Ashlee Simpson shows off her toned tummy in Hawaii! Plus, see more of your favorite celebs on the scene
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Monday, December 31, 2012
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Legal & Property Management Proposals - Houston Business ...
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Source: http://www.hbdinc.org/legal-property-management-proposals/
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Canada crammed three alpine skiers in the top 20 in Bormio, Italy, as Ben Thomse...
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Saturday, December 29, 2012
Where To Find Help With Commercial Real Estate - Maynas Eric
Commercial real estate requires a keen eye for investment and a boatload of patience in order to be a profitable venture. The techniques in this article have been used by people to be successful in the commercial real estate business.
To ensure that you receive quality service when searching for commercial property, find a company which cares for their customers. Otherwise, you could end up having costly, but avoidable, consequences from your deal.
Interest Rates
TIP! Feng shui is a great tool that you can use in your office or when decorating your commercial property purchases. Seeing spaces that are not cluttered and very open is appealing to potential buyers.
One of the biggest threats to investors of commercial real estate is fluctuating interest rates. Today?s economic climate encourages wild, and sometimes unpredictable, swings in interest rates. This situation leaves investors vulnerable to interest rate hikes. Think about things like this when you begin your property hunt, and consider your long range choices.
Know exactly what your requirements are before searching for commercial properties. Have an exact idea on what type of office space is required for your company. While prices are low, invest in a larger property that offers good growth potential.
Keep in mind that any new lease, strategies, or rent consideration are necessary for your investment?s future. Have an exact rental amount in mind before you discuss your property with a potential tenant. This will let you reach your goals and achieve an acceptable return from your investment.
TIP! Both local and non-local advertising of your commercial real estate property will be beneficial to you. Many sellers mistakenly presume that their property will appeal only to local buyers.
Don?t be led by hype and fads when searching for commercial real estate. Never rush into an investment. If the property doesn?t suit you in the end, you may regret your hastiness. Plan to keep your eye on your market for as long as a year if you want to find the right investment.
Find a variety of financial partners, from friends and family to professional lenders, to ensure you have a cash flow available to purchase commercial real estate. Set up contracts which either allow you to repay the loans via a fixed interest rate, or give them a percentage of your income from the property.
There are many ways available to cut down on repair costs when cleaning up the property. First off, you may not be liable for cleanup expenses if you do not hold ownership interest, but if you do, you are on the hook. It can cost your a lot of money to clean up and get rid of garbage. If possible, you should first commission a detailed environmental report from a reputable environmental assessment company. Such reports can be expensive, but they are worth it in the long run.`
TIP! There are several differences between commercial and residential loans. For example, commercial loans require a larger percentage in down payment.
If you want to rent your commercial property, well built solid buildings are your best bet. Tenants will be more likely to rent space in this type of building, as it looks taken care of. They are also easier to keep in good repair and require less repairs, which will save you and your tenants money over time.
The decision to invest in commercial properties can carry significant tax benefits. Speak to a tax professional to ensure you understand how the depreciation and interest will influence your situation positively. There is also ?phantom income?, which is taxed by the government although not received by the investor as cash. Knowledge of this aspect is important when you make an investment decision.
Look for property that has more units. By having access to a large number of units, you will be able to more easily spread your earnings across all of your units. It is advised that you should purchase at least ten units to get the maximum income from your commercial investment.
TIP! When obtaining a loan for commercial real estate, it is up to the borrower to directly request an appraisal. Banks do not allow the appraisal to be used at a later time.
You should be certain that your asking price is a fair offer for your piece of real estate. Different variables can have an impact of the value of a lot.
Ensure that you have a singular investment focus at any given time. You should focus on one kind of investment, be it offices, apartments, retail, land or something else. Learn more about all the different types of investment to make good decisions. Start out with only one type of investment, and you will soon master it. This is much more profitable then having just a little experience with many types of real estate.
Try to carefully limit the situations that are specified as event of default criteria prior to executing a lease for commercial property. Doing so makes it less likely that a tenant can default on the lease. This is a bad thing, so do what you can to minimize the chance of it happening.
TIP! Buy properties with multiple units. The more units that are in your possession, the easier it becomes to turn a profit on each of them.
You have to think seriously about the neighborhood where a piece of commercial real estate is located. If you buy property in a very affluent area, your business will likely be successful, because your clientele will be better able to afford what you are selling. Or if your services are for the less wealthy, purchase in this type of area.
Commercial Real Estate
By using the advice from this article, you have begun the process of becoming knowledgeable in the commercial real estate market. When you take the time to use the advice that has been discussed, you can enjoy a lot of the same rewards as others have who learned how to make money from commercial real estate.
TIP! When obtaining financial for commercial real estate ventures, you need to have your personal and business financial statements available. Without proof of your and your business? financial stability, most banks will be hesitant to lend to you.
Source: http://www.maynaseric.com/where-to-find-help-with-commercial-real-estate-8
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Katie Holmes' Broadway play 'Dead Accounts' closes
NEW YORK (AP) ? Katie Holmes' return to Broadway will be much shorter than she would have liked.
The former Mrs. Cruise's play "Dead Accounts" will close within a week of the new year. Producers said Thursday that Theresa Rebeck's drama will close on Jan. 6 after 27 previews and 44 performances.
The show, which opened to poor reviews on Nov. 29, stars Norbert Leo Butz as Holmes' onstage brother who returns to his Midwest home with a secret. Rebeck created the first season of NBC's "Smash" and several well-received plays including "Seminar" and "Mauritius."
Holmes, who became a star in the teen soap opera "Dawson's Creek," made her Broadway debut in the 2008 production of "All My Sons." She was married to Tom Cruise from 2006 until this year.
___
Online: http://www.deadaccountsonbroadway.com
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/katie-holmes-broadway-play-dead-accounts-closes-053525946.html
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Texas Tech rallies to beat Minnesota 34-31
HOUSTON (AP) ? Texas Tech has had a difficult month since coach Tommy Tuberville left abruptly for the job at Cincinnati.
The struggles continued on Friday night, and the Red Raiders trailed Minnesota by a touchdown with just more than a minute left in the Meineke Car Care Bowl.
That was when seniors D.J. Johnson and Seth Doege came through with big plays to help Texas Tech to a 34-31 win.
After Doege connected with Eric Ward on a 35-yard scoring play to pull the Red Raiders even at 31 with just more than a minute remaining, Johnson returned an interception 39 yards and Ryan Bustin made a 28-yard field goal as time expired to give the Red Raiders the win.
"We've overcome a lot of adversity," Johnson said. "To end my last play like that is a blessing."
Michael Carter intercepted two of Doege's passes in the fourth quarter before the tying score, but Minnesota couldn't convert either of the turnovers into points.
"Things weren't always going our way ... but we kept fighting and put ourselves in a position to win the game," Doege said.
The Red Raiders (8-5) got their third straight bowl victory to end their trying season on a high note.
Texas Tech has hired Kliff Kingsbury to replace Tuberville, but interim coach Chris Thomsen led the team against Minnesota (6-7). Kingsbury was at the game, watching from a suite.
Doege threw for 271 yards and a touchdown and ran for another score in front of a crowd that included 1977 Heisman Trophy winner Earl Campbell and former Tech coach Spike Dykes.
"More than anything I credit those players," Thomsen said of Johnson and Doege. "They really held it together ... to get to make those plays after they struggled. They kept their poise and confidence and continued to stay in there and battle."
Philip Nelson threw for 138 yards and two scores for the Gophers, who were in a bowl game for the first time since 2009.
"I think our kids played hard tonight; they played their guts out, and I appreciate that," Minnesota coach Jerry Kill said. "We just couldn't make a play at a critical time."
The Red Raiders returned to a bowl after having their 18-season bowl streak snapped last year.
A 1-yard touchdown pass from Nelson to Drew Goodger gave Minnesota a 31-24 lead early in the fourth quarter.
Texas Tech led 24-17 at halftime, but couldn't do anything offensively in the second half until the last couple of minutes. It was an ugly game for the Red Raiders, who had 13 penalties for 135 yards and lost the tight end Jace Amaro when he was ejected for throwing a punch.
Jakeem Grant ran for what was initially ruled a touchdown for Tech late in the third quarter. Amaro threw a punch at Derrick Wells in the end zone on the play and was ejected.
After the penalty, the play was reviewed and overturned. Doege threw an incomplete pass before Tech made a 32-yard field goal. But the Red Raiders had a false start penalty on the play and had to kick again and this time the Gophers blocked it.
Nelson threw a 17-yard touchdown pass to Devin Crawford-Tufts, who was left uncovered in the end zone, to tie it 24-all early in the third quarter.
Donnell Kirkwood scored on a 3-yard run to leave Minnesota up 17-14 early in the second quarter.
Texas Tech had a first-and-goal at the Minnesota 2 after a pass-interference call on the Gophers. But Texas Tech had to settle for a field goal after a rush for a 3-yard loss and two penalties.
Minnesota's next drive started out well before turning ugly. The Gophers had made two first downs before MarQueis Gray was sacked for a loss of 7 yards. Kirkwood ran for 17 yards on the next play, but Minnesota received two 15-yard penalties on the play, one for a personal foul on lineman Zac Epping, to make it second-and-42. Epping received a second personal foul penalty on the next play to bring up third-and-49.
"We just made some errors that I wish we hadn't made," Kill said.
Christian Eldred shanked the punt, giving Texas Tech the ball at the Minnesota 42.
The Red Raiders capitalized on their great field position when Doege spun away from a defender in the backfield and leaped over another Gopher near the goal line on a 4-yard touchdown run. Tech converted a fourth-and-6 play on that drive, and led 24-17 at halftime.
Minnesota's Rodrick Williams Jr. scored on a 2-yard run to give the Gophers a 10-7 lead in the first quarter.
Doege lost his helmet on a 5-yard scramble on Tech's next drive and had to go out for one play. He was replaced by Michael Brewer, who found Derreck Edwards for a 13-yard touchdown pass to give the Red Raiders a 14-10 lead.
Minnesota's Troy Stoudermire returned the opening kickoff 26 yards to break the NCAA record for career kickoff return yards. He finished the game with 111 yards to push his total to 3,615.
The Gophers ended that drive with a 41-yard field goal to make it 3-0.
Texas Tech's Grant returned the ensuing kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown to put Texas Tech up 7-3.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/texas-tech-rallies-beat-minnesota-34-31-060522585--spt.html
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Friday, December 28, 2012
Champagne loses fizz in Europe after tough year
PARIS (AP) ? Europeans are finding fewer reasons to pop open a bottle of Champagne as another year of economic troubles and high unemployment saps the region's appetite for the finer things. But while the latest industry figures show that sales might be on the wane in Europe, other markets, particularly Japan and the United States, are developing a taste for a glass of bubbly.
In what is certain to be bad news for the vineyards, France ? Champagne's largest market ? is drinking fewer bottles. Sales of Champagne for the country were down 4.9 percent, and 5 percent elsewhere in the 27-country European Union, in the first nine months of 2012 compared with the same period in 2011, according to CIVC, the national association of growers and producers of the wine.
Nineteen months of rising unemployment and growing fears that the worst is yet to come have taken their toll on France ? nearly seven in 10 French are worried about their country's future, according to a recent poll.
"The French are pessimist by nature," said Antoine Chiquet, whose family has been producing Champagne for three generations and wine for eight. "We had a difficult election, we're in an economy where Europe's foundations are being questioned."
Nonetheless, the country managed to drink 175.7 million bottles of Champagne from Nov. 1 2011 to Oct. 31 2012, according to CIVC ? enough for nearly 3 bottles a year for every man, woman and child but about 10 million bottles fewer than the previous year. In contrast, the U.S. consumed enough sparkling wine for about 1.5 bottles per person in 2010, the latest figures available from the California-based Wine Institute.
But while the news out of France and Europe is bad, CIVC figures show export sales were up 3 percent in the first three quarters of the year. Top markets included the U.S., Japan and, to a lesser extent, China. A total of 19.4 million bottles of Champagne went to the United States and 7.9 million went to Japan ? the only two countries outside Europe in the top seven export markets.
Takayasu Ogata, a Tokyo-based sommelier, said Champagne and sparkling wine consumption is climbing in Japan at a time when overall wine demand peaked about 2000. According to the French figures, Champagne consumption alone was up nearly 7 percent over a year there.
"Both individuals and restaurants are taking to Champagnes with personality, including those that are from small makers but taste good," he said.
Lower price is another reason. Gone are the days when a bottle of Moet & Chandon went for 5,000 yen ($60) or more in Japan. These days, you can get real Champagne for as little as 2,000 yen ($25).
Of course, for those with rich tastes and a budget to match there are still lots of expensive Champagnes, selling for 10 times that, according to Ogata, who works at Venture Republic, an Internet retailer, and is in charge of wines.
Beer remains the drink of choice for many "salarymen," but younger people and women are taking a liking to Champagne, Ogata says.
"It's about the bubble ? a sense of gorgeousness," he said in a telephone interview. "There's that thrill to opening up a bottle of Champagne."
China is also emerging as a potentially strong market for a glass of fizz, although the numbers remain small. In 2011, the latest figures available, it ranked 19th in export markets for Champagne, apparently because consumers are less discriminating about precise origins. According to an EU ruling, only sparkling wine made in a particular region in northeast France is allowed to carry the name Champagne. The United States makes some exceptions, as long as the labeling is clear.
"People enjoy the 'boom' moment of opening sparkling wine. It is fun. It offers a more festive atmosphere and it tastes good," said said Yu Ming, a 29-year-old who operated a bar in Beijing's Sanlitun nightlife district until 2010. In China, he added, "people call all sparkling wine Champagne. They don't care where it is from or whether the fermentation is inside the bottle."
The sales manager at the BHG supermarket in a luxury shopping mall in Beijing confirmed that Champagne budgets are largely out of reach in China, saying most customers at the chic store will instead choose sparkling wine: "The most expensive Champagne is 7,800 yuan ($1,250) a bottle at my store, but the most expensive sparkling wine is only 268 yuan ($43)," said the manager, who gave his surname, Hou.
Chiquet, whose label Gaston Chiquet produces about 200,000 bottles a year, said France and Europe generally will remain the most important markets for Champagne. But for the numbers to climb again "we'll have to rediscover optimism."
"Champagne remains a drink for celebrating the big events of life," said Chiquet. "Happily for sales, at the end of the year, the French rely on tradition. Still, we're not going to catch up. Unfortunately, what's lost already is lost."
___
Associated Press writer Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo and researchers Fu Ting in Shanghai and Flora Ji in Beijing contributed to this report.
___
http://www.gastonchiquet.com/
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/champagne-loses-fizz-europe-tough-111145034--finance.html
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Senate approves $60.4 billion Superstorm Sandy reconstruction bill
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate on Friday approved a $60.4 billion aid package to pay for reconstruction costs from Superstorm Sandy, after defeating Republican efforts to trim the bill's cost.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid urged the Republican-controlled House of Representatives to quickly take up the bill.
Both chambers have to agreed on a package by Jan 2, when the current term of Congress is expected to end, or restart the process of crafting legislation in 2013.
The bill's chances in the next few days could depend on whether President Barack Obama and congressional leaders reach a deal to avert the "fiscal cliff" of tax increases and spending cuts set to begin kicking in the new year.
Republicans complain the $60.4 billion reconstruction package requested by Obama is more than the annual budgets for the departments of Interior, Labor, Treasury and Transportation combined. They have urged a slower relief approach based on a congressional assessment of needs.
The Congressional Budget Office has estimated about $8.97 billion of the Senate bill would be spent in 2013, with another $12.66 billion spent in 2014 and $11.59 billion spent in 2015
(Reporting By Doug Palmer; editing by Todd Eastham)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/senate-approves-60-4-billion-superstorm-sandy-reconstruction-000707603.html
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Thursday, December 20, 2012
Tate Stevens Wins 'X Factor'
One Direction adds their star power to the finale with a performance of 'Kiss You.'
By Kara Warner
Tate Stevens wins "X Factor"
Photo: Fox
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1699306/x-factor-winner-tate-stevens.jhtml
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SKorea's 1st woman leader vows new NKorea effort
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? Park Geun-hye's election as South Korea's first female president could mean a new drive to start talks with bitter rival North Korea, though it's unclear how much further she will go than the hard-line incumbent, a member of her own conservative party.
After five years of high tension under unpopular President Lee Myung-bak, Park has vowed to pursue engagement with Pyongyang despite its continuing nuclear program and its widely condemned long-range rocket launch last week. The daughter of late South Korean dictator Park Chung-hee, she placed more conditions on resuming negotiations than the liberal opposition candidate she defeated Wednesday, Moon Jae-in.
On Thursday, Park mentioned the North Korean rocket launch during a nationally televised speech.
"The North's long-range missile launch symbolically showed how grave our security reality is," Park said following a visit to Seoul's National Cemetery, where she paid silent tributes to late presidents, including her father.
North Korean state media have repeatedly questioned the sincerity of Park's North Korea engagement policy, since she and Lee are from the same party.
Ties between the Koreas plummeted during Lee's term. Many voters believe Lee's policies drove North Korea to renew nuclear and missile tests and to launch two attacks in 2010 that killed 50 Koreans.
North Korea put its first satellite into space with last week's rocket launch, but Park's party, the U.S. and others said the mission was a cover for a test of banned ballistic missile technology. The launch raised North Korea as an issue in the closing days of campaigning, though many voters said they cared more about the economy.
Park (Bahk guhn-hae) has said she is open to dialogue with North Korea, but she has also called on Pyongyang to show progress in nuclear dismantlement. She has also raised the possibility of a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, but only if it's "an honest dialogue on issues of mutual concern."
President Barack Obama offered congratulations to Park on Wednesday. In a statement, he said he looked forward to working with her on a wide range of issues, and he thanked Lee for strengthening U.S-South Korea relations.
Huge crowds lined up in frigid weather throughout the day to choose between Park and Moon, the son of North Korean refugees.
Turnout was higher than it was in either of the last two presidential elections, and some analysts thought that might lift Moon, who is more popular with younger voters. Despite moving to the center, however, Park was carried by her conservative base of mainly older voters.
They fondly remember Park Chung-hee, dictator for 18 years until his intelligence chief killed him during a drinking party in 1979.
Much of 60-year-old Park's public persona is built on her close association with her father's rule. When she was 22, her mother died in a botched attempt to assassinate her father, and she stood in as first lady for five years until her father's death.
She has created an image as a selfless daughter of Korea, never married, and a female lawmaker in a male-dominated political world.
After Moon's concession speech Wednesday night, Park said she would dedicate herself to uniting her people and improving their livelihoods.
"I really thank you. This election is the people's victory," Park told a crowd packing a Seoul plaza.
With about 98 percent of votes counted, Park had won 51.6 percent to Moon's 47.9 percent, according to the state-run National Election Commission. Park is to take office in February when Lee ends his single five-year term.
No Korean woman is believed to have ruled since the ninth century. Park becomes the most powerful figure in a country where many women earn less than men and are trapped in low-paying jobs despite first-class educations.
Her father's legacy is both an asset and a weak spot. Older South Koreans may revere his austere economic policies and tough line against North Korea, but he's also remembered with loathing for his treatment of opponents, including claims of torture and summary executions.
Park's win means that South Korean voters believe she would evoke her father's strong charisma as president and settle the country's economic and security woes, according to Chung Jin-young, a political scientist at Kyung Hee University in South Korea.
"Park is good-hearted, calm and trustworthy," voter Lee Hye-Young said at a polling station at a Seoul elementary school. "Also, I think Park would handle North Korea better. Moon would want to make too many concessions to North Korea."
___
Associated Press writers Youkyung Lee and Sam Kim contributed to this story.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/skoreas-1st-woman-leader-vows-nkorea-effort-191259557.html
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Craig Levein opens legal proceedings with Scottish FA | The Sun ...
CRAIG LEVEIN has opened legal proceedings against the Scottish FA.
The flop Tartan Army boss was ?relieved of his duties? on November 5 following a disappointing start to their World Cup qualifying campaign.
Last month it emerged that Levein was seeking legal advice.
And he has today served the SFA with a writ despite the governing body insisting it would honour their former manager?s contract, with payments over the next 20 months.
An SFA statement read: ?Regrettably, the Scottish FA has received notification from lawyers representing Craig Levein that their client has served a writ on the Association.
?This notification has been received despite the Scottish FA?s offer to honour Craig?s contract in full, an offer that was made immediately upon the board?s decision to relieve Craig of his duties on November 5, 2012.
?The Scottish FA has since received notification that Craig has chosen to resign, thereby foregoing the offer made to honour his contract in full.
?In the notification received, failure to make a proposal in lieu of compensation has been cited.
?It is the view of the Scottish FA that no such offer is required given Craig?s decision to resign, especially since an offer of mediation was rejected by his legal representatives.
?We will make no further comment at this time.?
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Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Internet Ad Pioneer: Rich LeFurgy of Archer Advisors - The Digital ...
Rich LeFurgy has been a board member, advisor or investor in over fifty-five online advertising companies.? Drawing from a seventeen-year ad agency career in New York, he was head of sales at Starwave and the Walt Disney Internet Group (ESPN.com, NFL.com, NBA.com and ABCnews.com) and a venture capitalist in San Francisco, prior to starting advisory firm, Archer, a multifaceted advisory services company assisting early stage online media companies, in 2004.?
Rich has served on company boards as a director (Blue Lithium and Associated Content, both sold to Yahoo), provided advisory services to large and small online advertising companies (Google, AOL, Blue Lithium, Glam and Placecast) and personally invested in promising online advertising startups (Ad Relevance, sold to Nielsen NetRatings, Grouper/Crackle, sold to Sony and Blue Lithium).? He has long been a supporter and evangelist to help grow the industry and was the founding chairman of the IAB, the Future of Advertising Stakeholders (FAST) and the Bay Area Interactive Group (sfBIG), and has served on the board of the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF), the Advertising Education Foundation (AEF) and the advisory board of ad:tech.? He remains on the IAB board today.
Additionally, Rich has received ad:tech?s Industry Achievement Award, the IAB?s Lifetime Achievement Award, was inducted into Advertising Age?s Interactive Hall of Fame? and was recognized by USA Today as the ?Johnny Appleseed of online advertising.?
?
Rich LeFurgy, you are partner or founder of Archer Advisors?
General Partner and founder, Archer Advisors.
We?ve known each other for a long time.? How did you get into this business?
Well, it?s interesting you bring this up because I was reminded of my beginnings today when I reconnected with someone on LinkedIn.? I started my career in the ad agency business in New York at NW Ayer on Madison Avenue and stayed there for seventeen years, which was quite unusual in the agency business.? One of the hottest topics in marketing between 1993 and 1994 was the Information Superhighway, and coincidentally, one of my biggest clients was AT&T, which was a big participant in the discussion.? I was the person in agency meetings who started lighting up when the concept of the Information Superhighway was brought up.? At the same time, everybody?s eyes would kind of glaze over and roll back in their heads because I did this so often.? Then during fall of 1994 the AT&T corporate group starting running the first banner campaign on the web on Wired.com, the ?You Will? campaign, and this was the first time I had truly seen the Internet, online advertising and the browser.? I was instantly hooked.? I told myself, this is it!? This puts marketing all together.? I am leaving the ad agency business.?
In retrospect, I did this for a couple of reasons.? First, the working environment in the agency was somewhat dismissive of online advertising during the mid 1990s.? Television ruled the day and is still one of the heavy hitters in the industry, but nobody really wanted to challenge TV since it was Madison Avenue?s cash cow.? I ended up leaving New York and joined Starwave in Seattle.? The biggest name in New York was Pathfinder at Time Warner, but I didn?t see my transition from the ad agency to Pathfinder to be an easy one, so I found something else. Second, I was excited by the web like I was years ago by advertising in college.
And at the time Starwave had packaged together ESPN and a couple other properties right?
Right, ESPNetsportszone.com, later to be known simply as ESPN.com and OutsideOnline.com.? Now for a fairly unknown but interesting fact, Starwave was actually a content company owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen that licensed the ESPN name from ESPN and got a ton of online promotion in the deal to build awareness.? We had editors, photo editors, writers, marketing and ad sales all built upon a fairly sophisticated content management technology platform, as well as e-commerce platform.? We powered ESPN.com, and together with ESPN we eventually conducted content and ad sales deals with NFL.com, NBA.com, NASCARonline and ABCNews.com.? Eventually our company was bought out by Disney, who in turn is a parent company of ESPN and ABC during the time when we essentially had editorial control over ESPN.com.? I think the folks at Disney had a cow when they found out that Starwave had editorial control over ESPN.com, but at the time ESPN licensed their brand to a number of new technology platforms to generate revenue.
It?s also interesting how I got started in online ad sales.? In the ad agency world I was in the account management (strategy and client servicing) at Ayer and had worked with AT&T, Ralston, Purina, Proctor & Gamble, DuPont, Marriot, Burger King, Avon, along with a whole bunch of blue chip advertisers.? I came across an Advertising Age article while I was on a plane to a new business pitch for the Gillette interactive AOR (Agency of Record) account when I saw a story about ESPNetsportszone.com.? I knew that at Ayer we didn?t have a tremendous amount of sophistication about online advertising internally, it was still early.? When I got off the plane and went into the lobby of the John Hancock Towers building where the Gillette client was, I stayed downstairs and called up one of the names in the article, thus beginning my transition from leaving the agency business to joining Starwave.
And how was it trying to sell digital media and Internet to brands back then?
The whole process was challenging.? There were pockets of folks in various agencies such as MCVBS that were interested in what we were doing, but paying for advertising online was still a new concept.? Most potential clients wanted to put our content on their site to generate traffic rather than buying banner ads, so I spent a good three months pitching banner and sponsorship programs with very little success.? Maybe it had something to do with the fact that the Advertising Age article that I had read stated that ESPN was planning on selling online ad campaigns for $1 million.
After a while the insertion orders finally started to come in as the Internet was growing within the agency world by midsummer of 1995, the time at which ESPN.com was one of the biggest destination sites on the web.? That was also about the time when Yahoo! jumped on the scene and started to grab their share of the pie.? There was no such thing as CPMs or guarantees back then.? A lot of the stuff that people take for granted now, we were the ones to develop it over time and I credit InfoSeek with establishing CPMs, more specifically Molly Ford, who I think eventually went on to AOL with Richard Ward.? The takeaway here is that we were living in a time where online ad sales was the Wild West.
You mentioned that at Starwave you were having difficulties in selling the banner campaigns, but eventually some of the brands turned around.? But then you also mentioned an epiphany when Yahoo came in the marketplace and started doing well.? Were they able to help the brands and the agencies understand the possibilities that were in the space?
I think Yahoo helped in the fashion that they were a reach story.? Throughout history reach has been an incredible component of the media business, so it?s safe to say that Yahoo really helped catapult the industry forward.? Moreover, Yahoo was just an incredibly engaging site because that was when the term ?surfing? was first coined.? One of the counter-intuitive things we learned then was people love to look at multiple sources of information on the web rather than just going to one source.? We initially thought that people would simply visit ESPN.com, bookmark it and never go anywhere else because we were the sports authority offline.? But with the introduction of Sportsline.com and companies such as Yahoo, and Google later on, it was easy for people to obtain as much diverse information as possible.? People now had access to numerous sources on any kind of topic that they wanted.
Do you think that the increasing clutter of competition, as well as the general desire for reach, was the biggest challenges facing web advertising at that stage, or were other things influencing it?
I think the biggest challenge with web advertising back in the mid 1990s was that the concept was just too fresh for anybody to piece everything together correctly.? It certainly can be described as a tale of two cities.? There was a media story occurring simultaneously with a technology story, which created some real tension within the industry.? On one hand, there were great media and advertising programs that online publishers could come up with.? On the other hand, technologists who lacked media background sold the accountability of the web based on click-throughs because this was a metric that could be accounted for.? This was the original sin of online advertising, which was focusing on the click-through and trying to make it the coin of the realm.? In hindsight, this was one of the biggest problems and persists at some level today.??
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Interested in hearing more of Rich's interview and his views on the business? ?Check out?Internet Ad Pioneers, available now at?Amazon.com in both physical?and?Kindle?versions!!
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Source: http://www.treffiletti.com/blog/2012/12/internet-ad-pioneer-rich-lefurgy-of-archer-advisors.html
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Spain Study Confirms Hemp Oil Cures Cancer without Side Effects
"The International Medical Veritas Association (IMVA) is putting hemp oil on its cancer protocol. It is a prioritized protocol list whose top five items are magnesium chloride, iodine, selenium, Alpha Lipoic Acid and sodium bicarbonate.
It makes perfect sense to drop hemp oil right into the middle of this nutritional crossfire of anti cancer medicines, which are all available without prescription.
Hemp oil has long been recognised as one of the most versatile and beneficial substances known to man. Derived from hemp seeds (a member of the achene family of fruits) it has been regarded as a superfood due to its high essential fatty acid content and the unique ratio of omega3 to omega6 and gamma linolenic acid (GLA) ? 2:5:1.?
Hemp oil, is known to contain up to 5% of pure GLA, a much higher concentration than any other plant, even higher than spirulina. For thousands of years, the hemp plant has been used in elixirs and medicinal teas because of its healing properties and now medical science is zeroing in on the properties of its active substances.
Both the commercial legal type of hemp oil and the illegal THC laden hemp oil are one of the most power-packed protein sources available in the plant kingdom. Its oil can be used in many nutritional and transdermal applications. In other chapters in my Winning the War on Cancer book we will discuss in-depth about GLA and cancer and also the interesting work of Dr. Johanna Budwig. She uses flax seed oil instead of hemp oil to cure cancer ? through effecting changes in cell walls ? using these omega3 and omega6 laden medicinal oils.
Actually there is another way to use medical marijuana without smoking the leaf. According to Dr. Tod H. Mikuriya, ?The usual irritating and toxic breakdown products of burning utilized with smoking are totally avoided with vaporization. Extraction and inhaling cannabinoid essential oils below ignition temperature of both crude and refined cannabis products affords significant mitigation of irritation to the oral cavity, and tracheobronchial tree from pyrollytic breakdown products.[iii]
Rick Simpson, the man in the documentary below, has been making hemp oil and sharing it with friends and neighbors without charging for it. In small doses, he says, it makes you well without getting you high.
?Well you can?t deny your own eyes can you?? Simpson asks. ?Here?s someone dying of cancer and they?re not dying anymore. I don?t care if the medicine comes from a tomato plant, potato plant or a hemp plant, if the medicine is safe and helps and works, why not use it?? he asks.
When a person has cancer and is dying this question reaches a critical point. The bravery of Rick Simpson from Canada in showing us how to make hemp oil for ourselves offers many people a hope that should be increasingly appreciated as money dries up for expensive cancer treatments. We are going to need inexpensive medicines in the future and there is nothing better than the ones we can make reasonably cheaply ourselves.
For most people in the world it is illegal so the choice could come down to breaking the law or dying. There is no research to indicate what advantages oral use of hemp oil vs. vaporization but we can assume that advantage would be nutritional with oral intake. Dr. Budwig Below work would sustain this point of view especially for cancer patients.
The Science
According to Dr. Robert Ramer and Dr. Burkhard Hinz of the University of Rostock in Germany medical marijuana can be an effective treatment for cancer.[v]
Their research was published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute Advance Access on December 25th of 2007 in a paper entitled Inhibition of Cancer Cell Invasion by Cannabinoids via Increased Expression of Tissue Inhibitor of Matrix Metalloproteinases-1.
The biggest contribution of this breakthrough discovery, is that the expression of TIMP-1 was shown to be stimulated by cannabinoid receptor activation and to mediate the anti-invasive effect of cannabinoids.
Prior to now the cellular mechanisms underlying this effect were unclear and the relevance of the findings to the behavior of tumor cells in vivo remains to be determined.
Marijuana cuts lung cancer tumor growth in half, a 2007 Harvard Medical School study shows.[vi] The active ingredient in marijuana cuts tumor growth in lung cancer in half and significantly reduces the ability of the cancer to spread, say researchers at Harvard University who tested the chemical in both lab and mouse studies.
This is the first set of experiments to show that the compound, Delta-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), inhibits EGF-induced growth and migration in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) expressing non-small cell lung cancer cell lines. Lung cancers that over-express EGFR are usually highly aggressive and resistant to chemotherapy. THC that targets cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2 is similar in function to endocannabinoids, which are cannabinoids that are naturally produced in the body and activate these receptors.
?The beauty of this study is that we are showing that a substance of abuse, if used prudently, may offer a new road to therapy against lung cancer,? said Anju Preet, Ph.D., a researcher in the Division of Experimental Medicine. Acting through cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2, endocannabinoids (as well as THC) are thought to play a role in variety of biological functions, including pain and anxiety control, and inflammation.
Researchers reported in the August 15, 2004 issue of Cancer Research, the journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, that marijuana?s constituents inhibited the spread of brain cancer in human tumor biopsies.[vii] In a related development, a research team from the University of South Florida further noted that THC can also selectively inhibit the activation and replication of gamma herpes viruses. The viruses, which can lie dormant for years within white blood cells before becoming active and spreading to other cells, are thought to increase one?s chances of developing cancers such as Kaposi?s Sarcoma, Burkitt?s lymphoma and Hodgkin?s disease.[viii]
In 1998, a research team at Madrid?s Complutense University discovered that THC can selectively induce programmed cell death in brain tumor cells without negatively impacting surrounding healthy cells. Then in 2000, they reported in the journal Nature Medicine that injections of synthetic THC eradicated malignant gliomas (brain tumors) in one-third of treated rats, and prolonged life in another third by six weeks.[ix]
Led by Dr. Manuel Guzman the Spanish team announced they had destroyed incurable brain cancer tumors in rats by injecting them with THC. They reported in the March 2002 issue of ?Nature Medicine? that they injected the brains of 45 rats with cancer cells, producing tumors whose presence they confirmed through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). On the 12th day they injected 15 of the rats with THC and 15 with Win-55,212-2 a synthetic compound similar to THC.[x]
Researchers at the University of Milan in Naples, Italy, reported in the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics that non-psychoactive compounds in marijuana inhibited the growth of glioma cells in a dose-dependent manner, and selectively targeted and killed malignant cells through apoptosis. ?Non-psychoactive CBD produce[s] a significant anti-tumor activity both in vitro and in vivo, thus suggesting a possible application of CBD as an antineoplastic agent.?[xi]
The first experiment documenting pot?s anti-tumor effects took place in 1974 at the Medical College of Virginia at the behest of the U.S. government. The results of that study, reported in an Aug. 18, 1974, Washington Post newspaper feature, were that marijuana?s psychoactive component, THC, ?slowed the growth of lung cancers, breast cancers and a virus-induced leukemia in laboratory mice, and prolonged their lives by as much as 36 percent.?[xii]
Funded by the National Institute of Health to find evidence that marijuana damages the immune system, found instead that THC slowed the growth of three kinds of cancer in mice ? lung and breast cancer, and a virus-induced leukemia. The DEA quickly shut down the Virginia study and all further cannabis/tumor research even though the researchers ?found that THC slowed the growth of lung cancers, breast cancers and a virus-induced leukemia in laboratory mice, and prolonged their lives by as much as 36 percent.?
?Antineoplastic Activity of Cannabinoids,? an article in a 1975 Journal of the National Cancer Institute reports, ?Lewis lung adenocarcinoma growth was retarded by the oral administration of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabinol (CBN)? ? two types of cannabinoids, a family of active components in marijuana. ?Mice treated for 20 consecutive days with THC and CBN had reduced primary tumor size.?
Marijuana relieves pain that narcotics like morphine and OxyContin
have hardly any effect on, and could help ease suffering from
illnesses such as multiple sclerosis, diabetes and cancer.[xiii]
According to Devra Davis in her book Secret History of the War on Cancer, 1.5 million lives have been lost because Americans failed to act on existing knowledge about the environmental causes of cancer. It is impossible to calculate the added deaths from suppressed ?cancer cures? but we do know of the terrible suffering of hundreds of thousands of people who have been jailed for marijuana use.
Hemp oil with THC included has the making of a primary cancer treatment, which even alone seems to have a great chance of turning the tide against cancer tumors. It has the added advantage of safety, ease of use, lack of side effects and low cost if one makes it oneself. Surrounded by other medicinal anti-cancer substances in a full protocol it?s hard to imagine anyone failing and falling in their war on cancer.
THC should be included in every cancer protocol.
Sodium bicarbonate is another excellent anti tumor substance that reduces tumors but is much more difficult to administer than THC hemp oil. Cannabinoids are able to pass through all barriers in the body like Alpha Lipoic Acid so simple oral intake is sufficient. With bicarbonate we need intravenous applications and often even this is not sufficient, often we have to use catheters and few doctors in the world are willing to administer this way.
In the end all cancer treatments that are not promoted by mainstream oncology are illegal. No licensed doctor is going to claim that are curing cancer with sodium bicarbonate though they will treat people with cancer explaining they are balancing pH or some other metabolic profile with this common emergency room medicine found also most kitchens of the world. More than several states have passed laws making medical marijuana legal but the federal government will not relax and let people be free to choose their treatments even if their lives depend on it.
Davis notes that the cowardice of research scientists, who publish thoroughly referenced reports but pull their punches at the end, by claiming that more research needs to be done before action can be taken. Statements like these are exploited by industry that buys time to make much more money. It is a deliberate attempt that creates wholesale public doubt from small data gaps and remaining scientific uncertainties.
They have done that with everything right up to and including sunlight. Everything is thought to be dangerous except the pharmaceutical drugs which are the most dangerous substances of all. Stomach wrenching chemotherapy and the death principle of radiation are legal yet safe THC laden hemp oil is not.
It is legal for doctors to attack people with their poisons but you can go to jail for trying to save yourself or a loved one from cancer with the oil of a simple garden weed. Our civilization has put up with this insanity but there is a great price being paid. In a mad medical world people die that need not and this is a terrible sadness that has destroyed the integrity and ethics of modern medicine.
The science for the use of hemp oil is credible, specific fact-based, and is documented in detail.[xiv] There is absolutely no reason to not legalize medical marijuana and create an immediate production and distribution of THC hemp oil to cancer patients. Unfortunately we live in a world populated with governments and medical henchmen who would rather see people die cruel deaths then have access to a safe and effect cancer drug.
Meanwhile the Food and Drug Administration approved Genentech?s best-selling drug, Avastin, as a treatment for breast cancer, in a decision, according to the New York Times, ?that appeared to lower the threshold somewhat for approval of certain cancer drugs. The big question was whether it was enough for a drug temporarily to stop cancer from worsening ? as Avastin had done in a clinical trial ? or was it necessary for a drug to enable patients to live longer, which Avastin had failed to do. Oncologists and patient advocates were divided, in part because of the drug?s sometimes severe side effects.?[xv]
The differences between Avastin and hemp oil are huge. First Avastin will earn Genentech hundreds of millions where THC hemp oil will earn no one anything. Second there are no severe or even mild side effects to taking hemp oil and lastly it is not a temporary answer but a real solution. Certainly hemp oil will ensure a longer life." --?Source.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HumansAreFree/~3/rDpteNR6S6c/spain-study-confirms-hemp-oil-cures.html
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How high may WTI Crude Oil go today on NYMEX
LONDON (Commodity Online): As WTI crude oil prices approach the upper Bollinger Band, sell orders could well be clustered around $89.38 a barrel today where the commodity may face stiff resistance as well. This is according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Meanwhile crude oil prices have been trading near two-week's high as optimism regarding a solution to the fiscal cliff issue has been creeping in with the morning breeze as well as due to US crude supplies dropping by 4.1 million barrels in the seven days ending December 14. US is the world's biggest economy and the biggest consumer of crude oil.
US Congress' Republican Speaker John Boehner had proposed to extend the Bush tax cuts?the proposal has been called Paln B-- for those making up to $1 million which was rejected by the White House.
"Why not put on the floor something that's what most Americans think the president is talking about, which is protecting from tax increases everybody but truly millionaires and billionaires?," said Republican Representative Pat Tiberi of Ohio to Reuters.
But nobody expects Plan B to emerge out of the Senate with victory.
When it dies in the Senate, he said, "that's not our problem. We can't be held responsible for what the Senate does." Reuters report added.
The Republicans apparently want the blame to be shifted to the shoulders of Democrats, a political game whose characteristics are as old as humanity. The US public, meanwhile thinks that it would be the Republicans who should be held responsible for the economy as and when it goes off the cliff.
But it has to be noted that fiscal cliff Plan B failure has not derailed Plan A.
Obama had made a 'brand new offer' to Republican Speaker John Boehner that would raise taxes by $1.2 trillion and cut $1.22 trillion in federal spending on Monday.
?Obama, whose definition has for months been taxpayers above the $250,000 threshold, traveled to $400,000 in his latest offer. Boehner was at $1 million, but could move down to $500,000.? CNBC.com said in a report.
WTI crude oil prices on the Nymex for delivery on February 13, 2013 is trading at $88.28 a barrel, a loss of 0.14% against the previous close of $88.40. Its European counterpart Brent crude oil for February for delivery on the same date was seen trading at $108.94 a barrel, a gain of 0.02%.
On India's MCX, crude oil for delivery on January 21, 2013 was seen trading at Rs.4867 a barrel, a loss of 0.47% as of 11.05 AM IST.
Source: http://www.commodityonline.com/news/how-high-may-wti-crude-oil-go-today-on-nymex-51869-3-51870.html
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Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Gun control after school shootings: Lessons from around the globe
Australia enacted tougher gun laws and saw a drop in school shootings to zero. After the 1998 hand gun ban, the United Kingdom saw a rise in gun-related crimes.? Do gun controls reduce gun-related crime?
Fresh flowers were left recently for the victims for the 1996 Dunblane Primary School shooting in Dunblane cemetery, Scotland. Does the United Kingdom have lessons to teach the US about gun control?
REUTERS/David Moir
EnlargeIf there's anywhere that understands the pain of Newtown, it's Dunblane, the town whose grief became a catalyst for changes to Britain's gun laws.
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In March 1996, a 43-year-old man named Thomas Hamilton walked into a primary school in this central Scotland town of 8,000 people and shot to death 16 kindergarten-age children and their teacher with four legally held handguns. In the weeks that followed, people in the town formed the Snowdrop campaign ? named for the first flower of spring ? to press for a ban on handguns. Within weeks, it had collected 750,000 signatures. By the next year, the ban had become law.
It is a familiar pattern around the world ? from Britain to Australia, grief at mass shootings has been followed by swift political action to tighten gun laws.
Many in the United States are calling for that to happen there, too, after the shooting of 20 children as young as six at a school in Newtown, Connecticut. Many other Americans are adamant the laws should not change.
In Dunblane, residents have been gathering at the town's massacre memorial to sign a book of condolence ? but are loath to advise grieving Americans what to do.
"It is not for us to tell the U.S. about gun control. That is for the people there," said Terence O'Brien, a member of the Dunblane community council. "What happened here was similar in many respects, but the wider culture is different."
When it comes to guns, the United States is exceptional. The U.S. has the highest civilian gun ownership rate in the world, with 89 guns per 100 people, according to the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey.
Gun advocates, including the powerful lobby group the National Rifle Association, have blocked attempts to toughen American gun laws in the wake of previous mass shootings. Gun supporters say that the right to bear arms, enshrined in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, makes firearms ownership a civil rights issue, rather than simply an issue of public safety.
Supporters of gun control often cite Australia's dramatic response to a 1996 shooting spree in the southern state of Tasmania that killed 35 people.
The slaughter sparked outrage across the country and within 12 days federal and state governments had agreed to impose strict new gun laws, including a ban on semi-automatic rifles like the Colt AR-15 used by the Tasmania killer. The Connecticut killer used a similar, rapid-firing weapon.
Gun ownership was restricted to people with genuine need or sporting shooters with gun club membership. Some 700,000 guns were bought back and destroyed by the federal government from owners who no longer qualified to possess them.
The changes were unpopular with politicians from rural areas with high numbers of hunters and farmers. But, as in Britain after Dunblane, the strength of public opinion swayed politicians from both government and opposition parties.
Gun laws also were strengthened in Canada after the 1989 slaying of 14 female engineering students in Montreal by a woman-hating gunman, and in Germany after a 19-year-old expelled student killed 16 people, including 12 teachers, in Erfurt in 2002.
Even gun-loving Finland ? with 45 firearms for every 100 people ? tightened its laws after two school shootings in 2007 and 2008, raising the minimum age for firearms ownership and giving police greater powers to make background checks on individuals applying for a gun license.
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France confident it can bridge gap with U.S. on Mali
PARIS (Reuters) - France will address U.S. concerns about an international military mission to retake northern Mali from Islamist rebels, in time for a U.N. Security Council vote on the issue this week, a government spokesman said on Tuesday.
U.S. diplomats have voiced skepticism over a French draft resolution to approve an African Union (AU) military force that would seek to oust al Qaeda-linked insurgents who seized vast swathes of the African country last March.
U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon has cautiously recommended the Security Council approve the operation but Washington countered Paris's draft with its own proposal for a two-phase mission, focusing first on training the Malian army and pursuing a political process before then mandating a military intervention.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Philippe Lalliot said Paris was confident of finding common ground with Washington before the vote.
"We are on course to meet our objective to get this resolution adopted by the week's end," he told reporters.
"We are discussing two points: the assurances the Americans are asking for to ensure the U.N. forces are able to carry out their mission, and financing the mission," Lalliot said.
U.N. Security Council diplomats in New York, however, cast doubt on the French optimism, telling Reuters on condition of anonymity that Washington and Paris were still far from a deal.
Once viewed as an example of democratic progress in Africa, Mali was plunged into chaos in March by a coup that toppled the president and left a power vacuum that was quickly exploited by rebels to seize the country's desert north.
Former colonial master France, which has several citizens held hostage in the Sahara by al Qaeda-linked groups, is pushing for a swift war. Washington, which spent years working with Mali's army, advocates a more cautious approach.
Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Sunday that 14 of the Security Council's 15 members backed France's initiative, suggesting Washington was isolated.
The fall of Mali's north to Islamist groups, including al Qaeda's North African wing AQIM, has created a haven for militants and international organized crime groups in West Africa, stirring fears of attacks in Europe.
Washington, however, has said any military intervention should wait until after elections, to strengthen the civilian leadership in Bamako where the prime minister was forced to resign last week after being arrested by the army.
A key element of the French-U.S. disagreement, diplomats say, is Washington's belief that Malian troops and forces from the West African regional group ECOWAS are not up to the fight against battle-hardened AQIM militants.
The Americans believe non-ECOWAS countries with forces accustomed to desert fighting like Chad and Mauritania should lead the initial combat operations in northern Mali, where they would effectively be attempting to kill as many militants as possible.
Asked whether Washington and Paris would reach an agreement, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Michael Pelletier said discussions were ongoing and voiced support for an election to be held as soon as possible.
"We really believe that a democratically elected government would have more credibility to negotiate and to lead the campaign to restore the territorial integrity of Mali," he told reporters on a conference call.
(Additional reporting by Louis Charbonneau and Michelle Nichols at the United Nations; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/france-confident-bridge-gap-u-mali-190035251.html
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Monday, December 17, 2012
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Mourning The Victims: Local Reaction to School Shooting | FOX8 ...
People all over Northeast Ohio are mourning the victims of Friday?s deadly school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.
Cleveland Bishop Richard Lennon is asking for prayers for the victims and their families.
Bishop Lennon says, ?In response to the horrific tragedy at the Newtown, Connecticut elementary school and the deaths of students and staff, I ask everyone to remember the victims, their families, and the wider community in your prayers. May those who died, experience God?s merciful love and eternal rest and peace.?
Congresswoman Marcia Fudge also released a statement on the shootings:
?Words fail to describe the sorrow and grief many of us feel following the tragedy in Connecticut that resulted in the loss of so many lives, including innocent children. I pray for the victims, their families and the first responders. I mourn for each and every child lost to senseless violence anywhere.
Mass shootings such as this underscore that we need to have a serious conversation as a nation on how to protect the rights of our citizens to safety and life itself as well as preserve the right to bear arms.? For now, the most important thing we must do is to keep the people of Connecticut, especially the victims and their families in our thoughts and prayers at this difficult time.?
Congressman Dennis Kucinich?s statement:
?Today?s shooting was a tragedy of unimaginable proportions. Our hearts ache for the victims and their families. While we don?t know why this attack took place, it is an attack on education, on public safety and on our children.
For those of us outside the direct impact of this tragedy, our mourning turns into a search for ways to ensure that these shootings do not continue to happen.
There is an undercurrent of violence in our society that is becoming more powerful. Whenever it surfaces it brings great tragedy and we pray: never again. But ?never again? keeps happening. Malls, schools, movie theaters; these murders attack our sense of community.
It is long past time that we take an organized approach to addressing the violence in our society and that is exactly what the proposal for a cabinet level Department of Peace is all about. We must reject violence and take an organized approach to averting violence.
My thoughts are with the parents of the school children and the families of the adults who lost their lives.?
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine released the following statement, that includes a response on the progress of Ohio schools in filing school safety plans:
?First and foremost, Fran and I are praying for the families affected by the horrible and unspeakable tragedy which occurred today in Connecticut.
After the shooting that occurred earlier this year in Chardon, and several times since, I urged schools around Ohio who had not yet filed school safety plans to do so. These plans are critical for first responders to respond to incidents at school facilities. I am pleased to report that in response to our most recent call for updated plans, over 1000 Ohio schools filed plans with our office. ?However, there are still 145 schools that have never filed plans with our office.
Our Crime Victim Services section has contacted the Connecticut Crime Victims Compensation program to provide any assistance they need at this time.?
A page has been created on Facebook to remember the victims, 20 of them children.
Click here to see it.
Source: http://fox8.com/2012/12/14/mourning-the-victims-local-reaction-to-school-shooting/
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Kazakhstan to introduce mayoral elections in 2013
ALMATY, Kazakhstan (AP) ? Kazakhstan's president announced a raft of reforms for this energy-rich, authoritarian state Friday, ranging from having more direct local and regional elections to imposing the use of the Latin alphabet for the Kazakh language.
But 72-year-old Nursultan Nazarbayev gave no indication that he would step down as president any time soon, despite two decades of heavy-handed power.
Under Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan's government has faced sustained international criticism for cracking down on popular dissent, limiting media freedoms and being too slow to reform politically. Still, as speculation mounts over his plans for succession, Nazarbayev's administration has tried to forge a historic legacy to endure after his rule. Friday's wide-ranging address appeared to be part of that effort.
Nazarbayev said more than 2,500 local and regional postings ? such as village and town mayors, and heads of rural districts ? would be elected starting next year. That means more than 90 percent of mayors at all levels will be elected, he said. No local administration heads are currently elected.
The elections are part of a broader attempt to foster democratic standards in this vast Central Asian nation of 17 million, Nazarbayev said, even as he insisted the country would not be rushed into reforms before the economic conditions were right.
"Every step of our political reforms is closely tied to our level of economic development," he said.
The bulk of Friday's speech was aimed at cataloging achievements in the ex-Soviet nation during Nazarbayev's tenure. The president said Kazakhstan, which borders China and Russia, has to date attracted $160 billion in foreign investment. Much of that has gone toward developing the country's abundant energy and mineral resources.
As he laid out a strategy for the country up till 2050, the president called for improving the tax system, creating better conditions for business and urging support for the welfare system. But he also went beyond economics, delving into cultural and social issues.
In what may prove an especially controversial announcement, Nazarbayev said the Latin alphabet would be adopted for the Kazakh language by 2025 in place of the Russian-style Cyrillic alphabet currently in use.
"This will enable our children to better understand English, the Internet and it will reinforce our desire to modernize the Kazakh language," he said.
By the same year, 95 percent of Kazakhstan's citizens should have learned to speak in Kazakh, he said. Although Kazakh is the official state language, many people speak Russian instead.
The president warned against allowing ethnic tension to fester in a nation defined by its diversity. Kazakhstan's occupation by the Russian Empire and the Soviet policy of mass deportations turned the Kazakhs into a minority within their own territory.
Nazarbayev has strenuously resisted Kazakh nationalist strains, seeing them as a source of possible instability. "If we want to see our country as a strong and powerful state, we should not rock the boat that would destroy peace and order, which are fragile," he said in Friday's address.
The rise of hardline Islam also has created anxiety in Kazakhstan, not least due to a string of Islamist-inspired terrorist attacks over the past two years. Nazarbayev proposed adopting legislation to hinder religious radicalism.
"The secular nature of our state is an important condition of the successful development of Kazakhstan," he said.
That call, however, could concern advocates of religious freedom, who say already adopted Kazakh laws place undue restrictions on minority faiths.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kazakhstan-introduce-mayoral-elections-2013-114628745.html
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