text:
WASHINGTON (AP) — The immigration debate is threatening to split the Republican Party, pitting those who focus mainly on presidential elections against those who care mostly about congressional races.
Strategists say that if Republicans are to win presidential elections, which they've been losing lately, partly because of dismal support from Hispanic voters, they must soften their rhetoric about undocumented immigrants and embrace some version of "immigration reform."
But granting undocumented residents a path to citizenship, which critics call "amnesty," is deeply unpopular in many House Republicans' districts.
RELATED: Reality check on immigration reform's obstacles
President Barack Obama wants such a pathway. So do some prominent GOP lawmakers who are seeking a way out of their party's jam.
The plans differ on when and how citizenship might occur, with border security a central issue. Resolving these differences may determine whether a major law is enacted in the coming months.
Some GOP strategists fear they will lose either way.
If by the next election Latino voters think Republicans opposed and possibly blocked a comprehensive immigration overhaul, they might turn against the party in even bigger numbers.
On the other hand, converting millions of undocumented Hispanic residents into citizens might produce large numbers of new voters who will lean Democratic for years.
"This is a perilous debate that Republicans have entered into," said John Ullyot, a Republican consultant and a former Senate aide.
Obama won 71 percent of the Hispanic vote last November and 67 percent in 2008. GOP campaign professionals say Republicans are dooming themselves if they don't show a more welcoming face to this fast-growing segment of voters.
"Republicans need to solve this issue, politically, if they wish to win national elections, and they know it," said Texas-based GOP consultant Matt Mackowiak.
Winning House elections, however, is a different matter.
A number of Republican lawmakers and aides say "amnesty" for undocumented immigrants triggers strong resentment among their constituents. The upcoming debates could stir passions further, even in swing districts.
Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, lost his Cincinnati-area seat to a Democrat in 2008, then regained it two years later. He opposes giving undocumented immigrants an eventual route to citizenship.
"It is unfair to allow those who have willfully and intentionally broken our nation's immigration laws to, in essence, cut in front of those who have been patiently and legally waiting their turn to become U.S. citizens," Chabot wrote on his House blog. Republicans should appeal to Hispanic voters "on principle," he said, not by agreeing to liberal immigration policies. "Republicans are better for Hispanics because our policies are better for them," Chabot said.
Republican leaders hope to minimize internal conflicts by finding a compromise that Obama and the Democratic-controlled Senate will accept.
A bipartisan group of senators has proposed a plan that would allow undocumented immigrants to pursue citizenship only after steps, yet to be detailed, are taken to further secure the border with Mexico. The plan is backed by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., whose parents were born in Cuba. He is seen as leading player on immigration.
Some other high-profile conservatives, including Fox News' Sean Hannity and the 2012 GOP vice presidential nominee, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, have spoken favorably about Rubio's approach.
Democrats insist that the border security prerequisites not be onerous. They worry that Republicans will never agree that border enforcement is strong enough to start the citizenship process for undocumented immigrants. Similarly, some Republicans say they fear Democrats won't deliver tougher security once undocumented immigrants are allowed the first step toward legal status.
Republican strategists say respectful rhetoric in the coming debates is crucial to wooing Hispanic voters who feel previous GOP comments revealed anti-immigrant feelings.
"If the tone of the debate is thoughtful," then Republicans can survive politically even if they reject "blanket amnesty," campaign adviser Terry Nelson said.
Rep. Greg Walden of Oregon, who heads the GOP's 2014 House campaign efforts, said the party must communicate better with minorities.
"Obviously we've got to address this," he said of immigration changes. "We've got 50,000 young Hispanics reaching voter age every month."
Some conservative pundits, however, say turning undocumented immigrants into voting citizens will hurt the GOP, not help it.
Latinos "are disproportionately low-income and disproportionately likely to receive some form of government support," the magazine National Review said in an editorial. "Take away the Spanish surname and Latino voters look a great deal like many other Democratic constituencies."
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, says he's ready to tackle big changes in immigration laws. But the effort may conflict with another of his goals: passing major legislation only if most House Republicans support it.
House insiders say many, and perhaps most, Republican lawmakers will want to vote against a citizenship-granting immigration bill, even if they quietly hope it passes and helps their party at the presidential level.
Such "vote no, hope yes" groups are well-suited for passing difficult measures with a modest number of Republican votes and many Democratic votes. It happened twice in January: on a hurricane aid bill and a vote on the "fiscal cliff."
At a recent House Republican retreat in Virginia, Boehner brought in independent political analyst Charlie Cook to explain to lawmakers why they face serious trouble with Hispanic voters.
Cook said House Republicans make a mistake if they view national issues such as immigration "through the prism of your district," said a participant at the private session. Republicans eventually can improve their standing with Latinos if they stop talking and acting as though they don't like immigrants, Cook told the House members.
"Holes tend to fill in over time if people stop digging," Cook was quoted as saying to the lawmakers.


text:
The Wanderer
Meet Degi Dudayev. It's not easy being the son of independent Chechnya's dead president.
VILNIUS, Lithuania — We had agreed to meet at the airport, but no one is waiting in the arrivals hall. Out in the street, Vilnius is covered in fog, or maybe a fine mist of snow. Then, right at the curb, a black Saab comes to a sudden stop. The fine profile of its driver betrays the likeness of his father, and I walk down to meet him.
He exits the car — tall and thin, with a fitted gray overcoat, a black polo shirt, and black loafers that have been shined to a high gloss. He greets me politely, extending his hand like a European. Yet it's unmistakably him: Degi Dudayev, the son of the late Dzhokhar Dudayev, president of briefly independent Chechnya, and persona non grata in today's Chechnya, once again under the control of Russia, where even talking about him could result in a fatal visit to the lion cages at the zoo. "I'm 2 inches taller than my father, but overall, yes, I look a lot like him. You can imagine what it's like to always be compared to your father and measured against him," he says with a smile whose politeness betrays either grief or sarcasm.
We get into the car and drive from the airport into the city. Outside the windows, the monotonous landscapes of the Vilnius suburbs flit by, gray-paneled apartment blocks, people in dark clothing. Degi is 29 years old. Nine of those years he has lived in overcast Lithuania, a zone of transit through which thousands of Chechens fled to Europe during — and especially after — the two wars with Russia over their homeland.
Musa Taipov, editor of the Chechen news site Ichkeria.info (which is prohibited in Russia) is a supporter of Chechen statehood, a politician in exile, and an expert on his compatriots abroad. Taipov says that only in France, where he lives, are there more than 30,000 Chechens. In Vienna, there are close to 13,000. "The authorities in European countries try not to publicize the number of Chechen refugees, but I studied this for some time and made contact with officials, so I can tell you that today in Europe there are no less than 200,000 Chechens." The leading countries are France, Austria, Belgium, Norway, and Germany. Chechens seldom stayed long in the Baltic states, usually moving onward. But the younger Dudayev stayed put at these crossroads.
His father died in a missile strike in 1996 in the midst of the first bloody war with Russia. Many expected Degi to take up his father's mantle, but the time never came. He never left a mark on Chechen politics, never headed any kind of government in exile, never started a foundation in honor of his father — and in the three days I spent with him I tried to understand how he lives as the son of a man who, in some sense, changed the course of Russian history.
Degi drives with confidence, having buckled his seat belt (in Chechnya such obedience before the law would be counted as a sign of weakness). I ask him whether he is bored here, and in any case, why Lithuania? He tells me it's because his father led a division of strategic bombers in the Soviet air force that was stationed not far from here, in Estonia. That was from 1987 to 1990, just in time to catch the birth of the political movement for Baltic independence, a movement that helped spur the Soviet Union's breakup — and helped inspire the move for Chechen independence that would come after.
The elder Dudayev had a very good reputation as a soldier. In the Estonian city of Tartu, he was given command of a division in decline, and in a few years he made it exemplary. He was seen as a kind of troubleshooter, a manager of crises. He rose to become a general and made close friends with Estonian and Lithuanian politicians during the nascent independence movements. He reportedly refused orders to shut down the Estonian parliament and television networks, and in 1990, when his unit was withdrawn, he resigned and returned to Chechnya. In the local media, he became known as "one of the three," along with Zviad Gamsakhurdia, the separatist leader of Georgia, and Vytautas Landsbergis, who fought for Lithuania's independence from the Soviets.
The Baltic states looked on him fondly. In the Latvian capital, Riga, there is now a street named after Dudayev. In Vilnius, there is Dudayev Square, which with classically Baltic irony abuts the Russian Embassy, as Degi points out.
After leaving our luggage at the hotel, we go for lunch. Lithuania around Christmas is cold, some 10 to 15 degrees Celsius below zero. Degi parks the Saab, and we enter a small restaurant in the old city with green walls and black-and-white photographs reminiscent of a Parisian cafe. Our freakishly tall waiter lights a candle, and in the half-darkness of snow-covered Vilnius we begin to talk about Chechnya and its war.
"Even when my father was alive we would often move around. We lived in Siberia, in Poltava [in Ukraine], and in Estonia. But if in those days we had the feeling of being at home everywhere we went, now it's the opposite: no father, no home, nowhere. I'm like the eternal stranger and really don't live anywhere. I visit my mother in Tbilisi, my brother and sister in Sweden, go skiing in Austria, and swim in the sea in Greece. I could have long immigrated wherever I wanted — Sweden, Holland, Germany. For a few months I lived in Paris, trying to size the place up. But no, none of it was for me. What keeps me here is.…"
He goes quiet, as if choosing just the right words. "Here I can still hear the Russian language. In Europe, I always get the sense that I'm at the edge of the world, always moving further from my home. I start to panic, thinking I'll never return, and because of the Russian language I got stuck here." What does Russian mean to him? "Only someone who has lost his homeland can understand that," he says with a sigh. "You won't understand. When you don't hear your native language, you start to feel a kind of hunger for it." And what does he consider his homeland? "Chechnya. Russia," he says.
Who would have thought: the son of Dzhokhar Dudayev missing Russia and its language? His father fought a war against Russia, and now his son misses the motherland and dreams of going back? Degi doesn't see it quite that way. "My father did not make war with Russia," he tactfully corrects me. His father, he says, understood that Chechnya had nowhere to go without Russia. He treasured Russia's literature and served its military well. He was the first Chechen general in the Soviet Union's armed forces and one of the country's best military pilots. "But he wanted a partnership [with Moscow], which would acknowledge the right of Chechnya to be its own state, the same as in Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Lithuania, Latvia, and so on," says Degi. All those who wanted their freedom received it in those years. All except the Chechens.
As we're talking, the words of a friend, a Chechen, come back to me. I recall him telling me about the awful strife that began when Dudayev took office — that when the trolleys stopped running, it meant the Russians were moving in troops. And so it was at the end of 1994 that the trolley buses in the Chechen capital of Grozny stopped. The Russian forces had cut off the electricity lines, foretelling the economic blockade that would marginalize the small republic. The tram lines through the city were literally torn apart after that, piece by piece, the tracks and cables hauled away. "My father did not want a war, but you see, that's how it happened," says Degi.
I ask him, if his father were alive and saw what his battle had turned into, would he regret what he had done? For a long while, he's silent. He holds a cigarette in his hand and looks into the distance. "You have to understand, I cannot judge my father," says Degi. "Everything was surging and roiling at that time. The entire republic wanted freedom. It was
a euphoric time.… My father had support in the Kremlin. [The nationalist Vladimir] Zhirinovsky came to visit him. Senior officials in Moscow would invite him and say, 'Keep at it. Nice work. Don't quit now.' That created this illusion that victory was possible. At least maybe a victory like Tatarstan would later achieve — an autonomous republic within the Russian Federation. But as it happened, Chechnya was goaded into war. And Russia was goaded into war. They could have come to an agreement and turned their neighbors into loyal friends instead of enemies, as happened in many cases afterward. Russia would have been stronger for it."
Degi figures that Moscow saw the Chechen question as a geopolitical problem. "If you look at a map, Chechnya is situated in such a way that you can't just cut it out. It is tied in with the rest of the Caucasus and with the rest of Russia irrevocably. We could not draw a new border and break off from Russia while being surrounded by Russia and essentially a part of it. To separate Chechnya would mean breaking off Dagestan, Ingushetia, Stavropol. So the question for Russia was probably not whether to lose Chechnya or not, but whether to lose the Caucasus or not. And taming the Caucasus is the Russian empire's oldest pastime. That's probably why they ended up leveling the place."
They finally bring us the meat we've ordered, but it gets cold: I ask question after question. In looking for the answers he returns to the past, and the contrast between the past and the present is so sharp that he literally begins to feel ill.
Just imagine what he's lost: Once upon a time he was the son of the president. Yes, the president of a tiny country, but a country fighting an empire. His father had audiences with Saudi kings and Turkish politicians. Pro-Western leaders from the Baltic states sent his father aid money. Meanwhile, Degi, the golden boy who had almost everything, rode to school with bodyguards. And for a while, the army of one of the world's biggest countries was powerless before his father's bunch of desperate warriors, across whose coat of arms a wolf had come to rest.
"That crest is on my shoulder, a tattoo, even though I know that Muslims aren't supposed to get tattoos. Before they bury me they'll have to burn it off my body. But by then it won't make a difference," Degi says, laughing, as he snuffs out his cigarette in the ashtray. That wolf is a symbol of Ichkeria, as the Chechens called their briefly independent state, and now punched into his skin with a needle, a stamp of loyalty to the cause his father served. "That flag and that crest hung only a few years. They were taken down, but they'll stay with me till the end."
* * *
To paraphrase the poet Daniil Kharms, "You could have grown to be a king, but you turned out to be nothing." Fate has been cruel to Degi: The son of a father killed in battle, he turned into a wanderer; meanwhile, the son of another assassinated Chechen leader got everything. "I remember Ramzan Kadyrov," Degi says, speaking of Chechnya's current leader, who inherited power in 2004 when his own father, a rebel turned pro-Moscow ruler, got blown up during the second Chechen war. "He was this kid who didn't talk much and ran errands for his dad, a folder under his arm." Today, Kadyrov has a fleet of sport cars and, a former boxer, rules Chechnya with an iron fist — yet is very much beholden to his boss, Russian President Vladimir Putin.
As we sit, Degi smokes one cigarette after another. His jitteriness, his profile, his perfect manners, and his unshakeable sadness start to remind me of the actor Adrien Brody. Degi tells me that he remembers how he arrived in Chechnya while in the first grade and lived in Katayama, a neighborhood with alleys full of lilacs. He was so happy to be in a place where people spoke Chechen, the language of his father. Soon after, the war started. He lived in the presidential palace, but with round-the-clock security. Degi tells me that he practically had no childhood, but was happy nonetheless: He was among his own; he was home. Those last years of his father's life were Degi's favorite, he tells me: how they would go shooting at the range together, how his father taught him to use a firearm, the conversations about life, and life itself, on the edge, the peak, on the ascent. "For all the fancy houses and expensive cars and European capitals I've seen, I'll never be as happy anywhere as I was in our Katayama," says Degi, flicking an ash.
I ask him: Has he ever thought about the paradox that it's Kadyrov who has continued the work started by his father? He nearly chokes on his food. I ask him to hear me out: "Look, your father played fair. He was a Soviet officer who knew the meaning of honor and integrity. He said openly what he wanted. Ramzan does exactly the opposite: He says what Moscow wants and pledges allegiance, but the laws of Russia do not hold in Chechnya. There is no highlander democracy and no Russia state. Chechnya has become a little sultanate."
Degi laughs. "Sorry, I just remembered how someone once advised my father to impose sharia law in Chechnya. He laughed and said, 'If I cut off the hands of every thief, I'd have no Chechens!' I know, you want to understand what I think of him. Let me formulate the thought.… When people ask me what I think of Kadyrov, I answer, 'Kadyrov managed to do what others would never be able to do,'" he says, with the double meaning thick as syrup.
I ask about the legacy his father has in Chechen history. Is he the man who pulled his people into a slaughter, or is he the ideologue of independence? Degi again falls silent for a while. The questions are unpleasant, painful, ones I'm sure he's thought about a lot. "I think that however much the times might change, however many years might pass, my father will remain who he is, a symbol of freedom, which often bears a very high price."
Bearing the weight that fathers leave behind is more than some men can bear. Dzhokhar Dudayev's eldest son, Ovlur, moved his family to Sweden and refused the surname he was given at birth: Ovlur Dzhokharovich Dudayev became the Russified Oleg Zakharovich Davydov. "I'll never be able to understand that," says Degi curtly. His sister, Dana, got married and took her husband's name. Degi, the youngest, remains true to his father's name. Even though it brings him no shortage of problems — security services watch his travels around the world with a magnifying glass — he carries it with pride, like a family crest.
* * *
Like the candle at our table, our conversation begins to flicker to an end, and we walk out into the dark of Vilnius, illuminated by Christmas lights. Degi, a gentleman, offers his arm. "Hey, why don't we go see Gamsa?" he says, turning to me. "You wanted to talk to someone from those times, someone who knew my father, my family, me — and nobody knows that better than Gamsa. He just got here a few days ago. It must be fate."
We get into the car and go to the hotel "to get Gamsa." A tall Caucasian is waiting impatiently in the lobby, glancing with interest through the window. He gets into the car and starts cracking jokes in that inimitable Georgian accent. His face seems familiar to me, but for the life of me I can't place it.
"You know, Yulia," he says to me, "I have this urge to go to St. Helena. When I'm there I have this feeling like I've come back home. I probably died there in a former life." I had the same feeling, I tell him, in Istanbul, when I looked through the windows on the Asian side into the Bosphorus and started to weep that I
will never get to see my paternal home. Turning around in his seat, Degi teases: "Well, don't the two of you make a pair, huh?"
Our shoes squeaking in the snow, we walk from the car to the Radisson, whose Skybar on the 22nd floor offers a view of the Vilnius cityscape at night. That's where I learn that Gamsa is actually Georgy, and only later that he is Georgy Gamsakhurdia, the son of Georgia's first president, the man who gave his country independence. Over a drink my photographer whispers, "The only thing this table lacks is the son of Qaddafi."
Their fathers were friends who dreamed of creating a united Caucasus, who plotted together and helped one another. Gamsa's father, Zviad, helped Dzhokhar Dudayev with the legal issues of carrying out the referendum that declared Chechnya's independence and secession from Russia. With their histories linked, it's perhaps not surprising that they shared a similar fate: Gamsakhurdia was killed in 1993, Dudayev in 1996. It's an odd fraternity, these two exiled princes of the Soviet Caucasus.
While Degi and I are talking, Gamsa's phone rings and he walks away to answer it. He comes back to the table glowing. "Boris called. He asked me what I managed to come up with. When are we going to get into something, huh?"
"Boris" turns out to be Boris Berezovsky, the Russian oligarch who would die a few months later in his own London exile in late March. "Where did he get the money and the strength to get into anything? Russia's state TV keeps saying that he's poor as a church mouse and lives off people's charity," Degi quips. The force of their laughter makes the table shake so much the glasses start to dance. "Boris is poor?! And does the state TV say babies come from storks? Hold on; I have to go tell this to Boris!" says Gamsa.
The following morning, Degi picks me up at the hotel. We sit for a quick breakfast, and the waitress asks him in Russian: "What kind of coffee would you like?"
"White," he answers. I give him a quizzical look.
"Ah, right, white means with milk. Black means without milk. That's how the Lithuanians say it. You know, I speak six languages, lived in various countries, and in my head it's like a stew of different traditions, cultures, expressions. Sometimes things get confused, you know? Like when you wake up and aren't quite sure where you are and who you are. That happens to me sometimes."
As a child, he lived in Russia and he spoke Russian; then his family arrived in Chechnya, where they spoke Chechen; then Georgia, where he learned Georgian; then an English college in Istanbul.
"The first year I stayed silent because all the lessons were in English, and where would I have gotten English from? But man, did I start talking in that second year!" says Degi. Then it was off to the Higher Diplomatic College in Baku, Azerbaijan. "Turkish and Azeri are almost identical, so they were easiest to learn." And now it's Lithuanian. "Now that's a language not for our ears. But I'm like a polyglot already. Wherever I live for a bit, I start speaking the language," he says nonchalantly.
We pay a visit to the empty office of his company, Veo, which installs and sells solar generators and panels. "Before I worked in logistics, then decided to get into alternative energy. We partner with Germans, who are ahead of everybody in solar energy right now." There's gray wall-to-wall carpet on the floor, some computers and office equipment — everything in dull, northern tones. He rents an apartment nearby in a newly built high-rise with a mirrored exterior. One wing is inhabited; two others are empty, with gawking concrete eyes. "Because of the financial crisis they dropped the construction. Call it Baltic pragmatism," he laughs.
The apartment is a high-tech studio with windows from floor to ceiling — but it's cold and lifeless, and there's no sun coming through the window. It seems he hardly ever spends time here. It is a temporary container for his things, for sleep, but in no sense is it "my home, my castle," says Degi. There doesn't seem to be a single item that reveals anything about the inhabitant. His words come back to me: "no father, no home, nowhere."
On his silver MacBook we look through an enormous archive of family photographs. There's a young Dzhokhar Dudayev after his first flight on a fighter jet, standing at attention with other soldiers. In the picture, everyone looks straight ahead, but he is the only one whose torso is turned and looking to the side. (In many images, his posture recalls the words of Napoleon: "It's not I who goes against the current, but the current that goes against me.") There's Dudayev receiving various decorations and awards as general; then he's in Grozny and the shots turn to politics, fancy suits, burning eyes, and awed crowds of listeners. In the black-and-white shots, there's little Degi in his dad's general's cap. He's being held in the arms of the Chechen author and Dudayev's comrade, Mariam Vakhidova, with a caption that reads in English: "Little general." On Degi's laptop, the biggest file of photos is called "Daddy and me."
There are lots of pictures to go through, but he can't sit still for long. We get up to leave, and Degi quickly opens and shuts the door, turns out the lights, and runs down the stairs. He walks quickly, always writing something on his smartphone, as if afraid to stop. I point this out. "If you stop, you start to remember, to think, to reflect, so I try to keep moving: business, friends, the gym, the airport. Chechnya is like a taboo," he says. "Yesterday, I spent a few hours talking about Chechnya and fell out of whack. That kind of pain, you understand … it never goes away."
* * *
We decide to spend the day on the road, driving out to the Trakai Island Castle. Out on the highway there are old pines and firs, with their heavy caps and branches dusted in snow. Suddenly he says: "Tell me about Chechnya, what's it like there now."
For a long time I tell him, in detail. He has not been back since 1999, since the start of the second war. He listens in silence and then utters thoughtfully, "You know, maybe it's good that that's the way things are."
At the castle, Lithuanians bundled up against the cold scurry through the streets, but Degi wears a light knitted jacket with artificial fur. "No, I'm not cold, really," he says. "When we lived in Siberia, mom would wrap me in coveralls and send me to sleep on the balcony. She was a creative person, what can I say?" At the lake near the Trakai Island Castle are market stalls, and I look in to buy some presents for my kids. Degi, learning that I have two sons, starts buying up toys — a rubber-band gun, a wooden battle ax, a sword, and a slingshot that could probably take out an elephant. I protest.
"Don't argue; they're boys!" he says. "They need to get comfortable around weapons early on. All the more because, you know, the times are leading toward a big war." I look at his face, which has gone suddenly serious. "You have to train men from childhood."
He tells me that in the third grade he carried an old TT pistol in his backpack and would disassemble and apply oil to his bodyguard's side arms. The love his father had for guns is legendary. Having become president, Dzhokhar Dudayev gave the right to bear arms to men (and boys) between the ages of 15 and 50. When the Soviet Army withdrew, leaving behind its military bases and arsenals,
they were looted by the locals with great enthusiasm. As Viktor Baranets, a former Soviet colonel, puts it in his book The General Staff with No Secrets, the Kremlin wanted to divvy up the weapons in Chechnya 50-50 with the locals. President Boris Yeltsin even sent his defense minister to negotiate a deal with Dudayev. He didn't make it in time. By 1992, about 70 percent of the weapons had been snatched. By the start of the first war with Russia, the republic was armed to the hilt. Degi recalls a gift from his father: an Astra A-100 pistol, made in Spain. "For me it's better than any Stechkin or Glock for accuracy and size, and it has no safety switch and it's easy to install a laser sight."
In the evening we meet up again with Gamsa. I get out my audio recorder, and as insurance, Gamsa pulls out his own. "My father," Degi begins, "was friends with Gamsakhurdia, and a year after the referendum and Georgia's secession from the USSR, Zviad was in conflict with the Moscow-backed leader of Georgia, Eduard Shevardnadze. The Gamsakhurdia family wound up in grave danger. Zviad asked for asylum in Azerbaijan but was refused. In Armenia, they took him in, but under pressure from Moscow they were supposed to give him up. Any day they were meant to put him on a plane from Yerevan to Moscow, where he would be arrested. Or killed. So my father called up his personal head of security, Movladi Dzhabrailov, and sent him to Yerevan with a simple order: 'Don't come back without Gamsakhurdia.' He went there, burst into the office of the then-president of Armenia, [Levon] Ter-Petrosyan, took out a grenade, and pulled the pin."
"Yep, that's how it went," Gamsa says, picking up the story. "He said he would only return the pin when our family had landed in the airport in Grozny. And there he sat for a few hours [holding the live grenade] across from the president of Armenia until he got the word from Grozny that everything was fine, that we had landed. The president's guards wanted to arrest him or execute him, but Ter-Petrosyan said he had done a manly thing and let him go home. Can you imagine, Yulia, the kinds of days those were? Days of men and action!"
Degi remembers the moment when the Gamsakhurdias landed in Grozny. "Gamsa walked down onto the tarmac, raised his brows, and took a look around. It was just like that scene from Home Alone when the kid understands that he's going to be home for Christmas … without his parents. He was a chubby kid, calm-looking, but when I saw him I knew immediately that this kid was going to raise hell."
Then boys, they shared a few years of friendship in Grozny, battered by the Russian bombardment and deafened by the wail of military aircraft. It was a childhood spent between four walls and under constant security. "We didn't really have a childhood," says Degi, remembering an episode from those days. "Gamsa stole a bottle of cognac, and we drank it between the two of us. I was about 10; he was 13. And to save ourselves from Alla [Degi's mother], we climbed into my father's ZiL limousine and fell asleep in the back seat. Everybody was looking for us, thinking we'd been kidnapped. We had just gotten hammered and passed out! That was our little rebellion."
After arriving in the Baltics, Degi went to study IT. "What else? I was always sitting in a locked room and hanging out with the computer," he says. But it's clear that something in him needs that feeling of being close to death, that feeling that comes only in times of war. He snowboards and races motorcycles, pushing his Honda CBR1000RR to almost 180 miles per hour. Gamsa chimes in. "When things get really bad," he says, "I go up there [to the mountains], to some isolated spot, and I throw grenades into the gorge. What calms me down is that rumble, the explosions."
The two sons remember how their fathers, sitting by night in the kitchen, would draw out their grand plans on pieces of paper: A confederation of the people of the Caucasus, a new civilization — with a highlander's code of honor, etiquette, respect for elders, and the freedom to bear arms — all rooted in a secular state, with a constitution and democracy. "Our fathers dreamed of creating a completely new entity on the political map of the world," says Degi. In 1990, he remembers, his father returned from a summit in the Netherlands, where all the nations of the Caucasus had been represented, and brought with him a sketch he had made of the new Chechen flag and coat of arms: nine stars representing the nine tribes, or teips, of Chechnya, and a wolf laying down with a sun in the background. "Hard to imagine how his chakras opened in the Netherlands, of all places," Degi jokes about his father's inspiration.
In some sense it could be said that Gamsakhurdia succeeded where Dudayev did not. Perhaps it's just an accident of geography: Georgia was separated from Russia by the great Caucasian ridge; in Chechnya, the hand of the empire, or rather its rockets, faced no encumbrance. As for the sons, while Degi tried to flee the past, getting into business, flitting around the world, keeping his memories on the hard drive of his silver laptop, Gamsa really did go on to raise hell. He is an active member of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili's team. At one point, the Kremlin put Gamsa on an Interpol wanted list after Kadyrov accused him of supporting terrorists hiding out in Georgia's Pankisi Gorge. A few weeks after our evening of drinks, back in Moscow, I receive an SMS from Gamsa: "Get this: During a meeting with his security men in Grozny, Ramzan put a million-dollar bounty on my head. What, is that all I'm worth?"
"You probably know that for a Chechen to leave his homeland, something extraordinary has to happen," says Taipov, the politician in exile in France. "In 2004, when Akhmad Kadyrov was assassinated and his son [Ramzan] was appointed leader, that is what happened. Everyone who was a patriot in the 1990s and stood up for independence — and that was for the most part the intelligentsia — they all understood that there would be no mercy. We were free, and they were not, you understand? That's why in 2004 we saw the second wave of emigration, the biggest in the history of the Chechen people. Everyone who was free fled."
"A young state makes lots of mistakes," says Gamsa. "Misha [Saakashvili] also made mistakes, of course. You can't get by without them. But in the end he managed to build a state based on the rule of law; he laid a foundation. Dzhokhar also made mistakes, but he managed to create the basis for a democratic society, a moral basis that was then fiercely destroyed." Degi tells me that, despite the brutality of war, his father categorically forbid torturing prisoners. "He put it this way," says Degi. "'How can you blame a soldier sent here by his motherland, drafted and ordered to go? He was thrown into the meat grinder; he was following orders, so why act like beasts and tear him down?' Once he beat the hands of one of his field commanders with the butt of his gun for debasing Russian POWs. If my father saw how one Chechen allows himself to degrade another today.…" A heavy silence falls over the table.
We are sitting in a bar called California, near a noisy group of Lithuanian basketball players drinking Irish coffee ("the drink of British spies," laughs Gamsa). The bill arrives, and Degi grabs it like a hawk lest, God forbid, Gamsa should try to pick it up.
When he walks over to the cashier to pay, Gamsa turns to me: "That's because he lives here, while I am just visiting. This is how he treats me as h
is guest. Caucasian hospitality. Dzhokhar raised him right. He's got honor and etiquette, like an officer, you understand? I think that's why he keeps himself apart from everything, because he sees filth from a distance and gives it a wide berth."
I return to the hotel past midnight. Vilnius shimmers with snow and lights. Outside my window, like a white mountain sits the main cathedral, a Catholic cross, mounds of snow, people headed home. And somehow I understand why Degi never became a real émigré, never left it all behind, never devoted himself to his memoirs or to opposition politics. This is why he got stuck in sleepy Lithuania, on this patch of snow, in this transit zone, longing for the Russian language and loving Russia and his little Chechnya honestly and unconditionally, like only a man who has lost his home can love it.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
How can we help you?
We matched that to:
If I'm unsure of how to use the Green Machine ATM, where can I get help?
Help using the Green Machine ATM
The Green Machine ATM gives you convenient access to your TD Canada Trust Accounts 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Just ask for a Green Machine ATM demonstration at any TD Canada Trust branch or refer to our easy step-by-step instructions and online demos.
Helpful Tip: If you make a mistake entering your PIN or any dollar amount, just press the "CANCEL" or "CORRECTION" button and continue where you left off.
Thank you.
Please note that the answers to the questions are for information purposes only for the products discussed. Individual circumstances may vary. In case of discrepancy, the documentation prevails.


text:
gearbox accessories in Andorra
Find gearbox accessories in Andorra, Twirl Motor is the leading China supplier, known worldwide for high quality.With our continuous development and support from overseas customers, we have become one of the most innovative, cost-effective and price-competitive manufacturers. We are honored to meet your needs. We sincerely hope to cooperate with you in the near future.The following are the products we recommend for you.
56mm 12v electric motor with gearbox PG56ZY58 Series
Rated torque:100kg.cm~400kg.cm
Rated torque:100kg.cm~400kg.cm
The products listed above are recommended by us. do you have specific requirements? Send us an inquiry at any time.


text:
Defining a Dream
This story appears in the December 2005 issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe »
As the busy founder and president of Latitudes International, a private-label designer and manufacturer of fragrance products such as candles, potpourri and room sprays, Jill Belasco may not be stopping to smell the roses every day. But she'll definitely do so now that she's been chosen as winner of the OPEN From American Express and Entrepreneur magazine's Woman of the Year Contest. While some would have found the twists and turns of her entrepreneurial ride too tumultuous to stomach, and her unexpected obstacles insurmountable, Belasco and her business have emerged successful.
Bankruptcy has been a running theme in Belasco's life, though the bankruptcies were never her own. She worked in the cosmetics and fragrance industry before a brief stint with an outside company that filed for chapter 11. While searching for her next job, she did a freelance fragrance project as a favor for a friend--and realized fragrance was her true calling. "From there, I didn't look back," says Belasco, 49. In 1994, Latitudes International was born.
Sales for Belasco's company grew steadily, but when its biggest customer filed for chapter 11 in 2003, it sent shockwaves through Latitudes. "[The customer] had always been a little shaky financially, but we'd always been careful about it," says Belasco. "We had some warning, but not enough to get all our money out of them." And although the troubled customer was bought out the same day it filed for chapter 11, Latitudes' revenue from the company dropped from $4.3 million in 2003 to $1.8 million in 2004.
Belasco had to make tough decisions. She rationalized, "We can either dramatically cut back staff, which will hamper servicing the customers we do have, or we can keep [serious] controls on expenses." Sitting down with her staff, Belasco announced the news. No raises or bonuses were given that year, and Belasco and her senior vice president took pay decreases. In their rebuilding phase, they sought out and gained new customers, and their former number-one customer became their fifth largest. Belasco is proud to say that Latitudes projects 2005 sales of $12 million.
While she doesn't consider it a mistake, Belasco does regret not "diluting" the relationship with that company sooner. Because a friendship had been established between the two businesses, Belasco let the customer stretch on payments a little too often. But that's no longer the case. "We stop shipping the minute we feel uncomfortable," says Belasco. The main lesson she learned from the experience was that her company and employees come first.
To be truly successful in business today, competitiveness, compassion and clarity of vision--our criteria for choosing the contest's winner--are entrepreneurial musts. Belasco embodies all three. "I come from a big family, so I grew up where a competitive environment was part of everyday life," says Belasco. "[With Latitudes,] we're willing to do just about anything to get a customer and make a customer happy." Belasco believes compassion for her employees and the charities Latitudes is involved with encourages those she works with to show compassion. "By nature, if you're a compassionate person, it shows in your everyday work," she says. Finally, Belasco believes single-mindedness is crucial in pursuing a company's vision. Her clarity of vision was apparent as she executed the plan to survive her client's bankruptcy.
Those three qualities have been useful to Belasco when she faced additional challenges as a woman entrepreneur. Initially, Belasco had some difficulty with the banks she approached for financing. One senior banking officer--a woman--suggested Belasco get a "sugar daddy" to make the financing work. From that point on, Belasco researched banks and lending facilities that advertised their friendliness toward women-owned businesses, and she queried other women business owners for referrals. Before she had built a track record, she brought her brother, Latitudes' attorney, to several meetings because it was easier to get her voice heard with him there.
Belasco has long asked her senior vice president to tear out three items from Entrepreneur every month that they can review together. "When I read about other people, that's when I feel entrepreneurial," says Belasco. This month, she's the entrepreneur inspiring others.
Success Secrets
The potential for success is within each individual, according to Belasco's top five tips:
- 1. Be brave. "Don't be afraid to take risks or be the first to try something," says Belasco. "Don't be afraid to say no or yes."
- 2. Be committed to excellence. "That means excellence in your relationships with customers and employees, as well as in your product or service."
- 3. Be flexible. "[This includes] watching trends, changing what you do, trying new ideas. Also, be flexible with your customers--give them anything you can. And be as flexible as you can with your business."
- 4. Be involved. "If you're an entrepreneur, you need to be involved every step of the way, from the customer to the product to the service."
- 5. Be a family. "Hire smart. Hire people you'd want [to be around], since you're going to spend so much time with them."
--April Y. Pennington
Minorities, the New Majority
Zoa Martinez already knew she had the entrepreneurial spirit as a teenager. A gifted artist, she made money doing calligraphy projects for every club at her Miami high school. "I would get a couple of dollars for each [project]," she says. "From a young age, I was already working." She eventually arrived in New York City, determined to be an artist. She worked for ABC and NBC as a freelance designer, but wanted more. Today, forty-something Martinez is founder, president and creative director of 6-year-old Zona Designs, a 13-employee design agency whose client roster includes A&E, the Discovery Channel and ESPN-Disney. The company generated revenue of $2.8 million in 2004. "I've taken a lot of risks," Martinez says. "In New York, it's about fame and fortune. The fortune is still to come, but I'm happy."
The itch for self-made fortune is a trend among minority women. Firms owned by women of color are growing at six times the rate of all U.S. firms and represent nearly 36 percent of all companies owned by people of color, according to the Center for Women's Business Research. In 2004, an estimated 1.4 million privately held firms were owned by women of color, employing nearly 1.3 million people and generating $147 billion in annual sales.
"It's fantastic," says Sharon Hadary, executive director of the Center for Women's Business Research in Washington, DC. "Entrepreneurship is an opportunity that knows no race or ethnicity."
The desire to contribute more to the family income and the fact that more women in general are running their own companies are factors behind the trend. "You're not an outlier now if you're a woman who owns her own firm," says Sharon Freeman, president of The All American Small Business Exporters Association, a Washington, DC, group that researches issues affecting minority, immigrant and women-owned firms in the global marketplace.
And banks want a piece of the market. "It's a huge growth opportunity we want to support," says Rebecca Macieira-Kaufmann, executive vice president and small-business segment manager at San Francisco-based Wells Fargo, which is forging a 10-year, $20 billion lending commitment to women-owned businesses.
Life can be an uphill climb for some of these entrepreneurs, but it only seems to fuel their desire for self-made success. Jeanette Jenkins, 31, grew up in government housing outside Toronto, the daughter of a single mother. Playing sports was an escape from reality in her neighborhood. "I [saw] a lot of drugs and a lot of sadness," she says. Sports were her safe haven.
At 16, Jenkins moved to Ottawa to be less of a financial burden to her mother. She eventually enrolled at the University of Ottawa and became a certified personal trainer. "I fell in love with teaching and training," she says. At 22, she moved to Hollywood, where she worked for fitness chains and conducted one-on-one training on the side. In 2002, she started her company, The Hollywood Trainer, which works with celebrity clients including Queen Latifah. Jenkins has a fitness video series and partnerships with BET, Lady Foot Locker and Nike. The company projects sales of $1 million this year. Still, breaking marketing barriers is a challenge. "A lot of companies are scared to put that black person on the front, because they have their marketing research," she says. "You can't be mediocre; you have to be fantastic."
You also have to be ready to take some risks with credit. A 2002 Wells Fargo survey revealed only 39 percent of black women business owners had access to bank credit, compared to 44 percent of Asian-American women, 46 percent of Hispanic-American women and 60 percent of Caucasian women business owners. Comfort level in borrowing from a bank instead of relatives is a factor. "You hit cultural issues about [borrowing] preferences," Macieira-Kaufmann says.
Demographic trends will lead to even more women of color, particularly Hispanics, starting their own businesses over the next decade. Martinez, for one, cringes at the word minority. "We're the new majority, not the minority," she says. "That's why I don't like that word."
Her advice? Silence your inner critic, and don't be afraid. "Look in the mirror and say, 'Well, why not me?' [Then] expect to work really damn hard."
Take It From Her
What does it take to make it as a minority woman entrepreneur? We asked super-successful Janice Bryant Howroyd, 53, founder and CEO of Act-1 Personnel, a Torrance, California, staffing firm that generated revenue of $483 million in 2002, for her perspective.
Entrepreneur: What's your background?
Janice Bryant Howroyd: I [am] the fourth of 11 children. It was only during my first year of university that I discovered we [were] poor. The best thing our parents did for us was impress on us that education is freedom.
How do you navigate and survive real, day-to-day challenges?
Howroyd: Continuing to invest yourself in your business is fundamental. This means you never ask an employee to do anything that you will not do. You must make your highest priority attracting and keeping the [most] competent employees you can afford.
What advice do you have for other minority business owners?
Howroyd: Invest your resources into your business as strategically and fully as you can. Remember that when you invest yourself in a business, you are taking a loan from many family members that money will never repay. You're borrowing their time, their faith and their support. Keep learning, and let your life--on a personal and professional level--be the best lesson you ever teach anyone. Never compromise who you are personally to become who you wish to be professionally.--Chris Penttila
Helping Other Entrepreneurs
Friends for 25 years, Hedy Ratner and Carol Dougal finish each other's sentences and trust one another completely. They're the women behind the Chicago-based Women's Business Development Center and have been fighting for women's economic empowerment for 20 years. Says Ratner, "When we started the center, it was an extension of our frustration that women still were not reaching parity and equity in the marketplace."
In 1986, Ratner and Dougal, then in their 40s, poured all their time and energy into the creation of a center that would provide women with the resources they need to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams. The battle was long and hard as they struggled for more than a year just to get funding. Says Dougal, "We faced challenges that were analogous to [those] that women were facing when trying to start their own businesses."
Now, the center has served more than 50,000 women; facilitated over $35 million in loans; impacted federal, state and local policies; and helped certify countless companies as Women's Business Enterprises. And though challenges such as gaining access to capital, debt equity, and business opportunities still exist, Ratner and Dougal are optimistic. Dougal says they are encouraged by the new women entrepreneurs in their 20s and 30s who "are dreaming big, just like the boys."
The duo continues to work with as much passion as ever. "It's exciting, because you wake up every morning [and] look at the opportunity for changing the role of women," says Ratner. "That's a big deal."--Sara Wilson
Cracking the Code
It's no secret: Women entrepreneurs get short shrift when it comes to venture investment. Even when venture dollars peaked in 2000, the typical venture-backed company was still run by--and financed by--men.
Little research has been done on this subject, and even less on its root causes, but the situation is starting to get the attention of civic and business leaders. Now, their efforts to correct the disparity are cracking open the door to venture capital financing for women entrepreneurs everywhere.
A landmark 2004 study by Growthink Research found that only 4.1 percent of venture dollars go to women-led companies. Since then, studies by other groups have shown similar results. "Depending on what study you read, you'll get 4 percent to 7 percent," says Nancy Sullivan, director of the Center for Women Entrepreneurs in Technology at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. "The number is miniscule, what-ever study you read."
The Center for Women Entrepreneurs in Technology is one of several organizations to recognize and support the key role that women play in emerging businesses. Others include the Kauffman Foundation's Women and Minority initiative, and Springboard Enterprises, a nonprofit that works with women entrepreneurs seeking VC funding.
Amy Millman, president of Springboard Enterprises, says these efforts are already making a difference, as the number of women-led companies receiving venture funding is finally on the upswing. "It's not a tsunami," she says, "but relatively speaking, it is an amazing change." Context is key to understanding the problem and its solution, says Millman. "Women have been in the professional world with degrees and credibility in the technology field for only about 10 years." Since venture-backed companies tend to be tech-heavy, Millman is not surprised that women have historically been underrepresented.
One woman entrepreneur who has both raised capital and invested in early stage companies is Mary Baker Anderson. As president of consulting firm Calipa Partners in Seattle, she mentors women on how to get the attention of venture funds and angel investors. "The good old boy network is alive and well," says Anderson, adding that this network will remain largely closed to women as long as finance and business leaders harbor basic gender biases and stereotypes. "There aren't many role-model women, and the ones that [exist] are so busy being successful, they aren't giving back."
Nonetheless, the growing number of support organizations seems to confirm that women entrepreneurs are building "fundable" companies but simply lack the skills and the opportunities to pitch their businesses to qualified investors. Breaking into this historically male-dominated network requires women to think and act in ways that might be uncomfortable, suggests Millman of Springboard.
Fundraising success comes from telling investors what they want to hear-and investors want to hear about the money. "But you pitch what you're comfortable with, and women often pitch their product," Millman says. "If you're asking for $10 million, the investors wants you to be in their face, and [most] women can't do that--it's so against their grain." To help women make the right presentation, Springboard assigns a team of mentors to each client and takes her through a rigorous investment "boot camp."
The results can be amazing. Graduates of Springboard's boot camp have gone on to raise hundreds of millions of dollars. Star examples include Helen Greiner, co-founder and chairwoman of the board of iRobot, which makes the Roomba vacuum cleaner, and Deborah Manchester, president of Zula USA LLC, an educational content production company in Studio City, California. Manchester says the focus and confidence she gained at Springboard helped her raise over $7 million to start production of an educational TV show, The Zula Patrol, that now runs on PBS.
"It's a pretty incredible process," Manchester says of the Springboard boot camp. "It really helps you focus on what your message is--for the company and the investment. Over a six-month period, it was refined and further refined, so finally I could tell you everything within just 10 minutes."
Successes like Greiner's and Manchester's are paving the way for more women entrepreneurs. "The more we train women entrepreneurs and give them access to investors, the better off we're going to be," says Anderson. "There are groups all over the country now [helping women get financing]. There's a huge population of women who have a lot to contribute, and we have to figure out how to effectively allow them to do so. And there are a lot of people committed to that."--David Worrell
Resources for Women
Are you in desperate need of a bag to carry around your laptop--but you want your fashion sense to shine through? Check out these fun and funky laptop cases from three entrepreneurial companies.
The Big Steve Collection from Case Closed Bags is a funky, tailored line. Ranging from $149 to $240, the nylon or leather bags have plenty of pockets and interior foam padding. Shown in rust Chinese, the line also comes in black, sky blue, khaki green, red and black-and-white pinstripe with a white flower. Check out the Neal, Sam and Bob collections at www.caseclosedbags.com for lower-priced and more casual options.
The $25o Tweedy Pie bag from melissa beth designs is a throwback to 1960s high fashion. Available in bubble gum, ice cream and mint, it sports a tweed exterior with leather trim as well as a removable, foam-padded interior sleeve. Measuring 16-by-13-by-5.75 inches, the tote is large enough to use as a day bag and hold a change of clothes. For other classic options, take a look at the What-a-Croc, Get Off My Case and Pocket Full of Puter lines at www.melissabethdesigns.com.
Denyn Sleeve by MARKA is a chic bag of quilted Italian leather with thick interior padding. The $595 espresso or black bag with beige accents includes a removable wallet, a pouch for power cords, a small mirror and slots for pens and lip glosses. Visit www. markaonline.com to find other stylish lines like Charlie Case, Vincent Voyager and Corwin Tote, which are all named after the designers' ex-boyfriends.
Open Season
As women-owned businesses grow at a phenomenal rate, OPEN, the small business team at American Express, is providing services and resources for these businesses. OPEN has long had partnerships with women's business groups such as the National Association of Women Business Owners and the Women's Leadership Exchange. Recently, in partnership with Count Me In, a micro-lending organization for women entrepreneurs, OPEN has also launched the Make Mine a $Million Business Award to boost revenue for the 20 women-led companies that receive the award. "We're working to identify women in key markets to provide them with access to money, a dream team of business advisors and great marketing expertise. We want to give them the resources to bring their businesses to that million-dollar-plus level," says Susan Sobbott, president of OPEN.
Visit OPEN's Women's Business Initiative website for information on the myriad products and services available. Whether you're making business decisions or balancing a company and family life, OPEN hopes to make the experience a bit easier. "[As] the daughter of an entrepreneur, I understand the challenges of running a business," says Sobbott. "I [am] also a mother of two, so I have some empathy for other mothers who are leading businesses themselves."--Nichole L. Torres
Women's Resources
- Center for Women's Business Research
Resources, research, links
- Count Me In
Workshops, videos, micro-lending
- eWomenNetwork
Workshops, conferences, one-on-one meetings
- Forum for Women Entrepreneurs and Executives
Networking, education, business directory, resources
- National Association of Women Business Owners
Networking, training, conferences and seminars
- National Women's Business Council
Research, listings of events and useful publications
- Springboard Enterprises
Learning center, including videos and other tools; events
- Women Presidents' Organization
Monthly meetings featuring guest speakers and advisors
- Women's Business Enterprise National Council
Certification for women-owned businesses, resources
- Women's Business Initiative from OPEN
Partnerships with women's business organizations, resources
- Women's Leadership Exchange
Conferences, resources, network directory


text:
Jimmy Fallon wants your tweet to be part of the Emmy Awards.
Fallon, who's hosting the ceremony on NBC, said Friday the public will be able to submit an introduction through Twitter for up to 15 Emmy presenters, or about half the celebrities who will be handing out trophies.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: The Latest Star Sightings
U.S. & World
He'll read the best tweet as each star comes on stage.
Starting Wednesday, a list of the presenters involved will be posted at NBC's website, along with a Twitter link to enter suggested introductions.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Stars Who Twitter
Previously announced presenters include nominees Matthew Morrison of "Glee" and Jon Hamm and January Jones of "Mad Men."
For example, Fallon said, he'll announce the chosen tweet, user name included: "(At)blahblahblah says Jon Hamm is the hottest guy of all time. Here he is, Jon Hamm," NBC's "Late Night" host riffed.
The Emmys air live Sunday, Aug. 29, at 8 p.m. EDT, from the downtown Nokia Theatre.The planned three-hour ceremony will be live at 5 p.m. PDT on the West Coast and repeated at its conclusion.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Hot Twitter Shots From The 2009 Emmys
Copyright 2010 by Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Related Content from AccessHollywood.com:
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Photo Fun With Hollywood's Hottest Comedians!
PLAY IT NOW: Betty White Discusses 'Very Full' Work Schedule For The Summer
PLAY IT NOW: The Final 45 (August 17, 2010)
More from Access: [ Emmys Jimmy Fallon January Jones ]


text:
Details/samsung/smartphone-cases-galaxy-s10e-cases/presidio-clear-glitter-galaxy-s10e-cases/1245816603.html Speck New Galaxy S10e Cases
Presidio Clear + Glitter
Galaxy S10e
Selected color: Bella Pink with Gold Glitter
Product Actions
- Free Shipping and returns on U.S. Orders
- Lifetime Warranty
- 30-Day Unconditional Guarantee
Additional Information
Presidio Clear + Glitter
8-foot drop-tested
Dropped from 8 feet multiple times by independent labs to ensure superior drop protection.
Two tough & durable layers
A polycarbonate outer shell and inner IMPACTIUM™ CLEAR lining, molded together to form a one-piece case that absorbs and disperses shock.
Raised bezel screen protection
Gives screen extra protection from scratching and shattering if your phone falls and lands face-down.
Embedded, glitter crystals
Glitter crystals are embedded in the case's hard outer layer so they won't scratch or flake off.
Scratch-resistant finish
Special coating resists scratching and discoloring to keep case looking new longer.
Allows for wireless charging
Designed to allow for Qi wireless charging.
Thoroughly tested for durability
Speck® cases are independently lab-tested for multiple real-life situations, including extreme drops and temperatures, chemicals, antenna interference, cracks and abrasions, device bending, and more.
Lifetime warranty
Speck® backs each Presidio® CLEAR + GLITTER case with a lifetime warranty.


text:
Shopping Cart0
Email to a Friend
Be the first to review this product
Out of stock
Use spaces to separate tags. Use single quotes (') for phrases.
Only registered users can write reviews. Please, log in or register
Help Us to Keep Magento Healthy - Report All Bugs (ver. 184.108.40.206)


text:
The study, led by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, found that wild-living apes in central Africa are widely infected with parasites that, genetically, are nearly identical to human P. vivax.
This finding overturns the dogma that P. vivax originated in Asia, despite being most prevalent in humans there now, and also solves other vexing questions about P. vivax infection: how a mutation conferring resistance to P. vivax occurs at high frequency in the very region where this parasite seems absent and how travelers returning from regions where almost all humans lack the receptor for P. vivax can be infected with this parasite.
Of Ape and Human Parasites
Members of the labs of Beatrice Hahn, MD, and George Shaw, MD, PhD, both professors of Medicine and Microbiology at Penn, in collaboration with Paul Sharp, PhD, an evolutionary biologist from the University of Edinburgh, and Martine Peeters, PhD, a microbiologist from the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement and the University of Montpellier, tested over 5,000 ape fecal samples from dozens of field stations and sanctuaries in Africa for P. vivax DNA. They found P. vivax-like sequences in chimpanzees, in western and eastern gorillas, but not in bonobos. Ape P. vivax was highly prevalent in wild communities, exhibiting infection rates consistent with stable transmission of the parasite within the wild apes.
Ape P. vivax infects both gorillas and chimpanzees, unlike the ape precursor of P. falciparum, the deadliest human malaria parasite, which only infects gorillas. The origin of P. falciparum in gorillas was discovered several years ago by the same international group of investigators. The team continued its widespread screen of malaria parasite DNA in wild-living primates, and noted that P. vivax was alsoendemic in gorillas and chimpanzees in central Africa.
To examine the evolutionary relationships between ape and human parasites, the team generated parasite DNA sequences from wild and sanctuary apes, as well as from a global sampling of human P. vivax infections. They constructed a family tree of the sequences and found that ape and human parasites were very closely related. But ape parasites were more diverse than the human parasites and did not group according to their host species. In contrast, the human parasites formed a single lineage that fell within the branches of ape parasite sequences.
From these evolutionary relationships, the team concluded that P. vivax is of African — not Asian — origin, and that all existing human P. vivax parasites evolved from a single ancestor that spread out of Africa. The high prevalence of P. vivax in wild-living apes, along with the recent finding of ape P. vivax in a European traveler, indicates the existence of a substantial natural reservoir of P. vivax in Africa.
Solving a Paradox
Of the five Plasmodium species known to cause malaria in humans, P. vivax is the most widespread. Although highly prevalent in Asia and Latin America, P. vivax was thought to be absent from west and central Africa due to a mutation that causes the Duffy-negative phenotype in most indigenous African people.
P. vivax parasites enter human red blood cells via the Duffy protein receptor. Because the absence of the receptor on the surface of these cells confers protection against P. vivax malaria, this parasite has long been suspected to be the agent that selected for this mutation. However, this hypothesis had been difficult to reconcile with the belief that P. vivax originated in Asia.
"Our finding that wild-living apes in central Africa show widespread infection with diverse strains of P. vivax provides new insight into the evolutionary history of human P. vivax and resolves the paradox that a mutation conferring resistance to P. vivax occurs with high frequency in the very region where this parasite is absent in humans," says Hahn.
"One interpretation of the relationships that we observed is that a single host switch from apes gave rise to human P. vivax, analogous to the origin of human P. falciparum," Sharp adds. "However, this seems unlikely in this case since ape P. vivax does not divide into gorilla- and chimpanzee-specific lineages. "
A more plausible scenario, say the researchers, is that an ancestral P. vivax stock was able to infect humans, gorillas, and chimpanzees in Africa until the Duffynegative mutation started to spread — around 30,000 years ago — and eliminated P. vivax from humans there. Under this scenario, existing human-infecting P. vivax is a parasite that survived after spreading out of Africa.
Forest Reservoirs
"The existence of a P. vivax reservoir within the forests of central Africa has public health implications," notes Peeters. "First, it solves the mystery of P. vivax infections in travelers returning from regions where 99 percent of the human population is Duffy negative. It also raises the possibility that Duffy positive humans whose work may bring them in close proximity to chimpanzees and gorillas may become infected by ape P. vivax. This has already happened once and may happen again, with unknown consequences."
The team is also concerned about the possibility that ape P. vivax may spread via international travel to countries where human P. vivax is actively transmitted. Since ape P. vivax is more diverse, genetically, than human P. vivax, it potentially has more versatility to escape treatment and prevention measures, especially if human and ape parasites were able to recombine.
Given what biologists know about P. vivax's ability to switch hosts, the team suggests it is important to screen Duffy positive and negative humans in west central Africa, as well as transmitting mosquito vectors, for the presence of ape P. vivax. Such studies are now possible through the development of molecular tools that distinguish ape from human P. vivax. This information is necessary to inform malaria control and eradication efforts of the propensity of ape P. vivax to cross over to humans.
As a next step, the team will compare and contrast the molecular and biological properties of human and ape parasites to identify host-specific interactions and transmission requirements, thereby uncovering vulnerabilities that can be exploited to combat human malaria.
This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (R01 AI091595, R37 AI050529, R01 AI58715, T32 AI007532), the Penn Center for AIDS Research (P30 AI045008), the Agence Nationale de Recherche sur le Sida (ANRS 12125/12182/12255), the Agence Nationale de Recherche (Programme Blanc, Sciences de la Vie, de la Santé et des Ecosystèmes and ANR 11 BSV3 021 01, Projet PRIMAL), Harvard University, the Arthur L. Greene Fund, the Jane Goodall Institute, the Wellcome Trust (098051), the Leakey Foundation, Google.org, the Skoll Foundation, the Aspinall Foundation, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Emerging Pandemic Threats PREDICT program.
Penn Medicine is one of the world's leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. Penn Medicine consists of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which together form a $4.3 billion enterprise.
The Perelman School of Medicine has been ranked among the top five medical schools in the United States for the past 16 years, according to U.S. News & World Report's survey of research-oriented medical schools. The School is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $398 million awarded in the 2012 fiscal year.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System's patient care facilities include: The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania — recognized as one of the nation's top "Honor Roll" hospitals by U.S. News & World Report; Penn Presbyterian Medical Center; Chester County Hospital; Penn Wissahickon Hospice; and Pennsylvania Hospital — the nation's first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional affiliated inpatient care facilities and services throughout the Philadelphia region include Chestnut Hill Hospital and Good Shepherd Penn Partners, a partnership between Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network and Penn Medicine.
Penn Medicine is committed to improving lives and health through a variety of community-based programs and activities. In fiscal year 2012, Penn Medicine provided $827 million to benefit our community.


text:
Brussels sprouts with hazelnut & orange butter
Even the staunchest Brussels critics have been swayed by these mouthwatering sprouts, mellowed by the sweet citrus butter which can be made days ahead
Nutrition and extra info
- Vegetarian
Nutrition: per serving for ten
- kcal156
- fat12g
- saturates5g
- carbs7g
- sugars0g
- fibre6g
- protein6g
- salt0.49g
- 85g butter, softened
Butter is a dairy product made from separating whole milk or cream into fat and…
- finely grated zest of 1 small orange
One of the best-known citrus fruits, oranges aren't necessarily orange - some varieties are…
- 50g chopped toasted hazelnuts (you can buy these in a packet)
Grown in Europe and the US, hazelnuts are encased in a smooth, hard brown shell but are most…
- 1¼kg Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved
Brussels sproutsbruss-ell spr-ow-t
The quintessential Christmas dinner veg, Brussels sprouts are thought to have been cultivated in…
- 340g packet frozen petits pois
Mix the butter, orange zest and hazelnuts in a small bowl with some freshly ground black pepper. (This can be done 2-3 days ahead and kept covered in the fridge.)
Put the sprouts into a pan of boiling salted water, bring back to the boil, cover and cook for 4-5 minutes. Pour in the peas and cook for a further 2 minutes. The sprouts should be only just cooked. Drain.
Put the sprouts and peas back into the pan and toss with the flavoured butter so it melts in. Season with salt and pepper and tip into a warmed serving dish.
Recipe Tip
Toasting hazelnutsIf you can't find a packed of ready-toasted hazelnuts, there are two ways of toasting hazelnuts yourself. The first is to spread them out on a thick baking sheet and toast under the grill. The second, less fiddly way is to heat a heavy-based frying pan, add the nuts and dry-fry until they are browned. Both methods require persistent jiggling to stop the nuts from burning.


text:
Shyonaka Oroxylum indicum
Shyonaka is a flowering tree whose common name is 'midnight horror'! The flowers bloom at night and are pollinated by bats. The reason for the common name of 'midnight horror' is because the fruits of the tree are long and curved and point downwards, resembling sickles and swords. The large leaves also fall and wither from the tree and collect at the base and were traditionally believed to resemble piles of bones.
The trees are grown as an ornamental species but are also used in the traditional Ayurvedic formula for Mahanarayan Oil that we have made as a less scary version of in Active Oil.


text:
The boosting of Google+ coming out of Mountain View continues this week with a new feature that pairs with an older one: Latitude Leaderboards.
The check-in service, Latitude, seemed aimed at delivering hyperlocal shopping deals, with users dropping into retail shops, checking in, and seeing what, if any, discounts could be had.
Sort of like Foursquare.
U.S. & World
Now Google has added Leaderboards, so Google+ members can see a dynamically generated list of who is checking in, where and for how many points. It's a competitive thing.
Sort of like Foursquare.
There is one differentiator in Latitude that is still there, and that's tiered status levels for users. Savvy, frequent users can unlock better deals.
The Leaderboard was launched in a release of Google Maps for Android upgrades, including improved battery life. Leaderboard was released with so little limelight, an official launch may be upcoming.


text:
Lamp by Enric Rota Jovani
Enric Rota Jovani Demonstrates The Adjustable Lamp
Enric Rota Jovani, the thinktank behind the highlighted project Enric Rota Jovani's ADJUSTABLE LAMP explicates, Our lamps responds to specific needs, being at the same time versatile and interactive as well as going far beyond the switch on/switch off routine. These lamps lend themselves to a whole world of nuance and luminosity, albeit to a vast range of within-reach ambience and situational potentials to the point of allowig to conform one's mood. This design line embraces the characteristics inherent to a charismatic product, albeit an avantgarde spirit and an innovative design whilst representing a novelty breakthtough. May we share with you these impressions?.
Lamp by Enric Rota Jovani Images:
End of the article, click here to go back to previous page, or alternatively go back to World Architects homepage.


text:
Keith Reader in his commentary on external examiners in the UK elucidates on his position that external examiners may be the way to go to avoid potential conflict of interest situations when a student to be graded is in a sexual relationship with the professor. Alan Clements in his article, "Strengths and Weaknesses of the External Examiner Mechanism" describes the process as operating in the following manner:
An external examiner is appointed to monitor a course. External examiners are normally senior academics who are paid a modest honorarium for their work during their fixed term appointment (usually 4 years). External examiners must be disinterested with no links with the university they are examining and with no conflicts of interest (e.g., a relative studying at the university they are examining). A typical university may employ 300 external examiners to cover all its courses.
The external examiner takes part in the development of a course as an advisor and is consulted whenever rules are changed. The external examiner's principal role is in quality control and the monitoring of the exam procedure. A professor in the USA may create an exam paper on Monday, give it to the students on Tuesday, and grade it on Wednesday. In an English university, a teacher sets an exam with a marking scheme that provides sample answers together and an indication of how the marks are to be allocated. This exam is handed in to the secretary responsible for exams. The exam office sends the exam and its marking scheme to another member of the faculty for checking. This teacher returns the exam with corrections and suggestions and the person who set the exam creates a new version.
Having been checked internally, the exam paper is now sent to the external examiner who looks at the paper from the point of view of accuracy, conformity to the curriculum and quality. The external examiner would, for example, consider whether the assessment examines all parts of the unit and whether it is capable of discriminating between poor, good and very good students. The external examiner the returns the exam paper with comments and suggestions. These are passed to the unit leader who is expected to make the appropriate changes.
Clearly, such a long and involved process of setting an exam means that it is difficult to fine-tune an exam to a class because the exam is set months before it is taken. Equally, it is impossible to set several exams per unit because of the lead time and the bureaucratic overhead.
The role of the external examiner does not end with the checking of exams. After the students have taken the exam, the external examiner visits the university and attends the unit and progress boards. The external examiner has the right to comment on any aspect of the department's work and assessment procedures. The external examiner scrutinizes work that has been graded (on a sampling basis) and may even interview students and staff. The external examiner signs final pass lists to validate them.
After the exam boards have met, the external examiner returns to his or her own university and writes a report. This report is sent to the other university's registry as well as to the head of department. The department is expected to implement any suggestions made by the external examiner and to report back to them. Ignoring an external examiner's comments is not an option.
Assuming that this system as it operates in the UK is successful in terms of abolishing potential conflict of interest impacting on course grading by insuring uniformity/standardization of course content and course grading, such would obviate any need to give special attention to student professor sexual relationships. Certainly the UK external examiner process would veto the call for banning student professor sexual relationships since conflict of interest is not a problem. However, as outlined by Reader, such is not the case since he indicates that the renouncing of these relationships is part of this UK process. But why? Why should they be renounced? Of course, such renouncing has occurred and will occur in the context of moral and sexual outrage or offense.
What disturbs the dankprofessor and I expect would disturb most American academics is that the UK process standardizes courses and exams and grading to such a degree that the professor almost becomes an irrelevancy. Ones course is no longer ones course but rather the university system's course; the professor simply becomes a cog in the educational mechanism. For the dankprofessor, such represents dehumanization to the nth degree. And, of course, such can also be viewed as a steppingstone to the impersonal world of online education. This becomes an education with no teacher passion, no love of knowledge leading to the knowledge of love. How sad, how utterly pathetic that in order to eliminate the personal in education we might end up creating a Brave New World of Education.
But if this is to occur in America, it will not come about tomorrow. Students enrolled in one section of a course are unlikely to find that they are experiencing the same course that students are experiencing in another section. There will continue to be good courses and bad courses; good graders and bad graders. And there will continue to be classes in which what happens in class is important to the learning process. There will continue to be courses in which it would be impossible for an external grader to engage in fair grading unless the grader attended all sessions of the class. And there will continue to be courses in which students are graded on what happens in class-class participation, class presentation as well as being graded on term papers and special projects. Will the external examiner read all the 50 or so term papers to insure that there is fairness in grading? And, of course, in the UK, the US and Canada or any other country, the usage of external graders would be highly problematic in disciplines such as art and theatre arts and dance.
An expansion of the educational bureaucracy in order to eradicate student faculty romance should be considered to be out of order. The only persons who would end up profiting from such a process would be the bureaucrats and their allied entrepreneurs. In our age of moral entrepreneurship, it may be a pipedream to call for a laissez faire policy in higher education re matters of the heart. But such will continue to be the calling of the dankprofessor.
No comments yet.
Leave a Reply
- August 2017 (1)
- July 2015 (2)
- June 2015 (1)
- April 2011 (4)
- March 2011 (7)
- January 2011 (1)
- December 2010 (1)
- November 2010 (2)
- October 2010 (6)
- September 2010 (3)
- August 2010 (2)
- July 2010 (2)
- 2008
- abstinence
- academic freedom
- Anita Bryant
- anti-semitism
- art
- assassination
- attractive professors
- attractive students
- awards
- Barack Obama
- Barnard College
- bathrooms
- bicycling
- blog introduction
- blogs
- brain sex
- Brigham Young University
- Canada
- celebrities
- censorship
- Charlie Sheen
- child pornography
- civility
- Clemson University
- coercing women
- Colorado College
- con artists
- Concordia University
- conference sex
- consensual relationships
- corporate dating bans
- couples
- csu sacramento
- D'souza blog
- Dalhousie University
- Daphne Patai
- dating
- David Cass
- David Lettterman
- Debra Tate
- dental
- Duke University
- East Georgia College
- East Surrey College
- Emma Thompson
- ethics
- exhibitionism
- false rape charges
- fear
- feminism
- film
- flamenco
- Florida Gulf Coast University
- fobidden love
- Francine Prose
- fraternities
- fraternization
- futurist
- Gabrielle Giffords
- gay history
- gay marriage
- gay rights
- gender
- Gonzaga University
- grading
- Harvard University
- Heather Mac Donald
- hiatus
- higher education
- Hofstra University
- homosexual
- hooker
- hooking-up
- hugging
- Hugh Hefner
- Indiana University
- Iowa State University
- Islamic law
- Israel
- ivory tower romance
- Jared Loughner
- Jerzy Kosinski
- Jewish Journal
- John Bonnell
- John McCain
- Julian Assange
- just words
- Korea
- Larry Craig
- Laura Bush
- Laura Kipnis
- lesbian
- Lethbridge College
- lisa chavez
- litigation
- Louisiana Tech
- love
- Mark Bourrie
- Marquette University
- masturbation
- Michelle Obama
- Middlebury College
- Moscow State University
- Northwestern University
- nudity
- Oberlin College
- obituary
- office romance
- Ohio State University
- orgasm
- Otero University
- outing students
- Oxford College
- Pasadena City College
- passion
- Philip Roth
- poets
- political correctness
- political violence
- pornography
- Princeton University
- privacy
- Proposition 8
- prostitution
- public sex
- racism
- rape
- recusal
- reviews
- Rice University
- Roger Ebert
- Roman Polanski
- sadomasochism
- Sarah Palin
- Saudi Arabia
- Seattle university
- secrecy
- Senator Craig
- Senator McCain
- sex
- sex offenders
- sex toys
- sex work
- sex workers
- sexbots
- sexual harassment
- sexual identity
- sexual policing
- sexual politics
- sexual rights
- shame
- Sharon Tate
- Sharon Warner
- Smith College
- Southern Illinois University
- speech
- St. John's University
- student professor dating
- student slavery
- student-prof dating
- suicide
- Sweden
- Taiwan
- tenure
- the closet
- The Tenant
- theatre
- transmen
- trophy wives
- Tucson
- UC Berkeley
- UC Irvine
- UC San Diego
- UC Santa Barbara
- Uncategorized
- United Kingdom
- University of Bristol
- University of Calgary
- university of charleston
- University of Chicago
- University of Connecticut
- University of Georgia
- University of Hawaii
- University of Iowa
- University of Michigan
- University of Minnesota
- University of New Hampshire
- University of New Mexico
- university of pennsylvania
- University of Southern Maine
- University of Sussex
- University of Texas Houston
- University of the Philippines
- University of Toronto
- victimization
- violence
- voyeurism
- Warwick University
- Washington University
- William & Mary College
- William Buckley
- workplace
- Yale University
RSSEntries RSS
Comments RSS


text:
| DJI Inspire 2 Premium Combo with X5S Camera and ProRes/CinemaDNG
Availability: Pre-Order
| DJI Inspire 2 Quadcopter (No Camera)
Availability: Pre-Order
| DJI Inspire 2 Professional Combo with X5S Camera and ProRes
Availability: Pre-Order
| DJI Inspire 2 Cinema Premium Combo with X7 Camera and ProRes/CinemaDNG
Availability: Pre-Order
The Inspire 2 takes everything that was good about the Inspire 1 and improves it. An all-new image processing system records at up to 5.2K in CinemaDNG RAW, Apple ProRes and more. It goes from 0 to 50mph (80kph) in just 4 seconds and hits a maximum speed of 67mph (108kph) and has a max decent speed of 9m/s for unheard of speed and agility in an aircraft this size. A dual battery system prolongs the flight time to a maximum of 27 minutes (with an X4S), while self-heating technology allows it to fly even in low temperatures. FlightAutonomy has been revised and developed specifically for the Inspire 2, providing two directions of obstacle avoidance and sensor redundancy. Increased intelligence multiple intelligent flight modes, including Spotlight Pro, give even single pilots the ability to create complex, dramatic shots. An upgraded video transmission system is now capable of dual signal frequency and dual channel, streaming video from an onboard FPV camera and the main camera simultaneously, for better pilot and camera op collaboration.
In the box
Featuring a 1-inch sensor and compact design, the Zenmuse X4S makes it easy to capture visually stunning images with the Inspire 2 and the CineCore 2.0 image processing system.
The Zenmuse X5S has an upgraded M4/3 sensor that shoots 20.8 MP photos and Apple ProRes video at up to 5.2K. Compared to previous DJI gimbal cameras, the X5S delivers a better signal-to-noise ratio and a dynamic range of up to 12.8 stops. With the Cendence remote controller and ultra-bright CrytalSky monitor, the Inspire 2 Professional Combo sets a new standard for aerial imaging, providing more creative possibilities.
The Premium Combo unleashes the full potential of the Zenmuse X5S camera, which records 5.2K CinemaDNG and Apple ProRes video. Two DJI CINESSDs included in the combo provide enough ample storage for professional cinematography. Also, the Cendence remote controller supports Dual-Operator mode, and the CrystalSky monitor helps professionals see their shot clearly, even in bright sunlight. This combo is perfect for professional filmmaking and post-production.
To meet the highest professional filmmaking standards, the Zenmuse X7 uses an S35 image sensor, offering 6K CinemaDNG RAW and a wide dynamic range of up to 14 stops. The X7 also introduces the DL-Mount, the world's first integrated aerial lens mount that allows for switching between four available prime lenses quickly and easily. With five 480 GB CINESSDs, eight Intelligent Flight Batteries for extended flight time, and the powerful combination of Cendence and CrystalSky, the Inspire 2 Cinema Premium Combo is all you need for masterful aerial cinematography.
[1]Battery duration is recorded in an ideal flight situation, subject to real flying environments and conditions.
[2]Unobstructed, free of interference, when FCC compliant.


text: It's Easter, so you've probably got a day of egg hunts and bunnies and pies that don't really make sense. But take a moment to soak in this UNBELIEVABLY ADORABLE video that basically distills the essence of Easter down to its core: cute bunnies, chicks, and puppies for no gosh darn reason at all. Enjoy! [YouTube]


text:
Special Episode: GiantsPod Meets Johnny Monell is out!
In this special episode, Thomas and Danny chat with Giants minor league catcher Johnny Monell about growing up in a baseball family, an education from Pudge, playing baseball in Puerto Rico, and life in da Bronx.
Click on the image below to find it on iTunes:
. . . → Read More: Special Episode: GiantsPod Meets Johnny Monell
Standard Podcast [ 39:22 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download


text:
Jobs can teach kids a lot about life " but they can teach some tax lessons to parents, too. Here are a few tips for ensuring your teen's summer employment
Jobs can teach kids a lot about life " but they can teach some tax lessons to parents, too.
Here are a few tips for ensuring your teen's summer employment or after-school foray into the working world doesn't stick you with a tax-related cleanup job in April.Figure out whether and how to report the income
Generally, the IRS considers income from a job as 'earned income,' and it considers interest, dividends and several other kinds of non-job inflows as 'unearned income.'
Unearned income comes with some special rules. In some cases, for instance, a kid's unearned income might end up on a parent's tax return or be taxed differently, explains Lee Reams Sr., an enrolled agent in Newport Beach, California. An enrolled agent is a federally authorized tax professional who can represent taxpayers before the IRS in collections, audits and appeals.
But if all your teen has is earned income " a plain-vanilla summer job or after-school gig as an employee at the local pizza parlor, for example " he may need to file his own tax return, Reams explains. Being under 18 or being your dependent doesn't automatically get a kid out of having to file, the IRS warns.
Earning less than the standard deduction might open an escape hatch, however. Typically (there are exceptions), unmarried dependents won't have to file a federal tax return this year if they only had earned income of less than $12,000, Reams says. States may have different rules, though.Consider filing a tax return no matter what
Even if your teenager doesn't have to file a tax return, she might want to anyway, says Morris Armstrong, an enrolled agent in Cheshire, Connecticut.
That's because if the employer withheld taxes from her pay (you'll be able to see that on her W-2 when it arrives in January or early February), filing a tax return could get her some or all of that money back in the form of a tax refund.Check whether your teen was an actual employee
If a 1099 arrives in the mailbox instead of a W-2, that's a sign that, technically speaking, your kid was an independent contractor rather than an employee. That can complicate things, so you may want to consult with a qualified tax advisor. Generally, the IRS requires dependents earning more than $400 from self-employment to file a tax return, for one thing. Plus, he may have to pay some extra taxes and may be able to write off certain expenses, notes Michael Eisenberg, a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants' National CPA Financial Literacy Commission.Remember, you're still the parent
Your child's status as your dependent won't change simply because she files a tax return, Eisenberg says. In the eyes of the IRS, dependency is determined by how much support you provide, who lives where and several other circumstances.
That means if you qualify for the child tax credit, for example, you probably can still claim it even if your kid files her own tax return, he notes.Avoid full-price tax prep
Teens can often get deals on tax preparation. Most major tax-prep software companies offer free versions for simple tax returns (you may still have to pay for a state tax return, however), and the IRS' Free File program offers free name-brand tax software to people with adjusted gross incomes under a certain threshold.
If your kid's tax return is fairly simple, many tax preparers will discount their fees, too, Armstrong says.
'If the kid's in college, let's say, and has a bit more complicated issues and you're trying to generate a tax credit for him off of one of the education programs, then you might charge full rate,' he notes.Embrace the real-world lessons
Helping your child prepare his or her first tax return is a great teaching moment, pros say.
'If you actually sit them down and make them do the tax return, that might be a very good educational process,' Reams explains. 'Although theirs is pretty simple, down the road they're going to have to understand all this.'
You can also use the occasion to discuss the importance of saving, too. Kids may not get excited at the thought of putting their tax refunds or part of their paychecks into a Roth IRA, for example, but they might if you show what even just a few thousand bucks could grow into, Reams says.
'Can you imagine just what that's going to be worth after 40, 50 years?' he says.
Having tax-prep talks now could also mean less tax-prep work later for you, Armstrong adds.
'If you do it for the kid at 14, when he's 24 he's going to be wanting you to do it for him too,' he warns.
More From NerdWalletBeware of Hidden Taxes in Retirement Do Future-You a Solid: Prep for Next Year's Taxes Now How Your Net Worth Compares " and What Matters More
Tina Orem is a writer at NerdWallet. Email: email@example.com.
The article Your Kid's After-School Job May Mean Tax Homework for You originally appeared on NerdWallet.


text:
Machine weft curly 16 inches
Machine weft curly 16 inches is 100% unprocessed virgin, no chemical processed, Cambodian remy hair. No harm to human. The hair that can be colored as customer required is 100% virgin human hair from Cambodian girls. All cuticles run in same directions and without bad smell, soft feel, very clean, no any lice or nits.
We provide most type of hair colors that buyers have interested in such as #1b, #1, #2, #4, red, brown, blonde, etc. Besides, Buyers can set their own standard and requirements for hair and then our skilled workers will produce the product exactly as your expectation.
Material: Selected Top Quality 100% Cambodian virgin human hair.
Style : Color hair extension
Length: From 12 inches to 40 inches
Color: various colors
Min order: For sample order, you can order any quantity you want, for real order, at least 0.2 kg
Delivery time: 3-5 days after received your payment by UPS/FEDEX/DHL or Cargo carrier
Payment: By L/C, T/T, Western union, Money Gram, PAYPAL


text:
Former Bachelor and Dancing With The Stars alum, Melissa Rycroft will be heading back to The Bachelor mansion once again.
And this time around, Melissa, who is happily married to Tye Strickland, is not vying for a rose. The 27-year-old Dallas native is returning to co-host Bachelor Pad,with Chris Harrison.
Bachelor Pad is an all new ABC show that will feature previous contestants from The Bachelor and The Bachelorette seasons, as they live together in the mansion and compete in a series of challenges and dates for a chance at winning $250,000 — and a second chance at love.
"I'm excited." Melissa tells PEOPLE. "It's fun. It's a brand new experience for me. I've never been on that side but I'm anxious. I'm excited and ready to start."
Bachelor Pad is set to premiere Aug. 9 on ABC.


text:
Hi Brit,
Not surprisingly, Global Warming is rearing its ugly head in today's news.
First, and also not surprisingly, we find that Al Gore lied in his alarmist "documentary" by indicating that hurricanes are wore lately because of, you guessed it, Global Warming. However, in this article, Expert disputes storms' link to global warming, we find just what the title says:
Chris Landsea, science and operations director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, said the notion that global warming is causing an increase in hurricanes gained widespread attention after the stormy seasons of 2004 and 2005.
But that perception is wrong and the statistics don't bear it out, Landsea told about 200 students and professors in the auditorium at USC's geography building.
It seems that even the IPCC bought into the Gore propaganda, as on page 5 of the IPCC WGI Fourth Assessment Report, they also blame Global Warming for an increase in intensity of tropical cyclones.
Moving on we have, State distances itself from climatologist. Here we find an expert "climate scientist," who is experiencing political pressure because he does not hold with the consensus opinion on Climate Change. The article mentions that this has also happened in other States than Delaware. So much for "science."
Which leaves us with the Business of Global Warming, China, India Smile as West Overpays for Climate: Andy Mukherjee. You really should read this one as it's choked full of information. However, this bit bares repeating:
Sydney-based Easy Being Green says it will mitigate your cat's flatulent contribution to global warming for A$8 ($6). The same company could also make your granny "carbon-neutral" at A$10 a year, according to a report in the Australian newspaper last weekend.
Then there's Carbon Planet Pty, another company cited in the article. If you are hopping on a short-haul flight between Sydney and Canberra, and feeling bad about the damage you are doing to the ecosystem, you can buy credits worth A$23, for which the Adelaide-based company will guarantee to keep 1 ton of carbon dioxide out of the air for 100 years.
Well, I must go now as I have some scheming, ah, thinking to do.
the Grit