i think one of the things that micro-enterprise organizations in terms of micro-lending that we see across the board that the majority of loans that sba makes across the program -- not just the micro-lending that we do in san francisco but across the country half is to women owned business so we're seeing on the small end of the market we're growing hopefully the entrepreneurs of the future so thank you for all that you do for business small business and supporting business week coming up next month. >> any questions? >> i have a question of your last statement just sort of the disparity if you will of women and access to credit and about 30% versus the women seek being technical assistance. is the disparity is because women are less confident they can access the credit? seems like they're a better risk because they're doing their homework before they seek credit. >> actually it's because the reason that the access to capital is lower is also because of the size of the loans. they're smaller and the businesses themselves have less of the kind of assets that more well established business p

we're a sba micro-lender. we recently made our first quiva loan and it provides working solutions with a $200,000 line of credit. we provide a loan to a entrepreneur. we post it on their website. individual lenders such as yourselves can lends to that business as little as $25. as soon as that business funds working solutions is reimbursed. it provides marketing and exposure to the business and working capital for working solutions. also star bucks and the opportunity finance network has given us lending capital but i want to mention that wells fargo is the organization that initially capitalized our loan fund 2005. >> does the queva and prior loan status like a traditional loan provided to a client? >> that's a good question. i'm not sure but they have to meet our eligibility requirements but that's a good question. >> okay. >> any other commissioner comments or questions? great thank you very much. you guys do very, very good work. next speaker. >> thank you commissioners. next under financing your business

he designed micro hydro electric power stations, known more simply as micro hydros. like a much larger cousins, these small plants generate electricity from kinetic energy released from falling water. but the similarity is there. until recently, the small systems were too expensive to compete with british electricity prices, but the increase in power costs and new technological breakthroughs have driven consumers to his workshop from a small town in south africa, about nine hours' drive from cape town. >> hydropower was not economically viable, because the government actually subsidize the production of electricity. south africa had one of the cheapest electricity rights in the world. that has changed dramatically. our subsidies are being reduced. getting a hand-out from the government. >> the state-run energy company in south africa has raised electricity tariffs by 40% per year for the last two years and vows to continue. so downey sprang into action and partner with local engineer dennis clerk to create of cortex hydro systems. the company helps farmers in rural c

here is the micro pile account and with all of these piles installed. almost completely tested in zone one. we are completely installed in zone one. to date we haven't had failures of the micro-piles and the graph from before and they're staying on schedule and not indicating any problems with maintaining that schedule and keeping up what is required for the below package to proceed. so those are shots of the micro-pile work in zones one and 2p and as i mentioned the geothermal got started in earnest this period. it's about two or 3 feet below the surface what would be eventually covered by the mud or protection slap and you see the header system where all the pipes go into and eventually up the wall and used later in the project tied into the full circulation system of the cooling and heating water. i will give you some other ideas of the geothermal and of course once they're pressure tested and signed off the area is covered up again and prepared for the mud slab pour which in this area will be this friday. waterproofing mock up was completed. it subs

here is the micro pile account and with all of these piles installed. almost completely tested in zone one. we are completely installed in zone one. to date we haven't had failures of the micro-piles and the graph from before and they're staying on schedule and not indicating any problems with maintaining that schedule and keeping up what is required for the below package to proceed. so those are shots of the micro-pile work in zones one and 2p and as i mentioned the geothermal got started in earnest

credit unions offer micro loans. we do a lot of micro loans up to $50,000. this is -- we check credit. we need a business plan. then we look at the three-year tax return and that statement. we do a lot of home care and mom-and-pop shops. we also do start ups. we asked for approval through documents. we work a lot with people who do not know how to file taxes properly. we are mainly focused in san francisco. we are small. we focus mainly on the tenderloin, chinatown, bayview, visitation. we do a lot of expansion. people start small through the credit union and then want to go to the bank. we know we are limited. we cannot afford to give out a big loan. starting from the credit union, we educate them about filing taxes properly and then moving on to the bank, a small one, expansion, and we work with the bank. the bank and credit union are similar. we do allow tax returns, projections. credit unions do not charge an additional loan or processing fee. processing time, on a small loan, -- consumer loans probably a few days. because we require a business plan, som

if we cannot, i look for the micro guys to help me out with the smaller loans. it is a collateral loan that we cannot do, i do what i can. we are here to lend. >> thank you. hopefully, people have their question cards. i am going to open it up to the audience. if you have written a question down, please give it to us so we can start compiling them. if i see a repeat questions, it will help to expedite the process, answering those questions that people want answered. we have some of the best and brightest minds here. don't be shy. if you could do us a favor and use the microphone so that everyone can hear your question. >> you had mentioned about assistance in public contracting. for small companies, one of the issues is bonding. what do you do on that? >> for all public contracts, public agencies need to see that there contractors have bonding in order for them to demonstrate they can complete the contract. sba provides an insured bond guarantee to those who do bonding to small businesses on public contracts. so there is an sba program on a maturity bonding, sim

i think probably many of you know in micro communities is a really easy way for immigrants to enter into the marketplace and e conspire for women who are. >> home with the children or denied entry into the regular work force so seeing a need to formalize the food businesses and transition them into the formal economy so for instance work with a woman working successfully and making money for the family and transition her to income patching to asset generation. the idea in that sense they're are towns and entrepreneurs. they found their market and margins and something they can bring and do so they're successful as entrepreneurs in the informal marketplace. the idea of la cocina to transit that into a broader marketplace and instead of dollars here or there and create the wealth with business ownership and has impact for them and families and communities. it's really moving over there on the screens. a lot of action. sorry about that. so that was the general idea of la cocina and we open our doors in 2005. you can see a picture if it stops moving over there but the idea is give that affor

are there small businesses, micro-businesses for instance that women are leading, starting that move beyond the hierarchy of the types of businesses that were described? do we have women that are involved in starting something that is a cottage industry so to speak of a ginotech? any other technology companies? >> yeah. good question. actually i think maybe the way i would answer that is when someone askings to describe a small business there isn't an questions answer. it's so broad and the same applies for women owned business as well. we run a risk of describing women owned business as describing a certain type of business in size, in type, in make up of the business. our small business of the year last year was a woman manufacturing business and three of the last six years the small business for northern california was a woman owned manufacturing business and had 100 smg ease or more so the idea we're talking about women business that are talking in terms of small, micro enterprise, home base is a case for number of businesses but not across the board. the same applies for women s

don't have the micro-community to support it economically so you might have a regional mexican kri seen but not with enough mexicans to support that but not knowing how to move outside of that micro-community or an opportunity to move out they will stay in the informal bucket and not get to the asset generation. what make it successful? low cost of entry, flexible hours are things that you can address in the industry so we identified things that women need at our organization to be successful. one is a sharing community and san francisco is engaged in right now but leaves out low income entrepreneurs and as the ideas come about to share resources and find ways they're accessible to folks not comfortable in the media rulm and child care and ride share are huge ones and to develop resources or work with developers to bring in resources that others need and provide that need in lower risk than currently available. the current economic opportunities are really so high risk it's not a good idea to make that recommendation to enter into that opportunity no matter what the reward would be and

credit unions offer micro loans. we do a lot of micro loans up to $50,000. this is --

well, what do you suggest, micro-mind?! you have to put up a fight, doctor! how's that for starters, big mouth?! dr. eggman should've surrendered when he had the chance. everything's set for takeoff. transform x-tornado! we're trapped! there's still one way out. it's topaz. she's still alive.

guest: the thing that has made the micro biome a really hot topic is that about about five years agoational institutes of health began something called the human micro biome project, and this was an effort, a collaboration with about 80 universities and other institutions around the country, about 400 scientists, and a budget of $173 million. the idea was to study first of all 300 volunteers, healthy volunteers, to look at different parts of their bodies and find out what microbes lived there. so they looked at five basic areas -- the nose, the skin, the the genital area, and -- the skin, did i say? five areas, and then they created a baseline of what is normal in humans, and then they looked at the connections in humans to health and disease. host: so it goes beyond universities and government study best. -- and government that studies this. capitalists got involved. why? guest: the government was hoping to, what the nih was hoping to do, was to bring the role of a microbe -- of a micro biome to the general public and the attention of the pharmaceutical injury -- the pharmaceutical

nonprofits to provide micro-loans. legal resources. we have nonprofits that provide some legal resources. technical assistance. obviously you have met some of our key partners with our economic development organizations or as we -- as the city calls them we call them our neighborhood economic development organizations. that's our internal language for entities like womens' initiative. renaissance center, la cocina, urban solutions, working solutions, meta. and of course one of our key things that we need to talk to businesses about in terms if they're going into brick and mortar is ada compliance. making sure they're aware of potential aba liabilities that the property may have. tax credits associated with that. are they in a enterprise zone and can they engage in tax credits and what are the counseling services out there? we do see quite a few businesses that are already established but they want to know how do i become a certified vendor with the city and county of san francisco and we connect them with that division

it operates one of the nation's largest individual development, programs, a leading provider of micro loans in california, and has a robust community real estate finance unit. next, we have the ceo of ne community federal credit union. since 1988, she has been the ceo of northwest community federal credit union. under her watch, the credit union group to over 1600 members. it has become the national model for institutions seeking to provide financial education and banking services to the low- income communities. last but not least, we have our conditional lender represented herebyo. mark cyrus is the senior fda banker for the region -- the senior sba banker. he held businesses choose the best loans for the growing business and focus on a comprehensive understanding of their goals for their business. mark is responsible for helping entrepreneurs with sba loans every step of the way. i would like each of you to speak a little bit about what your organization does and, more importantly, address the audience here and let them know what your looking for when you are hoping to fund their lo

i don't work in micro film but in the records management. but certainly whenever i order the micro film this was what i got. it was obviously in there. what day is the first one. i'm looking for the date on the first one. >> 97. >> okay. yeah. date of issuance. i don't have an explanation other than i would say that -- >> it's just there is definitely more information pertinent on the newer one that the permit holder did not have. >> if you are ever looking for records, if you put in the address, sometimes it gives you a list of permits. if you block and lot, it gives you a more complete list of permits. that's why i think sometimes that happens in dbi, that's in our system. i do think our new process is definitely more accurate today. >> i was there too. i was able to get plans on a property. just trying to figure it out. >> mr. duffy, did you look -- i thought you said that you looked at the plans from that 87? right? >> yes. the plans show the reduction from 3-2? >> yes they do. yes. there is a room and clearly shows a room up here. this

so when you get those 10 or 20 doses over the course of childhood, you may seriously impair the micro biome, and the result can be affecting our health in all kinds of ways we did not suspect before. host: according to your article, the most recent research on microbes found that infants exposed to antibiotics in the first six months are 20% more likely to be overweight as toddlers. and then a lack of normal gut microbes early in life disturbs the central nervous system in rodents, may do the same to humans. and starving children might lack the right digestive microorganisms to fix malnutrition. guest: yes. that was a study done in africa this year, him allowing -- in malawi. they looked at kids in the same households, with the same diet. one had a severe form of malnutrition and another did not. the kid who did not have the disease did fine, the other kid did not. he would do fine for a little while, at them and go back to being malnourished what they found was that if you manipulate the micro biome and give these kids the right microbes to digest the food, they have a much better ch

guest: the thing that has made the micro biome a really hot topic is that about about five years ago the national institutes of health began something called the human micro biome project, and this was an effort, a collaboration with about 80 universities and other institutions around the country, about 400 scientists, and a budget of $173 million. the idea was to study first of all 300 volunteers, healthy volunteers, to look at different parts of their bodies and find out what microbes lived there. so they looked at five basic areas -- the nose, the skin, the gut, the genital area, and -- the skin, did i say? five areas, and then they created a baseline of what is normal in humans, and then they looked at the connections in humans to health and disease. host: so it goes beyond universities and government that studies this. capitalists got involved. why? guest: the government was hoping to, what the nih was hoping to do, was to bring the role of a microbe -- of a micro biome to the general public and the attention of the pharmaceutical injury -- the pharmaceutical insert -- the pharm

micro meet your strike.

when it is a requirement of 50,000 or less, i tend to call of the micro guys to help me out. that is right in their box. for us, the capacity for us to do the smaller side is not there as much as it is for them. on getting a loan through my side of the bank, i do not require an account to do that. we would like to have it, but i do not require it. >> last question for the opportunity fund and a critic representative. are you a cdfi? is san francisco and s.p.a. in support of cdfi's being established in san francisco? >> yes, we are. we were founded in 1999 with a small business loan. that is how we started our tenderloin office. >> opportunity fund is a certified cdfi, so we are providing a benefit to low and moderate-income communities. he is the city establishing support for new cdfi's? >> mark wanted to address that, in support of cdfi's in the city. >> we have a wealth of partners in the city. s.p.a. is just now rolling out a program for r -- will be the case by the summer. let me get one last point and on the question about relationships to lenders. the question was, do h

micro-lending does go to childcare providers. - hedy ratner, thank you so much for joining us today. you are the founder of the women's business development center, a terrific organization here in chicago. we want to give you some information about the upcoming childcare business expo as well: it is this saturday, june 1st, from 7 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. at the university of illinois at chicago. the cost is $35 per person. you can network, you can connect with other people doing this sort of thing, you can get marketing tips, ways to improve the quality of your business. for more information, log on towww.wbdc.org. thank you, chuck. still ahead, is sears dangerously close to running out of money? we'll go behind the numbers, next. another tough quarter for sears: the retail chain recently reported a loss of $279 million, 4 times more than analysts expected. margaret bogenrief of acm partners is on set with us this morning. you are a retail turnaround expert. you've been looking into the numbers: is sears likely to soon run out of cash? - well, i think eddie lampert, while he is not nece

those are the micro-piles and in the lower right hand corner they're mocking up the column protection. those columns are supporting the trussel or supporting the bracing and thigh all need to be in caseed in a steel jacket so they can be cut off at a later date when the trussel or bracing is no longer required and that area can be sealed up and waterproofed as well. as you can imagine that all gets covered up by the foundation slab that is 5 feet thick. some more shots of the mud slab going in. that's on the south side of the train box at the west end. excavation proceeding in zones two and three. zone four again all the water -- all the water treatment plant equipment has been removed. the trestle bridge is started. as of last friday was completed with all the deck cover laid out. they still have welding and work to do underneath, so work is progressing significantly in zone four as well. shots of the work going on in zone four. and of course i mentioned the awss work continues. you can see how congested things are in trying to build the new boxes for the pipe and work around the oth

those micro climates will dictate whether you need pull out the sweater. just about everywhere you can get by with the short sleeves right off the bat. by noon in the mid to upper 70s and round out the day in the mid 90s. tomorrow we have a heat advisory in place as we're expecting the first triple digits of the season only to be followed by temperatures tumbling back into the 60s and 70s. we'll include the rain in the forecast as well. a lot to talk about in your next report. first let's check your drive. good morning, mike. >> as we're looking at the bay bridge at 4:39 in the morning. an easy drive up the incline from oakland and vice versa. road crews typical on the bridge. you only lose a lane or two. traffic so light not a problem. the only slowing right around the toll plaza and the incline, typical for interstate 80. looking towards the carcinas and bean nearby yeah bridges. here it's eastbound at 80 where we do have a stall, it looks like the westbound side is starting to show slowing as road crews also start to clear as you approach or leave that

it's that time of year as micro climates kick in. a little cloud cover, still rather moderate where temperatures are soaring up in the north bay. so talk about that red flag warning. it's in place today for 6:00 p.m. for the hills 1,000 feet. even though temperatures are going to be hotter tomorrow, we are going to take that red flag warning down at 6:00 p.m. the reason for is the dry northerly down sloping win. just want to show you how far we'll blow past the record today. concord forecasted high is 90, 87 is the old record. the biggest record we will break is up in santa rosa. the old record 83 today, 91 tomorrow. we're rivalling all-time temperature records for the second day of may. make sure you stay tuned to the forecast. 91 for dane livermore, 85 fremont, 79 degrees even in the city by the bay. there's that big, bold 96 for thursday. friday into the weekend, major changes headed our way. going to drop your temperatures. cinco de mayo, which is sunday looks comfortable just about everywhere. monday and tuesday it gets more int

they shy away from this and use the tools that are there and the micro set aside program was talked about and it can help businesses that are women, small and local business to have an opportunity with the city. it's not often used. i have been watching the city opportunity list and within five days i saw five projects under $50,000. should have been set aside. was not but it was public advertised and then they used key words like "mandatory [inaudible] meeting." now that's a barrier for some of our business and when you go you don't make money. you spend money showing up cost you money, so we need to watch those unnecessary barriers and we need your help in helping us to monitor this program and so we can do better with women business and don't leave the city and continue to support your economy. women are just not trying to be a male only business. they're there. they're in business because of personal challenges. they want to work and take care of their families and all they're asking us is help to level the playing field. if we can do that in this government i think we achieve the qui

ademas, la suave micro-corriente proporciona una energia termica a las areas dermicas debajo de la superficiee la temperatura puede ayudar a mantener la apariencia natural y saludable de la piel. tambien genera oxigeno enriquecido, el cual baÑa la piel mientras lo usan, y reconoceran el aroma; es esa fragancia fresca que se percibe despues de una tormenta. el oxigeno enriquecido, es un limpiador natural y ayuda a darle una apariencia tersa y juvenil. >> en la industria del entretenimiento es muy importante que tan joven te ves. y con dermawand siento que tengo la oportunidad de competir. lo uso cada noche rigurosamente. mi piel brilla, queda tersa. es una sensacion maravillosa, fresca y cuando termino siento que he hecho lo mejor que puedo hacer por mi piel, y al verme en el espejo, se que lo hice... me encanta, no puedo dejar de repetir lo mucho que amo dermawand. >> use dermawand donde quiera que su piel este opaca y poco atractiva... en su cuello, su escote, atras de sus brazos. con una buena crema reafirmantes piernas. tambien, si se ha hecho una cirugia cosmetica o se ha puesto inyeccion

this is one example of micro lending success. the more lenders you have... >> higher repayment rate is. >> you feel like you owe people? >> exactly. so there is this commitment that people are making in the business you want to honor that commitment. >> one official tell meez they hope to approve a business in as quickly as two weeks we've listed information on our web site abc 7 news.com n oakland nick smith abc 7 news. >> thank you. >> caltrans considers what to do about potentially thousands of faulty bolts on the new span of the bay bridge, some experts are voicing their opinions and concerns. >> john fisher is a professor of civil engineering and one of tree experts on caltrans independent peer review panel. not a part profit ses, he testified last week on the broken rod. now, he's told the chronicle he thinks the choice of the steel rods was in the well thought through and i would have urged them to take another course. now, he thinks all rods should be replaced. caltrans says it's doing testing to make that termination. >>