PENAL INSTITUTIONS Sentence and Punishment: Provide for the Imposition of Life Without Parole

The Act provides for the imposition of a sentence of life imprisonment without parole on a defendant convicted of murder where the fact-finder (judge or jury) has found one or more statutory aggravating circumstances. Imprisonment for life without parole means that the defendant shall be incarcerated for what remains of his natural life without eligibility of parole

Exhausted Yet? Stephens v. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation and the Application of the Exhaustion Doctrine to Statute-Based ERISA Claims

By 1974, the U.S. Congress recognized that employer-provided retirement pension plans had “become an important factor affecting the stabilization of employment and the successful development of industrial relations” and enacted the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) with the aim of protecting “the interests of participants in employee benefit plans and their beneficiaries.” In enacting ERISA, Congress established “standards of conduct, responsibility, and obligation[s] for fiduciaries of employee benefit plans” and provided for “appropriate remedies, sanctions and ready access to the Federal courts.” Apart from creating federal causes of action to ensure efficient and equitable administration of private pension plans, Congress also mandated that pension plan providers establish certain administrative procedures through which beneficiaries may seek redress in the event of conflict. The dual and, at times, conflicting aims of providing plan participants access to federal courts while simultaneously attempting to strengthen internal remedies made available by the providers have created significant debate in federal courts. On the one hand, some federal courts, focusing on the analyses on Congress’ intention that pension plan providers create and develop internal procedures through which aggrieved participants may seek relief, have held that the exhaustion of these internal remedies by employees is a prerequisite to bringing a federal court claim under ERISA. On the other hand, the majority of federal circuit courts have held that Congress’ explicit intent to provide pension plan participants a form of relief under federal law does not require that they first exhaust all internal administrative remedies provided to them by plan providers before bring an ERIDA claim. These two competing viewpoints have created a split among the federal circuits, and Stephens v. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. is a recent case that considered the exhaustion doctrine and furthered deepened the rift among the courts

Electronic spectroscopy of the alkaline-earth halide cluster Ca_2Cl_3

A visible spectrum of the cluster Ca_2Cl_3 was observed from 651 to 630 nm by 1 + 1[prime] resonant multiphoton ionization spectroscopy. Spectra were obtained for each of the four isotopomers: Ca2 35Cl3, Ca2 35Cl2 37Cl, Ca2 35Cl 37Cl2, and Ca2 37Cl3. The spectra were composed of a strong origin band at 15 350.8 cm^(–1) and several very weak vibronic bands. All of the bands were sharp with partially resolved rotational band contours. Density functional calculations predicted three minimum energy isomers. The spectrum was assigned to the 2B2<--X-tilde 2A1 transition of the lowest energy isomer, a planar C2v structure having a ring of two Cl and two Ca atoms and a terminal Cl atom. The ring isomer of Ca_2Cl_3 has the unpaired electron localized on one Ca^(2+) ion to form a Ca^+ chromophore. The two other predicted isomers, a D3h trigonal bipyramid and a C2v planar V-shaped structure, were not consistent with the observations

Effect of high-pressure hot-water washing treatment on fruit quality, insects, and disease in apples and pears Part III. Use of silicone-based materials and mechanical methods to eliminate surface pests

Surface arthropods on pome fruits can cause export problems and disrupt commercial markets. Eliminating insects and mites on the packing line would be the last opportunity to provide for pest-free produce. In this study, an experimental packing line was used to evaluate techniques using different surfactant baths, pressurized water sprays, and styles of rotating brushes to remove field-collected and laboratory-reared grape mealybug, Pseudococcus maritimus (Ehrhorn) (Homoptera: Pseudococcidae), the diapausing two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae Koch (Acari: Tetranychidae) and the woolly apple aphid, Eriosoma lanigerum (Hausman) (Homoptera: Aphididae). The organosilicone Silwet L-77 was no more effective than a silicone-based food grade defoamer in aiding removal. Mechanical methods, such as the style of rotating brushes and pressurized sprays, were significantly effective in removing surface arthropods. No improvement in removal occurred when pressure was increased beyond 420 kPa. These techniques can be easily adapted to commercial facilities and will reduce the incidence of surface arthropods on marketed fresh fruits

Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 18, No. 1

• Tanning in Chester County, Pennsylvania, 1711-1850 • Chester County Widow Wills (1714-1800), A Folklife Source • Folk Elements in Scotch-Irish Presbyterian Communities • The Thomas Massey House • Passengers on the Ketch Endeavour • The Medical Plants of Berks County, Pennsylvania • Notes and Documents: A Dunkard Love Feast ; Jacob Graeff\u27s Reminiscences of Reading • Symposium on the Pennsylvania Dutch Dialect • Farm Dress: Folk-Cultural Questionnaire No. 9https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/pafolklifemag/1033/thumbnail.jp