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Communication: Whom to Contact, How to Reach Them
At School Board meetings
Each regular meeting offers an opportunity for members of the audience to address the School Board. Anyone who wishes to address the Board may do so according to the "Guidelines for Audience Opportunity to Address the School Board".
By e-mail
The School Board's group e-mail address is firstname.lastname@example.com. When you use this e-mail address, your message will go directly to every School Board member, with a copy going to the superintendent. In most cases, within three business days you will receive a specific reply from the School Board chair, responding on behalf of the full Board.
Individual School Board members may be contacted as follows:
Mike Ostaffe – Chair
Tanya Simons - Vice Chair
Heather Douglass – Clerk
Jackie Mosqueda-Jones – Treasurer
John Bristol - Director
Kelsey Dawson Walton - Director
By US Mail or fax
Questions or comments for the School Board can be mailed or faxed to the address below:
School Board
ISD 279 - Osseo Area Schools
11200 - 93rd Avenue North
Maple Grove, MN 55369
Tel: 763.391.7003
Fax: 763.391.7071
Sharing questions or concerns
In many cases, questions or concerns can be most effectively handled by district staff who have specific knowledge about the relevant issue.
If your question or comment is related to:
- Classroom issues: Please contact your student's classroom teacher first. If you need further assistance resolving your concern, please contact the school principal.
- School issues: Please contact the school principal first. If you need further assistance resolving your concern, please contact the superintendent's office at 763.391.7003.
- Operational or management issues: Please contact the staff person closest to that area of interest, or e-mail firstname.lastname@example.com and your message will be forwarded to the appropriate staff member.
- District-level issues: Please contact the administrator responsible for the relevant area. If you need further assistance resolving your concern, please contact the superintendent's office at 763.391.7003.
Guidelines for Audience Opportunity to Address the School Board at Regular Business Meetings
In the interest of community engagement, the Osseo School Board provides an opportunity for members of the audience to address the Board as follows:
- Anyone who wishes to address the Board must complete a Speaker Card and submit it to the School Board chair prior to the start of the meeting. (Speaker Cards are available on the public information table, by the meeting handouts.) Once the Audience Opportunity to Address the School Board has begun, no additional cards will be accepted.
- The Board Chair (or designee) will call on each speaker who has submitted a Speaker Card, first calling on those addressing an item included in the current agenda, followed by those addressing topics not on the current agenda.
- Speakers will be called in the following order:
- Students
- Parents/guardians of students
- District employees
- District residents
- All others
- When called upon, please state your name and topic. All remarks should be addressed to the Board as a whole, not to any specific member(s) or to any person who is not a member of the Board.
- If more than three individuals have organized to speak on the same topic, please designate a spokesperson who can summarize the issue.
- Please limit your comments to three minutes. Longer time may be granted at the discretion of the Board Chair.
- During this agenda item (normally not to exceed 20 minutes, subject to the discretion of the chair), the Board and administration will listen to comments, ask clarifying questions if needed, and respond when appropriate. The Board Chair may delegate responsibility to the superintendent or the superintendent's designee to follow up with the speaker within a few days following the meeting.
- Comments and interactions between Board members and the public are expected to be respectful, courteous, professional, and civil. The Board Chair will be responsible for ensuring that interaction meets these standards and will disallow inappropriate interaction. In particular, speakers may not address criticism toward an individual district employee; such concerns should be directed privately to the employee's supervisor or higher-level administrator.
- Personnel concerns should be directed to individuals in the following order: building principal, executive director for human resources, assistant superintendent, superintendent, and finally in writing to the School Board.


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Frugal Friday~
I have this small buffet in my dining area. It is the perfect size to fit in what might otherwise be an awkward spot. I love the buffet...but I just couldn't get it accessorized the way I wanted. I thought that perhaps if I painted it a different color it might fix the problem. And that was my plan until I came up with a new arrangement for fall...
I wanted to add a piece of art, but I just didn't have the right thing...so I framed a piece of my favorite black damask fabric. The perfect touch.
Finally, I added the terrarium that my mother gifted me with a sweet stone bird's nest underneath. Love the rusty patina. So fall-ish.

subset: commoncrawl


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Background/motivation: A model for the classical propositional calculus is a boolean function b(S) which assigns 1 or 0 to each (modal-free) sentence S according to the usual rules. I'm looking at models for propositional modal logic, where a modal model is simply a collection of classical models as points. These simplified models make no use of a relation R that holds between points, nor of any one point as designated. How many modal models are there? I have two answers:
1) There are continuously many (c) classical models. Since any subset of the collection of classical models is a modal model, there are (2^c) > c modal models.
2) Suppose that for any given collection B = {b1, b2, ...} of classical models, the product of the collection B is defined as a function f(S) such that for each sentence S:
- f(S) = 1 iff bi(S) = 1 for all bi ∈ B;
- f(S) = 0 iff bi(S) = 0 for all bi ∈ B;
- f(S) = -1 otherwise.
Since the function f(S) has a countable infinity of inputs and only finitely many outputs, it appears there are continuously many such functions. (Perhaps this assumes AC?)
The two answers can be reconciled if two different collections B1 and B2 of classical models both define the same function f(S). But I don't see how that's possible. So there's something I'm missing.


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A Marine allegedly turned his gun on two friends – including Chris Kyle, a celebrated Navy SEAL – at a gun range on Saturday. NBC's Lester Holt reports.
A former Navy SEAL who wrote "American Sniper," a best-selling book about his lethal career as a marksman in Iraq, was shot to death with another man at a gun range near Stephenville, Texas, on Saturday.
Chris Kyle, 38, and the other man were found dead at the shooting range of Rough Creek Lodge on Saturday afternoon, Texas Highway Patrol spokesman Lonny Haschel told KXAS.
The gunman, identified as Eddie Ray Routh of Lancaster, Texas, was arrested after a brief pursuit, Trooper Haschel said. The other victim was named as Chad Littlefield, aged 35.
Routh, 25, was arraigned Saturday night on two counts of capital murder, said Haschel.
Officer Kyle Roberts at the Erath County Jail told the Associated Press that Routh arrived there Sunday morning and was being held on a combined $3 million bond. Roberts did not have information on whether Routh had a lawyer.
Capt. Jason Upshaw of the Erath County Sheriff's Office said Routh used a semi-automatic handgun, which authorities later found at his home, the Associated Press reported.
Routh is in the Marine Corps Individual Ready Reserve, a U.S. military official confirmed. As such, he is not active or drilling with a unit.
Routh's service record shows that he was an armorer with the rank of corporal and served from June 2006 to January 2010. He was deployed three times -- to Iraq, various locations in Europe and the Middle East, and to Haiti.
Kyle, a Texas native who grew up hunting, served four tours in Iraq with Navy SEAL Team 3. His shooting during battles in Ramadi and Fallujah became legendary, and insurgents nicknamed him the "Devil of Ramadi" and put a bounty on his head.
He was credited with 160 confirmed kills, including one in 2008 in which he said he fired from 2,100 yards away -- 1.2 miles.
The Star-Telegram described him as "America's deadliest sniper."
AP/Erath County Sheriff's Office
This photo provided by the Erath County Sheriff's Office shows Eddie Ray Routh. He was charged with murder in connection with a shooting at a central Texas gun range that killed former Navy SEAL and "American Sniper" author Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield, the Texas Department of Public Safety said Sunday Feb. 3.
Haschel said Routh is believed to have shot the victims at around 3:30 p.m. local time (4:30 p.m. ET) before leaving the shooting range and returning to his home in Lancaster in a Ford pickup truck. Erath County Sheriff Tommy Bryant said the truck belonged to Kyle.
Kyle and Littlefield had taken Routh to the range, said Travis Cox, the director of a nonprofit Kyle helped found. Littlefield was Kyle's neighbor and "workout buddy," Cox told The Associated Press on Sunday morning.
"What I know is Chris and a gentleman — great guy, I knew him well, Chad Littlefield — took a veteran out shooting who was struggling with PTSD to try to assist him, try to help him, try to, you know, give him a helping hand, and he turned the gun on both of them, killing them," Cox told the AP.
Kyle's nonprofit, FITCO Cares, provides at-home fitness equipment for emotionally and physically wounded veterans.
Rough Creek Lodge is a resort and conference center about 90 miles southwest of Dallas and 24 miles southeast of Stephenville in the Texas Hill Country. Lancaster is just south of Dallas.
In a February 2012 interview with NBC News, Kyle said he didn't want to put the number of kills in the book but the publisher insisted.
"If I could figure out the number of people I saved, that's something I would brag about," he told NBC News' Lester Holt.
After leaving the Navy, Kyle founded Craft International, which provides training to military, police, corporate and civilian clients, Reuters said.
"It just comes as a shock and it's staggering to think that after all Chris has been through, that this is how he meets his end, because there are so many ways he could have been killed" in Iraq, Scott McEwen, who co-wrote "American Sniper," told Reuters.
Kyle appeared on the NBC reality TV show "Stars Earn Stripes" last year.
Kyle was married with two children.
NBC News' Courtney Kube, Jim Miklaszewski and Mark Stevenson contributed to this report.


text:
Brown, W., Deakin, S., Hudson, M., Pratten, C. (2001) ' The Limits of
Statutory Trade Union Recognition'.Industrial Relations Journal, 32,
3, August.
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text:
Vitamin D may improve pancreas function
By Eric Schultz
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Vitamin D supplements reduced risk factors for type 2 diabetes by improving the function of insulin-producing cells in pre-diabetic volunteers, a new study has found.
"The results...suggest that vitamin D supplementation may help to improve the main defect in type 2 diabetes," co-author Dr. Anastassios Pittas, an endocrinologist at Tufts University Medical Center in Boston, told Reuters Health in an email.
Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease, affects millions of Americans. The condition is characterized by high blood-sugar levels resulting from the body's poor response to insulin, a chemical that removes sugar from the bloodstream and stores it in the liver and muscles. Insulin is made by beta cells in the pancreas.
To see whether taking vitamin D would improve people's ability to handle blood sugar, researchers gave 92 pre-diabetic adults either vitamin D3 supplements, calcium supplements, both, or placebos. After four months, the participants' blood was tested for several known diabetes risk factors.
The measures included hemoglobin A1C, an indicator of blood-sugar levels over time, and beta-cell function, as reflected by how much insulin is being released and how well the body responds to it.
At the outset, participants were considered pre-diabetic if they were overweight and had blood-sugar levels that were above normal but not high enough to be classified as diabetic.
The researchers found that vitamin D significantly increased the beta-cell function of pre-diabetic adults, according to results published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The vitamin D group also had slightly more favorable hemoglobin A1C levels.
Calcium had no effect on beta-cell function, either alone or in combination with vitamin D.
The results don't necessarily indicate that vitamin D will reduce the likelihood of diabetes, since the study just measures blood test results. However, the important finding is that "supplementation affects biology," Dr. Ian De Boer, a nephrologist at the University of Washington in Seattle who was not involved in the study, told Reuters Health.
De Boer estimated that in the study vitamin D improved beta-cell function between 15 and 30 percent.
Previous research has explored the connection between vitamin D and diabetes, with mixed results. Several studies have shown that people with low levels of vitamin D may be at a higher risk for diabetes, but most have been unable to demonstrate that vitamin D supplementation can help prevent diabetes.
One recent study from Iran did show that vitamin D could help control blood sugar, which in itself may stave off diabetes.
"These findings are interesting but preliminary," cautioned Dr. Susan Kirkman of the American Diabetes Association.
"Vitamin D may have a role in delaying the progression to clinical diabetes in adults at high risk of Type 2 diabetes," wrote the authors of the new study, but they agree that role has not been adequately demonstrated.
"At this point, I would not recommend vitamin D based on the results of our study for prevention of diabetes," Pittas said. However, with larger and longer studies of vitamin D's connection to diabetes currently underway, he said, a more definitive answer could be forthcoming.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/qauWcN American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, online June 29, 2011
Editor's Picks
Asthma tied to poorer diabetes control in kidsNEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Kids with diabetes may have a higher-than-average ...


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Imam al-Ghazali on Music and Singing
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Imam al-Ghazali on Music and Singing
http://data.nur.nu/Kutub/English/Ghazal ... inging.pdf
Are music and singing allowed in Islam? If the answer is a definite yes or no, then why has the question of its lawfulness become the subject of debate among Muslim scholars for centuries? In this treatise translated from the eighteenth book of Imam Ghazali's Ihya Ulum al-Din, readers get an insight into the pros and cons of the controversy and be guided by the greatest authority of traditional Islam none other than Imam al-Ghazali. For al-Ghazali, it is important to have true knowledge to reap the benefit of music. Those who have no sufficient knowledge of God and His attributes, he writes, are liable to apply what they hear both to what is allowable and what is not allowable.
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text:
United head to Arsenal on Wednesday reeling from the loss of two more points against bottom club Fulham at Old Trafford at the weekend.
The result continued a pitiful start to 2014, which has seen United win just three times
One of those wins, in the second leg of the Capital One Cup semi-final against Sunderland, effectively became a defeat anyway as the Red Devils crashed out on penalties.
Little wonder every bit of evidence is being seized on to explain how a team should crumble so quickly after they won the title by 11 points last term.
Manager Moyes can point to extreme instances of bad luck; David de Gea's last-minute fumble against Sunderland that cost his team a place at Wembley, or Darren Bent's injury-time equaliser at the weekend for a Fulham side who did not seem to be so bothered about scoring.
Ultimately though, the Scot acknowledges the fault lies within his dressing room.
"Winning changes it - and we have not won often enough," said Moyes, who succeeded Sir Alex Ferguson last summer.
"We are a top side.
"Anybody who knows and understands football knew that changes had to be made
Anybody who watched the game the other day and didn't think we deserved to win by a hundred miles knows nothing about it.
"There have been other games like that
But we are not looking for excuses.
"We can only blame ourselves and we need to do better."
It is true anything that can go wrong for Moyes is doing so at present.
Both Phil Jones and Marouane Fellaini are set to miss Wednesday's trip to Arsenal after being struck down by injuries that came immediately after they had recovered from different physical problems.
Robin van Persie and Wayne Rooney are still trying to find their best form after a spell on the sidelines, while both the defensive and midfield areas are operating below their best as United struggle for confidence.
Yet Moyes retains belief in his squad, for whom record signing Juan Mata has also failed to sparkle on a consistent basis.
"We have a great group of players here," said Moyes
"They have shown it previously
I see them every day and I still believe they are a great group
They are hurting as well
They want to improve it."
Moyes realises further additions need to be made.
Nemanja Vidic is unlikely to be on his own in leaving Old Trafford this summer, with Rio Ferdinand, Patrice Evra and Javier Hernandez among those for whom time is surely running out on their United careers.
However, Moyes does understand that until his team halt their present disastrous run, the negative angle will be found to accompany all his work.
"A lot of people are looking at the Fulham game and saying we crossed it too much," said Moyes.
"If we hadn't crossed it they would be saying we should have crossed it more.
"We are coming to terms with it
We need the fortune to change."
Some games are easier to look upon as potential catalysts than others
A visit to Arsenal is certainly one.
United have already claimed the Gunners' scalp once this season, when Van Persie scored the only goal against his old club.
What Moyes would give for a repeat of that single-goal success against a side with problems of their own after the 5-1 hammering they took at Liverpool at the weekend.
Not that Moyes views the teams' respective problems as taking on any greater significance.
"It doesn't need anything adding to the occasion," he said.
"Arsenal against Manchester United has always been a big game
You only have to look back through the seasons to see how important these games have been.
"It is an important game for both teams."
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger maintains Arsenal can bounce back from their "accident" at Liverpool by beating Manchester United on Wednesday evening.
The Gunners were blitzed 5-1 at Anfield on Saturday - when they trailed 4-0 after just 20 minutes - and where later knocked off the top of the Barclays Premier League table by Chelsea, although Manchester City dropped points in a goalless draw at Norwich.
Wenger accepts his side did not produce the required performance of championship challengers, but is confident of a response against an inconsistent United side at the Emirates Stadium.
"It is always a disappointment to lose a game, but I think it was an accident because we have been very stable defensively and we have to treat it like that," said Wenger.
"We have just been on a 10-game unbeaten run
You cannot consider one game as the trend, the pattern of our season.
"It is an accident, not a welcome [one] of course, a very disappointing one, but a successful season is decided by how you respond to that.
"In any season you have disappointments, it is always down to the team to respond in a very positive way, that decides the success of the team."
Arsenal are set for a run of matches which could well define their season
Liverpool head back to north London for an FA Cup fifth-round tie on Saturday ahead of the visit of Bayern Munich in the Champions League on February 19.
Wenger intends to focus on the positives.
"We tend always to forget how good we are when we are not successful," he said.
"It is important that we remind them we have done until now very well, that we are in front of a very important week for us and we have worked very hard until now to be in that position."
Club-record signing Mesut Ozil produced another subdued display against Liverpool.
Wenger, though, has no issues with the contribution of the ?42.5million German playmaker.
"He didn't have the best of games on Saturday, but that can happen
He works very hard to adapt to the physical level of the Premier League and for me he is an exceptional player," said Wenger, who should have France under-21 forward Yaya Sanogo available against Manchester United following five months out with a back problem.
"I wouldn't like to put too much pressure on him because he has been a top-class player until now.
"He knows when he is not good enough he will get questioned - that is normal."
Arsenal are asking fans to allow extra time for their journey to the stadium during the proposed industrial action by London Underground staff on Wednesday.
Wenger said: "The game will go on, that is for sure.
"We are sorry for our fans about the tube strike because many people will have to walk there, but we have improved the number of stewards and the safety and security of our fans should be guaranteed.
"Unfortunately it is not the best conditions to go into a game like that."
Source : PA
Source: PA


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30 July marks the second International Day of Friendship, a day intended by the United Nations to strengthen understanding between peoples and cultures. To celebrate the day, our interns are inviting you to join their Facebook initiative.
What can you do?
1. On 30 July share the following Facebook status (for as many friends as you like):
The year you met a good friend + his/her nationality + the food you enjoy eating together.
For example: 2008 Indian sushi
2. Share this initiative with your friends and contacts in a private message.
3. Use the photo below as your Facebook cover photo for the day.
Happy friendship day!
The Brussels based United Nations Regional Information Centre for Western Europe - UNRIC provides information on UN activities to the countries of the region. It also provides liaison with institutions of the European Union in the field of information. Its outreach activities extend to all segments of society and joint campaigns, projects and events are organized with partners including the EU, governments, the media, NGOs, schools and local authorities.
United Nations Regional Information Centre for Western Europe (UNRIC Brussels)
Residence Palace, Rue de la Loi/Wetstraat 155, Block C2,7th and 8th floor, Brussels 1040, Belgium
Tel.: +32 2 788 8484 / Fax: 32 2 788 8485


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HIGH SPRINGS – Even though the City of High Springs budgeted revenue from Poe Springs Park for the 2011-2012 fiscal year, it appears that revenue will not be realized as the park will not be taken over by the city.
At the April 24 commission meeting, Vice-Mayor Bob Barnas updated the commission on the status of the park. He said there has been some difficulty revolving around the installation of steps leading into the springs. When the construction company removed the dirt, water continuously seeped through, making it impossible for concrete to be poured to create the steps.
Instead, a series of pre-fabricated steps that will interlock into place will be installed. This decision means the park will have to go back to Alachua County to ask for more money. It is estimated that the project could be finished by July.
The City of High Springs is unwilling to wait that long because peak summer season would almost be over by the time Poe Springs traded hands, reducing revenues the city would receive.
"They still want us to be willing to talk in the future," Barnas said. "But they understand we're under no obligation to do anything now."
Barnas said Poe Springs Park will keep the city informed of developments.
The commission agreed not to move forward until the steps are completed. Commissioner Sue Weller requested that the city write a letter to Alachua County detailing why High Springs no longer wants to take over Poe Springs this year.
The City of High Springs recently hired Parks and Recreation Coordinator Karla Carusone, at least in part, based on the assumption that her salary would be covered by funds generated by the Poe Springs venture. Carusone is paid $14 per hour, which is approximately $29,120 annually. But her position comes at a total annualized cost of some $41,400 when calculating taxes, benefits and other employment costs. There have been no discussions concerning how the city will fund the recreation position now that the acquisition of Poe Springs seems unlikely.
A related matter concerns the fate of a golf cart which the city purchased for an estimated $1,700 under the direction of Barnas for use at Poe Springs.
Poe Springs Park appears to be abandoned
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September 21 - October 2
Around the Globe
Corona Virus Tracker
Radar & Maps
Severe Weather
Teddy to bear down on Canada after brushing Bermuda
Hurricane Teddy, after skirting past Bermuda, will barrel into Atlantic Canada with widespread impacts.
Beta to unleash days of flooding rainfall, pounding surf from Texas to Louisiana
Forecasters say Beta could become the ninth named storm to make landfall in the United States this season as it unleashes days of flooding downpours along the Gulf Coast.
COVID-19 prevention may lead to record low flu rates, CDC says
The final statistics are in for America's last flu season, and the news is good.
Oregon fire survivors capture 'unimaginable' damage on video
After thousands in the area were forced to evacuate from a fire that ripped through the town of Talent, Oregon, lives of the residents were "put on pause" from the devastation that cost many their homes.
8 must haves for your car's emergency supply kit
You never know when an emergency will happen, but you can plan for one ahead of time. Here are eight must-haves for your car's emergency supply kit.
AccuWeather School: Sea oats aren't for your breakfast cereal!
Sand dunes look like perfect spots to climb on top of, but why are you told to stay off of them? Plus, what are sea oats? Hint: not something that farmers grow at the beach for you to enjoy at breakfast.


text:
At Salaman / Henry in Philadelphia, our clients range from corporations that have a presence around the world to individuals who have high hopes of starting a new life in the United States. We use the same personable and detail-oriented approach with each of them.
When you work with our law firm, you are assured of working with one of our partners from the initial consultation through the resolution of your case. Attorneys Drew Salaman and Michael S. Henry bring a wealth of experience and a focus on service and client satisfaction to every case.
In immigration law — an area that is rife with forms and documents — we never forget there are people behind the paperwork. Immigration law impacts individuals' lives, hopefully for the better, which is why we derive so much satisfaction from serving clients in this area.
Uncertainty is never a comfortable state of mind when dealing with legal concerns. Whether we assist you with an immigration matter, tackle a commercial dispute or handle a regulatory issue, we emphasize clear communication on a regular basis so you are always informed on the status of your case. Our knowledgeable support team is available when our lawyers are not; one way or the other, you will always have access to the information you need.
We are as cost-conscious for our corporate clients as we are for individuals. Most of the legal services for immigration issues are provided for a flat fee, so you know the total cost upfront.
For corporate clients, it is beneficial to work with an attorney who understands your industry. Our lawyers have experience working with a broad range of corporate clients, including companies in health care and medical research, transportation, manufacturing, finance and education. We represent clients throughout Pennsylvania, as well as New Jersey, New York and Delaware from our office in Philadelphia.
We welcome the opportunity to review your legal needs during a free consultation. We will provide a candid assessment and recommend the best steps to take next. Call or use our online contact form to schedule a meeting. We offer services in English and Russian.


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Douglas County Web sites provide general information
and services. Information and linked sites have not
been reviewed. The completeness, timeliness and
availability of data are not known. Links and
references to other sites are not endorsements.
Douglas County is not liable for any damages that
may result from use of this site.


text:
A crucial time in the Sahel
Helping people survive, escape the hunger cycle
20 August 2012, Rome - In the Sahel belt of Africa that runs across the countries below the Sahara, the next two months will be crucial.
Rains have been good in the region so far this year, after droughts in four of the five previous years. But if those rains stop early, or if a potential locust threat materializes, it would compromise the harvest due in October and push millions into hunger.
Close monitoring of the agricultural season is needed in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Gambia, Mali, Mauritania, the Niger and Senegal.
This is the time known as the "Lean Season," when villagers' grain stores are empty or dangerously low and the next crop has yet to ripen. It is a time when people are often forced to use up their savings, borrow money or sell off animals and belongings in order to buy food. This year is particularly hard because farmers and herders are already reeling from the droughts that have plagued the region for four of the past five years and food prices at market are rising.
FAO personnel in the field are doing all they can to stop a new disaster happening - either tomorrow or in the years ahead. Despite the limited resources at their disposal they are implementing a series of actions directed at achieving those results. Activities include supporting off-season vegetable production through distribution of seeds and tools, supporting animal protection and production, - including distributions of livestock, veterinary supplies and assistance, improvement of pastures, and measures to prevent a threat of development of the Desert Locust upsurge in Chad, Mali and the Niger.
All interventions are designed to serve the twin purpose of helping people cope today while also building their resilience to face future crises. Scientists warn that climate change and higher temperatures will increase the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as droughts and floods.
Two-pronged approach
Indications are that FAO's two-pronged approach is making a difference, - as testified by interviews with recipients in Burkina Faso and the Niger. But fresh funding is urgently needed in order to greatly increase coverage. The alternative is to risk "applying band aid to staunch a hemorrhage", as one aid worker put it.
FAO's work in the Sahel centres on distributing seeds and livestock to the poor, mainly vulnerable women. The seeds include improved varieties of millet and niebé beans that should yield a good harvest even in difficult conditions. And as it is important that they are planted rather than eaten immediately, beneficiaries are often also given cash to tide them over until harvest time.
Until recently, farmers in the Sahel harvested just one meager crop a year, immediately after the three-month rain season from June to September. But now FAO is also handing out kits of assorted vegetable seeds that can be planted in the dry season and yield a second crop to supplement household diets or for sale at market.
A kit of seeds plus basic tools and inputs produces enough potatoes, carrots and green vegetables to feed an average household for two months.
Traditional savings
Also of vital importance are FAO's support to livestock feeding and veterinary care as well as distributions of small livestock as animals are fundamental to both short- and long-term food security in the Sahel and represent the traditional form of saving and wealth accumulation. But herds have been dangerously reduced by successive droughts.
FAO has distributed more than 32 500 goats and other small ruminants in the Niger alone, together with fodder and veterinary supplies. Given good grazing, goat herds can increase rapidly, sometimes tripling in the space of a year, thus significantly improving their owners' finances.
Barring another disastrous year, the beneficiaries of FAO's assistance should emerge from the current crisis better able to withstand the challenges they will inevitably face in what remains one of the world's harshest environments.
The seeds and the animals they have received not only serve to feed their families but can also help them break the cycle of hunger and poverty once and for all. With increased funding, FAO can offer millions more in the Sahel the same chance.
Read related story, "Seeds and Hope in the Sahel"


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Among recent enforcement actions by the SEC were charges against a husband and wife, executives at China-based RINO International Corp., for diverting funds from a securities offering for their own use.
In addition, FINRA censured and fined firms for violations ranging from reporting failures to lack of supervisory personnel with foreign language skills adequate to track employee communications in that language and lack of sufficient barriers to safeguard nonpublic information to failure to monitor employee trading activity in outside brokerage accounts and failure to prevent interaction between a firm's investment banking and research departments.
Husband and Wife Charged by SEC With Diverting Funds
The SEC charged a couple, executives of China-based RINO International Corp., with overstating company revenues and then diverting millions from a securities offering to buy a California home, cars and designer clothes and accessories.
RINO is a holding company for subsidiaries that manufacture, install and service equipment for the Chinese steel industry. It became a China-based U.S. issuer through a reverse merger in 2007.
In 2011, the SEC had issued a trading suspension against the company, based on questions raised about its public filings from 2008 to 2010, which were signed and certified by its CEO, Dejun "David" Zou, and chairwoman of the board, Jianping "Amy" Qiu, and which overstated company revenues by the inclusion of false sales contracts.
It turned out that RINO maintained two sets of books: one for China filings and another for U.S. filings. According to the Chinese books, from Q1 2008 through Q3 2010, the company had sales of approximately $31 million. The U.S. books, on the other hand, indicated sales that were more than 15 times higher than the figures reported in China, by means of phony contracts that boosted the figures to about $491 million for the same period.
Zou and Qiu used $3.5 million of the company's money to buy themselves a luxury home in Orange County, and then hid the fact from company investors, according to the SEC. They also offered varying explanations in response to questions about those funds from the company's outside auditor. They also used company funds on a shopping spree for other luxury goods and neither disclosed them in the company's public filings, nor recorded them as personal expenses.
When RINO's outside auditor discovered and questioned the $3.5 million diversion, the couple first told the auditor that RINO intended the money for a down payment on a U.S. joint venture opportunity. The auditor questioned further, and was then told by Zou that he had authorized the money to be used to buy a property that would be used as an office and temporary housing for RINO's employees on visits to the U.S.
Not satisfied by these tales, particularly because of the kind of house that the couple had purchased, the auditor went to RINO's audit committee with his concerns. The couple then agreed to recategorize the $3.5 million as a loan, and signed a promissory note bearing interest at current market rates. They purportedly repaid the loan on May 10, 2010, using funds wired from a Chinese bank account to RINO's U.S. bank account. That money was later wired back to an account in China.
Without admitting or denying the SEC's allegations, RINO, Zou and Qiu consented to a number of penalties. Zou and Qiu agreed to pay $150,000 and $100,000, respectively, and have also paid the disgorgement amount of $3.5 million into a related class-action settlement. They also have been prohibited from serving as officers and directors of a public company for 10 years. The settlement is subject to court approval.
Reporting Failures Bring Deutsche Bank Securities FINRA Fine, Censure
Deutsche Bank Securities was censured by FINRA and fined $215,000 over failures in reporting and over execution of trades in securities while a trading halt was in effect. Without admitting or denying FINRA's findings, the firm consented to the sanctions on failures in trade reporting and compliance engine (TRACE) reporting that included failure to report the correct contra-party's identifier for transactions in TRACE-eligible securities; to report some transactions in TRACE-eligible securities it was required to report; to report transactions in TRACE-eligible securities to TRACE within 15 minutes of the execution time; to report the correct trade execution time for transactions in TRACE-eligible securities; and to show the correct execution time on brokerage order memoranda.
Other failures included failure to disclose required information on customer confirmations; to report the correct trade time to the Real-time Transaction Reporting System (RTRS) in municipal securities transaction reports; to report information regarding purchase and sale transactions in municipal securities to the RTRS in the correct manner and in a timely fashion; and to show the correct trade time on brokerage order memoranda.
In addition to numerous other reporting issues, the firm also carried out transactions in securities while a trading halt was in effect with respect to each of the securities.
Failure to Communicate Brings FINRA Fine, Censures
Global Hunter Securities found itself the target of FINRA censure and a fine of $150,000 after it was found, among other violations, to have failed to establish and maintain an adequate system to supervise written communications conducted in a foreign language. The firm did not have supervisory personnel fluent in the language of associated persons when certain aspects of its research and investment-banking businesses involved written communications in that language. As a result, it did not effectively monitor communications in that language.
Other violations included failure to establish and maintain an adequate system for monitoring employee trading activity in accounts held at other FINRA member firms; to enforce its own procedures requiring newly hired personnel to disclose their outside brokerage accounts; and to adequately monitor employee trading activity in those accounts. That led to the firm's failure to identify improper trading activity by a member of its research department in an account held at another FINRA member firm.
The firm lacked an information barrier to keep employees from misusing nonpublic information, and also lacked a means to track whether such misuse was occurring, and although it maintained a restricted list as specified in a joint NYSE/FINRA memo, it did not do so in accordance with the memo's requirements or even its own policies and procedures. It also issued equity security research reports that failed to comply with FINRA disclosure requirements, and failed to restrict relationships between its investment banking and research departments.
Read SEC Enforcement Roundup: Harrisburg, Pa., Charged With Securities Fraud on AdvisorOne.


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- SilentHunter suede fabric, micro-denier fibers wick moisture away and allow for complete silence in the woods
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Dear Ping,
My question is concerning the RC4 Road to Supercross. RC stated several times during the A1 broadcast that he feels there are unqualified riders racing Supercross. Developing AX as a feeder series will supposedly help. How can a rider make it through timed qualifiers & heat races & still not be qualified to race the main? Also, it seems as though most of the big crashes, at least last season, happed to the big names. Didn't most of these crashes occur while these top guys were racing each other or even all by themselves? Were lappers very often involved? Tuff Blocks seem to cause more accidents than slower riders. It's impossible to know what it's like without actually racing & I would definitely be a danger to myself & others on a Supercross track! Thanks for your insight.
It will be much harder for these guys to make it to supercross now.
After careful consideration and a look back at the statistics I've come to the conclusion that you are absolutely correct: Tuff Blocks are the most common cause of crashes. And so, as such, I've taken steps to have Feld change the Road to Supercross and make it applicable to the Tuff Blocks only. Riders will be able to join the supercross tour as they wish but Tuff Blocks will be forced to withstand a punishing number of arenacross events before they will be considered for the "big show." Hopefully those soft foam cubes will learn to stay put before they jump into the big leagues. Thanks for your input.
I recently watched The Great Outdoors Episode that showed a few riders talking about how hard it can be to make a living in motocross, and wondered what you thought about the episode. The episode seemed to try and tell the story of how financially hard it can be on motocrossers, but I thought where do I sign up for the life of a 3000 sq ft house in California, fancy cars, and motor homes that cost double the price of the average American home. The riders continually talked about how they do not have an education or skills for jobs after motocross, but do they not understand how the average college graduate has $25,000 in student loans and the only job they can find is serving coffee at Starbucks? They also spoke about how expensive the sport is for the rider, but I am not sure how many more podiums a tour bus gets you over a Minne Winne. As a former racer who is transitioning into the regular workforce, should we ham and eggers feel sorry for these riders?
Supercross stars get the money, the chicks… and the glory. Hey, is that me and JT in the background?
This whole topic boils down to perspective, and riders just don't have any of it. How can you have any concept of the big-picture when all you've ever done since you were five is race motorcycles? Very few of these guys understand the value of a dollar or how difficult a dollar is to earn in the real world. They are just pissed that their sponsors have cut them down to a salary that still puts them above middle class pay here in the US. The understandable frustration for some of these riders is that they are 99% as talented as the top riders in the sport. They can literally be on the same second as the winner when you look at lap times and while Villopoto and Stewart are making seven figures, a guy like Chris Blose is just hoping he can make his truck payments. It's a little unbalanced. I don't know if you should feel sorry for these guys… they are doing what they love and they can quit and do something else anytime they want.
Hey Ping,
Feld… Feld… Feld. Ping can you explain to me why I was watching someone name Rutledge Wood do pit coverage at A1? After a friend said oh he is big in NASCAR I said "Oh, and why am I watching someone named Rutledge Wood?" As you know not may racers walk away from our sport with enough money to retire at age 30 or something and the scariest aspect is trying to figure out how to make a living. Of course the best scenario is to get a job in the industry, again not many jobs. So maybe Feld could have tapped a former rider in need of help or a job, umm Jason Thomas… Hey even you Ping on nights you do not have to work. Is Feld under the impression Rutledge followers are going to follow him to Supercross and tune in? Or is this another asinine Jamie Bestwick move. Maybe I'm being harsh and Rutledge knows something about our sport, but with quotes like…
"This is my first Supercross, thanks for having me." Ok, so he does not know too much if he has never been to one.
"The spectators are pumped and excited to be here." No shit, no one pays all that money in tickets, hotel, food and gas to go somewhere that sucks.
No, I'm right, he has no business being there and it's a slap in the face to someone in our sport who could use a job.
Mike Stith
Tega Cay, SC
P.S. what a great race, congrats Davi Millsaps (and Trey Canard, what a comeback!)
Those headphones are so distracting. Stupid headphones.
Full disclosure: I didn't watch the broadcast. I did hear quite a bit about it though. A common theme was that the show was great… on mute. Ralph does his thing, Fro tries to be an announcer instead of a color commentator guy, Ricky says things like "preparate" and Erin walks around with those enormous… headphones. I can't see anything but the… headphones. The truth is that people won't be happy no matter who is doing the job. Just enjoy supercross on TV and get over it.
Have a question for Ping? Email him at firstname.lastname@example.com


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Arch Coal's First Quarter Conference Call To Be Webcast, Podcast
ST. LOUIS (April 10, 2008) – Arch Coal, Inc. (NYSE:ACI) will discuss its first quarter 2008 financial results in a conference call that will be broadcast live over the Internet on Monday, April 21, at 11:00 a.m. E.D.T. Participating on the call will be Arch's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Steven F. Leer, President and Chief Operating Officer John W. Eaves and Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Robert J. Messey.
The webcast will be accessible via the "investor" section of the Arch Coal Web site at http://investor.archcoal.com. Following the live event, a replay and podcast download will be available on the site for approximately one month.
Arch Coal's first quarter earnings release will be distributed via PR Newswire before the market opens on Monday, April 21, and will be posted to the company's Web site at that time.
St. Louis-based Arch Coal is one of the nation's largest coal producers. The company's core business is providing U.S. power generators with cleaner-burning, low-sulfur coal for electric generation. Through its national network of mines, Arch supplies the fuel for approximately 6 percent of the electricity generated in the United States.


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Missouri Runner Recounts Boston Marathon Experience
COLUMBIA - Life can be shaky, even unexpected. One moment Shelly Frazier was running the Boston Marathon.
"You know I finally got to the end, crossed the finish line and I thought, 'I finished, it's done, fantastic,'" said Frazier.
The next moment, tragedy.
"And then I was walking through the finisher's shoot and got just to the very end and just happened to turn back around for some food and heard the explosions and saw the smoke go up in the air, couldn't really see what was going on on the ground," Frazier said.
It took awhile to sink in.
"The furthest thing from our mind was that this was some kind of terrorist attack or whatever. Why would you think? You would never think that," said Frazier. "We were hoping maybe it was an electrical explosion or something like that and not too long later the second one went off and i think everybody at that point pretty much knew that there was something bad going on."
The terrorist attacks left three dead and left than 200 wounded.
"My immediate family was extremely concerned, and I had about 100 texts and voice messages on my phone by the time we actually had communication with the outside world. People just asking what was going on. I was able to communicate quickly enough with people to let them know that I was ok," said Frazier.
It wasn't the blast, but racing itself that punished her body. Whether it's her knee, her ankle, or her Achilles, injuries have taken a toll on Shelly's running career, and she always knew this would be her last marathon.
"It's been kind of a long mental journey to accept that my run performances declined over the years and I finally have accepted that it's just not really fun to run 26.2 miles physically," Frazier said. "Mentally it's still pretty fun. But it's just not something I'm capable of doing comfortably anymore."
But that doesn't mean she can't compete. Shelly is a 2011 and 2012 world champion in bench press, and she plans to continue with lifting competitions. But because of Boston, Shelly's still leaving a very small chance that she may run competitively again.
"I feel almost like I'd like to go back and run it again just to prove that the running community is resilient and that something like this won't stop us. I mean, I can't. I'm trying to encourage my friends to go back. I'm not sure exactly that all of them will go up. I'd like to, but I just can't," Frazier said.
The heart is willing. But while the flesh isn't weak, it won't be running competitively.


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Recently, Reason summarized his conclusions:
• We are not being flooded with illegal Mexican migrants. The total number of migrants from Mexico has varied very little since the 1950s. The massive influx many have written about never happened.
• Net illegal migration has stopped almost completely.
• Illegal migration has not stopped because of stricter border enforcement, which Massey characterizes as a waste of money at best and counterproductive at worst.
• There are indeed more undocumented Mexicans living in the United States than there were 20 years ago, but that is because fewer migrants are returning home -- not because more are sneaking into the country.
• And the reason that fewer Mexican citizens are returning home is because we have stepped up border enforcement so dramatically.
My friend John Young consistently makes the point, with regard to education, that we need to base policies decisions on the basis of data vetted through the peer-review process. I have some issues with that position, which I will take up another day, but it is worth considering the law of unintended consequences.
With respect to illegal immigration, if Professor Massey is correct,
1. We have been debating policy throughout the past decade based on the erroneous assumption that hordes of people are trampling down our borders.
2. We have exacerbated our own immigration problems by making it more difficult for them to leave, not more difficult for them to get here.
3. Knowing what the research says probably will not change anything.
If you are going to leave a comment suggesting Professor Massey is incorrect, please reference the inadequacies you have noted in your study of at least one of his databases, or don't bother.


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NEW YORK – So the Dow Jones industrial average broke a record this month. Now what?
It's impossible to predict how the Dow, that popular barometer of the stock market, will zig and zag from here. The only thing certain about the market is that there will be more peaks and valleys ahead, and that's about as specific as a fortune cookie.
But we can look at the previous times the Dow burst through a record, and measure how long it kept rising and why it eventually stopped — ending the bull market. And what does history show?
After it broke one record, the Dow kept rising for nearly nine years. After another, it rose for seven years, and after another, for five. But after one, it topped out just two months later. In most cases, the bull run ended because inflation and interest rates were rising and investors feared a recession loomed. Those conditions don't exist today.
The Dow closed at 14,253.77 on March 5, beating its October 2007 record by 89 points. In the eight trading days since, it has risen on seven of them, setting a record each time. Its only down day was Friday.
So far, its highest close ever was Thursday, when it reached 14,539.14.
Here are previous long-held Dow records since World War II, when they were broken and what happened after. Jamie Farmer, a managing director at S&P Dow Jones Indices, helped with the calculations.
_RECORD DAY: Nov. 23, 1954. The Dow breaks the record that had stood since September 1929, closing at 382.74.
_RISE CONTINUES: It keeps rising for seven years, gains 92 percent and peaks at 734.91 on Dec. 13, 1961.
The Dow's record-breaking day in 1954 was a long time coming. It had been 25 years since the index hit 381.17 on Sept. 3, 1929, when the Roaring Twenties were still roaring. The Dow plunged in the Great Depression and bottomed at 41.22 in 1932 — down an astonishing 89 percent from the 1929 peak. For the rest of the 1930s, it never came close to regaining all its losses. The highest it reached was 194.40 in 1937 — still down nearly 50 percent from the 1929 high.
During World War II, from 1941 to 1945, the Dow rose to 174. Peacetime spurred it even higher, helped by a baby boom and a desire to spend after years of rationing. The U.S. became the world's powerhouse economy because the economies of Europe and Japan were wrecked by the war.
After a late '40s bear, the Dow went on a bull market run that lasted from 1949 to 1961, its longest ever.
On Dec. 13, 1961, the Dow finally peaked at 734.91, and then it languished. In the spring of 1962, President John F. Kennedy's fight with Big Steel over the industry's price increases made businesses nervous about how they'd fare under his tenure. Their apprehension deepened when Kennedy famously said, "My father always told me that all businessmen were sons of bitches, but I never believed it til now!" (He said later that he didn't mean to refer to the entire business community.)
By June 26, 1962, the index had fallen 27 percent from the previous year's record, to 535.76.
_RECORD BREAKER: Sept. 5, 1963. The Dow breaks the record that had stood since 1961, closing at 737.98.
_RISE CONTINUES: It keeps rising for almost two and a half years, gains 35 percent and peaks at 995.15 on Feb. 9, 1966.
The Dow bounced back from its so-called "Kennedy Crash," and on Sept. 5, 1963, it set a new all-time high, up 38 percent from its low in June 1962. President Kennedy had taken pains to reach out to businesses and promised lower taxes. The standoff with the Soviet Union in October 1962, a fight that came to be known as the Cuban Missile Crisis, ended without war, which gave the market license to rise again.
On February 9, 1966, the Dow hit 995.15 and stopped rising. Investors went from planning Dow 1,000 celebrations to worrying that inflation was about to creep up and that the Vietnam War would drag on.
After the February 1966 record, the Dow fell 37 percent over about four years. It bottomed out on May 26, 1970, in the middle of a recession, at 631.16.
_RECORD BREAKER: Nov. 10, 1972. The Dow breaks the record that had stood since 1966, closing at 995.26.
_RISE CONTINUES: It keeps rising for two months, gains 6 percent and peaks at 1,051.70 on Jan. 11, 1973.
A new bull market began in May 1970, and the Dow rose 58 percent in two and a half years. By late 1972, cease-fire talks were under way for Vietnam, and investors were hopeful that the U.S. would soon pull out. Inflation had cooled to about 3 percent. Richard Nixon had just been re-elected in a landslide a few days before, beating George McGovern in every state but Massachusetts as well as D.C.
The New York Times captured the gleeful mood as the market approached its next goal post. "Tapewatchers around the nation," the newspaper wrote, describing the Nov. 10, 1972, record day, "rooted with the zest of football fans." Four days later, the index closed above 1,000 for the first time.
But the celebrations were short-lived. The Dow topped out two months later, on Jan. 11, 1973, at 1,051.70. The crisis in Vietnam continued, inflation took off again, and oil prices soared that fall, triggered by an embargo against the U.S.
By Dec. 6, 1974, the country was stuck in recession and the Dow was down to 577.60, 45 percent below the record it had set the year before.
_ RECORD BREAKER: Nov. 3, 1982. The Dow breaks the record held since 1973, closing at 1,065.49.
_ RISE CONTINUES: It keeps rising for almost five years, gains 156 percent and peaks at 2,722.42 on August 25, 1987.
The Dow had to struggle to break the 1973 record. A severe recession hit in the mid '70s and New York City veered near bankruptcy. Jimmy Carter, running for president in 1976, summarized the state of the economy by emphasizing the "misery index" — the inflation rate plus the unemployment rate. By 1980, things had yet to improve, and Carter lost his re-election bid. (Inflation was at nearly 13 percent in November 1980, when Ronald Reagan won the White House.)
In August 1982, another bull market began. By November of that year, the Dow finally beat the 1973 record. Reagan's tax cuts were taking effect. Over the next five years, unemployment and inflation fell, and the economy grew rapidly. Baby boomers were buying homes, raising kids and spending. In 1987, the Dow had 55 record-breaking days. Its last was August 25, when it peaked at 2,722.42
Things unraveled quickly after that. On Oct. 19, 1987, investors panicked over whether the recent stock gains were just a bubble, and the Dow plunged 23 percent to 1,738.74. The fall was so abysmal that it remains the index's biggest one-day percentage loss ever.
By the end of Black Monday, as it came to be known, the Dow was down 36 percent from the record it had set just two months before.
_RECORD BREAKER: August 24, 1989. The Dow breaks the record held since 1987, closing at 2,734.64.
_RISE CONTINUES: It keeps rising for almost a year, gains 10 percent and peaks at 2,999.75 on July 16, 1990.
The Dow recovered quickly from its Black Monday in 1987.
The Federal Reserve reassured investors by immediately cutting interest rates, a move meant to spur borrowing and lending, and declaring that it was ready "to support the economic and financial system." Reagan insisted the economy was fundamentally sound. Soon enough, investors began to think of the one-day panic as a sign of scared stock traders and unwieldy computer trading, rather than an indictment of the broader economy.
Through 1988 and 1989, the economy kept expanding and unemployment stayed low. On Aug. 24, 1989, the Dow was up 57 percent from its Black Monday disaster and broke its August 1987 record.
It kept rising for almost a year. In the summer of 1990, it came agonizingly close to a 3,000 close, ending at 2,999.75 on both July 16 and 17. On the second day, traders at the New York Stock Exchange tossed paper in the air in celebration at the end of the day_ then realized, when the final figures were tallied, that the celebration was premature.
That same day, Saddam Hussein warned that Iraq would retaliate against other oil-exporting countries unless they curbed their production. Two weeks later, Iraq invaded Kuwait. Oil prices surged.
As the Gulf War ramped up, the Dow entered a brief bear market from July to October 1990, falling 21 percent.
_RECORD BREAKER: April 17, 1991. The Dow breaks the record held since 1990, closing at 3,004.46.
_RISE CONTINUES: It keeps rising for almost nine years, gains 290 percent and peaks at 11,722.98 on Jan. 14, 2000.
In October 1990, a new bull run began, one that would last through 2000. Its length was second only to the bull market that spanned the 1950s.
An early milestone of this bull run happened on April 17, 1991: The Dow reached 3,004.46, passing its July 1990 high and posting its first close above 3,000.
The index was up 27 percent from its October 1990 low during the Gulf War.
New technology like email, cell phones and, especially, personal computers, fueled a new era in workplace productivity. The Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, an encouragement to American investors. The Dow took off, and when there were unsettling developments in other parts of the world, like the Asian financial crisis in 1997 and crises in Russia and Brazil the following year, it kept rising anyway. The index cracked the 10,000 milestone in March 1999, and 11,000 barely a month later.
On Jan. 13, 2000, President Bill Clinton visited the New York Stock Exchange and told traders that he liked the way the market was looking. The next day, the Dow hit another record, 11,722.98.
The Dow started to fall the next trading day. The bubble made by technology stocks soon burst. The 9/11 terrorist attacks, uncertainty about the wars that would follow, and accounting scandals at companies like Enron, WorldCom and Tyco left investors shell-shocked.
By Oct. 9, 2002, the Dow had fallen to 7,286.27, down 38 percent from the 2000 record.
_ RECORD BREAKER: Oct. 3, 2006. The Dow breaks the record held since 2000, closing at 11,727.34.
_ RISE CONTINUES: It keeps rising for another year, gains 21 percent and peaks at 14,164.53 on Oct. 9, 2007.
In October 2002, the Dow started another bull run. The market had gotten over the tech bubble bursting and was being fueled by an overexpansion of another sort, in the housing market. Low interest rates and easy access to credit enticed borrowers to buy homes they couldn't afford. Banks and other lenders repackaged the mortgage loans into securities and dumped them on investors, freeing themselves up to make even more loans. Speculative buyers also helped push home prices unsustainably higher.
On Oct. 3, 2006, the Dow broke its 2000 record and closed at 11,727.34, up 61 percent from its October 2002 low.
It kept rising for another year, finally hitting 14,164.53 on Oct. 9, 2007. But by then, hints of the financial crisis were emerging. The Fed was already cutting interest rates, a sign that it was worried about the economy. Home prices were cooling. Subprime mortgage giant New Century had collapsed that spring. Citigroup CEO Chuck Prince was a month away from losing his job.
By fall 2008, the financial crisis was obvious. Wachovia, Washington Mutual and Merrill Lynch were pushed into rescue mergers with other banks, Lehman Brothers collapsed, and mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were basically taken over by the government.
The panic deepened. On March 9, 2009, as rumors flew that the banking industry would be seized by the government, the Dow fell to 6,547.05, down 54 percent from its 2007 record.
_RECORD BREAKER: March 5, 2013. The Dow breaks the record held since 2007, closing at 14,253.77.
By now, the cold fear of the financial crisis has receded, even if its effects linger. The recession has been over, technically anyway, for nearly four years.
Unemployment, if still high, is falling. The economy, while growing slowly, at least isn't shrinking. Inflation is still low.
The Dow record doesn't necessarily mean that investors believe the economy is fully healed. Rather, they're confident that the Fed is willing to keep pumping money into it. They've learned to ignore budget fights in Washington.
It's impossible to predict how long the bull run could continue. But so far, there aren't all the tell-tale signs that it's about to run out.
See original here: http://www.startribune.com/business/yourmoney/198689351.html?page=all&prepage=1&c=y#continue


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Call for Nominations: Jefferson-Pilot Fellowships in Academic Medicine
Through the generosity of the Jefferson-Pilot Corporation, a trust fund has been established within the Medical Foundation for the support of Jefferson-Pilot Fellowships in Academic Medicine at the School of Medicine. Jefferson-Pilot Fellows are selected each year.
The active term of the Fellowship is four years unless the recipient's position on the faculty is terminated prior to expiration of the Fellowship. The recipient will receive $20,000 to be paid over a four-year period in equal installments of $5,000 per year. The award is to be used at the discretion of the recipient for support of his/her scholarly endeavors, and it is not to be used as a supplement to the salary of the recipient or as a substitute for a portion of the salary. Nominations now are being invited for the 2012-2013 Jefferson-Pilot Fellowship.
The aim of the program is to retain promising junior faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. This is accomplished in two ways. First, the recipient of the award, by being named a Jefferson-Pilot Fellow in Academic Medicine, is given public recognition of his/her prior achievements and the School's confidence in his/her future; second, the monetary award allows him/her a degree of freedom to explore new ideas, new ways of teaching students, treating patients, or investigating biological problems that may not be available from other granting agencies.
Any individual, either basic medical scientist or clinical scientist is eligible for nomination for a Jefferson-Pilot Fellowship provided that the candidate has been a full-time faculty member of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine for at least one year and does not have faculty tenure at the time of appointment as a Jefferson Pilot Fellow. Preference will be given to candidates below the rank of Associate Professor, but Associate Professors without tenure are eligible. This Jefferson Pilot Fellowship has usually been awarded to a faculty member with substantial academic productivity that is within one to two years of his or her tenure decision.
Any full-time faculty member of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, who holds the rank of Associate Professor or higher, (exclusive of members of the Selection Committee) is eligible to submit one nomination each year. Nominations for 2012-2013 must be submitted on or before June 1, 2012.
Applicants will be judged by their past performance and future promise. As such, the Committee would like to examine a complete curriculum vitae and letters of support. An important part of the application will be a four-page proposal that should include a description of a single research project that will be undertaken or continued during the applicant's tenure as a Jefferson-Pilot Awardee. The proposal should demonstrate the applicant's capacity to formulate a focused research plan. In addition to the proposal, a short synopsis of the applicant's past research accomplishments should be included, as should a listing of teaching, service, and clinical activities that will be
performed or developed during the award period.
Specifically, the application should include:
1) a curriculum vitae with a complete list of publications;
2) a nominating letter from a faculty sponsor (one or two supporting letters from other faculty can be included) and a letter of support from the candidate's Chair, if the Chair is not the nominator;
3) a one-page abstract of the research plan including the specific aims of the project;
4) a three-page research proposal providing the rationale, background, and preliminary data upon which the project is based (a brief section describing the proposed methods of procedure should also indicate how data will be analyzed and interpreted);
5) a one-page description of past research accomplishments;
6) a one-page description of the teaching, clinical, or service activities planned for the next several years; and
7) appendix material limited to essential preliminary data and either reprints or the title and abstract page from three relevant articles published by the applicant. Proposals that exceed the recommended page limits will be returned to the applicants. Proposals should be prepared in size 12 font.
The selection committee may request an interview with the candidate if an interview is deemed to be necessary or desirable.
Instructions to Nominators
The person making the nomination should provide a written statement in support of the nomination setting forth his/her reasons for believing that the candidate would be particularly suitable for the award. The nominator may wish to support the nomination by requesting one or two additional faculty members to write letters of recommendation for the candidate. If one of the additional letters of support is not from the candidate's Chair, the nominator should obtain a brief statement of support from the Chair.
Nominations should be submitted electronically via email to email@example.com on or before June 1, 2012. Click here to see a printable PDF of this information.
Alternatively, the original and six copies of all documents relating to the nomination and support of a candidate may be collected in one package and submitted on or before June 1, 2012 to:
Jefferson-Pilot Fellowship Program Selection Committee
c/o April Kollar, Dean's Office, School of Medicine
CB # 7000, 4030 Bondurant Hall
Expenditure of the Award
The recipient of a Jefferson-Pilot Fellowship will receive a total of $20,000 from the trust fund established by the Jefferson-Pilot Corporation within the Medical Foundation, and this sum will be paid over a four-year period in equal installments of $5,000 per year. The award is to be used at the discretion of the recipient for support of his/her scholarly endeavors. The award cannot be used to supplement the salary of the recipient or to substitute for a portion of that salary. The funds can be used, for example, for the following purposes: purchase of equipment or supplies, support of technical help, travel to scientific meetings or to other institutions, or purchase of reprints of scientific papers. Under special circumstances, the annual funds of the award can be permitted to accrue for expenditures during a single year if this should prove to be advantageous from the standpoint of the research or other scholarly activities of the recipient.
The Dean will make final appointment of the Jefferson-Pilot Fellows with the advice and recommendation of the Selection Committee:
David G. Kaufman, MD, PhD A. Leslie Morrow, PhD
Bruce Cairns, MD Nancy Raab-Traub, PhD
David Clemmons, MD Linda Van Le, MD
Steve Crews, PhD
Previous Recipients
Drs. Eva Anton, Joel Baseman, Phillip Bassford, James E. Bear, Philip Blatt, Sharon Campbell, Williams Cance, Kathleen Caron, Charles Carter, Jr., Frank Church, David Clemmons, Myron Cohen, Jeanette Cook, Giselle Corbie-Smith, Joseph D'Ercole, Blossom Damania, Georgette Dent, Douglas Drossman, Jeffrey Fair, Ronald Falk, John Gilmore, Robert Golden, Lee Graves, Kenney Gray, Thomas Griggs, Joyce Harp, Mark T. Heise, William Henry, Katherine High, James Howard, Jr., Charles Jennette, Larry Johnson, Blair Keagy, Shannon Kenney, Michael Knowles, Jeffrey Kuller, Edward Lawson, David Lee, Edison Liu, Patricia Maness, Sharon Milgram, Roger Narayan, Terry Noah, Robert Orlowski, Leslie Parise, Charles Perou, Duncan Postma, Herbert Proctor, Dale Ramsden, Lewis Romer, Norman Sharpless, Gene Siegal, Frederick Sparling, Anne Steiner, Alan Stiles, Brian Strahl, Lishan Su, Manuel Tancer, Joan Taylor, David Threadgill, Jenny Ting, Louis Underwood, Peter Utsinger, Jean-Michel Vos, Robert Warren, Monte Willis, Yue Xiong, Wendell Yarbrough, Yanping Zhan


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Plus One Lap used to be all about cyclocross, now it's my dumping grounds for anything cycling.
Monday, February 13, 2006
Lightweight Wheel magnets for your cyclocross bike
Okay, so dont flip out yet, youre wondering how much weight can be saved with wheel magnets, just a dumn little part that doesnt need any examination right? Well, I think you might be surprised.
I had this wheel magnet on my bike at first
And thought there might be a better option out there, so i did some hunting. I found what I was looking for an an unsual place to find bike parts, Radioshack. They had these tiny rare earth magnets, sold in packs of 2, for only $1.98.
So I bought them. Upon weighing one on my tenth gram scale, they weigh in at only .2 grams a piece.
A weight savings of 12.9 grams for only $1. Also, this weight savings comes at a crucial area, rotational weight. Remember, in an earlier post I mentioned that $2 a gram is the upper limit on what you'll want to spend to lighten your bike. Well, this upgrade cost only 8 cents a gram. The only catch is, like the Tune magnet that sells out there, you gotta glue this onto your spoke with some 2 part epoxy. Now this really isnt a big deal. A little 2 part epoxy, and 15 minutes later you got a magnet permanently mounted on your wheel. Make sure to read your computers directions to see how high up the spokes they recommend the magnet to be mounted. Lastly, yes the epoxy will bump the weight a gram or so, but still, thats a good dollar to gram weight saver. And for those that dont think 12.9 grams will make any difference, thats why your bike is so heavy, big weight gains can be made through the examination of every part on your bike and thinking of how this one part could weigh just a little less.
2 comments:
why bother to run a computer on your cross bike at all? you'd save like 100g with no computer, and 99% of cross racers don't use one anyways.
- Jeremy Burlingame said...
Well my computer weighs 37 grams (Sigma 1200) and I like having a computer for when im training on my cyclocross bike, also its nice in races from time to time. Thanks for the comment though.
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