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CB Richard Ellis Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBG)
Q1 2012 Earnings Call
April 24, 2012, 5:00 p.m. ET
Nick Kormeluk – IR
Brett White – CEO
Mike Lafitte – President, The Americas
Gil Borok – CFO
Anthony Paolone – JPMorgan
Will Marks - JMP Securities
David Ridley-Lane - BofA Merrill Lynch
Brandon Dobell – William, Blair & Co.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the CBRE first quarter earnings call. At this time, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Later we will conduct a question-and-answer session. The instructions will be given at that time. (Operator Instructions). As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.
I would now like to turn the conference over to our host, Mr. Nick Kormeluk. Please go ahead.
Nick Kormeluk
First quarter 2012 earnings conference call. About an hour ago, we issued a press release announcing our Q1 financial results. This release is available on the home page of our website at www.cbre.com. This conference call is being webcast and is available on the Investor Relations section of our website. Also available is a presentation slide deck which you can use to follow along with our prepared remarks. An archive audio of the webcast and a PDF version of the slide presentation will be posted to the website later today and a transcript of our call will be posted tomorrow.
Please turn to the slide labeled "Forward Looking Statements." This presentation contains statements that are forward looking within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding our future growth momentum, operations, financial performance, business outlook and our ability to integrate the ING REIM
businesses. These statements should be considered as estimates only and actual results may ultimately differ from these estimates. Except to the extent required by applicable securities laws, we undertake no obligation to update or publicly revise any of the forward-looking statements that you may hear today. Please refer to our first quarter earnings report, filed on Form 8-K and our current annual report on Form 10-K, in particular any discussion of risk factors or forward-looking statements, which are filed with the SEC and available at the SEC's website (www.sec.gov), for a full discussion of the risks and other factors that may impact any estimates that you may hear today. We may make certain statements during the course of this presentation, which include references to "non-GAAP financial measures," as defined by SEC regulations. As required by these regulations, we have provided reconciliations of these
measures to what we believe are the most directly comparable GAAP measures, which are attached hereto within the appendix.
Please turn to slide three. Participating with me today are Brett White, our Chief Executive Officer, Mike Lafitte, President of our Americas region, and Gil Borok, our Chief Financial Officer. I will now turn the call over to Brett.
Brett White
Thanks, Nick, and good afternoon everybody. Please turn to slide four. The macro market trends that have prevailed for most of 2011 have generally continued in the first quarter of 2012. The market is recovering, but at an incremental and uneven pace. While no two recoveries are identical, this current one is marked by mixed performance across geographies and market sectors.
That being said, our highly productive market-leading and diversified platform helped us deliver a strong opening quarter for 2012. We especially benefited from strong performance in the Americas, and in a moment Mike Lafitte, our president of the Americas, will describe our integrated Americas business platform in a bit more detail.
Not unexpectedly, EMEA performance weakened versus the prior year first quarter, as transaction activity has slowed against tough economic conditions. In Asia Pacific, while there was overall revenue growth, investment sales in the region cooled a bit. We also saw material and immediate contributions from the addition of the ING Real Estate Investment Management people, programs and platform to our investment management business. We expect these positive contributions to continue as we complete our integration process.
Our global outsourcing business continued to make strong gains, with revenue growing by double digits for the sixth consecutive quarter. Both total contracts signed and new wins set records, and we surpassed the 3 billion square foot managed milestone.
In our transaction businesses, leasing resumed growth with a 3% gain over the first quarter of 2011. Investment sales revenue increased 10%, and also deserving special mention is commercial mortgage brokerage, which jumped 46%.
As a result of all this, we posted solid 14% revenue growth and even stronger, 25%, normalized EBITDA growth, during the quarter. And I am particularly pleased to report that our EBITDA margin expanded 90 BPs, to 11.1%.
Some of the most notable transactions we completed during or immediately following the quarter are shown on slide five. As is our practice, I will not go through them individually but we have included them here for your review. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Mike Lafitte, our president of the Americas, to discuss his real strong performance in the Americas business. Mike?
Mike Lafitte
Thank you Brett. Please advance to slide six if you will. As you have read in our earnings release and as Brett mentioned, our Americas business had excellent performance in the first quarter of 2012. We are very pleased to achieve 13% revenue growth and 29% normalized EBITDA growth in a sluggish economic environment. Credit for this goes to our nearly 21,000 Americas employees, who are intensely focused on providing superior service to our clients and maintaining disciplined expense control.
We took tough actions in 2011 to align our cost base to the difficult operating environment, and we are now seeing some benefits from those actions.
In the Americas, we have built a very large, deep, diverse, highly-integrated and arguably unparalleled platform. It took many years and considerable investment to build this robust platform and to integrate its component parts so they worked together cohesively. We are focused on continuous improvement of our platform to stay ahead of our evolving client needs.
Our financial business statistics for 2011 shown here were just published late last week. They underscore the magnitude of our platform. Even in a lukewarm market environment, we closed more than 38,000 sales and lease transactions in the Americas, valued at approximately $92 billion. You can see this activity was evenly split between sales and leasing.
Our people specialize in each of the major product segments: office, industrial, retail and the multi-housing space. This specialization provides unique expertise and insight, which positions us very well to capture market opportunities.
Our valuation platform is also robust. We maintain the largest market position in this space, serving financial institutions, corporations and special servicers, and there is great synergy with both our capital markets and our outsourcing business in the valuation space.
Our commercial mortgage brokerage business involves loan origination and sales, which is growing well as liquidity returns to the investment markets. Americas' loan origination volumes rose nearly 50% in the first quarter of 2012 versus a year earlier. We do significant work with government agencies. For 2011, the Mortgage Bankers Association ranked us number one originator of government agency loans. The volume of work with these agencies has continued to grow into 2012.
Through our joint venture with GE Capital, GEMSA, we are also one of the industry's largest loan servicers, with over $100 billion of loans being serviced today.
In our 1.6 billion square foot Americas property and corporate facilities portfolio, we are achieving strong growth by focusing on winning trophy asset assignments from institutional loaners as well as occupiers. You saw an example on the previous slide, the 4.2 million square foot Houston center, which we are now managing for JP Morgan Investment Management.
Project leasing is also a core offering in our outsourcing portfolio, and is highly synergistic with our leasing business. We managed over $13 billion in projects during 2011. Strong growth opportunities also exist for us throughout Latin America and our Canadian operations. They now account for 11% of the Americas revenue for the first quarter of 2012.
Please turn to slide seven. These are new statistics published this month by National Real Estate Investor. You'll see that our sales and lease transaction value in the Americas approaches or greatly exceeds the global activity for any other firm. We compete with many firms in different markets across the region. Many are focused on certain niches, such as tenant representation, or sales, or finance area. Few have the depth and breadth of our service platform, and none have achieved our scale or our market position.
Please turn to slide eight. This slide illustrates how we put our powerful platform to work for our clients. In leasing, some of our largest 2012 closed transactions are depicted here. First, we represented Carter's, an infant clothes retailer, in connection with a lease for a 1 million square foot distribution facility outside of Atlanta. Site selection was done with the assistance of our labor analytics group. You may know that we represented Condé Nast last year in its 1 million square foot lease at One World Trade Center in New York. Condé Nast continues to grow and has taken an additional 139,000 square feet in the building. Ceva Logistics and E*Trade are both broker-led outsourcing accounts. We have long-term contracts with them to perform transaction work across the region. Accounts like these generate approximately 15% of our Americas leasing revenue. In capital markets, Hess Tower is yet another example of a great platform story. This trophy office building in Houston was developed by the Trammell Crow Company along with principal real estate investors and sold recently for a record price. Seabury Service Platform played a key role in assisting the Trammell Crow Company in principal, first in managing the asset and serving as the agent in a lease to Hess, then in the sale to H&R REIT, a Canadian open-ended REIT. Our debt and equity finance team also arranged a $250 million loan for H&R to finance the purchase. The Mount Airy transaction noted here, which closed last week, is evidence of Seabury's unique comprehensive capabilities. This is a $165 million recapitalization of a Poconos resort and casino. Our investment banking group, CBRE Capital Advisors, acted as exclusive financial advisor and co-arranger in a syndicated loan. The last example is representative of our growing impact in Latin America. We arranged a $100 million sale of a class A asset in the heart of Santiago's business district. CBRE's local team in Chile collaborated with our U.S. capital markets professionals in the sale of this tower on behalf of a German open-ended fund, a truly cross-border transaction.
Please turn to slide nine. Outsourcing continues to be our single largest business line. Its 45% share of the Americas revenue in the first quarter is a little high due to seasonality, slower leasing and sales activity in the first quarter. For the full year in 2011, it accounted for 39% of the Americas revenue. The business continues to grow at a double digit pace. In asset services, we are focused on large, strategic accounts. Our goal is to deliver multiple synergistic services for those institutions and to be their preferred provider throughout the entire life cycle of their investment. There are currently about 30 strategic accounts in total. The five largest are listed here in alphabetical order. On the corporate services side, we are continuing to rapidly on-board new clients and expand our service offering with current clients. Of the record 58 contracts signed in the first quarter of 2012, more than 40 are in the Americas and others are global relationships, generally with significant Americas component. I'd like to comment on just a few of these. First, for Deloitte, we provide variable project management services for its space throughout the United States. We recently added and extended this nine-year relationship. Additionally, we won new facilities managements assignments with Microsoft and NYSE Euronext, demonstrating our ability to nurture and grow client relationships. Adventist Health Systems and the University of Cincinnati are emblematic of our increasing penetration of the healthcare and education markets. These sectors, as well as government, face enormous pressure to become more efficient, and we believe the opportunity is large as outsourcing adoption in this space is in its infancy. Now I'd like to turn the call back over to Gil.
Gil Borok
Thank you Mike. Please advance to slide 10. Total revenue was approximately $1.35 billion for the first quarter of 2012, up 14% from last year. This increase was driven by growth in outsourcing, investment sales, investment management, commercial mortgage brokerage and to a lesser degree, leasing. Normalized EBITDA grew at a stronger pace than revenue, up 25%, to $150.5 million in the first quarter of 2012, from $120.6 million in the first quarter of 2011, delivering a normalized EBITDA margin of 11.1% or an increase of 90 basis points over the first quarter of 2011. Our cost of services decreased to 58% of total revenue in the first quarter of 2012, as compared to 60.2% in the first quarter of 2011. First quarter 2012 operating expenses were 32.6% of total revenue, versus 31.8% in the first quarter of 2011. This offsetting impact on the cost of services and operating expenses resulted from the inclusion of ING REIM expenses, all of which flowed through the operating expense line as opposed to cost of services. Interest expense increased by $10.3 million in the first quarter of 2012, as compared to the first quarter of 2011, primarily due to the ING REIM and Sterling Term Loan A-1 financings, which occurred after the first quarter of 2011. Our first quarter 2012 tax rate was approximately 42%. Consistent with prior years, this is seasonally higher than the anticipated full-year tax rate. We expect the full-year 2012 tax rate to be a little below 40%. First quarter 2012 GAAP diluted earnings per share was $.08 versus $.11 last year, and adjusted diluted earnings per share was $.14 versus $.13 in the first quarter of 2011.
Please turn to slide 11. Property and facilities management was our largest service line in the first quarter of 2012, representing 39% of total revenue in the quarter, with a 10% increase over the first quarter of 2011. Leasing was our second largest service line, representing 27% of total revenue in the first quarter of 2012, with increases in both Asia Pacific and the Americas. Investment sales showed a solid increase of 10% in the first quarter of 2012, driven by the Americas, and accounted for 13% of this quarter's total revenue. Global investment management revenue more than doubled quarter over quarter, driven by increases in asset management and incentive fees, attributable to the ING REIM businesses. Appraisal and valuation revenue increased 6% to $79.7 million. Commercial mortgage brokerage revenue jumped 46% year over year, driven by continued capital availability, generally low interest rates, competitive spreads, and investors' continued search for yield. Development services revenue was down approximately $3 million. Revenue from property and facilities management, fees for assets under management, loan servicing fees and leasing commissions from existing clients are all largely recurring. This revenue comprises approximately 62% of total revenue for the first quarter of 2012.
Slide 12 demonstrates stabilized vacancy rates and effective positive absorption in all three market sectors depicted, along with forecasted improvement over the next two years. The capital and investment sales volume data that we typically show is not yet available due to our slightly earlier reporting date this quarter.
Please turn to slide 13. Sales revenue in the Americas increased 33% in the first quarter of 2012 versus the first quarter of 2011, still driven by activities in core markets. Market share data for the first quarter of 2012 is not yet available, but we are pleased to note that late last week CBRE closed the largest single asset investment sale on the west coast since 2006, the $480 million sale of Russell Investment Center in Seattle. This transaction is indicative of the activity that appears to be surfacing in secondary markets. Our Americas leasing revenue increased modestly in the first quarter of 2012, as compared to the first quarter of 2011, in line with our expectations. During the first quarter of 2012, the U.S. office vacancy rate remained constant at 16% compared to the fourth quarter of 2011. The Americas outsourcing business grew a solid 11% in the first quarter of 2012 versus the first quarter of 2011.
Please turn to slide 14. Our EMEA investment sales revenue decreased 9% in the first quarter of 2012, versus the first quarter of 2011. This weakness comes as no surprise, as economic challenges in the region persist, causing market-wide investment activity to decline 18%. CBRE's EMEA leasing revenue decreased 6% in the first quarter of 2012, versus the first quarter of 2011. This weakness stems from caution around large space commitments, somewhat upset by stability and prime rent. It should be noted that France, which had an exceptional first quarter in 2011 in transaction activity, that tapered off as 2011 progressed, was largely responsible for the decrease in sales and leasing. Outsourcing slowed a bit, with revenue only increasing 6% in the first quarter of 2012, as compared to the first quarter of 2011, driven by new assignment. EMEA decrease and normalized EBITDA resulted mainly from the reduction of the aforementioned higher-margin transaction revenues, the additional compensation expense associated with retention and severance, in part related to acquisitions, as well as slightly higher occupancy costs.
Please turn to slide 15. CBRE's sales revenue in Asia Pacific decreased 34% in the first quarter of 2012, versus the first quarter of 2011, primarily driven by a cooling of activity across the region as decisions were delayed due to global economic uncertainty. CBRE's leasing revenue in the Asia Pacific grew 8% in the first quarter of 2012, as compared to the first quarter of 2011. Some growth was evident in most markets, led by Australia and India. Asia Pacific saw outsourcing growth of 10% in the first quarter of 2012, versus the first quarter of 2011, as it continues to gain adoption in this region. Asia Pacific's first quarter 2012 normalized EBITDA margin was negatively impacted by the aforementioned reduction in higher-margin investment sales revenue, investment in China and the favorable impact of a notable bonus accrual reversal in the first quarter of 2011 that did not recur this year.
Please turn to slide 16. Revenue for the development services segment totaled $14.9 million in the first quarter of 2012, versus $19.2 million in the first quarter of 2011, primarily due to a decrease in incentive fees and lower rental revenue, driven by property dispositions in the later quarters of 2011. At the end of the first quarter of 2012, in-process development totaled $4.8 billion and the pipeline totaled $1.3 billion. Our equity co-investments at the end of the first quarter of 2012 in the development services business totaled $93.6 million.
Please turn to slide 17. First quarter 2012 global investment management revenue increased to $125.2 million, from $51.4 million in the first quarter of 2011. The increase resulted from higher asset management and incentive fees, stemming from the inclusion of ING REIM, which contributed approximately $85 million in revenue in the first quarter of 2012. Assets Under Management, or AUM, totaled $95.9 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2012, up about $1.8 billion from year-end 2011, primarily due to increases in valuation and benefits from currency fluctuations. In the first quarter of 2012, total AUM in the direct real estate business was impacted by $300 million of asset acquisitions, $1.1 billion of dispositions and transfers and $1.2 billion from improvement in asset values.
In addition, currency fluctuations increased AUM by $1.4 billion for the first quarter of 2012. Included in the $95.9 billion in AUM at the end of the first quarter of 2012 was $21.7 billion of listed securities. Changes in market valuation in this portfolio increased AUM by $1.9 billion in the quarter versus the fourth quarter of 2011. In the first quarter of 2012, in the direct real estate business, we raised new capital of approximately $400 million and had approximately $2.8 billion of capital to deploy at the end of the quarter. Our core investments in this business at the end of the quarter totaled $176.9 million.
Our global investment management EBITDA reconciliation detail is shown on slide 18. In the first quarter of 2012, we incurred $10 million of expenses related to the ING REIM acquisitions, primarily for retention and severance. As of March 31, 2012, the company maintained a cumulative accrual of carried interest compensation expense of approximately $44 million, which pertains to anticipated future carried interest revenue. This business operated at a pro forma normalized EBITDA margin of 36% for the first quarter of 2012. If you recall, this is right within the range in which we anticipated we would operate at the time we announced the ING REIM acquisition.
Slide 19 shows our amortization and debt maturity schedule for all outstanding debt. This is virtually unchanged as compared to year-end 2011, and we remain very comfortable with this schedule and the flexibility it provides.
Please turn to slide 20. Excluding cash within consolidated funds and other entities not available for company use and excluding our non-recourse real estate loans and mortgage brokerage warehouse facilities, our total net debt at the end of the first quarter of 2012 was approximately $1.9 billion. This represents an increase from year-end 2011, primarily due to incentive compensation payments, which are generally made in the first quarter. At the end of the first quarter of 2012, our weighted average interest rate was approximately 5.7%, similar to the end of 2011 when including interest rate swaps. Our leverage ratio on a covenant basis now stands at 1.81 times at the end of the first quarter of 2012 on a trailing 12-month basis. Our total company net debt to trailing 12-month EBITDA stood at 2.29 times. I will now turn the call back over to Brett.
Brett White
Thank you Gil. And please turn to slide 21. While the commercial real estate market recovery continues to be incremental and uneven, it is recovering nonetheless. Updates on our view for the year are that outsourcing is likely to continue strong growth. Recent growth rates across the globe will track job creation, and should continue to be modest for the time being. Investment sales growth is going to be dependent on specific regional market dynamics, noting that the economic climate in EMEA is challenged and there has been a recent cooling in Asia Pacific.
And finally the investment management will benefit from a full-year contribution from the acquired ING Real Estate Investment Management businesses. With the first quarter now behind us, we are maintaining our view from year-end 2011. First, that our EPS guidance remains unchanged, and second, that we should see solid EBITDA margin expansion.
And with that, Operator, we'd be happy to take questions.
Question-and-Answer Session
(Operator instructions). We have a question from the line of Anthony Paolone with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.
Anthony Paolone - JPMorgan
Thanks, and good afternoon. Your gross margins in the first quarter were a lot higher than they were in the year-ago quarters. Just curious what drove that, because it seemed like throughout 2011, in each of those quarters, the gross margin actually declined year over year, so I'm just wondering what changed there?
Gil Borok
Are you looking at the gross margin on the press release where they've normalized or not? What you'll see is the comment that we made, that I made was with regard to ING. And all the cuts from ING are flowing through OpEx, and not to cost of services. So the mix of what flows through cost of services versus what flows through OpEx is now changed. Of course, it's against the same denominator when you do the math. The revenue's in the revenue number, we've had a shift, a fundamental shift in what flows through cost of services and OpEx because of the acquisition.
Anthony Paolone - JPMorgan
Should we assume that, I guess on the year, as the next few quarters play out that we'll continue to see, you know, a pretty big pop? I guess it may be minimized a little bit in the latter part of the year because you had some ING last year, but it was a 200 to 300 basis point pick up on that gross margin safe to assume?
Gil Borok
You've had about a 200 basis point impact on cost of services, and I think it is safe to assume, I don't know that it will be that every quarter, but it is safe to assume that we'll have the shift between the two, yes.
Anthony Paolone - JPMorgan
And the roughly $17 million of transaction, do you use in investment management in the quarter. Do those more or less drop right down to EBITDA or are there any real cost that have to get accrued against those?
Gil Borok
No, there are costs against them, there's compensation costs that go against it for sure.
Anthony Paolone - JPMorgan
But that wouldn't be carried interest compensation, because it didn't seem like you accrued much there.
Gil Borok
It's not carried interest, its other incentive fees.
Anthony Paolone - JPMorgan
Okay. On the facilities business, the revenue was actually down a little bit sequentially from 4Q. I was under the impression that that business is not quite as seasonal as some of the others, and you know, you picked up a lot of contracts in 4Q and you picked up a whole bunch more in 1Q, so I'm just wondering kind of how that declined sequentially?
Brett White
Anthony its Brett. You utilize me on that question. First of all, the facility business is growing very, very rapidly. There are a lot of cats and dogs that flow through that revenue line, and I would look at this more of an aberration than any sort of trend to be concerned about. The bottom line dynamic in the facilities business right now is it's going through historic growth at the moment, and you should expect to see generally going forward.
Anthony Paolone - JPMorgan
And then, just in terms of your key lines, like sales and leasing, Brett or maybe Michael, can you comment on just the competitive landscape for brokers and just some of your larger competitors out there. I think last quarter Brett, you'd mentioned that. You did feel that some of the competitors out there were nipping at your heels, but you felt good about your positioning. I'm just wondering if you can give us some updated thoughts on that.
Brett White
Sure, let me give you a short-term answer, kind of quarter to quarter, but what's much more important is the long-term answer. It's funny in the fourth quarter, we had a soft compare against one competitor on leasing numbers in a quarter. And we spent some time talking about that and letting all of you know that this is a very big, very powerful, integrated business, and we focus on lots of things all the time. And any time we see a competitor for our competitive position at risk, or a competitor coming in and, as you said "nipping at our heels", we redouble our efforts to correct that situation.
Now, ironically or not, the bell of the ball this quarter is guess what? Americas. And by the way, that's why we brought Michael Lafitte in, because that business is so much more than U.S. leasing. There's no competitor even close to what we do in our U.S. integrated business, and that's why we had Mike talk about it.
In terms of the competitive landscape on sales and leasing, you know this industry is, and we've been talking about this for so many years I can't even remember when we started. But this industry is rapidly consolidating down to two groups of players and we've got on the global landscape, I think we've got two big, high-quality, multinational integrated companies out there. And we've got thousands of boutique firms out there that do whatever they do really, really well in single markets or single business lines. And we've got these folks stuck in the middle, they're going away so fast it's almost hard to keep tract of it at this point.
By the way, we love that dynamic. We love it because every day more and more of the accounts that we want to own, that we want to do business with, are turning to use for their services.
The competitive landscape on lease and sales in the U.S. and globally is really a tale of two stories, or two tales.
The first is, that in the U.S. the leasing landscape is a very, very competitive marketplace. We are dominant in that marketplace and expect to remain so. However, the competitors that we had just three years ago, some of them are gone, and that share is going to be spread among other competitors in the business, and you should expect to see that going forward.
On the sale side, that marketplace is one we've dominated for many, many years and our competitive position in the sale space, if any, just gets better and better.
So, we like where we sit. As I said last quarter, we also like having a couple competitors nip a little bit at our heels, it makes us better, it gives us more focus. And as Mike talked about in his comments, it's a good dynamic, and we welcome them to the party.
Anthony Paolone - JPMorgan
Do you see any advantage, or do you think there's anything behind, you know, New Mark was purchased by a financial services firm, and they also picked up Grub and Ellis, and do you see anything behind being backed by a financial services firm going into real estate services, or anything emerging there that makes you think about, you know, just being integrated on your on platform?
Brett White
I think it's all interesting, and we welcome to the dance these new players. It sounds to me like the BCG, I think that's right, it sounds like these players are sophisticated, they're smart, they report to be well capitalized. I think that's great. And I think that this elimination of this middle group of firms, it's just inevitable, it's absolutely – it's going to get done. We're watching it get done. And the way that that's going to happen is, there's only a few choices. They either go bankrupt and just disappear off the face of the earth, but these businesses have people in them. And so, if a good well-heeled company like BCG or another can come in and pick up the pieces of these failed firms, I think that's great. I know a lot of people inside those businesses, particularly Grub and Ellis, these are high-quality good people and the fact that they've found a home with an owner that's excited about the industry, I think is a plus for everybody.
I don't think being owned by one type of owner or another is necessarily an advantage or a disadvantage. It all comes down to leadership, it all comes down to the people, and it all comes down to platform. There's a very, very long wave that any of these aggregators need the distance to go to, to get to the level where I think these couple big multinational firms are, is a huge distance. But you know what? Having folks that want to be there, having folks that are aspirational, having folks that are putting capital into this industry is a net benefit for everybody, they make us all better, and we welcome them to the dance. It's all good.
And by the way, it's way better, that these firms that have gone through these horrible problems that they've had, again it's way better that the good things inside those firms, which is the people, have found a place to land and do business and stay in the business in the marketplace. That benefits all of us.
Anthony Paolone - JPMorgan
Thanks, and nice quarter.
Brett White
Thank you.
And we have a question from the line of Will Marks with JMP Securities, please go ahead.
Will Marks – JMP Securities
Thanks, hello Brad, and Gil, and Mike.
Gil Borok
Hey, Will.
Brett White
Hey, Will.
Will Marks – JMP Securities
Let's see, I have a few questions here. First we'll start with the DNA level, and I'm wondering if you could give us an amount of visibility in terms of run rate? It was, I think, higher in the quarter, but is there some one-time cost in there?
Gil Borok
Will, can you just repeat the first part, it was a little hard to hear you, sorry.
Will Marks – JMP Securities
Sure, on the depreciation of the amortization of – I think, the quarter was 46 million or so, I'm just wondering what we should be looking for on a quarterly basis for the rest of the year?
Gil Borok
Yes, sure. So, and that is a GAAP number off the press release, so again, we have a little bit of noise in the numbers. I think the increase year-over-year on a GAAP basis was 23 million, all of which 16 million was normalized. I'll come back to that normalized number in a moment. That will not be the same each quarter, but what we're dealing with non-normalized, if you will, then is about a $7 million increase, and there are two components to that. One is – and it's about 50/50 – one is amortization of servicing rights and our mortgage brokerage business. We get to capitalize those up front and then we have to amortize them over the service period. So one is from the mortgage brokerage business servicing rights, one part of it is. The other part of is the intangibles that we acquired in the ING acquisition for which we cannot normalize. So we are – we have on a normalized basis about a $7 million increase year-over-year, and then on a GAAP basis it's the 23 million and of that 16 million, about 10 of it is the result of incentive fees that we received during the quarter in the ING REIM business, so the normalization will go down as the year progresses.
Will Marks – JMP Securities
Okay, so it's closer to 30 million for the quarter.
Gil Borok
Will Marks – JMP Securities
Okay. All right, I think I got it.
Gil Borok
Will Marks – JMP Securities
Okay. Looking at investment management specifically, how should we think about revenue seasonality in that business?
Brett White
You know, let me – Will, let me just give you a general answer on this. It's becoming a lot less seasonal then it used to be. And that is a combination of a number of different dynamics, but I think you should think about the investment management business now as a very large business that has a high proportion of core funds and assets within it and the way in which we're paid for that business is now a lot smoother than it used to be. Gil, you want to add anything to that?
Gil Borok
I think that's right on, because we have more – much more poor funds in it, so it's much more readable.
Will Marks – JMP Securities
Okay, and then just a couple other things. One, on – in looking at the guidance, can you just remind us what that would assume? I think you said in the past – in normal years it was with development gains.
Gil Borok
You mean in terms of what the guidance implies?
Will Marks – JMP Securities
Yes, thank you.
Gil Borok
Well, you know, it's all in Will, right? So we don't and – you know, we've never really broken out component pieces, we are certainly in the third year of a recovery, and I think the most I can say to you is the guidance anticipated that, and we haven't changed our view at the moment.
Will Marks – JMP Securities
Okay, and last question, anything in terms of the next three quarters – should we look at any of as having more difficult comp than another?
Gil Borok
Well, again the guidance would incorporate that and we've talked about that in terms of a full year, but of course, and maybe you're getting back at the developing it, you've got to – I don't recall them off the top of my head which quarter they necessarily hit. And maybe this is what you were alluding to. We did call out $32 million of development gains in the fourth quarter as being out sized, but that business has gains every year, and the guidance that we have this year would incorporate the gains that we think would be reoccurring. So we had an outsided number, you know, in the 50 millions, but it's not going to be that this year, and we said that on the last call, but there will be some runway of gains – that's what that business does and that's incorporated in the guidance.
So it would only – the only things that would really stand out, and you really have to go back and analyze it quarter by quarter, I can't do that on the call here, we could one-on-one if you need to, but is when the gains hit and when carried into it hits into the good and to the bad, those are the biggest things that would be [inaudible] to a quarter.
Will Marks – JMP Securities
Okay, that's helpful. Thank you very much.
And we have a question from the line of David Ridley-Lane with Bank of America/Merrill Lynch, please go ahead.
David Ridley-Lane – Bank of America Merrill/Lynch
Sure, I wanted to get an update on the four drivers of US leasing, you know, average term length, average rent, average square footage per deal, and then deal velocity if I could.
Brett White
You know, David, let me do this. We are fortunate to have Mike Lafitte on the phone call, actually dialing in from Dallas. And on that specific question, I want to come back to that in a minute, but Mike, I would like to take you back for a moment to the question on the competitive landscape, maybe you could add a couple of comments on how that landscape feels to you at the moment in both sale and leasing. And then Mike, I've got some things here I could give to David on the velocity and so forth, but you want to talk about it just the way it feel to you Mike, I think that would fine as well.
Mike Lafitte
Sure, I would be happy to do that – you know, obviously the leasing and the sale businesses is a very competitive marketplace, it always has been. The distress that we have seen with some of our competitors over the last couple of years has frankly benefited us. We've been able to attract talent from some of those that were experiencing distress. So nothing has really changed, I think, as it relates to the playing field that we see in the America on the – in terms of just the industry dynamics. Certainly some of the names are emerging in that middle tear – you know, there really is a fight for three, and four, and five kind of those places in the space – you know, all good brands, and all good people, and all of that, but it's really interesting kind of watching it all play out and how those – and Brett commented on that. And I think about some of the – and Brett, you may comment on some of those specific metrics that we do follow.
Brett White
Mike Lafitte
As it relates to the leasing drivers, I would say, David, a couple of things that I think about that are bigger drivers than some of those metrics ultimately that drive, you know, the vouchers and revenues and commissions in that business. The first is our customers, you know, just landing new customers – we're very active on that, both for on our investor side of our business as well as our occupiers. We're deep in mid-cash, we're deep in healthcare, so, we're very focused on landing new customers, and we're doing that a lot.
The second I would say is productivity advances that we're focused on around our leasing professionals; training, specialty practice groups that are raising up in very specific niches, they are really take us into new areas, they can actually expand our own business.
Certainly strategic hiring is part of it, and we've continued to remain very active on the hiring front through all of the down turn, we are always in the marketplace for great talent. Through '08, and '09, and '10, and '11, we were adding and retracting great talent to our company at the mid and the higher levels for the most parts – always with a program to grow our own.
And then, lastly, is improving fundamentals that I think will – that are ahead of us in some of those metrics that you asked about, and now Gil and Brett, you may want to comment on those metrics that we do track. But then the fundamentals are improving and that is, I think, good news ahead, although it's slower growth on the leasing side of what we are seeing certainly on the sales side.
Brett White
Well, well said Mike, thank you. And David, just on the numbers, let me fill in some numbers that Mike was referencing.
First, on the fundamentals, as you saw from the deck, what we're seeing in marketplaces, not surprising at all – we're in, again, I think, early innings of a protract to a recovery, all though it's uneven and incremental. So they can see rates are very slowly coming down. We're seeing absorption, positive absorption bounce around, but it is positive. And we're seeing CAP rates on slowly coming down as well. All of that, of course, is what Mike is referring to, and it augers towards an improving recovery as we look forward.
On the actual sale and lease numbers for the U.S., I'll give you a few numbers. On the sale side, what we had was a fairly strong pick up in number of transactions first quarter 2011, or first quarter '12, and in the U.S., for instance, that was 11% higher. On the average transaction side, and again this is just U.S., it's not Americas, what we saw there was a 25% increase in transaction size, and these together produce a 37% increase in reported sales revenue first-quarter-over-first-quarter, year-over-year. Now, I want you to be careful, these numbers bounce around, because we are the early stages of recovery, but that's what sales was for the first quarter.
On the leasing side, it was generally flat year-over-year, and we look at office leasing and where the real pick up was, was actually in retail and industrial. And those together gave us, in the U.S. at least, a 5% increase in reported leasing revenue year-over-year.
Again, these numbers bounce around because that's where we are at this point in the cycle, but as Mike said, and as we've mentioned in our deck here, the leasing business is all about job growth, and job growth has been true net job growth has not been anything to write home about for a while. When that picks up and it will, leasing numbers will pick up along with it, and sometimes they pick up in an outsized way when you see real job growth. The sale side actually is chugging along in the U.S. pretty well, and we talk about the slowness in Europe and Asia.
David Ridley-Lane – Bank of America Merrill/Lynch
All right, great. And one more question on different topic – European investment sales volumes, I'm sure you've been getting assignments, but I've been reading that a couple of European banks have suspended their commercial real estate operations, altogether. I'm just wondering, you know, from your perspective how are lending conditions in Europe now, and – you know, how you see that affecting you over the next couple of quarters?
Brett White
You know, it's all – you know, usually we get these questions about New York, so, one reason the headline in New York, and they extrapolate that that's the world. And I – the point that I'm trying to make, and not very well, is that in Europe you do have a couple of banks that are out – more than a couple that are out of the commercial real estate lending market. There's lots of capital flowing around the world that can support the purchase of high quality, investment grade, commercial real estate. Now that having been said, you know, the real issue at the moment in Europe is just uncertainty, and it's – you know, whenever we talk about this, we talk about it in 2008, 2009, 2010, and last year. When you have uncertainty in a market place it makes it hard to find pricing, and – so, when there's uncertainty in the market place, people just slow down and they take their time and they do a lot more work to make sure that they have got a view on pricing, and right now in Europe, I think the story is more about uncertainty in the market place which slows down transaction volume, if it is a lack of financing to buy an asset. If you and I want to go out to London, or to Paris, or to Amsterdam, or for that matter New York, or Huston, or L.A., and buy a high quality asset, we'll get the financing to do it. It's – that's not really the major driver of the slowing that we're seeing – it's a piece of it.
(Operator Instructions). And our next question is from the line of Brandon Dobell with William, Blair. Please go ahead.
Brandon Dobell – William, Blair & Co.
Hi, thanks. First question, given the pace of wins in new space you guys are riding in the corporate business, how do we think about the – I guess the margin dilution near term? And when or at what point should we see I guess those margin comparisons get easier; i.e. where the income margins from the existing contracts are strong enough to offset the upfront spend on the new wins you guys are putting on?
Brett White
Right. I'm going to let Gil and I both take this question. I just wanted, personally, it's a very good question. It's one that we talked about at the Q4 2011 call. And we're in an interesting environment in that we're winning so much business right now that it's actually hurting the margin a bit because these are big, big accounts and they come in, you know, depending on the account, they could turn run rate margin level and profitable six months in, but more likely, it might be a year in or even a bit more.
So it's an interesting – it's a high-class problem to have that we're winning so much new business that this now is impactful in a negative way on the margins. And as I said on the fourth quarter call, if you just kind of do the math in your head, if you want the margins to move up nicely, you actually stop winning new business and then you'd get there in 8 to 12 months. We're not going to stop winning new business. But I do think that this pace of winning, it's unprecedented. I've never seen anything like it.
And I think that that will normalize and become a steadier process for us in the last couple of years. But the margins will get back to a number that I think is more typical for us; part of it will be these accounts, these big, big accounts we're getting, seasoning in, part will be just a change in marketplace.
Again, we've got an expert on the phone that might want to speak with us. Mike, you understand the question well, and this is the issue of we bring in these huge accounts, we don't necessarily lose money on them in the early days, but we certainly aren't making a lot of money. And the question, I think, the analyst-investors are trying to get their head around is, you know, how does that play out in the midterm? And the answer you heard what we're saying. Any opinions on this, Mike?
Unidentified Company Representative
Well, I guess the other thing I would add is the other lines of business are growing at equal or even some of the lines of business, capital markets, has been growing at a faster rate. So when you consider the margins of the entire business and you think about our higher margin business lines, certainly investment management, certainly capital markets when it is stabilized and going into markets like we're in today, which we're still operating at 60 to 70% of where we were in peek of '07. I would submit to you that the overall margins of the business, again, and the diversification of the entire pie really don't dilute.
Yes, on the front end, there's transition costs on these GSC accounts, but we've been able to manage that year after year into the business, we plan for it. It's the investments that then also fuel the growth of our business. So we are investing back into our platform in a big way; in people and in technology and all those things. I would submit to you that our corporate services professionals would say yes, the more GCS business we're going to add in overall relative to all of our lines of business may not be the highest margin business, but I would submit that they're all still – you know, have night trajectories – trajectory of growth. And our margins are pretty consistent year over year in that business. It's not a loss leader by any stretch. We're in that business to make money and find new ways to serve our clients in the higher-end margin pieces too. So if we land an FM account, it's not unusual to find ourselves in a consulting role, doing capital markets transactions, doing sale leaseback transactions and adding on other services that can bolt onto those relationships.
So often times they are the gateway to just tremendous activity down the road with very, very long, 15-20 year, relationships.
Brett White
And Mike makes a good point here. I just want to stress it for our callers, which is the way in which we account within our P&L the various revenues that flow off of various business can be a little tricky. And so when you look at a single line and you look at the outsourcing business, for instance, and you all know this on the phone call. It is not the entire picture. Lots of the higher margin revenues that flow off these accounts aren't captured in that segment. They're captured in leasing, they're captured in – as Mike just said, they're captured in sales, they're captured in valuation. And so just to paraphrase or say a different way from what Mike said, when we tell you that in 2012, in a very tricky global economic environment, that our margins will see solid growth, part of the story there is higher margin work flowing from these corporate accounts, even though the corporate account segment you're looking at, but it looked like the margins went down a bit because these businesses came in, transient costs, et cetera.
So I think Mike makes a very good point. The big picture story here is that this business, the other businesses we have all play a role in a firm that's been able to grow margins quarter, over quarter, over quarter in up cycles and we intend to continue that going forward.
And by the way, you know, if having growth like this in the outsourcing business is one of the things we take massive pride in. These are the absolute best in class world corporations who are trusting with us the facilities they work in. This is great, great stuff we're seeing here.
Brandon Dobell – William, Blair & Co.
I think Gil touched a little bit on secondary market activity and kind of a twofold question there. One would be, you know, pace of a recovery in the secondary markets for investment sales and Gil, did your comment also include leasing or should we not assume that secondary markets are showing the same kind of trajectory for recovery and leasing or growth and leasing as they are for the [inaudible] business now?
Brett White
Yes, Gil's going to let me catch this one. I can't help myself. But here's what I would say. Again, I want to go back to the same thing, which is we're in the early quarters of what I think is going to be a very exciting attractive recovery in the asset class. And this is a particularly rocky, uneven recovery. So – and you know this as well as anyone on the phone call, where we saw recovery start was in the safest places, whether it was leasing or sales, what we saw when the recover was people begin to make investments whether they're owners or occupiers in those places they thought were bulletproof. If they're buying an asset, it was made in Manhattan, you're going to open a data center or you were going to expand a corporate office, you were doing it in the places where you felt most certain about your business.
As this recovery seasons, that recovery, and Gil referenced this earlier, that recovery begins to move a bit up the risk spectrum. And so what you see is, you see assets and you've probably seen this personally, you've seen assets begin to trade in areas outside of Main and Main in Manhattan. You see corporate, whether it's retailer or industrial logistics firms, or big office clients, they begin to do things in markets outside of the major world financial centers. It's absolutely typical for an early-stage recovery and what we said a couple quarters ago, I just want to remind you again is, let's look forward a year from now, or whether it's three quarters or five quarters or whatever it's going to be, this – the strength you see in the major markets in both leasing and sales will have spread out to the secondary and even some of the tertiary markets. That's just a cycle this business goes through and will go through for a very long time, I think.
Brandon Dobell – William, Blair & Co.
And final question for me; I guess the conversion of the pipeline in I guess the three major segments; sales, leasing and outsourcing appropriate services, I guess pace or the kind of feel of conversation as you work through the first quarter, how did that compare to either what it felt like last year's first quarter or what it felt like in the fourth quarter? Was there more predictability, less predictability, good things happening or, you know, out of the blue, or deals getting pushed kind of out of the blue? I guess I'm just trying to get a sense of how to compare your kind of costs of optimism shown with what we would have seen the past several quarters.
Brett White
So I think the answer lies in the results. And what you saw in the results was that we saw in Europe and Asia accruing of the investment property markets. So definitionally what – let me translate that for you. What you saw was hesitancy in closings. What you saw was protracted closings. What you saw was canceled closings. When you see an investment – capital market cool down, that's what's going on. On the leasing side, it's a little bit different. On the leasing side, generally speaking, when occupiers launch a property search and they get into a negotiation to lease 20,000 square feet of retail or 100,000 square feet of office, they don't generally collapse negotiations and walk away. It's a little more – I guess it's a little more sticky and that's why, by the way, the leafing – if you look over the last 20 years, just look at the deltas in leasing revenues, they are much, much less volatile than what you see in the capital markets and it's a lot about that. I think anecdotally, what I would say to you is that for the last eight quarters, what we've seen is [inaudible] and starts. And you and I have talked about it, it's, you know, you get some traction going in the spring of 2011 and people feel that things are a lot better and then there's a shock to the system, the euro sovereign debt issue. And the suddenly the brakes are put on again. And then you get some traction again and then there's China housing bubble issue.
I think that we're going to continue to see these kinds of things through the business until this recovery really gets it's sea legs and it's not there. It's getting incrementally better every quarter. The fundamentals that Mike Lafitte referenced are getting better every quarter. But it's going to be a bumpy ride I think for a bit.
But again, I want to put that in context. You know, if I'm describing a bumpy ride and revenues are up 14% for the quarter and EBITDA is up 25% for the quarter and we're reaffirming guidance, we're telling you our margins are going to expand, I'll take that bumpy ride all day long.
Brandon Dobell – William, Blair & Co.
Yes. I appreciate the commentary. Thanks, Brett.
Brett White
You bet.
And we have a question from the line of Anthony Paolone with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.
Anthony Paolone – JPMorgan
Thanks. Your cash balance declined from year end as expected. You guys paid bonuses and so forth. But if you look at where – your guidance and so forth is, if you hit numbers, it seems like your cash balance would start to go back up to close to a billion dollars. I'm just wondering how you're thinking about use of that cash and just perhaps acquisition opportunities that might be out there.
Gil Borok
Good question. You're absolutely right on the first quarter activity, obviously with the seasonality of the business, the balance will come down and then it ought to build as the year progresses. The top of mind for us is de-levering. I'll remind you that we do have – we don't have debt coming due, but we do have callable debt in June of 2013. And that is like expensive at 11.625% debt. So I won't give a definitive, but I think logic would suggest that we need to look at that very carefully.
M&A is always something that we look at, you know we do it and we do it well. And it is, again, something that is on the menu of items. But short of something that is going to be accretive and very positive for us and strategic, de-levering is really the order of the day. And we've got a reason to do it with expensive debt coming due in June of '13. But at the moment, we're in a bit of wait-and-see, that is looming and we are still in early days in terms of the cycle, so there may be opportunities, nothing definitive enough that we are going to talk about. It's just a function of where we are in the cycle that we've got these two opportunities I suppose to utilize cash. But de-levering is top of mind.
Brett White
I'm just going to add to that, Anthony, and I agree 100% with what Gil just said. I'll just add to this that at – in a market environment like we're in, M&A is something that, first of all, it's dial tone for us. So we're always looking at what's out there and available. You're just going to see probably a little bit less of it in a marketplace like this. If Gil said, you know, de-levering is certainly at the top of our list, there's a lot of movement in the market right now in terms of very small M&A, but not much is very attractive. And we have our priorities at the moment that are not really built around doing 100 M&A deals this year. We've got this world class platform now, top business line in every business line we're in and really leveraging the synergies of this business lines and growing our business now with this great platform, it's a very, very exciting proposition.
If an opportunity arises out in the marketplace, as we've always said before, you know, in a good market or bad, and this I would describe as a pretty good market, we're going to look at it. But the high-quality opportunities are few and far between at the moment.
Anthony Paolone – JPMorgan
Okay. Thank you.
Brett White
And I'll turn it back to our speakers for any closing remarks.
Brett White
Great. Well, thanks, everybody. We'll talk to you in another quarter. Bye.
Ladies and gentlemen, this will conclude our conference call for today. We thank you for your participation and for using AT&T Executive Teleconference service. You may now disconnect.
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text:
An Arizona mother has been accused of injecting her 5-year-old daughter with methamphetamine.
Jacqueline Trousdale, 30, was arrested June 9 by police in Tolleson, Ariz., after a crime lab reportedly found the drug in a sample of the child's urine, according to KPHO CBS 5 News.
The news station reported that police were called to a Tolleson hotel in October 2012 on allegations of child abuse and molestation. The girl's father told them he had confronted Trousdale about her own alleged drug use and claims from their children that she had been injecting them with drugs and allowing men to molest them at the hotel.
Child Protective Services were notified, and during a subsequent investigation, urine samples were taken, CBS5 said. Exams showed no signs of sexual abuse.
Trousdale is charged with one count of child abuse, one count of endangering the life and health of a minor and one count of theft.
To see the entire story, visit kpho.com.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
In this Cookbook we often refer to the Newscoop template pack called "The Journal". If you are interested in sniffing out some other sneaky tricks in this (or other) template packs, you can go to the Sourcefabric website and download template packs from http://www.sourcefabric.org/en/products/newscoop_templates/
Before you begin a Newscoop implementation, getting these things together really should be your first steps.
- Working Newscoop installation
- Text editor, preferably one with PHP markup
- Image editor for preparing designs and images (GIMP, Photoshop, etc.)
- Site specification (see the next chapter, Turning your idea into a publication)
The steps to successfully install Newscoop can be found in the "Newscoop for Journalists and Editors" manual at http://manuals.sourcefabric.org
While Newscoop includes a template editor which works perfectly well, you'll probably prefer to work locally on your computer. Good text editors include Gedit on Ubuntu, Kate on Kubuntu, Notepad++ or even Dreamweaver on Windows, and of course command line editors like Emacs, vi, pico and nano.


text:
Wed, 2013-04-24 09:43
I will be starting the interview process with Raymond James for their Financial Advisory Mastery Training Program.
Would anyone know the salary range for this position?
I do not posess any sales experience but do have:
BA, Business Accounting
MBA, Finance (12/2013)
6 years in the Finance/Accounting Field with Air Force
2 years as a Deputy PMt for a defense company
if any of this would matter.


text:
MUSKEGON COUNTY, MI – The Michigan Department of Transportation is seeking public comments on the latest draft of its Five-Year Transportation Program.
The 2014-2018 outlook, released by MDOT in December, calls for three Muskegon County projects along U.S. 31 BR totaling about 11 miles of work.
MDOT spokesman John Richard described the outlook as a revolving plan that is updated annually to help the state agency prioritize and streamline future projects.
"This helps us plan not only the following project season, but for extra projects that we are ready to do," Richard said. "Nothing is really set in stone. The plan lets people know what's on the horizon."
Every year, many project details are either revised or eliminated because of funding or other issues, he said.
The latest draft calls for the reconstruction of U.S. 31 BR/Colby Street from Hall Street to Division Street in the Whitehall area.
The five-year outlook also plans for resurfacing along Seaway Drive from U.S. 31 North to Shoreline Drive and for overlay work on Seaway Drive from U.S. 31 BR over Little Black Creek.
Last spring, MDOT rehabilitated the bridge approach crossing over Little Black Creek, which flows from the east end of Mona Lake through Fruitport Township. The project prompted temporary lane closures for about a month.
Several projects are planned in the neighboring Kent and Ottawa counties, including the M-231 Project and an expansion along U.S. 31 in Grand Haven.
The Grand Haven project, described by MDOT officials as a "Capacity Improvement" measure, would add more than three miles of lanes in both directions between Franklin Street north to Jackson Street in the Tri-Cities area municipality.
Some residents, along with the Grand Haven City Council, have opposed the project, saying the expansion will eliminate the roadway's median, which pedestrians often use for crossing.
Mayor Geri McCaleb has said that the project, set to begin in 2018, will further divide the community geographically. The City Council, under her direction, passed a resolution formally opposing the project in October.
The resolution suggested alternatives, including a request that MDOT delay the project to collect more data about traffic along U.S. 31.
The U.S. 31 expansion also calls for more lanes from Lakewood Boulevard north to Quincy Street in Holland Charter Township.
The sole Oceana County project calls for resurfacing along U.S. 31 from Fruitvale Road north to Winston Road.
The Five-Year plan comes as the Michigan officials grapple with a transportation funding crisis, although costly repairs and other work is needed on the state's roadways. MDOT figures suggest the average cost to replace a five-lane bridge deck cost $1.7 million, while the typical price tag for resurfacing two mile-long lanes of asphalt costs $800,000.
Richard said the five-year plan will be finalized and approved by the end of January.
The full document is available on the MDOT website at www.michigan.gov/mdot5yearplan
Comments will be accepted until Friday, Jan. 10, and should be directed to Bob Parsons at Public Involvement and Hearings Officer, Bureau of Highways, Michigan Department of Transportation, P.O. Box 30050, Lansing, MI 48909; via fax: 517-373-9255; or via e-mail: email@example.com.


text:
CLIO, MI -- Clio Cast & Crew will perform an award-winning play in February, and they're welcoming auditions next week.
The crew will perform "August: Osage County," a play by Tracy Letts, on select dates from Feb. 8, until Feb. 17. The crew needs actors for six roles and seven women.
Theatre 57, 2220 W. Vienna Road, Clio, will host auditions on Dec. 10 and Dec. 11 at 6:30 p.m. or by arrangement.
The "black humor" play focuses on the fictional Beverley Weston, a famous poet who became addicted to pills and alcohol, and her dysfunctional family.
According to its web site and to a press release, "August: Osage County" won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a Tony Award, along with praise from Oprah Winfrey.


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Did you keep track of your total mileage in 2011?
If you logged every run, or just did some quick math to see about where you finished up, let us know!
RunOregon facebook users posed their 2011 mileage; our readers' annual totals ranged from around 300 to a precise 4,796. (Wow!)


text:
Saturday, 22 October, 2016
Workshop and bookstore for speculative fiction writers, explanations and examples ... Category: Entertainment\Writers Resources
The official site for the IAAA with how to join, ... Category: Visual Arts\Thematic
Contemporary bronze sculpture in Memphis Category: Visual Arts\Sculpture
This Norwegian artist, currently based in California, shows works in ... Category: Visual Arts\Personal
Acrylics and watercolors displaying hard-edged realism touched by whimsy and ... Category: Visual Arts\Painting
Colorful Up-Art presented by Shunyam Art Gallery, Nieuwe Spiegelstraat 72 ... Category: Visual Arts\Galleries
Max's AOL Gallery, computer art with large-scale effects plus links ... Category: Visual Arts\Computer Graphics
Fine digital art, animations, qtvrs, tutorials, and index of fractal ... Category: Visual Arts\Computer Graphics
Imagined scenes from the Earth and other planets by Walter ... Category: Visual Arts\Computer Graphics
Gallery of 3D art created using Bryce 4, Poser 3, ... Category: Visual Arts\Computer Graphics
Interactive chat for Star Trek and The Matrix, with a ... Category: Television\Programs
Includes starship information, web polls, links, dedication plaques, trivia, and ... Category: Television\Programs
Site dedicated to Star Trek, Amber, and Star Wars. Includes ... Category: Television\Programs
"I'll put a bucket on my head and pretend to ... Category: Television\Programs
Companion site to WGBH Science Series. Includes complementary in-depth information, ... Category: Television\Programs
Tour the universe and find out a bit about the ... Category: Television\Programs
Includes descriptions of different astronomical and physics theories and concepts. ... Category: Television\Programs
Stories about Josh and Sam from the show. Category: Television\Programs
USAToday.com article exploring the various faces of God in the ... Category: Television\Programs
A stockpile of movie files, images, articles, video games, and ... Category: Television\Networks
Plan your backyard stargazing with the celestial information gleaned from ... Category: Radio\Formats
Site contains two galleries. The "Cloud Beings" Gallery displays photos ... Category: Photography\Photographers
Nature, sports and nude photographs by Sergey V. Karelin, Anatoliy ... Category: Photography\Photographers
Original photos from across Canada and Newfoundland. Category: Photography\Photographers
The '300' star reveals how grueling physical training gave him ... Category: Performing Arts\Acting
With photos, animations and videos. Category: Entertainment\People
A few thumbnailed pictures from movie magazines. Category: Entertainment\People
Includes pictures, a biography, information, ratings, and links. Category: Entertainment\People
Ten personal poems; author contacts included. Category: Online Writing\Poetry
A small personal collection. Category: Online Writing\Poetry
A large collection of personal and submitted poetry for the ... Category: Online Writing\Poetry
A four piece punk band from Gainesville, FL. Site features ... Category: Music\Styles
Welcome to the Setlist Archive for Karl Denson's Tiny Universe. ... Category: Music\Styles
Has a lot of speedcore in his sound area. Category: Music\Styles
JEM, Universe and Ibanez 7-string guitars as played by Steve ... Category: Music\Instruments
Designs, handcrafts, and plays percussion and wind instruments. Offers presentations, ... Category: Music\Instruments
Practicing the Organ; British Organs, Past Present and Future; Hymn ... Category: Music\Instruments
A Dutch rock band whose sound is best described as ... Category: Music\Bands and Artists
Collection of guitar tablature and lyrics. Category: Music\Bands and Artists
The guitarist's official home page. Biography, discography, photos, sound and ... Category: Music\Bands and Artists


text:
Predators win in extras
L.J. Safranek had the winning RBI single in the top of the seventh and Mike Conti supplied three hits as the Predators beat the Cyclones 7-4 in seven innings in the second round of the Cal Ripken Fall Ball Major B playoffs. Mike Trimarchi tossed the final three innings for the win.
Andrew Cordero had two hits and three RBI and Jordan Kearney supplied a two-run double in the Staten Island Warriors' 9-4 second-round playoff win over the Thunder. James Costanzo struck out nine.
Shane Lopez's two RBI led Dema's Royals over the Kings 4-0 in another postseason encounter. Peter Piccolino (win) and Will Lonergan (save) pitched.
Anthony Sperto and Nicholas Nardulli combined to fan nine and Joe Dimeo delivered the winning RBI single in the home sixth to lift the Slammers to a 3-2 Major triumph over the Richmond County Rangers.
Dave Esposito, John Bartocci and Michael Fidanza had three RBI each as the Richmond County Americans routed Legends 11-1 in a Major playoff.
Frank Picardi and Mychal Mondone combined for six RBI as the Outlaws defeated the Warriors 10-8 in a 10s game.
Chili's rallied with a nine-run sixth to defeat Gators National 9-6 in an 8s contest. Allan Ecimovic had two hits and three RBI in that sixth inning. Vincent Volpe (win in relief, two RBI) and Thomas Sepulveda (winning two-run double) also starred.
Mark Pompa (complete game, 12 Ks), Paul Mazzella (3 for 4, RBI) and Andrew Giove (two hits, RBI) powered JVA Masonry (South Shore) to a 4-1 win over Gino's Cafe (Mid-Island) in the Babe Ruth Interleague 15s championship.
In a Major semifinal, the Hitmen (M-I) defeated Ferrantino Fuel (M-I), 4-0. Billy Magro (shutout), Blake DeRenzis (two-run double), Matt Cangemi (RBI) and Nick DeConto (centerfield defense) starred for the Hitmen.
Babe Ruth Interleague
JVA Masonry (SS) 4, Gino's Cafe (MI) 1
Hitmen (MI) 4, Ferrantino Fuel (MI) 0
Cal Ripken Fall Ball
Predators 7, Cyclones 4
SI Warriors 9, Thunder 4
Dema's Royals 4, Kings 0
Slammers 3, RC Rangers 2
Outlaws 10, Warriors 8
RB Americans 11, Legends 1
Chili's 9, Gators National 6


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Island-wide service on Kauai for over 20 years. Over 2000 clients and counting...
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"When I need a construction company, Construction Hawaii.com is always ready, willing, and able to fill my needs. Their reputation for doing it right the first time is well deserved."


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MultiOperator Chat Software 188.8.131.52
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Date added: 2008-09-12
Publisher: Salvage Files
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DING DONG! I heard the doorbell ring calling my attention to my weekly grocery delivery.
Internet enabled grocery shopping has saved me a ton of time and effort simplifying my life. My new cloud connected smart fridge tracks what is used during the week and places an order to ensure everything is restocked.
Life has gotten very convenient with everything connected via the cloud. I open the door to allow the deliveryman to bring the groceries inside and much to my surprise there are several men and a large truck. It seems I had ordered 50 gallons of milk, 10 cases of cereal, 10 cases of crackers, and a lot more.
I looked at the order on the super fridge and found out that my order had indeed been modified. It seems a hacker had breached my refrigerator and decided to have some fun. Who can you call to perform a security investigation on your refrigerator?
Of course this is a fictional situation. I know we have Internet enabled fridges out there now, nothing I have seen with the automated tracking and ordering, but we aren't far from that capability. How much effort is being put into securing our appliances against security breaches? Are appliance makers aware of the security concerns like my television, coffee pot, or refrigerator being used to perform cyber-attacks?
As more smart devices are created and brought to market we have a growing security concern. We have seen situations where security cameras and video baby monitors can be breached and used by malicious users to spy on people in their own homes. Internet connected smart houses and security systems can be hacked and used to facilitate bad guys while hindering the home owners.
However, breaching our homes and privacy is only one part of the problem. We need to look at what we are connecting to the Internet these days.
We have Internet connected pacemakers, insulin pumps, defibrillators, and other medical devices. Have these vendors ensured that the devices are running hardened encryption and operating systems? Are they giving as much thought to securing these life saving devices against misuse from those who would do harm?
It would be a bad thing to have my refrigerator used against me, but to have my pacemaker or insulin pump used against me could be much worse. The fact that we are now connecting everything to the internet is great, unfortunately there are people out there who will misuse these devices and wreak havoc.
I can see the world is ready and excited about all of this convenience and connectivity, however, are the companies who are connecting these devices preparing them for those connections? We need to ensure the cloud itself is secured, the devices are secured, and the applications are secured.
We also need to make users aware of the potential exposure through the use of these devices. When purchasing these cloud connected smart devices we need to ask the people selling them and making them, are they secure? Will my information and privacy be safe when I use this device? If the consumer doesn't demand security then the manufacturer will not consider the importance of security and privacy when designing and building these appliances.


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John Lanorith, 42, of Kiswick Street, was sent to prison for 20 years to life under a plea deal to second-degree murder in the shooting death of Elgudzha Koyenishvili during a holdup inside Discount Wines & Liquors on Lincoln Avenue in May 2008.
"This was a cruel murder of a well-respected store owner," Justice Stephen J. Rooney said during today's sentencing at state Supreme Court, St. George.
Lanorith, dressed in a shirt and tie, opted not to make a statement on his own behalf.
His attorney, Manuel Ortega, said Lanorith was "deeply regretful for his actions that day."
Lanorith walked into the store at about 8:15 p.m. on May 21, 2008, brandished a gun and demanded money. When Koyenishvili pulled out a bat and swung it to defend himself, Lanorith shot the 67-year-old Russian immigrant twice in the chest.
Lanorith then fled in a blue pickup truck with the store's cash register.
A female friend, Phyllis Ciesienski-Cicinia, allegedly took the register from the back of a car in a Grasmere parking lot and drove to Jersey City where she dumped it.
Lanorith was arrested the following day, and police recovered the cash register from a large trash bin.
Ms. Ciesienski-Cicinia was charged with hindering prosecution and tampering with physical evidence. Her case remains pending under a sealed indictment.
Koyenishvili, of New Springville, was a neighborhood mainstay for more than 10 years.
Speaking on behalf of the family during the sentencing hearing, Koyenishvili's son Zaza Cohen said his father "came to this country to follow a dream."
Koyenishvili was gunned down, Cohen added, a few days before his grandson was born.
"My father died just before the dream of his life was going to come true," Cohen said.
"The only thing we want," Cohen added, "is that [Lanorith] be reminded every day for the rest of his life what he took away from us."
Assistant District Attorney Kelly Carroll, who prosecuted the case with Assistant District Attorney Wanda DeOliveira, listed three separate convictions dating back to 1991 -- each on counts of burglary -- that put Lanorith behind bars after police found his fingerprints at several home-invasion sites.
Ms. Carroll drew a parallel between the progression of forensics over the past 20 years and Lanorith's progressive pattern of crime.
"Forensics have changed for the better," Ms. Carroll said, "the defendant, for the worst."


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Oh yeah......that guy. One of the things I didn't like about Ranma 1/2 was him and Ranma's father who stole Ranma's food constantly and blatantly abused him his whole life. But even that doesn't hold a candle to that little shit who is not only the most vain and selfish old man in anime but he's extremely perverted and not in a funny way. He was just a major pain who ruined every episode he was in.
For me I'll say Ren Gyokuen from Magi. You'd have to read the manga to really know why but I HATE her so damn much.
You can't end a good party without someone on the floor.
imo he is so fucking irritating
You can't end a good party without someone on the floor.
Sae Kashiwagi from Peach Girl


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The cartoons that mesmerize our kids might have a lot more to offer than just being an awesome babysitter. Moms could actually learn something from the mama characters, like how to be a better parent and speak in a much softer voice. And wear more colorful clothing.
An article at the new Nick Mom, I Wish I Could Be Like: Dora's Mom inspired me to think of the five animated mothers that I kind of want to be like, seen below.
Caillou's Mom 1 of 5The always primary-colored dressed mom to Caillou and Rosie not only puts up with her son's whiny voice all the day long but she really does demonstrate gentleness, patience, and creativity with her kids. And she seems to be a great wife to Dad, too. She's probably the only thing I like about that show!
Helen Parr from The Incredibles 2 of 5AKA Elastigirl, this superhero mom birthed three superhero children- Violet, Dash, and Baby Jack Jack and can stretch and change shape to most anything- an excellent good mom quality. Remember the time she became a parachute and boat to save her kids' lives? That was pretty awesome. (Ma Incredible can also be seen in my 15 Best Movie Moms Ever)
Little Bear's Mom 3 of 5Really I just want to be Little Bear and have his mom for my own. I love her soft voice and laughter and how she's always cooking something good in the kitchen. She's also great at problem solving and lets her cub explore in the woods on his own. Also- did you ever see A Kiss For Little Bear ? My favorite episode ever. She's the sweetest.
Max and Ruby's Mom 4 of 5So, I want to be more free-range like Max and Ruby's mom. They seem to be doing just fine (except for Ruby being a bit too responsible for her little brother... maybe?)
And if you were wondering where the heck Max and Ruby's parents are, according to an exclusive interview with Nick Jr (hat tip to The Stir), Rosemary Wells, the creator of Max and Ruby explains, "We don't see Max and Ruby's parents because I believe that kids resolve their issues and conflicts differently when they're on their own. The television series gives kids a sense about how these two siblings resolve their conflicts in a humorous and entertaining way."
Marge Simpson 5 of 5Mom to Bart, Lisa, & Maggie,
Marge previously made my list of the 5 TV Moms Who Inspire Me to Be a Better Mother. She's always rolling with the punches with nary a fuss (okay, maybe she'll make that cute little grumble of hers) but Marge is an excellent example of patience and love for her family.
Which cartoon moms do you admire?
Read Stephanie's posts at Strollerderby and her personal blog, Adventures in Babywearing.
Don't miss…
15 Dolls of Famous Women Authors
5 TV Moms Who Inspire Me to Be a Better Mother
13 Classic Cartoons Then & Now
Check out more of Babble's Favorite TV Moms!


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The Idaho Statesman reports that William Ryberg, former president of the Oregon Symphony, has taken a job as director of the Sun Valley Center for the Arts.
Ryberg left the Oregon Symphony to lead the Palm Beach Opera in Florida in 2006, and was succeeded by Elaine Calder. During his two years in Portland, he faced a challenging time of million-dollar-plus deficits and weak ticket sales, but he also helped secure the largest gift in the symphony's history --a $6 million matching grant from the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation --and expanded the number of symphony donors.


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Guangzhou Chihai Electronic Industrial Co.,Ltd
LED display, Sensor, Thermo detector, Date displays, LED light, Manufacturer and Supplier - China
This product can be used as a night light, is the combination of solar and crafts; It is energy saving and environmental protection, and itis a decorative embellishment; Your life will be more colorful and interesting with this light. It is the perfe... - Update: 2011-10-28
This product uses optical sensor technology. It could be lighting at night, turn off at dawn automatically, and absorb sunlight for charging; it is waterproof and easy to use. It is the ideal choice of being gift for students, sales, company engaged ... - Update: 2011-10-28


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Ty Anderson started his high school career at Hoover. After moving to Cumming, Ga., to star for West Forsyth High School during his junior and senior seasons, his skill level is bringing him back to the state of Alabama.
Anderson committed to Jacksonville State under the previous coaching staff. New head coach Bill Clark honored the offer, and Anderson kept his word with the school. He'll sign with JSU on Feb. 6.
"I was unsure and didn't really know what was going to happen," Anderson said. "Thankfully everything worked out and I like what they've got going."
Anderson is a 6-foot-3, 210-pound tight end. He's one of at least three prospects slated to sign with JSU on Feb. 6, including Fitzgerald offensive lineman Brett Steverson and Jonesboro-Lovejoy linebacker Nate Norwood.
"I like the location," Anderson said. "With me being from Birmingham and moving to Atlanta, it's right in the middle. It's not too far from home and I love all the coaches. I had a good visit last week and I like the way they use the tight end. I'm excited about it all."
Anderson said he also visited Air Force and Furman before solidifying his decision to sign with Jacksonville State.


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I have been going combine crazy the last few days, so my mind is hot on the draft. I thought about a scenario that would be quite interesting should it come up. It could be the key to an incredible off-season for Gang Green.
It has to do with the Cowboys and the Jerry Jones' infatuation with running back Darren McFadden. Jones could only be drooling even more after watching McFadden "wow" the crowd with his 4.33 forty yesterday.
So here is the deal; the sixth pick comes up for the Jets and McFadden is still on the board. The Cowboys come calling and offer pick 22 and 28 plus perhaps a player to move up to that sixth spot to take McFadden. Do the Jets A) Stay there and pick McFadden, B) Stay there and pick another player, perhaps DT Sedrick Ellis, or C) Take the deal and end up having 3 of the top 36 picks in the draft, potentially filling 3 major holes with good players?
A very interesting situation for Tangini, should it come down. The team could draft an offensive tackle, a defensive lineman AND a wide receiver with those three picks. How about looking at these three players wearing Green and White when the first two rounds have been completed.
Pick 22) Limas Sweed, WR, Texas - Big receiver Jets need badly.
Pick 28) Gosder Cherilus, OT, BC - Plug him in at right tackle.
Pick 36) Quentin Groves, DE/OLB, Auburn - Instant outside pass rush, will take Hobson's spot.
I would feel pretty good about coming away from day one of the draft with these 3 guys. Add to these acquisitions the trade of Jonathan Vilma to the Lions for DT Shaun Rodgers and perhaps picking up guard Alan Faneca in free agency and that would be one hell of an off-season.
It seems pretty doable to me, but can Tangini find a way to get it done?


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City comedian and actress Jo Enright heads cast of hit show set in Brum job centre
Alan Poole delves into the world of music this week to bring you the latest gossip and gigs hitting the Birmingham and the West Midlands.
Fionnuala Bourke samples the food on offer at Birmingham's Glee Club during their Thursday night Comedy Carousel.
He fought and won a battle with media giant 20th Century Fox over the name of his comedy club and now Glee owner Mark Tughan is celebrating 20 years of laughs. He talks to Roz Laws
Glee founder talks Michael McIntyre, Lee Evans mahem, accidents, launches and deaths
Brum will welcome another wave of students this September so here's six of our must-know locations in the city
Sharon Corr chats about harmonies, hating modern music and having to move forward.
Alan Poole delves into the world of music this week to bring you the latest gossip.
Alabama-born sisters coming to Brum in September
Comedian James Mullinger's new show is about how he fell in love with Danny Dyer. Roz Laws finds out why
Judge rules that programme breached UK club chain's trademark
Singer and violinist from legendary Irish group to play Glee Club
West Midlands workplaces are funniest in UK, says Birmingham's Glee Club
Alan Poole
delves into the world of music this week to bring you the latest gossip.
Steve Adams reviews White Denim at Birmingham's Glee Club
Fitness fanatic Craig Campbell tells Dave Freak
about his charity trek
Comic Jason Manford is putting his money where his mouth is by opening new comedy clubs. He tells Roz Laws
why he's taking the risk.
Alan Poole delves into the world of music this week to bring you the latest gossip.
Comedian Lucy Porter tells Dave Freak
about making Midlanders choose between the North and South
Outrageous and thoughtful in equal measure, Richard Herring delighted his fans
Comedian Rob Beckett talks to Dave Freak
about teeth and testicles
Comedian Richard Herring's latest live solo show is the snappily titled We're All Going To Die!
Controversial comic faces up to mortality in new stand-up show at Birmingham Glee Club
Comedian and actress Kerry Godliman tells Dave Freak
about working with Ricky Gervais and heading out on tour
Comedian Andrew Lawrence says There Is No Escape from his latest show. He tells Roz Laws
about broken hearts and broken computers
The jewel in the crown of Rupert Murdoch's empire received costly blow at High Court today when a top judge ruled the enormous success of TV show Glee infringed British company's trade marks
Actress quits role in Waterloo Road to concentrate on her singing career
Comedian James Acaster plays Birmingham's Glee Club on November 28.
Comedian Trevor Noah focuses on the harsh reality of racism for his tour. He talks to Roz Laws .
Comedian Charlie Baker is on tour and tells Roz Laws about being friends with Jay Z, dressing as a dormouse and lying.
Birmingham rapper Jimmy Davis tells Roz Laws
about tackling social issues and his love of Aston Villa.
Birmingham Friends of the Earth organising comedy gig as part of their air pollution and cycling campaign, Let's Get Moving
Birmingham Mail
Is there something happening in your area you would like us to report on?
Tell us about it and, if possible, send us a picture
We reach over 2,871,244* unique users a month with dedicated coverage of Birmingham and the West Midlands.
Over 66% of our visitors, who view over 4m* page impressions every month, are in the desirable ABC1 socio-economic groups.
To book an advert with the Birmingham Mail team call 0121 234 5000, email firstname.lastname@example.com or visit the Trinity Mirror Midlands website for more information.
The Birmingham Mail is part of Trinity Mirror Midlands, offering you unique access to our audience across the region online and in print.
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Editor, Birmingham MailEditor-in-Chief, Trinity Mirror Midlands
Marc Reeves has edited the Birmingham Mail since December 2014.
Marc Reeves is the editor of the Birmingham Mail and the Birmingham Post, and has worked in regional media in the Midlands and across the UK for more than 30 years.


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Product Description
Green Sprinkles Candy Topping
Delicious, scrumptious and fun!
Perfect toppings for cakes, ice cream and desserts alike!
Use these candy Decorettes® to decorate donuts, cupcakes, cakes, cookies, and other desserts. Whether you're baking for Christmas, Valentine's Day, a special occasions, a birthday party or just for fun, these colorful candy sprinkles will add that extra special touch!
Carton contains 6 Lb. of Green Candy Sprinkles.


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1 Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, now that Ehud was dead.
2 So the Lord sold them into the hands of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. Sisera, the commander of his army, was based in Harosheth Haggoyim.
3 Because he had nine hundred chariots fitted with iron and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the Lord for help.
4 Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading[a] Israel at that time.
5 She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went up to her to have their disputes decided.
6 She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, �The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you: �Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead them up to Mount Tabor.
7 I will lead Sisera, the commander of Jabin�s army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.��
8 Barak said to her, �If you go with me, I will go; but if you don�t go with me, I won�t�go.�
9 �Certainly I will go with you,� said Deborah. �But because of the course you are taking, the honor will not be yours, for the Lord will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman.� So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh.
10 There Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali, and ten thousand men went up under his command. Deborah also went up with him.
11 Now Heber the Kenite had left the other Kenites, the descendants of Hobab, Moses� brother-in-law,[b] and pitched his tent by the great tree in Zaanannim near Kedesh.
12 When they told Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor,
13 Sisera summoned from Harosheth Haggoyim to the Kishon River all his men and his nine hundred chariots fitted with iron.
14 Then Deborah said to Barak, �Go! This is the day the Lord has given Sisera into your hands. Has not the Lord gone ahead of you?� So Barak went down Mount Tabor, with ten thousand men following him.
15 At Barak�s advance, the Lord routed Sisera and all his chariots and army by the sword, and Sisera got down from his chariot and fled on foot.
16 Barak pursued the chariots and army as far as Harosheth Haggoyim, and all Sisera�s troops fell by the sword; not a man was left.
17 Sisera, meanwhile, fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there was an alliance between Jabin king of Hazor and the family of Heber the Kenite.
18 Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, �Come, my lord, come right in. Don�t be afraid.� So he entered her tent, and she covered him with a blanket.
19 �I�m thirsty,� he said. �Please give me some water.� She opened a skin of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him�up.
20 �Stand in the doorway of the tent,� he told her. �If someone comes by and asks you, �Is anyone in there?� say��No.��
21 But Jael, Heber�s wife, picked up a tent peg and a hammer and went quietly to him while he lay fast asleep, exhausted. She drove the peg through his temple into the ground, and he died.
22 Just then Barak came by in pursuit of Sisera, and Jael went out to meet him. �Come,� she said, �I will show you the man you�re looking for.� So he went in with her, and there lay Sisera with the tent peg through his temple�dead.
23 On that day God subdued Jabin king of Canaan before the Israelites.
24 And the hand of the Israelites pressed harder and harder against Jabin king of Canaan until they destroyed him.
Top 10 sermons on Judges 4
- The Heroine Of God
- �Some Trust in Chariots�
- Spiritual Renewal:Women's Challenge To The Church
- A Woman's Place
- Mother's Awake!
Copyright � 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.�
Used by Permission of Biblica, Inc.� All rights reserved worldwide.


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Lost Trail Backcountry - 2 Day
Skiing off the Anderson Crest with a night at a beautiful lodge in the heart of the backcountry.
Our premier, first class experience for backcountry skiers! We have assembled a program to provide the quick getaway combining the best high mountain terrain, the most experienced ski mountaineering guides and most charming backcountry lodge in the Tahoe area.
It begins with lift transport at Sugar Bowl Ski Resort. With your guide, you'll leave the boundary of the ski area with avalanche transceivers, probe and shovel and only a small, light day pack. You'll ski and skin climb the best terrain of the Anderson Ridge crest until the last run taking us into the forest, arriving at the beautiful backcountry lodge in Cold Stream Canyon. After hors d'oeuvres, relaxation and dinner, we'll enjoy a good nights sleep in a beautiful room with a loft that is private to our group. An early rise, hearty breakfast and a brisk climb brings us to new, high terrain and more great descents. After more wonderful skiing we'll tour out of the canyon to complete this stellar ski adventure.
Prerequisites: Advanced skiing skills with ability to link turns in the fall line in ungroomed snow conditions. Previous backcountry skiing experience with climbing skins is recommended. Very good physical condition is necessary.
Call 530-426-7005 with questions