Main Street To Wall Street: How This Advisor's Border-Town Upbringing Helped Build Her $500M Practice

Jane Rojas. Courtesy of Michael Chansley Photography

"Nogales, Arizona, is as far away from New York City as you can get, it seems," says wealth advisor Jane Rojas, who's built a $503 million Tucson advisory practice near the mountainous border town where she grew up.

"My clients are winning in a very complicated world, but they shouldn't have to deal with an advisor who doesn't speak their language, who doesn't speak their lifestyle," the Morgan Stanley advisor continues. "So that's my job: bringing very sophisticated analysis, products and services from New York City to my clients in Nogales—from Wall Street to Main Street."

Rojas' family, which moved to Nogales from Tuscon when Jane was in first grade, has firmly rooted itself in the largely Spanish-speaking community of about 20,000, a hot spot for international trade that moves billions of dollars in goods and fresh produce across the border annually.

Rojas, who's one of Forbes' Top Women Advisors, now thrives by serving the financial needs of her diverse clientele—from women seeking financial guidance to small business owners and entrepreneurs to Latinos in search of bilingual investment expertise.

And having previously served as national chair of Morgan Stanley's diversity council for three years, Rojas champions for diversity in the field.

"If you look at the average FA today, he's 58 years old, white, male. Only 15% of FAs out in the field are women," says Rojas, 62, at a recent Makers conference. "That needs to change—because our client demographics and the communities we come from don't look like that."

Growing up, Rojas spent over a decade working at her family's small hardware store a block from the Mexican border. With a Spanish-speaking father and a Chilean-born mother, Rojas says the ten years helped fine tune her "retail-hardware Spanish"—not quite the "financial advising Spanish" she's since mastered, but the language was a key first step in her 37-year career.

The niche Nogales market, rich in trade and small business, was a tough one to tap into for those unfamiliar with the community. But in 1982, Rojas had both the lay of the land and M.B.A. training that piqued the interest of her family's financial advisor, who also happened to be a regular at their shop. The advisor, who owned a small practice in Tucson, lived in Nogales and envisioned an expansion of his business into the region.

"He'd realized that Nogales, Arizona was going to be a market that he just couldn't really get into, and so he wanted somebody who was from there, who was bilingual, bicultural," Rojas says. "He'd come into the store and say, 'Okay kid, when you're ready, come work for me, and we'll do this together, and it'll be wonderful'... It wasn't my plan, but it just worked out."

Rojas started as a client service associate and receptionist at her family's advisor's firm, opting to learn the business from the inside rather than through a training program, and she quickly moved up to junior partner.

Today she leads a four-person team as senior vice president at Morgan Stanley's The Rojas Group, which counts about 300 families as clients. A product of its Nogales roots, the advisory does a lot of cash management for area business owners, helping with liquidity needs and the flow of business.

For a while, Rojas and her cousin operated a cross-border advisory that they'd formed as a joint partnership. Her cousin did business from the nearby Mexican city of Hermosillo, and Rojas remained in the U.S. Their clients included produce farmers such as tomato growers in Mexico who sold their goods all over the U.S. Her cousin eventually moved and joined a different firm, but Rojas stayed on, now doing business primarily on the domestic side.

Over the decades, Rojas says, during her day-to-day conversations about goals-based investing and retirement planning, she's found herself increasingly encouraging clients to not shy away from making "joyful" decisions as they get older.

"A lot of my original clients really worked hard and were very careful in accumulating their wealth, and there's sometimes guilt about spending it," she says. "But you have to step away and look at life: You worked all of your life to accumulate this, you've built so much wealth for your children, now go and enjoy it too—appreciate it, but enjoy it.'"

About advising, Rojas emphasizes its massive influence, mainly in providing expertise that the average person doesn't have: "It's hugely impactful today, and for generations to come, and the weight of that should be very heavy to advisors." It's a wonderful opportunity, she adds, and it's one she hopes can lure in younger advisors.

As for her own future, Rojas has welcomed her daughter, Selina Rojas, to the team as a junior partner. The younger Rojas joined Morgan Stanley seven years ago as a junior service associate out of California before moving to her mother's practice in 2014.

"I've been in this business so long, and I'm always thinking numbers, jumping ahead and thinking solutions," Rojas says. "And she listens differently than I do," she says of her daughter. "She's tough on me and, having a different set of eyes and ears in meetings and also looking at the practice, it's really moved us forward."

Tips From Wall Street Trader Lauren Simmons on How to Succeed

At 23, Lauren Simmons made her mark on history — literally and figuratively. She signed her name into the leather-bound tome containing the constitution of the New York Stock Exchange, becoming the youngest and only…

At 23, Lauren Simmons made her mark on history — literally and figuratively. She signed her name into the leather-bound tome containing the constitution of the New York Stock Exchange, becoming the youngest and only female trader at the NYSE at the time. But this wasn't all Simmons became that day.

As she stepped back from the marble-topped table after adding her name to a list containing the likes of Rockefeller and Vanderbilt, the NYSE archivist stepped forward. Simmons, the archivist said, was the second-ever African American woman to sign her name to the book. In the 226-year history of the NYSE, there had been only one other African American woman trader.

Suddenly Simmons' accomplishment felt as bitter as it was sweet.

"I was very excited, but also disappointed that in 226 years, I was only the second," she says.

It's a title that's come to define her. Even now that she has left the trading floor, being the second-ever African American woman to break the white ceiling of the NYSE has turned her into an icon.

Her story was picked up by major news agencies around the globe. She's been on a speaking tour that kicked off in Beijing since December. AGC studios is turning her story into a movie (Kiersey Clemons to play Simmons) and she's writing a book. Release dates for both to be determined.

"It gets a little weird when I'm walking the streets of New York and people stop me to take pictures. I don't know if that'll ever be normal," she says. But "the story, as much as it's about me, I tell people I'm not an anomaly. I don't want to be."

[See: Infographic: Investing Barriers Women Face.]

Being a minority at the NYSE. A NYSE stock trader manages client orders for stocks listed on the exchange. When a client says they want to buy shares of Apple (ticker: AAPL) for $200 or less per share, the trader will aim to fill that request, if possible. They're the eyes and ears for their clients on the trading floor. A client might ask them to "look" into the price of a stock, which can mean getting an estimate of the opening price or information on who's buying and selling. It's a high-pressure, analytical, fast-paced job and one few thought Simmons could do. But then, she's no stranger to adversity.

From studying engineering in high school to becoming a genetics major in college and then a full-time stock trader, Simmons has often been faced with disbelievers. People would tell her there's no way she could do well in these courses or that profession. She'd never pass the Series 19, the NYSE member exam to become a licensed stock trader. She should try something else; something less ambitious. But that wasn't the Lauren Simmons way.

"I've always been in environments where I want to prove people wrong," she says. "I didn't want to be 'woe is me' or have excuses for why I couldn't do things."

It's a mentality she recommends everyone adopt. "When you let your limiting beliefs come to the forefront, you limit yourself from greatness," she says. "People can see if you're a woman, or Latino or black, but no one knows what your baggage is and because of that you can just be you."

When she started on the trading floor, she didn't think of herself as being different than her peers. "I didn't realize I was the only woman in the room," she says. "We have female news anchors on the trading floor and females who work for the actual ICE (Intercontinental Exchange) that is over the NYSE. It wasn't anything that I was the only female trader. I went there to do a job. I wanted to be great at my job."

Bringing diversity to the financial industry. Diversity is a hot topic and a cool word to throw around, she says, but we have to truly want it for diversity to become a reality. And we have to take ownership for our part in its creation or lack thereof.

Even after her story came out, when a job opening was posted for a floor trader, not one minority applied for the position, she says.

"People need to be comfortable in uncomfortable situations," she says. "If you're applying for the job and you think you might be 'the other,' that's OK, because a company that wants you to do well will go out of its way to help you."And if it doesn't, there's another one that will.

For all it's white-male partisanship — "nepotism is really a thing," Simmons says — the trading floor can be a great place for a woman or minority to start her career in financial services. Not only was it a perhaps-surprisingly warm and inviting place, but it also taught her about accountability and how to present herself within a crowd.

As a stock trader, you're accountable for any decision you make, she says. And those decisions — which happen in microseconds — can have multi-million dollar consequences. "It's kind of a joke that you don't become a trader until you make a multi-million dollar error," she says.

She recalls making her first $3 million mistake. It was about a year-and-a-half after she started and near close on a Friday. "I remember my boss saying go home, don't think about it," she says, which was of course nerve-wracking. How could she not think about it? But there was nothing she could do until 9 a.m. on Monday when the markets re-opened.

So she spent the weekend doing "things for Lauren." Then, come Monday morning, she set about correcting her error. It ended up being only a $2,000 error, but the misstep taught her a lot about accountability — and work-life balance.

[See: 10 Investing Tips for Busy People.]

The financial industry is not known for a healthy work-life balance, but this, Simmons says, is another reason the trading floor can be a great place to get your indoctrination. You hear "horror stories" from other financial professionals, especially those in investment banking or private equity, but on the trading floor, "at four o'clock, when the closing bell sounded, it was the end of the day," she says. Work couldn't follow you home if you wanted it to.

Working in an all-male environment also taught her how to command an audience. "I think white men in particular have a way that they come across to an audience," she says. "This confidence, this knowledge, how presentation is everything. And I got to experience that hands-on because I was 'the other' in the room."

How to succeed as a woman in finance. It's never easy being the odd woman out. The financial industry may be built by men for men, but that doesn't mean women can't be a part of it, too. You just need to be smart about it.

"The reality is that a lot of these negotiations in finance are built on relationships," Simmons says. "Going out for drinks with coworkers is a thing. Golf is a thing." And as much as you'll probably be the only woman doing this thing, she says to still go grab that drink or swing the club with boys — but do it with tact.

"It's a double standard for women," she says. You're expected to keep up with the boys but not be "that girl" who got sloppy drunk going shot-for-shot at happy hour.

Simmons told bartenders to fill her shots with water. While her colleagues thought she was taking nine shots of tequila, she was hydrating. It may seem an extreme charade to play, but "that's how those relationships are built," she says. And they'll be built with or without you.

"You can't play the game if you're not in the game," she says. "If you want to have a seat at the table, you have to be strategic."

[See: 11 Great Investing Tips for Women]

Be financially savvy. If Simmons could leave you with any message, it'd be this: "Be financially savvy. Whatever that looks like for you. Women have been balancing the books since the beginning of time; there's no reason why they shouldn't have their hands in the pot when it comes to investing or even going into the financial industry."

More from U.S. News

7 Great Blogs for Investing Tips

Investment Advice for Women in Transition

The Single Woman's Investment Guide

Tips From Wall Street Trader Lauren Simmons on How to Succeed originally appeared on usnews.com

How to choose the right shade of wellness-studio white paint for your walls

In my never-ending quest to chill the eff out, I'm forever trying to make my tiny home feel a little more like my favorite wellness spaces—think pothos plants by every window, faux sheepskins draped over the chairs, and as many cream-colored elements as possible, from the sofa to the shelving to the walls. (Yes, I have pets, which means I basically keep the stain remover and lint roller markets afloat.)

White walls are especially key to this aesthetic, IMO. When executed correctly, they can make an entire space feel brighter, more open, and more tranquil. But it's definitely possible to do them the wrong way, as I discovered at a house I lived in a few years ago. Initially, I was drawn in by the sharp contrast between the ultra-white walls and the dark hardwood floors, but once I moved in and had mirrors installed, I realized the shade of white was way too bright—like, it made me look as washed-out as a Victorian-era child with cholera.

So when I started thinking about painting my current kitchen cabinets to match my oat milk, I turned to Serena Mitnik-Miller and Mason St. Peter, co-founders of the General Store lifestyle boutiques in San Francisco and Los Angeles. As evidenced in their new book, Abode: Thoughtful Living With Less, clean white surfaces are an integral part of their design signature, along with natural materials, vintage furnishings, and hand-made curios.

"Serena's unofficial mantra is: The only option is white," the duo writes in Abode. "That's not to say we don't appreciate color…but we want to draw attention to the whole, not a part, and a cohesive neutral palette helps us achieve this." And while you might think this approach makes things easier, that's not exactly true. "Choosing the precise shade [of white paint] is a master skill in its own right," write Mitnik-Miller and St. Peter—and that's just step one.

Here, the designers share the dos and don'ts of choosing white paint colors for your space—because honestly, who doesn't want to feel like they're on a Tulum spa vacay, every day?

Photo: Mariko Reed; From Abode by Serena Mitnik-Miller and Mason St. Peter, published by Abrams Books c 2019.Do consider the type of surface you're painting

Getting that alabaster look isn't as simple as buying one can of paint and going to town with the roller. "We prefer to keep it monochrome, but we do use different finishes depending on the surface," says Mitnik-Miller. "There are paints for all different jobs. Wall and ceiling paint are different from paint for floors, bricks, blocks, or rocks."

In general, Mitnik-Miller and St. Peter opt for a flat finish for walls and a semigloss finish for textured surfaces like doors, cabinets, and trim. A satin or semigloss finish is also recommended for kitchens and bathrooms, as it can withstand a little scrubbing—you know, when you inevitably end up splattering some smoothie or mud mask on the walls.

Don't choose different white paint colors for different rooms or architectural elements

While Mitnik-Miller and St. Peter often use different paint finishes in different parts of a space, they generally stick with the same shade of white throughout. This isn't always the norm—some painters prefer to switch it up based on the light conditions in different rooms or the materials they're painting over—but the duo claim that by doing this, you lose that calming, monochromatic effect. Their favorite multipurpose white paint colors are Swiss Coffee by Behr (creamy white with a soft yellow undertone) and Super White by Benjamin Moore (described as a "brilliant, almost sparkling" shade.)

Do test the paint in your space

No matter which shade you're drawn to, it's bound to look a lot different in your home than it does in the hardware store. That's why Mitnik-Miller and St. Peter recommend testing it out on a sizable piece of the surface you want to paint—a few square feet, at least—and living with it for a few days, checking how it looks in different light conditions. "Understanding your lighting and exposure to sunlight can help increase your chance for success," says Mitnik-Miller. "Some whites can look green or blue or pink in certain lights—test areas first!" If you're deciding between a few different shades, the pair recommend swatching them side-by-side to compare.

Don't be afraid of floor-to-ceiling white

For a supremely Zenned-out effect, Mitnik-Miller and St. Peter encourage you to look beyond the walls in your space and paint other architectural elements white as well—think floors, fireplaces, built-in cabinets, ceilings, the works. If you're an inexperienced painter and you want to go this route, however, they recommend getting professional help with it. After all, it's not as easy to reverse the effects of painting, say, your hardwood floors or brick fireplace as it would be to paint over a wall. And again, you'll want to seek out paint that's specifically designed for those types of surfaces, which is where expert guidance can be helpful.

Do prep your space thoroughly

A few more tricks of the trade, per Mitnik-Miller: Be sure you're prepared with all the essentials before you start—drop cloths for the floors, tape for edges, clean brushes for detail work and rollers for large areas, and wet washcloths for wiping up drips—and primer. "Not considering the surface that the paint is going to be applied to is the most common misstep in the process of paint application," she says. "Primer is key!" Choose a primer specific to the material you're painting over, and you'll have the best chance of your room turning out like all the ones you've favorited on Instagram.

Peel-and-stick wallpaper is another hot home trend—here are 9 designs to buy right now. Then, finish off your sanctuary with a few pieces from Ikea's new self-care collection. 

DIY Demo Days: Learn How to Build Your Own Patio, Pond and Retaining Wall

Thinking about upgrading your backyard this summer? Attend Do It Yourself Demo Days at Custom Retaining Walls and Landscaping, Inc. Every year, their professional landscapers put on live demonstrations for three different DIY projects: a patio, a retaining wall and a pond.

“We’ll take you step-by-step from a blank slate to a beautiful and functional finished product,” says manager and landscape designer, Lori Reiland. It’s a great opportunity to learn everything you need to know and see exactly how to transform your backyard just in time for summer.

Event Details

Demo Days take place Saturday, May 11 and Saturday, June 1 at Custom Retaining Walls and Landscaping, Inc., located at 2375 Sleeper Lane NE in Rochester, MN 55906. The events are free to attend, and everyone is welcome â€" no prior knowledge or experience is required. Just show up ready to learn, says Reiland.

The schedule is as follows:

May 11

DIY Build a Retaining Wall Demo: 9:00 a.m. â€" 10:30 a.m.

DIY Build a Water Feature Demo: 11:00 a.m. â€" 12:30 p.m.

DIY Build a Patio Demo: 1:00 p.m. â€" 2:30 p.m.

June 1

DIY Build a Retaining Wall Demo: 9:00 a.m. â€" 10:30 a.m.

DIY Build a Patio Demo: 11:00 a.m. â€" 12:30 p.m.

Guests are welcome to attend any demo of their choice, or stay for all three. “A lot of people like to stay and enjoy the day. Even if they’re not working on a particular project right now, it might be something they want to revisit in the future,” adds Reiland. Lunch will also be served at 11:00 on both days.

Throughout the event, you’ll have the chance to ask questions and talk with an experienced team member about how these techniques and materials might apply to your own backyard. With over 30 years of experience, the team at Custom Retaining Walls and Landscaping, Inc. is highly knowledgeable and ready to help. This allows attendees to not only see the project unfold live, but to get tips from the pros themselves to make the process that much easier. “If you have a large-scale project or one that requires extensive engineering,” Reiland suggests, “it might be a good idea to have a professional help you figure out the plans and timeline.”

Shop for Supplies and Talk to the Pros

A Customer Appreciation Sale will also be held on the same day. Custom Retaining Walls is the largest landscape center in our area. They have a vast selection of decorative rock and mulch to choose from. They also carry edging, natural stone, landscape fabric, pond supplies, pergolas, trees, shrubs, flowers and more.

Not ready to build a patio, pond or retaining wall? The staff is happy to assist with other projects, too. Reiland says, “We’re open! We always have someone here to help with all types of DIY landscaping projects.” Stop in today!

Attend the 2019 Demo Days

Interested in coming to Do It Yourself Demo Days? No RSVP required. Just come as you are. If you have any questions or would like to learn more, call Custom Retaining Walls and Landscaping, Inc. at

507-281-0669. You can also visit them online to see photos from last year’s Demo Days and to discover everything they have to offer.

To build the wall, or not to build? On the Texas border, residents take sides

Diana Uribe points to the door of a stone outhouse beside the old Spanish fort at San Ygnacio, Texas, built in 1830. "My great-great-great-great-great-grandfather and his bride lived there," she says. In those days, Mexico was trying to stop US immigration here into Tejas – as Texas was then called – to no avail.

A slope leads from the street outside down to the slow-rolling Rio Grande, across which you could throw a baseball into the foliage and palms of what is now Tamaulipas, Mexico.

It's a lazy day in San Ygnacio, population 700: grackles swooping and sun beating down on the empty plaza where Marlon Brando once filmed a scene for Viva Zapata; little else. But through here, according to a "national emergency" Donald Trump has declared, a new border wall must cut.

Uribe – now 63, a retired teacher – grew up in this village, as did her forebears, watching names change and borders drawn: granted land in New Spain under royal charter from Madrid, then Mexico, then the Texas Republic, then the USA after 1848.

"This place isn't as sleepy as it looks," says Uribe. "It's on a direct highway, if you know the land – which the smugglers do." Yet even so: "I don't feel unsafe here. The last thing they want is to draw attention to themselves on the border. We just don't need a wall. Do we want security? Yes. Do we want or need a wall? No."

But even that is not the point. Uribe explains how the man who built this fort, Don Jesús Treviño, had three daughters, one of whom married Blas María Uribe, from the town of Guerrero across the river in Mexico. Diana is of that line, "and I am being told I have to be cut off from my family and people on the other side of a frontier drawn since they arrived.

"We used to go to Mexico for weddings, dances," she says, "and clubbing in Nuevo Laredo, though my parents didn't know that bit. The wall cuts across all those generations and traditions. And also through the realities of border economics, the complete inter-dependency of twin communities all along the Rio Grande."

Outside the Treviño-Uribe Rancho, a 19th-century Spanish fort complex in the sleepy Texas border town of San Ygnacio, Texas. Photograph: Bryan Schutmaat/The New York Times/eyevine

The fort in San Ygnacio had been entered on America's National Register of Historic Buildings in 1973, but was still a ruin when, five years later, the celebrated artist Michael Tracy moved here, incrementally, bought it and undertook its restoration.

Sitting in his cactus and agave garden, Tracy recalls how the fort was actually built to defend against Comanche Indians "by those trespassing on Native American land. To be honest, though I have done all this to bring a fortress back to former glory, I think you must either identify being inside the wall or outside the wall. I am outside the wall."

The president's wall "is mythic", says Tracy, "it's meaningless. Yes, there's always the possibility here that someone could come to your door at four in the morning and demand all you have. But will Trump's wall stop them? Of course not – it's a distraction, a perfect way to mobilise his base thousands of miles from the border."

"It's always been no-man's-land here," says Uribe. "Too far for the Mexicans to control, and Washington didn't want it." Communities along this stretch of river are tired of being pawns in distant games. Residents of the seat of this county, Zapata, and Guerrero over the border, were in 1953 forcibly moved entirely to accommodate flooding for a reservoir under the Falcon dam project.

Now Trump's wall "is like someone in Minnesota telling us on the tropical river how to do hurricane evacuation", adds Christopher Rincón, CEO of the River Pierce Foundation which nurtures local artists, but for which the Treviño fort restoration has become a raison d'être. "Do you feel unsafe here, like you need a wall between us and the far bank?" asks Rincón. "We don't."

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Not all in San Ygnacio share these views, least of all one of Tracy's main patrons from Los Corralitos ranch across the highway, Lannie Mecom.

A fountain at the heart of Houston's museum district bears the Mecom family name, one of Texas's oil dynasties. Lannie's grandfather Harvey bought this ranch in 1913 just after the Mexican Revolution and her brother owned the New Orleans Saints football team. Now Lannie stands on the riverbank, after a morning loading longhorn cattle for sale at market: "That's Mexico," she points, 200 metres away.

"I'm happy to donate this land to the government to build a wall," pledges Mecom, an energetic 75-year-old. "It's gotten worse and worse over there – we had the Zetas [drug cartel] camp right there over the river, and there was something going on – their cars parked along the highway here, something mighty scary."

Mecom, too, owns land on which a historic fort is built, "and it was built for a good reason", she half-jokes, "to keep trouble out!"

Her ranching neighbour, Joe Braman, joins us – a canine unit police officer in Victoria county to the north. "We need a solid wall bad, and I'd give my land for it right now," he says. "There's so many people coming through here – I've caught 284 while training police dogs in the last few months.".

We settle back at Los Corralitos ranch – complete with airstrip and plans for a game-hunting reserve – to sit below a score or more of deer-head trophies; "most of age, some young", explains Mecom, "the grandchildren get buck-fever, you know, look through the scope and wow!" But also there are Mexican fabrics and colours; Mecom's view is not an echo of the president's, or Braman's.

"We need to give security to illegal Mexicans who are here already – been here 20 years, they're good workers; our neighbours, and poor. There's a lot of good people getting hurt; my family never asked people coming to work here for papers, and I never will. We need to help them get their papers, pay taxes and contribute to our economy. Yep, help us make money – but also build that wall."

Down by the river, the vaquero buying Mecom's longhorns, Lalo González – riding with skill in his cowboy hat – isn't so sure.

"I watch who comes and goes," he says. "The bad guys'll get through whatever you build; it's the honest people that'll get stopped."

Spain’s New Nationalist Party Wants to Build a Wall to Keep Out Migrants

[unable to retrieve full-text content]The week before he was due to testify against the separatists who threatened him, Santiago Abascal told a group of conservatives in Madrid how the crowd had heckled and pushed him as he was sworn in ...

Trump Administration Waives Environmental Laws to Build Border Walls in New Mexico, Arizona

For Immediate Release, April 23, 2019

Contact:  Laiken Jordahl, (928) 525-4433, ljordahl@biologicaldiversity.org

Trump Administration Waives Environmental Laws to Build Border Walls in New Mexico, Arizona

TUCSON, Ariz.— The Trump administration announced today that it will waive dozens of environmental laws to speed construction of 18- to 30-foot-tall border walls across 80 miles of borderlands in Arizona and New Mexico. The bollard-style barriers will block the natural migrations of wildlife, damage ecosystems and harm border communities.

The three waivers sweep aside dozens of laws that protect clean air, clean water, public lands and endangered wildlife. They cover plans to build 46 miles of new wall in New Mexico, 6.5 miles of new wall along the Colorado River south of Yuma, and 27.5 miles of replacement wall southeast of Yuma. These are the first wall-construction projects using military funds authorized by Trump's emergency declaration.

"It's bad enough that Trump's bulldozing the borderlands for a senseless wall, but now he's stealing money from the military to do it," said Laiken Jordahl, borderlands campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity. "The only thing permanent about Trump's wall will be its destruction of wildlife and wild places. It will do nothing to stop asylum seekers or drug smugglers. Waiving these laws is an affront to borderland communities, and we'll continue to challenge it in court."

The waivers, which will take effect Wednesday, bring the number of waivers issued by the Trump administration under the REAL ID Act to nine.

The New Mexico wall will cut through the remote Chihuahuan Desert and sever a known migratory corridor for Mexican gray wolves, among the rarest mammals on the continent. The New Mexico area is also home to the endangered Aplomado falcon, as well as kit foxes, bighorn sheep and ringtails.

The Yuma wall will block people and wildlife from accessing the Lower Colorado River. It will also harm habitat for endangered birds including yellow-billed cuckoos, southwestern willow flycatchers and Yuma clapper rails.

The waivers are being issued during open comment periods where the public is invited to weigh in with concerns. Comments remain open until May 8. Construction contracts already have been issued for these projects.

The Center and allies have sued to challenge Trump's emergency declaration to fund border walls. The Center also has sued the administration to challenge border-wall construction in the Rio Grande Valley and near the Santa Teresa Port of Entry in New Mexico. The Center's first border-related lawsuit ― filed in 2017 in U.S. District Court in Tucson with U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva ― seeks to require the Trump administration to do a detailed analysis of the environmental impacts of its border-enforcement program. All of these suits are pending.

A 2017 study by the Center identified more than 90 endangered or threatened species that would be threatened by wall construction along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border.

Beyond jeopardizing wildlife, endangered species and public lands, the U.S.-Mexico border wall is part of a larger strategy of ongoing border militarization that damages human rights, civil liberties, native lands, local businesses and international relations. The border wall impedes the natural migrations of people and wildlife that are essential to healthy diversity.

The waivers cast aside these laws:

The National Environmental Policy Act

The Endangered Species Act

The Federal Water Pollution Control Act

The National Historic Preservation Act

The Migratory Bird Treaty Act

The Migratory Bird Conservation Act

The Clean Air Act 

The Archeological Resources Protection Act 

The Paleontological Resources Preservation Act 

The Federal Cave Resources Protection Act of 1988 

The National Trails System Act

The Safe Drinking Water Act 

The Noise Control Act

The Solid Waste Disposal Act

The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act 

The Archaeological and Historic Preservation Act

The Antiquities Act 

The Historic Sites, Buildings, and Antiquities Act

The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act

The Farmland Protection Policy Act

The Federal Land Policy and Management Act 

The National Fish and Wildlife Act of 1956 

The Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act 

The Wild Horse and Burro Act

The Administrative Procedure Act

The Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899

The Eagle Protection Act

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act

The American Indian Religious Freedom Act 

The Military Lands Withdrawal Act of 1999

The Sikes Act

The Reclamation Project Act of 1939

How to Achieve Financial Freedom Without Wall Street

I've got to be blunt. Your financial success depends on it.

Wall Street is feeding you a narrative that's fatally, dangerously flawed when it comes to financial planning.

They make the assumption that you're going to live this way or that and, in doing so, produce a whole bunch of fancy charts, full of calculations intended to show you how much you need to save to meet their projections.

The hope is, of course, that you'll become a valued, or should I say valuable, client – meaning you're going to generate tons of commissions to line their pockets for having prepared a deep look into your financial affairs.

The reality is very different.

Those same fancy-pants charts – which, by the way, can cost you a "planning fee" ranging from $100 to several thousand dollars – usually have the opposite impact: People realize they're so far from meeting their "goals" that they give up without even trying.

I've never liked that, but then again, I've never played by the rules, either.

That's why I'm so excited to tell you this…

Join the conversation. Click here to jump to comments…

About the Author

Keith Fitz-Gerald has been the Chief Investment Strategist for the Money Morning team since 2007. He's a seasoned market analyst with decades of experience, and a highly accurate track record. Keith regularly travels the world in search of investment opportunities others don't yet see or understand. In addition to heading The Money Map Report, Keith runs High Velocity Profits, which aims to get in, target gains, and get out clean, and he's also the founding editor of Straight Line Profits, a service devoted to revealing the "dark side" of Wall Street... In his weekly Total Wealth, Keith has broken down his 30-plus years of success into three parts: Trends, Risk Assessment, and Tactics – meaning the exact techniques for making money. Sign up is free at totalwealthresearch.com.

… Read full bio

Here's How to Up Your Wall-Sit Game For Stronger Legs, According to a Former Gymnast

© Getty / SrdjanPav Here's How to Up Your Wall-Sit Game For Stronger Legs, According to a Former Gymnast

Any gymnast will tell you that the strength training portion of practice is intense. It's basically boot camp. "Conditioning," as we called it, sometimes only lasted 30 minutes, but it featured rope climbs (you were extra blessed if you had to do them without using your legs), sprints, and challenging bodyweight moves like hollow body rocks or v-ups, my personal favourite. I incorporate a lot of these exercises into my workouts today mainly to keep up my strength; partially to make sure I've still got it.

Inspired by my high school gymnastics Summer Hell Week (double sessions of nonstop routines and conditioning), you can find me doing wall-sit ladder series rather frequently. Here's how we did them: we'd do a wall-sit for five, four, three, two minutes, and then one; then we'd climb back up the ladder for two, three, four, and five minutes - taking short breaks in between each sit. Trust me, adding this type of sequence is a more advanced way to target your quads, hamstrings, and core. If you like the ladder format, try Olympic runner Colleen Quigley's 3-6-9-12 ab routine.

To up the intensity of your wall sits, try doing them in a ladder format. If my old 5-4-3-2-1 set from gymnastics seems too challenging, you're not alone. I make adjustments to the numbers depending on how I'm feeling (normally, I only go up to three minutes max and vary the intervals by 15 or 30 seconds as opposed to one minute). At the end of your workout, or for a short leg circuit on a busy day (once your body is warmed up), try this format I created to ease you into the joys of wall sits.

Hold wall sit for 1 minute 30 seconds

Rest 30 seconds

Hold wall sit for 1 minute 15 seconds

Rest 30 seconds

Hold wall sit for 1 minute

Rest 30 seconds

Hold wall sit for 45 seconds

Rest 30 seconds

Hold wall sit for 30 seconds

Rest 30 seconds

Hold wall sit for 45 seconds

Rest 30 seconds

Hold wall sit for 1 minute

Rest 30 seconds

Hold wall sit for 1 minute 15 seconds

Rest 30 seconds

Hold wall sit for 1 minute 30 seconds

At gymnastics practice we'd take a break in between each wall sit by walking around the floor (usually on tiptoe), but do whatever you'd like. Shake your legs out or maybe even do some push-up variations. Have fun with it because you'll definitely be feeling the burn!

Do take time to stretch out your quads and roll your legs after this short but intense series.

Wall fire scorches building home to Union bar

(Image: CHS)

Firefighters battled a stubborn wall fire Sunday night inside the building home to Capitol Hill gay bar Union.

Seattle Fire was called to the scene just after 10 PM and found the fire in an area of the building's second floor. Firefighters were able to quickly bring the fire under control. It was not clear how much damage the flames and fire response caused inside the building.

The intersection of 13th and Union was filled with fire trucks and a haze of smoke as nightlife patrons cleared the building and gathered from nearby venues.

There were no reported injuries. The Seattle Fire Marshal was called to the scene to investigate.

Lake Antoine Park Partners selling bricks to build shoreline wall

IRON MOUNTAIN, Mich. (WLUC) - The Lake Antoine Park Partners are continuing their goal to beautify the park. Their next project is to rebuild a block retaining wall around the shoreline.

They recently won a grant to cover a large amount of the cost, but are now selling bricks to raise the rest. People who donate will always be a part of the park.

"We're going to install a donor wall and it's going to represent native fish," Lake Antoine Park Partner Barb Kramer said. "People's names will be engraved on those fish and it will be mounted. So they can come into the park and look at it. It's basically an art installation they can look at and say I did this, I helped build this."

For information on how you can help donate, you can visit https://store16073582.ecwid.com/BUY-A-BLOCK-Beach-Wall-Campaign-p132949087?fbclid=IwAR3vLx8bMGzeV2PyFzsfiy3fNLqZR-5SutbdmYt0kZtmA-xF87S0dKqeXUw

Pinterest set to make its Wall Street debut

[unable to retrieve full-text content]For years, Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann has insisted his company is not an outright social network. As he told CNN Business in a recent interview, the platform is not focused on hard news or ...

GOP congressman climbs 'border' wall, doesn't actually make it to Mexico

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April 19, 2019, 10:00 PM GMT

By Dartunorro Clark

GOP Rep. Duncan Hunter is facing backlash for pretending to cross the U.S.-Mexico border — something his Democratic opponent says would have violated the terms of the congressman's parole stemming from federal charges of misusing campaign funds.

The California lawmaker posted a video on social media on Thursday claiming to be "15 meters" from the U.S.-Mexico border before walking over to a fence he alleged was the only thing separating migrants seeking asylum from entering the U.S. by foot.

"It looks pretty tough to cross. Let me see if I can do it," Hunter said in the video, before hopping over the waist-high fence, which serves as a vehicle barrier. "That's how easy it is to cross the border here in Yuma, Arizona."

But his suggestion was quickly debunked.

Border Patrol officials told The Times of San Diego that the official border is the Colorado River, which is further away from the vehicle barrier Hunter crossed.

"What [Hunter] crossed was a vehicle barrier," said Border Patrol spokesman Vincent Dulesky told the paper, who helped lead a tour Wednesday night for members of Congress at the border. "That is approximately 75-100 feet from the border — the border is actually the river that's west of that."

Ammar Campa-Najjar, a Democrat who unsuccessfully challenged Hunter for his seat last November, slammed Hunter for the video on social media. "This is what happens when you've been stripped from all your committees & have too much time on your hands," he tweeted.

Campa-Najjar, who has already filed to run against Hunter again in 2020, told NBC News in a statement Friday that the congressman was lucky he didn't actually cross the border and violate his parole.

"Congressman Hunter said on video that he was 15 meters from Mexico, then proceeded to walk over to the border in what appeared to be, by his own admission, crossing into Mexico," he said. "Hunter either broke the law and violated conditions of his release issued by a judge not to leave continental U.S., or he was pulling a political stunt and lied."

Hunter and his wife, Margaret E. Hunter, were hit last August with federal charges that they "converted and stole" more than a quarter million dollars in campaign funds, according to a 47-page grand jury indictment. Duncan Hunter released on $15,000 bond. Margaret Hunter was released on $10,000 bond. They are awaiting trial. The couple was ordered not to travel outside of the U.S.

Campa-Najjar added, "Thankfully for Hunter, he did not cross into Mexico as he claims. Can someone please show Hunter a map? He was the one who falsely advertised he was 15 meters from Mexico."

Michael Harrison, a spokesman for Hunter, told The Times of San Diego that the accusation of him violating his parole by leaving the U.S. is a "non-issue typical of someone desperate for a headline as opposed to focusing on the real issue" of border security.

"I would encourage others to look and review a map, spend time with the Border Patrol and understand what structures are in place and where they are with regards to the international border," Harrison added.

A representative for Hunter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Dartunorro Clark is a political reporter for NBC News.

How Wall Street manipulators cause summer gas prices to fall

Gasoline prices will decline as we head into summer. Just like last year.

That's according to the latest US government prediction.

Historically, the price of gas rises during the summer driving months when more people hit the roads. But in recent years, the financial markets have jacked up fuel costs so much during spring that those higher levels were unsustainable.

And while the drop in prices is good news for drivers, it sucks for Wall Street, where the myth of the "peak driving season" is a godsend for market manipulators.

Right around the time crocuses start popping through the spring soil, crude traders begin spreading rumors about trouble in the oil and gasoline markets.

The crocus eruptions give us pretty flowers. The traders, when they are successful, give us higher oil and gasoline prices. This year they have succeeded, so far.

The manipulation of the energy markets happens every year. So, like clockwork, I write about it, hoping that you'll understand (once again) that there is plenty of oil and gasoline in a world where cars are becoming a lot more fuel-efficient.

The law of supply and demand says energy prices shouldn't be as high as they now are. So you needn't worry about those countrywide $4-a-gallon gas predictions that Wall Street is not only peddling but hoping for.

Some basics that you already know: Wall Street tries to spread fear about energy markets because traders make money when prices rise. This year, the troubling economic situation in Venezuela — an oil-producing nation — is one focus of those fears.

Another is that the Chinese economy, which has been weakening, will rise and create demand for energy products beyond all expectations.

Well, Venezuela has been troubled for a long time. And there's no new unrest in other oil-producing nations. The Chinese economy, meanwhile, may be showing signs of life thanks to large stimulus programs by the government, but it still is far from booming.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) has a more objective view of the energy markets. And it is predicting that gas prices will decline in the next few months to an average of $2.76 a gallon between April and September.

That's better than the $2.85 a gallon last summer. And right now, the average price of regular gas is $2.85.

We are at the start of corporate earnings season, and it's not supposed to be a good one.

According to institutional brokers' estimate system data from Refinitiv, earnings overall for the first quarter of 2019 are expected to drop by 2.1 percent. If you exclude energy companies, which have volatile earnings, the decline is only supposed to be 0.9 percent.

Wall Street banks under pressure to make deeper cost cuts

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Top U.S. banks must make deeper cost cuts to drive earnings growth, with revenue expected to remain under pressure for the foreseeable future, analysts said.

FILE PHOTO: The Citigroup Inc (Citi) logo is seen at the SIBOS banking and financial conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Oct. 19, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren/File Photo

Cost cutting was already a major driver of bank earnings for the first quarter. With the exception of JPMorgan Chase & Co, revenue fell at the biggest U.S. lenders as lower market volatility weighed on trading and recession fears dulled clients' appetite for borrowing.

But Bank of America Corp, Citigr oup Inc, Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Morgan Stanley still managed to beat analyst profit forecasts even as revenue slipped.

JPMorgan, the largest U.S. bank by assets, stood out from rivals by growing both revenue and profit. Wells Fargo & Co, which is operating under growth restrictions imposed by regulators, missed profit forecasts.

Some of the banks warned that growth in their net interest income, the difference between what they earn on loans and pay on deposits, will slow in 2019 thanks to a flatter yield curve and a moderating economy. The Federal Reserve in March signaled that it unlikely to raise interest rates this year.

With that major revenue source under pressure and the outlook on other business areas uncertain, expense controls may be the only reliable way for banks to boost profit, analysts said.

"There's a very close watch on expenses right now and that will probably continue until there's better visibility on revenue growth," s aid Edward Jones analyst Jim Shanahan.

Shanahan said the potential for credit quality to deteriorate as the United States nears the end of the credit cycle also adds to the pressure for banks to get expenses in line.

"Credit can only really get worse from here," he said. "That is going to be a headwind at some point and all the more reason for the banks to be trying to control their expenses."

Banks were caught out by the Fed's change of tack on rates and will need time to adjust their business models in response to the challenging revenue outlook, said David Hendler, an independent analyst at New York-based Viola Risk Advisors, which specializes in risk management.

"That's going to be hard for them and you won't see them adapting for two or three quarters. It's a major headwind," he said.

Banks are also juggling the need to support short-term earnings with making investments in the longer-term growth of their businesses.

< p>JPMorgan was the only big U.S. bank that increased expenses as it spent more on technology, hiring bankers and marketing.

"JPMorgan is electing to invest in the business," said Shanahan. "Its strategy is about leveraging the investments it's already made in digital initiatives."

Analysts and bankers said that any uptick in revenue across the sector is likely to come from banks' trading operations. Equities revenues in particular fell sharply during the first quarter, but could improve if a return of market volatility spurs client activity.

"Going forward it's going to be a function of markets," Morgan Stanley's Chief Financial Officer Jonathan Pruzan said in an interview on Wednesday. "Confidence is reasonably good and stock markets are reasonably stable."

Another potential source of revenue growth would be an upturn in initial public offerings. Equity underwriting was dampened in the first quarter because of a U.S. government s hutdown that held up regulatory approvals, but is expected to pick up as the backlog clears.

"Already in the second quarter we've seen a major recovery in U.S. IPO volumes," JPMorgan's Chief Financial Officer told analysts on a conference call on Friday.

Most analysts are forecasting banks will achieve earnings growth of 7 percent to 9 percent over the full year, and expect cost cutting to be a major driver since they only see revenue growth of 1 percent to 3 percent.

Banks are also expected to keep buying back shares, which boosts earnings per share.

Slideshow (3 Images)

"The return of capital is a critical driver but one you don't hear people talking about much," said Marty Mosby, a bank analyst at Vining Sparks.

Mosby thinks concerns about sluggish revenue growth are overblown.

"There's a disconnect betw een valuations and the steady-as-you-go earnings progression we're seeing," he said.

Additional reporting by Elizabeth Dilts; Editing by Neal Templin and Meredith Mazzilli

Hand-forged tree of life to grace donor recognition wall of MRH medical office building

A tree of life similar to the one pictured will honor donors of Memorial Regional Health's forthcoming Medical Office Building.Courtesy Photo

When it opens later this year, the Memorial Regional Health medical office building will recognize supporters with a hand-forged iron tree of life.

Traditional blacksmith artisan David Little is the owner and artist of Winnipesaukee Forge and DonorArts Design Group of Meredith, New Hampshire, and has been commissioned to make the donor tree.  

David LittleDonorTreeMUG-CDP-041919

Little uses traditional blacksmith tools as well as modern metal work machinery to create hand-forged iron products.  

"We strive to take the work a notch above with the attention to detail in concepts and designs," he said.

He's been pounding metal into useful items since his days as a teenager at summer camp at Swan Lake, New Hampshire.

"I can trace back the first time I hit hot iron with a hammer," Little said. "The natural world around me, and how it makes me feel, is the basis for the first tree and much of my work."

After working part-time at an environmental center interpreting a historic blacksmith shop for visitors, he began designing household items and sculptures for shows.

When one of his sculptures — a tree of life — caught the eye of a fundraiser, she asked if he could make a larger version with leaves that could be engraved. Soon Little was making his first donor tree that topped seven feet high and between seven to eight feet wide. 

"That's what started the first one of the donor recognition trees for a hospice residence," he said. "One of the things I love about the trees, they are a way for me to produce a sculpture piece… but I am also facilitating the hospital, hospice, or university mission through my work. To me that adds a whole other layer."

With each tree the artist tries to learn about the people, the mission and campaign. Each tree is made one at a time, individually hand-crafted in Little's New Hampshire shop.

"These entities that have my trees, they are used for not just recognizing donors, they lend themselves to community involvement, something bigger, paying it forward," he said.  

Only one other place in Colorado — the Colorado Institute of Fertility — boasts a tree of life made by Little.

He and his family have ties to Steamboat Springs and have visited the Craig area, so when MRH Foundation Director Eva Peroulis called, he felt strongly about supporting the project. 

"I felt a real kinship with the mountains of Colorado. I'm thrilled to be a part of this project," he said.  

Each of the leaves will be engraved with the name of people and organizations that donate money to the MRH Foundation for the MOB.

"…with levels of giving for bronze ($1,000) silver ($5,000) and gold  ($10,000) and those donors who have contributed at the $25,000 level will receive naming rights to clinic exam rooms and waiting rooms. Donors have three years to pay for their pledges," Peroulis said.

Leaves are currently being engraved, but there's still time for purchase a leaf and receive recognition by contacting Peroulis at 970-826-2424 or emailing eva.peroulis@memorialrh.org.

The tree is expected to be ready to ship in one piece in July for installation prior to the grand opening of the building, currently scheduled for August 30.

"I gain great satisfaction from my work, especially the work of the trees that allow me to be part of the mission of these great organizations," Little said.

Yo-yo Ma plays Bach at US-Mexico border to encourage people to build ‘bridges, not walls’

LAREDO, TX (KGNS/Gray News) - A world-renowned musician made a stop to give people from both sides of the border an outdoor concert, KGNS reported.

Award-winning cellist Yo-yo Ma kicked off the Day of Action festivities on Saturday morning to help people discover the many ways “culture connects us,” the event’s information page said. Hundreds of people witnessed his performance at the Tres Laredos Park.

Then he crossed the bridge and gave Nuevo Laredo residents the same opportunity, performing at Nuevo Laredo’s main artery, Avenida Guerrero, by Plaza Benito Juarez.

Ma played an excerpt from Bach’s cello suites on the border of the United States and Mexico. He was joined by city leadership from both Laredo and Nuevo Laredo and audiences from both communities.

He also took part in a panel discussion talking about culture along the border.

Yo-Yo Ma plays concert at US-Mexico border

His stop in the two Laredos is part of the cellist’s Bach Project, one that is bringing him to 36 locations across the globe, where he plays Johann Sebastian Bach’s six suites for solo cello in one sitting.

“It is a journey motivated not only by his six-decade relationship with the music, but also by Bach’s ability to speak to our common humanity at a time when our civic conversation is so often focused on division,” Ma’s website said.

Locations on the tour, which started in August 2018, include the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig, Germany, and Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado.

Later that day, he returned to Laredo and took part in the Earth Day Festival.

In addition to his musicianship - Ma’s music has earned 19 Grammys - he is a UN Messenger of Peace and the first artist ever appointed to the World Economic Forum’s board of trustees.

Copyright 2019 KGNS and Gray Television Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

Artist wants to make America grate again, build U.S.-Mexico border wall of cheese

Dairy products are popular all over the world. In the United States, around 9% of all the milk produced by dairy farmers goes towards making ice cream. The list of dairy product we know and love is extensive, but most often for consuming rather than making a point.

Meet Los Angeles artist Cosimo Cavallaro. The artistic medium for his most recent project is cheese. Perhaps you've heard of President Trump's border wall initiative? You'd be hard pressed not to. Cavallaro seeks to install a border wall of his own, built entirely of expired bricks of cheese.

Online food delivery accounted for $4 billion of the $30 billion delivery market total in 2015, and Cavallaro is taking advantage of this by starting a GoFundMe campaign to get money to pay for the expired cheese. Sourcing his expired bricks of cotija cheese from several different distributors, each cheese brick costs $100. His goal is to raise enough money to build a wall that's 25 feet high and 1,000 feet long. Thus far, he has enough to make a 25-foot wall made of 200 cheese bricks. Why all this?

"He was inspired to start the Cheese Wall because of the political environment we are living in today...If it takes a Cheese Wall at the border to make people look at the 'wall' in a different way, that's what Cosimo will create," the GoFundMe page states.

His aim is to get people talking. Cavallaro adds that there's an inherent bit of humor in the project because people will immediately see waste. What he wants people to ask themselves is that if they can see waste in a wall of cheese, how they might not see waste in an actual border wall with a $10 billion price tag. Cavallaro himself is no stranger to using perishable goods as a medium, but this is his biggest project yet.

Some of the 66% of people who said craft cocktails and spirits would be a hot trend in 2018 didn't think about food as an artistic medium for protest and thought provocation. Where these expired bricks of cheese would usually be discarded, they're serving a greater purpose in an important conversation.

"This wall is a documentation of our times. This is a moment that we're talking about an issue, about walls. I think it's very important that artists create something that lasts in our time to see what's happening," Cavallaro said when announcing the cheese wall.

The length of the cheese wall depends on the people who support the project. From the GoFundMe page to his website selling all sorts of cheesy apparel, there are multiple ways to show support. Our favorites, because you can't beat a good food based pun, are the shirts that say and imply Make America Grate Again.

Building or adding on? You need to consider factory-built walls

Q: A new house is being built near me using wood walls made in a factory. I was astonished that the house was under roof in just two days. What's better, walls built on the job site by carpenters or those built in a factory? Can you get walls like this for a room addition or a separate outbuilding like a garage? Where do you find the places to order these things? --Steve B., Akron, Ohio

A: It's not unusual to pass a huge tractor trailer on the highway that's loaded with prefabricated walls. These walls make it possible to build houses in hours instead of days. And, yes, prefabricated walls, both interior and exterior, can be used on your next project.

Back when I was building, I didn't have the opportunity to use these magical building components, but they're being used to construct my daughter's new home right now. I witnessed the exterior walls of her home be set and secured in just a few hours. A standard carpentry crew could never achieve this task in the same amount of time cutting studs and headers and pounding nails at the job site.

The prefabricated wall panels go together like giant Lego blocks. They're perfectly square from the factory, and the precision is astounding. My daughter's home was 44 feet long and the dimension was only off 1/16 inch. It's possible that error was in my tape measure, not the wall panels!

There are countless advantages to using prefabricated wall panels. The walls are built in an enclosed factory so the material stays dry. High-tech computer programs are used to create the layouts and assist with the cutting of the material. Nails are driven exactly as engineering specifications call out. The walls can be delivered to the job site in the morning and the walls set by the end of the day.

The factory generates a plan for the carpenters in the field to set the panels. The panels arrive in stacks so the panels only need to be pulled off the pile and put into position. The carpenters don't have to scratch their heads trying to find a panel. They're erected in the reverse order that they were stacked on the delivery truck.

Builders and remodeling contractors are having increasing difficulty locating and hiring carpenters who treat what they do as a vocation instead of a job. If quality is important to you, then you'll do whatever possible to have prefabricated wall panels on your job.

The builder of my daughter's home had only dealt with prefabricated panels on one previous job when he was a carpenter. After setting all of the exterior and interior walls that make up my daughter's two-story home in just a few days, he told me that he'll never again stick build a house again. He was astonished at the amount of time the panels saved him.

Odds are any factory that makes these panels will gladly do smaller jobs for garages or room additions. You can find out for yourself by visiting a new website I discovered back in the fall: BestWayToFrame.com.

Q: Tim, I just retired and I'd like to build a small structure to store firewood. My skills are limited, as are my tools. What does success look like to you considering I'm going to do the work? Don't sugarcoat it. If you feel I should hire a pro, just say so. --Donna K., Boulder, Colo.

A: Attitude is 90 percent, maybe more, of accomplishing anything, including building a simple open shed for firewood.

There are countless designs for these firewood storage shelters on the internet. I'd pick one that you like and just replicate it. It's important to look at a project like this as a few components. This reduces the mental challenge.

The simplest shelter might be a shed that's 4 feet wide by 8 feet long. You can build the floor frame from treated lumber two-by-sixes that's covered by a single sheet of treated plywood.

The walls can be built using standard two-by-fours. There are countless videos on YouTube showing you how to build a simple wall. Be sure to watch a video that shows how to install a diagonal brace to keep the wall square. You don't want to cover the sides of the wall completely with siding as you want air to move through the wood to help dry it.

The roof may be the biggest challenge, but, again, there are lots of online videos that will help you through this final challenge. You can get fancy with a gable roof, or you can go with a simple low-slope roof that just slopes front to back. The point is to just keep the wood dry, and it doesn't take lots of ingenuity to accomplish this.

I can't wait to see a photo of the finished wood shelter!

(Subscribe to Tim's FREE newsletter and listen to his new podcasts. Go to: https://www.AsktheBuilder.com.)

(c)2019 TIM CARTER DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

How to Build a Wainscoted Wall

If your dining room or home office reminds you too much of a workplace break room, it could be time to transform it with this simple woodworking project.

It's Easier to Make Than It Looks:

At first glance, this panel design may look too complex for your average do-it-yourselfer, but it’s not. The panels are made from three horizontal 1×6 bands that run around the room, with narrower vertical boards spaced every 30 in. or so. The panels are the wall itself. Once you nail on filler pieces and trim, the project takes on a traditional wainscot panel look.

The Layout Plan:

In this article, we’ll show you how to plan your layout and cut, fit and finish the wood for any room in your house. We’ll also show you how to make clean, tight joints using a plate joiner. If you haven’t used this tool before, don’t be intimidated. Although this tool can perform complex joinery, its only purpose here is to cut slots in two adjoining pieces to accept a glued “biscuit” that will then bond the pieces permanently. A plate joiner (also called a biscuit joiner) is a worthwhile investment. You’ll marvel at how simple it is to set up and operate.

Wood Choice Options:

Because we planned to paint the wainscot panels rather than stain them, we decided to use moderately priced poplar. This hardwood is easy to cut, nail and sand. You can build the project from any wood you choose and then stain it to your liking, but if you stain it, be sure to hand-pick each board carefully to match the grain and tone. Also, buy long boards that will run full length from wall to wall to avoid unsightly butt joints that could shift over time and develop a crack.

Figure A: Wainscot Details © Family Handyman figure a wainscot details

To make clean, smooth joints, cut slots with a plate joiner and slip in biscuits to keep the stiles and rails perfectly aligned.

First, remove the baseboard and patch any holes. If you plan to repaint the room, do it now, at least above the wainscot area. Here are our pro recommended painting techniques. You’ll be able to easily touch it up after completing the project.

You’ll also have to adapt your window and door molding now to accommodate the 1-1/2-in.-thick profile that your walls will take on as you build the panels (Figure A).We changed out all the window and door molding in the room. We used 3/4-in. x 4-in. boards and then nailed a Princeton stop molding on edge to the entire perimeter to build the trim out 1-1/2 in. from the wall.

It’s possible to complete this project in sections in your shop or garage and carry them in as you go, but we had some tricky hallways and corners that made it difficult to get longer sections into the room. We found it much easier to cut and assemble right in the room.

Revealing how Gram-Negative Bacteria Build Cell Walls

Infectious bacteria are growing increasingly resistant to drugs, which is becoming a serious threat to public health worldwide. Bacteria can be classified based on various characteristics, such as by their shape or by the type of cell wall that they have: gram-positive or gram-negative. Many gram-negative bacteria are pathogenic, like Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and E. coli,  and can evade antibiotics. Researchers have wanted to know more about disrupting the gram-negative cell wall system so we can find better ways to fight them.

In the lab of Daniel Kahne, the Higgins Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University, researchers have identified a cellular machine that constructs a protective outer shell with a tough molecule called lipopolysaccharide (LPS).

"Because there are no antibiotics for some Gram-negative infections, learning how the outer membrane is assembled and how to interfere with assembly has major medical implications," Kahne explained. 

LPS is a big molecule made in the cytoplasm of bacteria. Two barriers separate it from its destination - the outer membrane. An energy-providing molecule, ATP, powers the production of building blocks that generate LPS, and shuttles them around in the cell. But ATP isn't able to cross the membranes either. Scientists have been trying to understand the process of moving LPS to the outer membrane since the 1970s.

In Kahne's lab, graduate student Tristan Owens was able to solve the mystery. Owens identified two structures that take LPS from the cytoplasm and get it to a protein bridge. The work, reported in Nature, showed that ATP moved the molecule along a single path. 

Owens also determined how LPS can go through the bridge without additional help from ATP; a protein bridge opens and closes, moving LPS up to the outer membrane, like a Pez dispenser. "The gate provides an explanation for unidirectional transport," Kahne said, "because gate closure prevents backflow."

Drug-resistant bacteria, also known as superbugs, infect around two million people in the United States every year and kill about 23,000 of them, according to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). This research can help scientists design drugs that attack bacterial defenses, like the tough membranes of gram-negative bacteria. Interfering with various processes in these bacteria can also make traditional antibiotics more effective. 

Learn more about the differences between gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria from the video.

Sources: AAAS/Eurekalert! via Harvard University, Nature

Fear and loathing at a Detroit rally to ‘build the wall’

In February, Detroit officials confirmed that Cobo Center — named after Republican Mayor Albert Cobo, who left behind a legacy as a staunch racial segregationist — would be renamed. Though ultimately a business decision (Chemical Bank purchased the naming rights for $1.5 million annually for the next 22 years), the move was heralded by Mayor Mike Duggan as a Black History Month win.

"[The] Cobo era was marked by the wiping out of African-American neighborhoods in the name of urban renewal," he said at a Feb. 20 press conference. "It was an era that displaced African-American families in a way that was discriminatory and callous and the tensions from those eras still reverberate in the city of Detroit today. I didn't believe that our civic center should, in its name, be celebrating that era."

"We're going to start taking down red letters on the front of the building as soon as the weather breaks," Patrick Bero, chief executive officer and chief financial officer of the Detroit Regional Convention Facility Authority, told the Free Press.

Before those red letters come down, though, Cobo Center would court more controversy by hosting a "We Build the Wall" event on Thursday, March 14 — the very day that the Senate, including 12 GOP Senators, passed a bill to attempt to block President Donald Trump's "national emergency" declaration to fund his long-promised Mexican border wall by siphoning money from the military. (On Friday, Trump vetoed the legislation — his first since taking office.)

The event featured a lineup of "#MAGA All-Stars" like former Breitbart executive and White House strategist Steve Bannon, cowboy hat-wearing Sheriff David Clarke, and Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage, who launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise up to $1 billion to build a wall on private land along the Mexican border. In the end, it mostly served as a Trumpless Trump rally, complete with an appearance from the "Trump Unity Bridge" — a Mad Max-like roving shrine to the President that could only be a Michigan-made invention, which is now festooned with large, childlike cut-out letters that spell "BUILD THE WALL." (Nothing says "unity" quite like "wall.")

The event was originally planned to be held at a church in suburban Warren, but was moved after organizers said they needed a larger space to accommodate more attendees, citing an expected attendance of 1,700. One man who claimed to be one of the event's organizers told Metro Times it was moved to a safer location after threats were made online, but event spokeswoman Jennifer Lawrence disputed this, telling MT the group received "no credible threats" and insisting that the event was only moved due to space concerns.

"Everyone has their freedom of speech," Lawrence previously told MT when asked about a planned protest outside of Cobo. "We have our freedom of speech, and we hold the right to refuse anybody, and we hold the right to throw anybody out. If they want to peacefully protest outside, that is up to them."

Outside of Cobo, a few dozen peaceful protesters gathered in opposition to what they described as a divisive, fear-mongering campaign.

"It is our belief that our diversity is our strength," protest organizers said in a news release. "As such, we recognize that it is our civic duty to combat division and hate wherever and whenever it rears its ugly head in our communities."

The decision to move the event to Cobo appeared to have perhaps been an overzealous one: By Metro Times' back-of-napkin math, we estimated the crowd was made up of roughly 700 attendees, or 1,000 less than anticipated. In Cobo's lobby, we spotted no less than a dozen police officers gathered in a circle, clearly bored.

Inside Cobo, a welcome sign echoed Lawrence's earlier warning: "While we respect the right of expression, we reserve the right to remove any individuals or groups who interfere with program."

Earlier that day, Trump warned there could be violent clashes with his supporters, telling Breitbart "I can tell you I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for Trump — I h ave the tough people, but they don't play it tough — until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad."

It wound up being a self-fulfilling prophecy. Organizers stayed true to their word, forcibly removing Metro Times reporter Steve Neavling at the direction of Lawrence, who sicced a burly, biker vest-wearing vigilante security guy on him for taking photos from an aisle, instead of from "the back where you belong." One of the underutilized Detroit police officers then intervened, ordering the rally's security guard to "get your hands off him." Ten minutes later, Neavling was allowed to return.

During the rally, the speakers whipped the audience into further frenzy, suggesting illegal immigration was the greatest threat to democracy, blaming everything on it from the opioid crisis to high crimes rates (which have actually declined over the past few years). An "Angel Mom," a new term to refer to the mothers of children murdered by undocumented immigrants, was trotted out onstage with a portrait of her dead son.

At one point, Bannon warned that according to "a previous President of Mexico," there were 30 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. (The real number is closer to 11 million, according to the nonpartisan Pew Research Group.)

Singer Joy Villa, who turned heads at the Grammy Awards this year for wearing a dress with a pro-border wall message, assured the audience that most Americans support building a wall.

"You might feel like a minority, but you're not," she said, this time sporting a red dress with black polka dots. "You're the silent majority."

Polls show otherwise. A recent Gallup poll found that 60 percent of Americans are opposed to significant new construction on border walls.

Speakers made other misleading comments, accused the "lying media" of spreading propaganda and told the crowd that undocumented immigrants "are receiving more services than you."

That same day, a gunman opened fire at two mosques in New Zealand, killing 50 people. In his manifesto, he praised Trump as "a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose."

Everyone we saw at the 'We Build the Wall' event at Cobo Center

Everyone we saw at the 'We Build the Wall' event at Cobo Center

News Hits

Steve Neavling contributed to this report.

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How to Make a Tomato Vine Wall

Metal fencing makes a strong support for a tomato vine wall.

Build a tomato vine wall in your garden to create a focal point, or use one to cover up an unsightly outdoor wall. When considering materials for your vine wall, keep in mind tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) vines can grow 10 feet tall or higher and vines with fruit become quite heavy. Also consider, a ladder is required to harvest tomatoes from tall walls. Prepare soil as you normally would for growing tomatoes in a garden bed.

Indoor Wall

If you have a greenhouse you can create a vine wall by suspending lengths of twine from the greenhouse ceiling to the floor. For wooden structures, drive 2.5 inch flat head nails into ceiling joists, from east to west. This allows vines to capture sunlight evenly throughout the day. Space nails at recommended planting distances for the variety you plan to grow. Attach heavy twine or nylon cord to each nail and let hang freely above each plant. As vines grow wind them around the twine. Prune each vine to two branches.

Freestanding Wall

Create a freestanding wall for your tomato vines with wire fence, or place it near a south- or west-facing wall on the outside of your house or shed. Construct a 6-foot tall tomato vine wall by driving a 9-foot piece of metal conduit into the ground so that 3 feet is underground. Add a 90 degree elbow to the top. Repeat every 5 feet for the length of the wall. Stabilize the fence by joining two adjacent elbows with a length of conduit cut to fit. Attach mesh fence to the poles with wire, leave at least 8 inches between the ground and bottom of fence. Use wire mesh fence with openings 4 inches wide by 4 inches high.

As the tomato plants grow, attach them to the fence by weaving vines through the openings and securing them in place with twine. For taller walls, sink fence posts deeper into the ground to prevent them from blowing over. For added security, anchor the vine wall with guy-wires. Bear in mind that as plants grow, moisture can become trapped between the vines and an outdoor wall, promoting algae growth on vinyl siding or causing wood siding to decay. This may be prevented by spacing the plants to allow air-flow.

Brick Wall

If you want to create a wall of tomatoes on a brick wall, simply snap brick hangers onto the wall at intervals so that the vines will not exceed the weight limit of the hangers, usually 25 pounds each. Run a length of heavy twine, or nylon cord, between the hangers. As vines climb, attach them to the horizontal lengths of heavy twine with other small pieces of twine. Tie loosely so vines do not become strangled. Plant vines far enough apart to allow air circulation between plants to reduce the possibility of fungal diseases. The shade from tomato vines growing on an outdoor wall help cool inside a home.

Varieties for Vine Walls

Enjoy your vine wall longer by choosing indeterminate tomato varieties. Vines climb higher than determinate varieties and fruit ripens throughout the growing season, providing an endless supply of fresh tomatoes until the first frost. Two good indeterminate candidates for a vine wall are: "Sungold" cherry tomato (Solanum lycopersicum "Sungold"), which grows up 10 feet, and Brandywine beefsteak tomato (Lycopersicon lycopersicum "Brandywine") which climbs up to 8 feet. To regulate weight, allow only two or three branches to grow per vine, and pinch off suckers. To prevent overgrowth on your wall, choose varieties that grow close to the same height as your wall, or pinch off tops when they reach the top of the wall.

]]> About the Author

Diana K. Williams is a certified Master Gardener, has more than a decade of experience as an environmental scientist, and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in biology and environmental studies from the Ohio Northern University. Williams is a winner of Writer's Digest Magazine's annual writing competition.

Photo Credits

Seiya Kawamoto/Photodisc/Getty Images

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Build The Wall To Save Taxpayers Billions?

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Posted: Mar 14, 2019 12:01 AM

President Donald Trump launched another battle for border-wall funding on Monday, calling for $8.6 billion additional dollars in his proposed federal budget for next year. Top Democrats came out swinging, bashing a border wall as "expensive and ineffective."

The truth is, Dems are not leveling with the public about the billions we're already forced to spend on shelters, food, diapers, medical care and child care for migrants sneaking across the border and claiming asylum.

Not to mention the costs of public schooling and healthcare provided free to migrants once they are released into communities. The wall will pay for itself in less than two years. It's a bargain.

Look what it costs us when a Central American teen crosses the border illegally without an adult. Uncle Sam spends a staggering $775 per day for each child housed at a shelter near Florida's Homestead Air Reserve Base. There they have access to medical care, school and recreation. They stay, on average, 67 days at the Homestead shelter before being released to a sponsor. Do the math. That's almost $52,000 per child. American parents would appreciate the government spending that money on their kids. Imagine the government handing you a check for $52,000 for your teenager.

However, there are bigger costs ahead. The number of illegal border crossers just hit an 11-year high with a total of more than 76,000 during the month of February alone. U.S. and Mexican officials predict hundreds of thousands more in the coming months.

The migrants use the word "asylum" as their get-in-free card. When they say it to a border agent, they gain entry to the U.S. 80 percent of the time according to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. They are temporarily housed and eventually released with an immigration court date. But half never go on to file an asylum claim, disappearing into the U.S., said former Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

They're turning asylum into a scam. The system is meant to protect victims of persecution, such as Cubans fleeing Castro's prisons. Now it's overwhelmed by Central Americans escaping poverty for a lifestyle upgrade.

Legal immigrants also want to better their circumstances, but they play by the rules. What a slap in the face to see migrants jump the line.

Unfortunately, a federal appeals court just made the asylum hoax even easier. Last week, the left-leaning 9th Circuit ruled that migrants who fail to convince border authorities they face danger in their home country still have a "right" to a day in court in the U.S. That bizarre ruling won't stand. Another circuit court ruled the opposite way in 2016, clarifying that a border agent's decision is final and entering the U.S. is a privilege, not a right. The Supreme Court let that earlier decision stand, so count on the Supremes to reverse the 9th Circuit.

In the meantime, though, taxpayers are getting fleeced by caravans of fake asylum-seekers.

Even before the latest surge, the Department of Homeland Security spent over $3 billion in 2018 sheltering and feeding illegals at the border, which is nearly double the cost from 2011.

Add to that the hundreds of millions being spent caring for unaccompanied teenagers in 130 shelters overseen by the Department of Health and Human Services.

President Trump has tried several strategies to protect taxpayers from these rip-offs. First, he barred illegal migrants from asking for asylum, requiring that asylum-seekers enter the country through official ports of entry. That would have reduced the numbers considerably. But in November, a federal district judge, also from the 9th Circuit, nixed the president's regulation.

Then, Trump devised a "Remain in Mexico" arrangement to make Mexico the waiting room for asylum-seekers. As long as they're south of the border, the U.S. doesn't have to house them, and they have no "right" to public schooling and emergency medical care on our tab. The program, if successful, will save U.S. taxpayers a bundle. It's one way Mexico is already helping to pay for the wall.

Dems claim it's a waste to spend billions on a wall. But the facts show we can't afford not to build it. As the cover of the president's new budget says, "Taxpayers First."

NM Ranching Family to Pres. Trump: Build the Wall to Protect Our Property

As federal officials warn of a worsening crisis at the southern border, a New Mexico ranching family is urging President Trump to build the wall, including on their land. 

Speaking to Heather Childers on "Fox & Friends First" Thursday, Russell Johnson and his wife, Brandy, said the family is disappointed when they hear Democrats call the border situation a "manufactured crisis."

Their ranch, which stretches for eight miles along the border, has been in the family for 100 years, but only barbwire separates the ranch from Mexico on a three-mile stretch. The other five miles is protected by vehicle barriers. 

"It's very disheartening and if you don't live in it then, I don't even know how to express just the disappointment in what's going on," said Brandy, explaining that criminal activity is occurring in the area, not asylum-seekers. 

Russell Johnson said the family pays to maintain the barbwire, which is often penetrated by a vehicle that drives through it. He said there is an easement from 1907 that gives the government the right to build a wall on the public portions of their land. 

"What we are telling President Trump is: You've already got the easement through the public land and we will give the U.S. government a continuation of that Roosevelt easement through our private property to build the wall," he said. 

The couple said their isolated ranch does not have cell phone service and the Border Patrol is the only local law enforcement around. 

"We do carry protection with us ... we try to be aware of our surroundings. You might pay attention what time of day you go into certain areas cause you never know who you might encounter out there," he explained.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced Tuesday that more than 76,000 people tried to cross the U.S.-Mexico border in February, a "remarkable" leap and the highest number of any February in the past 12 years. The number of illegals attempting to cross the border rose 100 percent from Feb. 2018 to Feb. 2019.

Obama-Era Border Patrol Chief: Trump Is Right About Border Crisis

'Update Your Talking Points': Tucker Battles Dem Strategist on Endless Trump & Russia Probes

AZ High School Students Claim They Were Reprimanded for Wearing MAGA Clothing to School

How to Create Partition Walls Using Everblocks

Using partitions to create individual workspaces isn’t exactly breaking news when it comes to office dcor, but boy are those standard wall partitions boring!

A recent study has shown that candidates use their working environment as a deciding factor when seeking a new role, so the dull brown wall partitions simply don’t excite and engage potential new hires.

It’s no wonder that staff members bring photos of family, calendars and other decorative trinkets to brighten them up as they’re uninspiring to say the least. Then when you get a new starter, it can often take weeks for new partitions to arrive making the whole settling in process a little more daunting than it needs to be.

But thanks to Everblocks, there’s a unique new way of creating individual office cubicles that motivate and inspire within minutes!

Everblocks are the very latest in modular building block materials that come in a rainbow of colours and sizes, making them ideal for a wide range of office purposes especially work cubicles and building modular office wall partitions.

Quirky and unique, office staff can enjoy an uplifting new addition to their workspace that’s, fun, practical and easy to change should you need to expand your office partitions as you welcome new members to your team.

Simply order extra blocks in the size and colour of your choice or keep some in storage and you’ll be able to use the task of creating a new partition wall as an icebreaker to help your new team member meet their colleagues and provide them with the thinking space they need to really get down to business!

Better still, you can try out a few Everblock patterns to add a pop of colour to your office environment or even provide gaps so that team members can communicate with each other easily without having to stand up and peer over the top of standard wall partitions.

Everblocks are also great for conveying your brand identity too, and if our range of standard colours doesn’t match your corporate colours, then we’ll happily create a bespoke set of blocks in the pantone colour of your choice to help bring your office to life and wow staff and visitors.

Plus, if you ever need to change the configuration of your wall partitions, it’s a great team building exercise that the whole office can get involved in.

To find out more about Everblock’s for office wall partitions, click here.

ACLU asks judge to bar Trump from building border wall

WASHINGTON (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union is asking a judge to block the Trump administration from constructing a border wall with money obtained through his national emergency declaration.

The civil rights group filed the request Thursday in California on behalf of communities along the border and the Sierra Club environmental group. The court papers say President Donald Trump is overstepping his executive powers by diverting funds from the Department of Defense to Homeland Security for a border wall.

The request was filed as part of a February legal challenge. The request comes after Congressional efforts to stop Trump from diverting funds failed.

In addition, a group of 16 states, including California, New York and Colorado, have also filed against the emergency declaration on similar grounds.

Trump has blasted the legal action.

Report: Marine Gen. Allowed Leaks To Show How Border Wall Was Hurting Military

Gen. Robert Neller, the commandant of the Marine Corps, let internal Defense Department memos leak recently to show the damage President Donald Trump's wall obsession is doing to military families and combat readiness.

According to a Newsweek report, the unexpected influx of troops and costs at the U.S.-Mexico border, a direct result of Trump's fixation on building a wall, have caused languishing repairs on hurricane-damaged bases and a decline in training exercises.

Neller reportedly gave the green light on leaks to NBC News and The LA Times.

How to Build a Plant Bedding Wall

Taylor, Amie. "How to Build a Plant Bedding Wall." Home Guides | SF Gate, http://homeguides.sfgate.com/build-plant-bedding-wall-100459.html. Accessed 03 April 2019.

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Top Designers Reveal How to Pull Off Shiplap Walls

From ELLE Decor

We're pretty sure many people would agree that no one does shiplap quite like Chip and Joanna Gaines, the stars of HGTV's hit show "Fixer Upper." Shiplap-a stack of wooden boards that can be positioned horizontally or diagonally-is a tasteful way to add texture and visual interest to just about any room. We've seen the popular Waco, Texas-based couple use shiplap to transform spaces ranging from living rooms to kitchens.

But even if you don't live in an area like Texas, where shiplap has become a go-to design choice, there are ways to pull off the farmhouse style-even in an urban space. Keep reading for expert tips on how to make shiplap work for you.

Photo credit: Sweeten

More Embrace Its Versatility

"Architectural details have the ability to add warmth to an unadorned room," says Sweeten Founder and CEO Jean Brownhill."You can install shiplap horizontally to create interest around an entire room or vertically to give height to a space-and to draw your eye up to the oft-neglected ceiling. You can even apply the material on an asymmetrical or slanted surface for a charming touch."

Keep Spacing Uniform

Got a nickel? Great, then you can pull off a contemporary shiplap look.

"When you use shiplap, clean installation is what makes it look contemporary rather than country," says Nashville-based interior designer Jason Arnold. "Use a nickel as a spacer between boards to give it a very uniform, modern look."

In this Nashville home Arnold designed, an entire wall of the guest bedroom is covered in uniformly-spaced shiplap - even the closet doors.

Photo credit: Courtesy of Jason Arnold

More ALWAYS Paint It

If you're trying to send a message along the lines of "Greetings, folks, I'm Tom Bunyan!" then go on, leave that shiplap bare. Otherwise, always paint or stain the wood.

"White painted shiplap has a bit of a Cape Cod look that's clean and fresh, so it's terrific for a kitchen, laundry room or bathroom," says Rita Konig, a London-based interior designer, who designed the Californ ia home below. "If you have a smaller space you want to add some interest to, however, paint it either a [more dramatic] dark or bright color."

Photo credit: Eric Piasecki

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Get 'Em Glossy

A major perk of adding shiplap to your home is that it offers texture that drywall lacks. Still, that doesn't mean your walls have to look like you're roughin' it.

"I've painted shiplap high gloss before, and that gives it a very contemporary look, but you still get the shiplap texture, which is key," says Arnold.

His tip for an über modern look: Cover an entire room in shiplap, and paint it in high-gloss white.

Try It In Small Doses

As mentioned before, horizontal boards can make a small space seem larger. But as with any new project, it's worth trying shiplap in a small area before you commit to a larger portion of your home.

"Shiplap is good on every wall in a small powder room," says Arnold. "You can also incorporate it in a backsplash or an accent wall to add texture. If you use it on an accent wall, paint it the same colors as the rest of the wall for a clean, modern feel that still offers a variety in texture."

An added benefit of using shiplap in kitchens or bathrooms: It's incredibly easy to clean.

Blend It With Other Materials

Arnold suggests mixing shiplap with materials like brick, marble or concrete for a contemporary, urban aesthetic.

"Bringing in wood automatically softens the space to help counteract really cold concrete or brick, which is common in urban lofts," says Arnold. "It's also really great with marble or any other type of stone."

If you have a kitchen with, say, marble counters, try accenting the backsplash with shiplap. Alternatively, if your living room has plenty of exposed brick, try one accent wall in shiplap.

Photo credit: Courtesy of Jason Arnold

More Mix The Width Of The Boards

A six-inch board is typically a good place to start when it comes to selecting size, but don't be afraid to mix it up.

"I love mixed-width boards in both flooring and walls," says Konig. "You get a relaxed look, and you really don't notice the differences until somebody points it out."

Photo credit: Eric Piasecki

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