 3.1 billion on share repurchases and the number of shares didn't move much. They probably issued shares for acquisitions, not even that much. As I see here what 400 million common stock issued, but a lot of buybacks that didn't change the number of shares much over the last 10 years. So they're really rewarding that management. And there also has been one question on the analyst call about that. So interesting to keep in mind. Also very interesting for a company like this, there is a lot of coverage. So a lot of analysts are following it very interesting. So not really under the radar. And if the market thinks the stock is going down, there might be delays. But the trend isn't that positive as there is more capacity coming online in the US. So too much Wall Street for me. It makes it look stable, but it could be a ticking bomb because of the debt, because of the dividend, if there is dividend cut, which might happen especially if there is a slowdown. So long term high risk investment, this one. Then I looked at Sonoco's stock, just a quick look at the balance sheet, a little bit less risky than IP. However, prices are already going down. You can see here the decline in average is prices per ton, which is very significant. However, Sonoco has much less debt than IP, 30% of sales compared to 50, 45% of sales. The stock is also much more stable. And it is also a little bit diversified around other productions. They have also done buyback and dividends. But this now is a better company, I would say, but also has a much higher valuation with the price earnings ratio of 19 and what the free cash flow, price to free cash flow of 15. The returns are 3.3%, which is the average what they returned to shareholders over the last years. Then we have Westrock, another leader in the paper industry, high debt, a lot of acquisitions. So that those acquisitions lead to a lot of goodwill. So they have five billion in goodwill, which is something to keep in mind when the impairments come. And if we see lower margins, those will come high levels of debt. They have really exploded on the growth side, but they have also increased their debt side. So they give a good sector overview. They expect for future growth, 2% growth, if everything remains stable and the economy remains stable. You can see here the number of acquisitions. So really a big consolidation period in the industry. Consequently, due to the debt, the stock is very, very volatile. What's going on? What's going to happen? Nobody knows. The CEO says that the current price of PULP is not so important. The current prices are not so important because they have long contracts, but current prices set future long-term contracts, which is then again a risk when you look at the long-term. From what I see the industry did really well over the last years. It's still doing very well, but high-past margins, spurred capacity expansions in North America, debt will probably push margins down, especially as the growth in the sector isn't that extraordinary. So we have on one hand Amazon packages, but on the other hand we have less mail, less printing, less everything. So that balances things out. And here we have a good overview from dumpster industries. The PULP industry is growing slowly. Hygiene products also and specialty papers also related to GDP. And here we go back from the same companies there that we discussed. Okay, the valuations are low, but the outlook over the next 10 years from perspective like this is not very positive because you can add capacity. There is no mode. It's not like mining that if you want to mine more copper you have to invest huge amounts because the grade is lower or the copper is deeper. Here you can simply buy the same mill the others have and produce the same things, especially with low interest rates. It's easy to do that. And this is the worry that scares the market. So on my big list I'll simply continue. I have other stocks then we'll look to wood stocks, producers, land, a little bit going to Asia, Canada and then we'll see where we get. All right, the next step was to check the timber owning, the land owning companies. And those are great businesses because when you cannot sell your trees, you let them grow and those usually grow at 2.3% which is the natural growth rate in nature. So if you don't sell them, they grow, you have more of them. If you sell them, you get a good price. Thus, that is a good business stable business value is created constantly either by nature or by dividends. However, similarly, good businesses, everything great many different value creating streams leads to high valuations. We have low single digit and single digit 2.3% growth that you can expect from those companies. And those are there. Weirhauser combination gives you 7.5% return depending on the pension liabilities. So similarly, Canadian companies, I thought, I hope they were owning the trees, but no, they only just saw mills and things like that. So they don't own the land. And that's why they are extremely cheap as they took advantage of the current situation with wood prices, low log prices does high margins from them 40%. But in the past, they have seen margins of 10%, which makes it very, very cyclical. And we'll see if we'll dig deeper. Next step, Asia. All right. So I looked at this Asian company, what those that traded mostly Hong Kong price earnings ratios are round five dividend goes from 1% to 6%, 7%. And the problem is that it has really been a boom in the industry. But now profits are plunging and Shandong paper said that their first quarter profit may plunge 1494 to 96%, which is a significant decline. So we might have seen the peak of the cycle as the Sino US trade wars evolve less demand for the capacity and unfortunately lower earnings. But this is something to dig deeper in. So that might be something that I'll do tomorrow. It's still just 15 to three. So I still have two and a some hours to research until five and then evening. So a very interesting day, a lot of analysis, a lot of reading. And my table is, let's say the first overview is complete. You have a great video on what's going on in the paper industry by Fisher. So here is the YouTube link. It's also in the description below, which, okay, tells you emerging markets, China will India be there are a lot of videos to look there the next China. However, from a mode perspective, a durable competitive advantage, you see that it's all about capital. It's all about investing. It's all about buying those paper mills and then producing into a supply demand market where you depend on costs, input costs and output costs. My conclusion is pretty simple. I would like to have integrated companies that don't depend that much on the volatility are cheap. Thus, again, I have to look at emerging markets. I have to look at nine dragons. I have to look at all the other Chinese stocks. And then I have to see, okay, what are the risks? What are the rewards? The American stocks, North Americans look cheap, but they are really at the top of their cycle, more capacities coming on. There are risky technological improvements that can change things a lot because the thickness on that container board is going down, down, down. So not really a growth story, even if Amazon is packaging growth is growing, growing and growing. Nevertheless, Chinese emerging markets film companies with access to their own internal supplies of pulp will be the best placed competitively going forward, I think. So be careful of higher capex coming in in the future, replacing the older and new companies. It's a shame that the Canadian timber mills don't own the land. So they cannot really leverage on that growth. I have found, so we have to look at the Chinese. And I have found a club in which is a Brazilian producer. I'm really sorry that I missed Fibria, which is a company that I was looking at a few years ago. And it seemed cheap. So perhaps clubbing will be something similar. So I have to analyze for tomorrow. I have to analyze a little bit the Chinese as much as I can, the nine dragons paper industry, which is now looks cheap, but we have to see a lot of what's going on there. And then I want to really analyze clubbing, Brazilian stock, very good investor relations, usually in Brazil. So we have to see their investing for growth, we have to see how are they placed for the long term. And if we can reach our 15% minimum required returns with little risk. So more about this industry tomorrow. I'm learning a lot. It takes time for the research to settle down to really see what's going on, see what you don't know, you have to read constantly reread and see how things are going, what are the risks, what are the rewards, what are the long term competitive advantages, and then at what price you get what value and what is the business return over those cycles that you can expect. So thank you for listening and I'll speak to you in the next video. Looking forward to your comments. If you like what comes out of such research, please subscribe to the channel as usually the videos are the summaries of the research I do in order to find the best possible risk reward investments.