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BofA Merrill Lynch Consolidates Data Systems
Bank of America Merrill Lynch announced it has consolidated multiple systems in its Global Transaction Services business into a centralized data repository. Eliminating these silos and creating a single repository will allow BofA Merrill to offer enhanced information reporting and analytics capability to its clients who access their bank data via the CashPro Online, CashPro Connect or CashPro Mobile services, the bank said.
The centralized repository allows clients to search across all Bank of America accounts and selected accounts at other banks, while system users can now look up transactions from the previous 365 days by various fields including payee, amount and date without needing to determine which account was utilized for the transaction, according to the bank. This was previously not available.
[Register for Interop here and check out the "Navigating the Big Spectrum of Big Data's Solutions" session on October 4 in NYC.]
"This reporting hub enables us to transition our information reporting services to an enhanced client-centric model," said Cindy Murray, head of Global Treasury Product Platforms and e-Channels. "Clients now have much greater control over and increased flexibility with how they want to see the data and generate reports. Their reporting details will be configurable by individual client, and can change as their own company's needs evolve with system integration and upgrades. The end result will be a movement from reporting systems to reconciliation platforms with improved visibility, flexibility and responsiveness."
[See Also: Science Versus Art in Risk Management: Lessons from Merrill Lynch]
Bryan Yurcan is associate editor for Bank Systems and Technology. He has worked in various editorial capacities for newspapers and magazines for the past 8 years. After beginning his career as a municipal and courts reporter for daily newspapers in upstate New York, Bryan has ... View Full Bio


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Paper piecing (or foundation piecing) is a technique that ensures high accuracy and is especially useful for piecing more complicated patchwork blocks. I love paper piecing and it has been too long since my last paper piecing project. I am in need of a paper piecing fix!
- Glue Stick: I use this instead of pins (which I find distorts the papers). The smallest touch of glue will temporarily adhere your first fabric piece to your foundation paper. You can adjust the fabric until it is in just the right spot and from there stitch your additional pieces with confidence.
- Sticky Tape: To tape together any foundation papers that are accidentally cut into - Oops!
- Tweezers: Very handy tool when it comes to removing the foundation papers, especially from the sharp points and seam lines.
- Seam Ripper: self-explanatory.

subset: commoncrawl


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New Study Shakes Up Science On Midwest Quake Zone
One of the biggest earthquakes in U.S. history didn't occur in California. Or Alaska. It happened in the country's midsection some 200 years ago in an area where today seven states straddle the Mississippi River Valley.
And seismologists from the United States Geological Survey believe they've uncovered evidence that the New Madrid Seismic Zone, as the area that spawned the 1811-12 quakes is known, is still alive and kicking.
In the early 19th century, not many people lived in the region, but for those who did, the earthquakes must have been a gut-wrenching experience, says Susan Hough, a seismologist with the USGS in Pasadena, Calif., in an interview with NPR's All Things Considered.
Hough and co-author Morgan Page, a fellow USGS seismologist, published their findings in Thursday's issue of the journal Science. Hough says that since there were no seismometers at the time, scientists can only guess at strength of the quakes. They think that the strongest were at least magnitude 7.
"They were felt all the way to the East Coast," she tells ATC host Melissa Block. "They rang church bells in Charleston, S.C. One of the documented fatalities was actually near Louisville, Ky., which is relatively far from the New Madrid zone."
USGS says the first of magnitude 7 quakes struck at 2 a.m. on Dec. 16, 1811. Two others followed on Jan. 23 and Feb. 7. "Intermittent strong shaking continued through March 1812 and aftershocks strong enough to be felt occurred through the year 1817," USGS says.
KQED Science writes:
"A large area was thoroughly disrupted around the common borders of Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky and Illinois. Riverbanks collapsed, farm fields erupted in mud and sand, large areas of land turned to jelly, and part of northwestern Tennessee sank and filled with water to form Reelfoot Lake."
Could it happen again?
Although the region is still deemed "a high hazard zone" for earthquakes, Hough says, the prevailing hypothesis is still that the past 200 years of mostly weak temblors are all essentially aftershocks of the 1811-1812 quakes.
However, The Weather Channel says:
"In recent years, a handful of studies claimed the New Madrid was settling down instead of prepping for another round of earthquakes. But the USGS team instead suggests that ongoing earthquakes in the New Madrid Seismic Zone are something new, resulting from the buildup of seismic energy on the faults.
" 'Even though we can't predict earthquakes, we can predict the rates of aftershocks over time,' [lead author] Page explains. The frequency of aftershocks — smaller quakes that follow the big earthquake — decreases with time, known in seismology as Omori's Law. And in the New Madrid Seismic Zone, the aftershocks aren't following Omori's Law."
So, the research by Page, Hough, et al., has left conventional thinking about New Madrid on shaky ground.
"Every indication is that there are active processes going on deep in the crust and we're not sure what they are and why they are happening, but our results show us that something is alive and kicking down there," Hough tells NPR. "We keep generating these small earthquakes, which we conclude are not aftershocks."
So, could middle America experience another "big one" on the same order as the historic quakes?
"From what we know about New Madrid, the expectation is that a magnitude 7 earthquake might occur once every 500 years and a magnitude 6-ish event might happen on average once every 50 years," Hough says.
"It's [been since] 1895 ... [that] we've seen the last event close to magnitude 6," she says.
"It's not going to go off anytime soon, but we do have evidence that more stress is being built up now," says co-author Page. "Eventually, that energy will have to be released in a large earthquake."


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Waste Can Receptacles
Perfect for hospitals, doctors' offices, patients' rooms, and laboratory settings, Detecto Step-On Can Waste Receptacles have unitized construction and are built for durability. The P Series comes in a variety of five different sizes and capacities. The cans are flame retardant, have a self-closing lid for sanitation, epoxy polyester finish for easy cleaning, and full width hinges for long-term use. An optional handle and wheel kit is easy to install and makes the larger cans easy to move. Detecto also includes free bio-hazard and infectious waste adhesive labels to meet OSHA labeling requirements.


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Discover the basic concepts of needs analysis, investment policy, asset allocation, product selection, portfolio monitoring and re-balancing. We will look at the types of institutional investors – pension funds and insurance companies. You will learn the client management life cycle and dive into portfolio management as a process. You will learn the basic concepts, principles, and the major styles of investing in alternative assets. Finally, we study the impact of digitization on investment strategies.
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Language: English
Subtitles: English
TUN Helps Students!
Copyright, 2024 – TUN, Inc


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2nd major snowstorm paralyzes parts of Midwest; even 18-wheelers get stuck
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — For the second time in a week, a major winter storm paralyzed parts of the nation's midsection Tuesday, dumping a fresh layer of heavy, wet snow atop cities still choked with piles from the previous system and making travel perilous from the Oklahoma panhandle to the Great Lakes.
The weight of the snow strained power lines and cut electricity to more than 100,000 homes and businesses. At least three deaths were blamed on the blizzard.
The Missouri Department of Transportation issued a rare "no travel" advisory, urging people to stay off highways except in case of a dire emergency. Conditions were so bad that some snowplows slid into ditches, underlining the danger even to well-equipped travelers.
"It's straight hell. It's snowing, blowing, drifting, everything," said Robert Branscecum, a trucker from Campton, Ill., who was hauling Wal-Mart merchandise to Dallas. He had been stranded since Monday evening at Beto Junction, about 80 miles southwest of Kansas City. "The cars are stuck in the parking lot. Some of the trucks that tried to leave got stuck," he said. "I'm not leaving anytime soon."
Up to 10 inches had fallen in and around Kansas City, Mo., by the time the snow tapered off before midday. Mayor Sly James declared a state of emergency.
For a second straight week, schoolchildren, government workers and others caught a break as most schools and office buildings were closed. Hospitals closed outpatient centers and urgent-care clinics.
Although the amount of snow was not unusual for late February, the snow was so heavy it stressed everything it fell on, especially theelectrical grid. Power was slowly being restored as the thick clouds moved on.
In the northwest Oklahoma town of Woodward, a person was killed after 15 inches of snow brought down part of a roof. The storm was also blamed for the deaths of two people who were killed in rollover crashes Monday on Interstate 70 in Kansas.
Heavy snow pulled down large trees and caused roofs to cave in at businesses in Belton and Warrensburg, Mo., where 13 inches of snow piled up. In Columbia, a canopy over gas pumps collapsed at a convenience store.
By noon, the storm had arrived in the Great Lakes with a mixture of blowing snow, sleet and frigid rain that disrupted most forms of travel. Airlines canceled almost 500 flights at Chicago's O'Hare and Midway airports alone.
Elsewhere in Chicago, the heavy weather threatened to hold down voter turnout in a special election to choose the likely replacement for former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. The city deployed extra resources to keep polls accessible. Its full fleet of 284 snowplows was out clearing pavement.
The wintry mix also blew through Iowa, which had been expected to escape any serious snowfall. Parts of the state could now get as much as a foot.
Fueled by a strong low pressure system, the crescent-shaped storm began Sunday in Texas, then headed north. It was expected to drop up to 6 inches of snow on Chicago before crawling east across Michigan toward northern New England.
Schools and major highways in the Texas Panhandle remained closed for a second day Tuesday. Interstate 27 reopened between Amarillo and Lubbock, about 120 miles to the south, but the Texas National Guard was still working to clear much of Interstate 40 from the Oklahoma border to the New Mexico state line.
Some other roads reopened as sunny conditions began to thaw ice and snow-packed surfaces.
Just a day earlier, whiteout conditions had made virtually all Panhandle roads impassable. A hurricane-force gust of 75 mph was recorded in Amarillo, which got 17 inches. The heaviest snowfall was in Follett, Texas, with 21 inches.
In Oklahoma, 600 snowplows and trucks worked to reopen roads.
Because this was the second storm in as many weeks, weary Midwesterners were annoyed that a huge blizzard could so closely follow another major storm.
Climate scientists can't say that man-made global warming is the cause of individual extreme weather events, but they say climate change in general makes such storms more likely because of what it does to the thermodynamics of the air and water.
Warmer air in general holds more moisture, and when temperatures dance around the freezing mark — cold enough to fall as snow, but warm enough to hold lots of moisture — the storms dump more snow, especially if part of the system has been over unusually warm ocean water.
Since 1960, much of the United States has had twice as many extreme snowstorms as it had in the 60 years before, according to a new study by top scientists that will soon appear in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. But global warming is also shortening the snow season, dramatically reducing spring snow in the Northern Hemisphere, the Global Snow Lab at Rutgers University found.
"These storms didn't just occur in a vacuum. They are fueled by record amounts of moisture in the atmosphere," Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael Mann said Tuesday in an email.
Mann said the unusual warmth and moisture combine with cold air dipping down from the Arctic to produce heavy snow. He said some computer weather models predict the Midwestern storm may break a record for low-pressure, which is how meteorologists measure the strength of a storm.
The back-to-back storms have raised hopes that the moisture might ease the drought conditions that have gripped the Midwest for more than a year. The snowpack now resting on the Plains will help, but it's no drought-buster, experts say.
"If we get one more storm like this, with widespread 2 inches of moisture, we will continue to chip away at the drought," said meteorologist Mike Umscheid of the National Weather Service office in Dodge City. "But to claim the drought is over or ending is way too premature."
Associated Press writers Betsy Blaney in Lubbock, Texas, Nomaan Merchant in Dallas, Jill Zeman Bleed and Kelly P. Kissel in Little Rock, Ark., Daniel Holtmeyer in Oklahoma City, Steve Paulson in Denver, Paul Davenport in Albuquerque, N.M., Roxana Hegeman in Wichita, Kan., and Seth Borenstein in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
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Pity the average Manchester United fan trying to make sense of the club's annual financial results announced last week. On the one hand, they look great with record turnover of £286 million, operating profits climbing above £100 million for the first time and £164 million cash in the bank, but on the other hand they look terrible with a record loss of £84 million, disappointing revenue growth and a mountain of debt. No wonder chief executive David Gill admitted that the figures could be confusing, "These are very good results for the club with records here, there and everywhere, but they are complicated with non-cash items and exceptional once-off hits."
This has been the order of the day ever since the Glazer family bought United in 2005 in a £790 million leveraged buy-out that loaded debt onto the club. They paid £250 million themselves, but borrowed the remaining £540 million from banks and hedge funds. Before the men from Florida arrived, Manchester United was a thriving business, free of debt, with plenty of cash to invest, but the Glazers have effectively mortgaged the club to the hilt.
Despite these financial concerns, United have managed to maintain their success on the pitch, winning the Premier League three times and the Champions League once in the last five years. However, there are now signs that all is not right with the team, as United "only" finished runners-up in last season's Premier League, while they were eliminated in the quarter-finals of the Champions League by eventual losing finalists Bayern Munich. A pretty good performance by most teams' standards, but not quite the levels that United fans have come to expect.
"Wayne's World"
In contrast, United's support is all too familiar with the club applying liberal helpings of spin to present the financials in the best possible light. No matter how hard you look at the press release, you still won't see the word loss appearing. Of course, at an operating level, there's no doubt that this is a truly impressive set of figures, but the fact is that Manchester United only make profits until they make interest payments, as their enormous debts to the banks and hedge funds soak up all the profits from the playing side.
All of David Gill's strenuous efforts to put supporters' minds at rest only serve to raise further questions, as they ask how it is possible for a club to move from operating profits of £101 million to a loss after tax of £84 million – a massive reduction of £185 million.
The first thing to note is that what the club describes as operating profit in the press release is not what most people in the accounting community understand as operating profit, nor indeed the same as the figure that the club uses in its accounts, which is only £15 million. No, the £101 million is the dreaded EBITDA (Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation). Many analysts like to use this measure, but Warren Buffet, the legendary investor, cautioned, "References to EBITDA make us shudder. It makes sense only if you think that capital expenditure is funded by the tooth fairy."
Nevertheless, Buffet would accept that it makes sense to focus on the free cash flow, so there is some logic to excluding non-cash expenses (or paper losses), which in United's case amount to £84 million. Many of these are common to all football clubs, namely player amortisation £40 million and depreciation on fixed assets £9 million, but there is one large item that is virtually unique to United, which is the £35 million amortisation of goodwill resulting from the Glazers' acquisition of the club. In accounting terms, this means that they paid more for the club than its fair value, the difference being booked as an asset called goodwill, which has to be written-off over its estimated economic life (15 years in this case).
It is clear that United have no problem generating cash. In fact, the club is a veritable cash machine, which is what attracted investors in the first place, and this year they reported an excellent net cash inflow of £104 million. Although this was lower than the £111 million produced in 2008/09, that year included an advance payment of £36 million as part of the new shirt sponsorship agreement, offset by a £10 million directors loan, so it actually represents an improvement in real terms.
So what do the club spend all that lovely cash on? The answer is interest payments – and lots of them.
"Know your rights"
This year United's net interest payment was a jaw-dropping £42 million, coming from seven months of interest on bank loans and five months of interest on the bond issued on 29 January. As the interest rate on the bond is higher than the bank loans it replaced, next year's interest payment will cost even more at around £45 million.
In addition, this year's accounts include an incredible £67 million losses from exceptional items. Most of this was due to the early repayment of bank loans, which resulted in a £41 million loss on interest rate swaps and also triggered the accelerated write-off of the remaining unamortised debt issue costs of £5 million. The swap was a derivative used to hedge against movements in interest rates, but the club did not anticipate that they would fall as far as they have in the credit crunch. Although the switch from bank loans to the bond crystallised this loss, the club claim that this was still a price worth paying, as the bond will provide them with more financial stability, though they made similar noises when they refinanced just three years earlier.
It will not have escaped those observers who are good with figures that the annual interest payment of £42 million plus the once-off £41 million paid for the bond issue add up to a sum that is horribly similar to the £81 million received last year when Cristiano Ronaldo was sold to Real Madrid. Fancy footwork on the wing replaced by fancy footwork on the balance sheet – how do you like them apples?
"His name is Rio and he dances on the sand"
There was also a £19 million foreign exchange loss arising on the translation of the dollar denominated element of the bonds ($425 million) due to the strengthening of the dollar relative to sterling in the period since the bond issue. Importantly, this loss is not a cash expense and would not be realised until 2017 when the bond is due for repayment. Furthermore, if the dollar were to weaken against sterling, future profit and loss accounts might show a forex gain here. Of course, if the dollar were to strengthen, there would be more losses. It all depends on movements in the exchange rate.
Finally, there is yet another exceptional item: a £2 million increase in an onerous lease provision on a property where the club has failed to secure an income generating tenant.
Enough of all this head-spinning accounting terminology, the main point to grasp here is that there should be far fewer exceptional items in next year's accounts, which would improve the profit (or loss) by nearly £70 million.
In summary, the £101 million operating profits in the accounts have been reduced by £193 million for the following factors: (a) non-cash flow expenses £84 million; (b) interest payments £42 million; (c) exceptional items £67 million. We then add £13 million profit from player sales and deduct £4 million tax to produce the £84 million loss. Simples.
"Old Man River"
Of course, all of these figures have come from the Red Football Limited accounts, so exclude the crippling interest payable on the PIK loans, which are booked in the club's holding company, Red Football Joint Venture Limited. The club insists that these loans are the responsibility of the owners, but many commentators believe that they should be included to give the true picture of United's total debt and interest payment, as the PIKs are secured on the club's assets. The RFJV accounts for 2009/10 have not yet been published, but we know that last year the interest was £27 million and we can estimate £29 million for this year (14.25% on last year's PIK debt of £202 million).
That would give total annual interest of an almost unbelievable £71 million. To place that into context, this is almost twice as much as the £40 million interest payment arising from Liverpool's equally reviled leveraged buy-out.
Interestingly, the only difference between the RFL and RFJV profit and loss accounts comes from that PIK interest, so that would imply a 2009/10 loss before tax of £108 million for Manchester United – not a million miles away from the "shock horror" £121 million loss made by big-spending neighbours Manchester City.
This should be nothing new to Manchester United fans, as the club has reported large losses in four out of the last five years. The only exception was last year's profit before tax of £48 million, but this would also have been a loss without the extraordinary £81 million profit on player sales, due to Ronaldo's transfer.
"The gift that keeps on giving"
However, the fact that the club only made a profit by selling their best player has to be a cause for concern for the fans, who will worry that more players will be sold in the future in order to balance the books. Indeed, Philip Long, partner at accountants PKF, has commented, "The loss shows that the business model doesn't work unless there are player sales. It's an absolute mess."
The huge loss was no surprise for Duncan Drasdo, chief executive of the Manchester United Supporters Trust (MUST), who lamented, "Every time these results come out, we see how much money is being wasted." In fact, since the Glazers' arrival, the club has paid out around £450 million in interest and bankers' fees (£213 million interest on bank loans and bonds, £45 million exceptional charges and £190 million PIK interest). That statistic bears repeating: nearly half a billion pounds has been wasted on the privilege of the club having the Glazers as owners.
Obviously, if the club had remained a PLC, then it would have had to pay out dividends, but nothing like this level. Equally plausibly, United could have been bought by a benefactor like Roman Abramovich, who has provided his club with massive interest-free loans. Some might consider that option a case of jumping out of the frying pan into the fire, but it does demonstrate the competitive disadvantage that United have suffered in comparison to Chelsea. All of the money paid to the Glazers could have been made available to strengthen the squad or keep ticket prices down, but has instead disappeared into the financial ether.
The damage that the debt inflicts on United's profits can be seen if we compare their results with those of Arsenal, who are generally regarded as the poster boy for financial excellence in the football world. To facilitate a like-for-like comparison, I have only taken Arsenal's football business, excluding property development.
The first thing that hits you is that United's £286 million revenue is significantly higher than Arsenal's £223 million, mainly due to commercial success. Unsurprisingly, this results in a far higher EBITDA of £101 million, which is almost twice as much as Arsenal's £57 million.
However, this is where things start getting tricky for United, as depreciation and amortisation are considerably higher, meaning that Arsenal's £20 million operating profit is slightly better than United's £15 million. The difference is further exacerbated by United's shattering interest payments, allied with Arsenal's higher profit on player sales, all of which means that Arsenal report a profit before tax of £45 million, which is £124 million better than United's £80 million loss. Of course, the exceptional expenses exaggerate the difference in 2009/10, but the general principle will remain the same in other years.
What is difficult to criticise is United's revenue of £286 million, which is not only a record high for them, but also a record for all English clubs. As we have seen, they are a long way ahead of Arsenal, while other clubs are even further behind: Chelsea £206 million, Liverpool £185 million and Manchester City £125 million.
This placed United third in last year's Deloittes Money League (based on 2008/09 results). Following the slight growth in revenue in 2010, they will remain in that position when the next Money League is published. However, we should acknowledge that revenue has increased by much more this year at both Real Madrid (to £375 million) and Barcelona (to £330 million), so they are now even further ahead, though that partially depends on the vagaries of the exchange rate. In passing, I would note that Real Madrid only made a £22 million profit (though still a profit) from their huge turnover, while Barcelona (like United) reported a big loss of £68 million. Altogether now: "revenue is vanity, profit is sanity".
Although United's 2010 revenue growth was very small (less than 3%), at least there was still some growth, unlike, say, Arsenal whose revenue fell actually slightly. In fact, United's revenue growth of £120 million in the Glazer era has been mighty impressive, representing an increase of over 70%. Although you could argue that much of this is down to centrally negotiated television deals and the Old Trafford expansion that was approved by the former board, it would be churlish not to give the Glazers some credit for the rise in revenue, not least the impressive progress made in the commercial arena. Their revenue growth has certainly been better than Chelsea or Liverpool, while only Arsenal (of the Big Four) have a better 5-year growth rate at 90%, largely due to the move to a new stadium.
United's revenue has gone from strength to strength over the past few years, leading to an impressively balanced revenue mix with no single stream dominating. The revenue split is now a healthy 37% media, 35% match day and 28% commercial. This is in marked contrast to the majority of clubs in the Premier League who have a dangerous reliance on television revenue, which is why their only strategy is to avoid relegation.
However, the big revenue question for United now is where the growth is going to come from in the future, as their gate receipts look maxed out and at some stage the seemingly never-ending rise in money paid for TV rights has to at least pause for thought. This explains their focus on boosting commercial revenue.
In the meantime, United's match day revenue remains key to the core strategy, even though it actually decreased 8% in 2010 from £108 million to £100 million, primarily due to two fewer home games being played after earlier exits in the Champions League and the FA Cup. Nevertheless, it is still the highest of any European club, leading to a few truly gobsmacking comparisons: it is four times as much as Champions League winners Inter Milan, five times as much as Manchester City and seven times as much as Juventus. That's a lot more cash – every single year.
The club consistently sell-out the 76,000 capacity Old Trafford, a stadium with 16,000 more seats than the next largest English club ground, The Emirates, following extensive renovation prior to the 2006/07 season which added 8,000 seats. Known to United's supporters as the "theatre of dreams", I'm sure that the bean counters must fully concur with his sentiment.
Of course, the other driver for the growth in match day revenue has been less palatable to the fans, namely the ticket prices, which have risen by nearly 50% under the Glazers' ownership, although season tickets are still cheaper than those at Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs. In the bond prospectus, the club actually boasts of its ability to increase ticket prices, "while other Premier League clubs have experienced a flattening or reduction in ticket prices in response to the economic downturn."
These price rises (and opposition to the owners) help explain why the club's season ticket sales are down this year from 62,000 to 59,000, though this is admittedly still by no means a poor performance.
It is difficult to foresee much revenue growth here, unless the club raises prices even more, especially as the hospitality market is considered to be "challenging". There has been some talk about increasing capacity in the South Stand, but no concrete plans as yet.
On the other hand, United's media revenue increased by 5% from £100 million to £105 million in 2010, which represented good growth, especially as the 2009 comparative benefited from income for winning the FIFA World Cup (£3 million) and competing in the UEFA Super Cup.
The TV money is largely made up of £53 million from the Premier League and £43 million from the Champions League. Even though United received a lower merit payment after dropping one place in the Premier League and the facility fees fell, as they were broadcast live one game less, this was more than offset by an increase in the central pot, producing an overall £1 million increase compared to 2009.
"What's going on?"
The Champions League payout was also higher, even though United only reached the quarter-finals, as opposed to the final the previous year. This was largely due to the 30% increase in the UEFA broadcasting contract, boosted by the weakness of Sterling (Champions League revenue is distributed in Euros). Interestingly, United only earned slightly less than the winners Inter Milan (£45 million), as their share of the TV pool was much higher, because this is linked to the size and value of each national TV market, which is larger in England than Italy.
Of course, United's media revenue is still far below the Spanish giants, Real Madrid and Barcelona, as they are allowed to negotiate individual television deals, so earn around a third more at £135 million. Whether this arrangement endures is another question, given the pressure from other clubs in Spain to move to a collective agreement (as they have just done in Italy).
This gap should be narrowed next season when United will benefit from an increase in Premier League TV revenue, as 2010/11 marks the first season of the new three-year deal, which is much higher following the astonishing increase (more than doubled) in overseas rights. The increase could be as high as £10 million a year.
"So I represent value in the transfer market?"
Longer-term, it's interesting to note that have increased their stake in MUTV Limited to 66.7% "in order to have greater influence over the future strategy of the channel." The ability to use technology to distribute live matches is definitely one of the attractions for overseas investors.
Right now, the fastest growing source of revenue comes from commercial sponsors, rising by a notable 17% from £70 million to £81 million in 2010. According to the Money League, United's annual commercial revenue is the highest in England (Liverpool £68 million, Chelsea £53 million and Arsenal £44 million), though the first two clubs' revenue may have also grown over the last 12 months. However, although United's marketing skills are to be applauded, they still fall well short of some continental European teams (Bayern Munich £136 million, Real Madrid £119 million and Barcelona £96 million).
United's largest sponsorship contract is with long-term kit supplier Nike, running until 2015. This was worth an average £23 million a year until 2010, but increases to £25 million for the remaining years. In addition, Nike manage the club's merchandising, licensing and retail operations, sharing the net profits equally with United.
"Let's play Happy Families"
Revenue from shirt sponsorship will also increase next year by around 40%, as the club have replaced AIG (£14 million a season) with Aon, who will pay £20 million a year until 2013/14. Only Liverpool's £20 million deal with Standard Chartered can match this, while other clubs' deals are far behind: Chelsea – Samsung £14 million, Spurs – Autonomy £10 million, Manchester City – Etihad £7.5 million and Arsenal – Emirates £5.5 million.
The good news does not stop there, as United have signed up many new commercial partners, including the likes of Betfair, Thomas Cook and Turkish Airlines, which has produced a 50% growth in revenue from partners other than Nike and Aon. This is an example of the enduring power of the United brand globally and the club's ability to attract new partners, despite the negative headlines arising from the Glazers' ownership.
This is hardly surprising if you believe some research conducted by TNS Sport in 2007, which estimated that United had 139 million core fans and 333 million followers worldwide. I have no idea whether those figures are accurate, but conclusive evidence of United's popularity is evidenced by the sales figures from Nike and Adidas, which point to United (along with Real Madrid) selling more shirts globally than any other club.
On the costs side, the wages growth continues apace, rising 7% to £132 million, as the increase in salaries was partially offset by a reduction in performance bonuses. In other words, if the club had matched the previous season's successes, the wage bill would have been even higher. As it stands, United's wages are now the third highest in the Premier League, having been just over-taken by Manchester City, though I would expect that difference to accelerate next year, as this summer's arrivals are added to City's payroll. Chelsea's 2009 wages are still at the top of the tree, but that may change in future, as they have been off-loading some high earners.
Wage bills of the top clubs on the continent are no better. In fact, they're a lot worse with Barcelona's "leading" the way last year with £224 million, followed by Inter £175 million and Real Madrid £159 million. Fortunately for them, they can just about afford this, as their interest payments are peanuts.
Although the wages to turnover ratio has increased (deteriorated) to 46%, it's still highly respectable. In truth, it's the best in the Premier League and is the only one below 50%, though Arsenal come close. To put this into context, over half of the Premier League clubs are operating with ratios above UEFA's recommended maximum limit of 70% with Manchester City in pole position with 107%. How long United can compete without spending more on salaries is open to debate. In the bond prospectus, the club warned, "it may be difficult to maintain this ratio at historic levels without negatively impacting our ability to acquire and retain the best players."
However, cost control at United has been pretty good this year with other operating expenses cut by 15% to £54 million, largely due to fewer matches, but also because 2009 included once-off charges associated with the selection of the new shirt sponsor. As the club does not provide much detail to support this figure, we cannot say for certain whether any management fees to the Glazers were included here. The bond prospectus revealed that a total of £10 million management fees had been paid between July 2006 and January 2010 and £2.9 million consultancy fees in 2009, while the new agreement allows up to £6 million per annum for management fees and £3 million for "general corporate overhead expenses". Looking at the figures, my guess is that these have not been taken in 2010.
Further confirmation of United's desire to contain costs comes from player amortisation, namely the annual cost of writing down the cost of buying new players, which is on the low side at £40 million, barely changed from the year before. This is much lower than those sides that have spent big in the transfer market, such as Manchester City £71 million, Barcelona £61 million, Real Madrid £55 million and Chelsea £49 million.
This is a reflection of United's restrained spending on new players in the past few years. Since the Glazer takeover, United's net spend is only £11 million (according to Transfer League), which is much less than their peers with the obvious exception of Arsenal. In the same period, City's net spend is over £300 million more, while Chelsea and Spurs have spent £100 million more. Even Liverpool, equally constrained by debt, have spent six times as much. Clearly, United's net spend is reduced by the Ronaldo proceeds, but even so, these are telling statistics.
It really does stretch fans' credulity to breaking point when Sir Alex Ferguson claims that the reason that he has not made any marquee signings is that he cannot find any value in the transfer market. How about Mesut Ozil at £13 million or Rafael van der Vaart at £8 million? It is obvious to anyone with a pulse that the debt mountain has influenced the club's transfer policy. This summer, the club only bought Chris Smalling, Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez and Bebe, hardly the stellar signings that the fans crave.
Even after all those interest payments, the debt has not reduced. In fact, the gross debt has slightly increased this year to £522 million, though net debt has fallen to £358 million, as cash balances are higher. As we saw earlier, most analysts include the PIKs in the club's total debt figures. Adding our estimated interest charge of £29 million to last year's balance, the PIK debt should now stand at £231 million, which gives total gross debt of £753 million. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, "never has so much been owed by so many to so few", but this time it's not meant as a compliment.
Not only is this an incredibly high amount of debt, but it is also unproductive debt for the club. In contrast to United, clubs like Chelsea and Manchester City have used their debt to fund the purchase of better players, while Arsenal used theirs to build a new stadium. United's debt was only used to enable the Glazers to buy the company. Furthermore, it is obvious that the Glazers have no intention of reducing the debt. As Stephen Schechter, CEO of investment bank Schechter & Co, said, "I don't believe they are de-leveraging at all."
In January the club raised around £500 million of funds via a bond issue, which was used to repay the existing bank loans, in order to fix the club's annual interest payments for a longer period (up to 2017) and so ensure more financial stability. However, the terms still compare badly with Arsenal's bonds, as the debt has to be repaid quicker (7 years vs. 21 years) and the interest rate is higher (8.5% vs. 5.75%).
However, this is nothing compared to the Payment in Kind (PIK) notes, which is the most expensive debt in the Premier League. The interest rate was already a stratospheric 14.25%, before it rose to an eye-watering 16.25 % this summer after United broke the covenant whereby debt was not allowed to go above 5 times EBITDA. Unlike with a normal loan, the club do not have to pay back the principal on the debt in instalments – all the money is due to be repaid in 2017. This makes it an even more expensive way to borrow, as the club must pay interest on the growing balance. In this way, when the PIKs are due for repayment, the debt will have snowballed to £588 million, giving total debt of £1.1 billion.
"It's difficult to justify, sorry, explain"
The other component of debt that can sometimes be relevant to football clubs is that arising from player transfers, but this is not an issue for United, as they owe £11 million to other clubs, but are owed £13 million, so these basically net out. Given how Spanish clubs usually pay for players in a number of stages, it is a testament to the club's negotiating skills that they received the entire Ronaldo fee from Real Madrid upfront.
Included within the net debt are astounding cash balances of £164 million, even higher than last year's £151 million, though this has been boosted by cashing the £80 million Ronaldo cheque and using very little to improve the squad plus the £36 million upfront payment from the shirt sponsor. The seasonality of the cash flow also needs to be understood, as most of the season ticket money is received before the end of June and used to pay operational expenses over the next few months.
David Gill insists that the money can be spent on improving the squad, "The Glazers have retained that money in the bank and it's there for Sir Alex if he needs it for players", adding that "there is no pressure at all to sell any star player."
"How much is my transfer budget?"
However, the question is how long will that cash be available? The bond prospectus allows the owners to take this money out of the club. Specifically, they are allowed to pay an immediate dividend of £70 million to Red Football Joint Venture Limited for "general corporate purposes, including repaying existing indebtedness" plus an additional £25 million dividend at any time. On top of this explicit £95 million, they are also permitted to pay out dividends up to 50% of net cash profits, as long as the club's interest is still covered twice by EBITDA.
The assumption is that this means using the club's cash to pay off the prohibitively expensive PIKs. As Jonathan Moore of Evolution Securities said, "There's still pressure on them, as 16.25% is not an insignificant coupon. You'd expect the owners to take them out as soon as they're able to." The results show that this has not yet happened, but it may just be a question of time, as it makes no financial sense not to do so, especially as reports indicate that other parts of their business empire are struggling, e.g. a large number of shopping malls owned by the Glazers' First Allied Corporation have defaulted on their mortgages.
Unfortunately, the Glazers appear to be determined to hang on. The vaunted Red Knights do not appear to possess the resources to mount a sufficiently attractive bid, while the Guardian has reported that the owners have already rejected several offers above £1 billion, including one of £1.5 billion from a Middle East consortium. If that were not clear enough, the board stated, "The owners remain fully committed to their long-term ownership of the club. Manchester United is not for sale and the owners will not entertain any offers." Clearly, everything has its price and investors that employ the LBO model will normally sell when they feel that they have maximized value, so that's unlikely to be the end of the story.
"The Three Wise Men"
Although United's owners appear to have much in common with Liverpool's American debt merchants, there is little chance of the club getting into a similar predicament. As Gill said, "United fans should not be concerned. We have a long-term financing structure in place, excellent revenues that are growing, we are controlling our costs and we can afford the interest." This is undoubtedly true, but you can't help wondering why his confidence was not supported by the bond prospectus, which candidly stated, "We cannot assure you that our business will generate sufficient cash flow from operations, or that future borrowings will be available to us, in an amount sufficient to enable us to pay our indebtedness." It's probably just one of those cover your backside clauses so beloved of lawyers…
Speaking of which, United are also confident that they will meet UEFA's Financial Fair Play regulations, as most of their current losses are either once-off or of the paper variety. Gill explained the club's assurance, "Charges related to goodwill and depreciation of fixed assets are ignored by UEFA. As a result, we can comfortably meet the qualifying criteria." And you know what? I think he's probably right, though it might be a close-run thing if UEFA include the PIK interest, treating RFJV as a related company.
The other point that may be interesting here is that UEFA treat dividends as relevant expenses, so they should be included in the break-even calculation. That presumably means that any dividend payments that the Glazers make in order to pay off the PIKs will be included. If so, it would be in the club's interest to make such payments in the 2010/11 accounting year, as this is the last one excluded from UEFA's calculations.
"Changing of the guard"
Another issue that the club has to confront is what happens if the team is less successful on the pitch? Revenue would be £40-50 million lower if the club failed to qualify for the Champions League, once gate receipts and sponsorship clauses are taken into consideration. That might seem absurd at the moment, but look what happened to Liverpool. Ageing players like Edwin van der Sar, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville and even Rio Ferdinand will all need to be replaced, while the elephant in the room is Sir Alex's retirement. That's a hard act to follow. Conversely, this eventuality might also offer some encouragement to United fans, as the Glazers cannot afford for the team to fail, so at this stage an appropriate amount of spending might be approved.
I'll leave you with two contrasting views.
The first is a down-to-earth assessment from chief executive David Gill, "We are comfortable with the business model." Although this statement has been greeted with hoots of derision, in a funny way he's half-right, as United's financials look great – right up to the point when they're confronted by massive interest payments on the debt the Glazers brought to the club.
The second is a passionate cri de coeur from MUST chief executive Duncan Drasdo, "Ostensibly we are the best-run football club in the UK for the last 20 years, generating amazing revenue, but the problem is that under the current ownership that's all being wasted because it's going into paying interest on debt. We could be competing with Man City and Chelsea for the best players. Instead of squeezing spend on players and pushing up ticket prices, we could be giving supporters who are being priced out, those that have supported the club for many years, the opportunity to watch their team. All of this is because one family decided they wanted to own our football club."
It's difficult to disagree with that.


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Matco Tools, a company known for elite and powerful tools for professionals, has teamed up with the upcoming blockbuster movie, G.I. Joe: Retaliation to offer exclusive promotions including an all-expense-paid adventure trip to Las Vegas, free movie tickets and free G.I. Joe: Retaliation themed gear.
While the movie premiers in theaters nationwide on June 29, Matco's promotion begins on May 19 with a series of contests and specials including:
G.I. Joe and Matco Gear: Purchase select Matco tools to receive a G.I. Joe: Retaliation gift. Items include movie posters, dog tags, backpacks and hats.
Ultimate G.I. Joe Adventure in Las Vegas: Technicians can log onto the promotion website, matcotools.com/gijoe, to become a registered user and be entered for a chance to win an all-expense-paid five-day trip for two to Las Vegas with access to the Valley of Fire ATX Adventure Track Tour and a private indoor rock climbing experience, plus much more.
G.I. Joe Fan of the Day Ticket Giveaway: "Like" Matco on Facebook and fill out an entry form for a chance to win G.I. Joe Fan of the Day. Winners will be drawn daily to receive two free tickets to see G.I. Joe: Retaliation.
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"The G.I. Joe: Retaliation movie represents many things that Matco stands for including strength, quality and determination," said John Green, vice president of marketing for Matco Tools. "We are happy to announce our partnership and look forward to the exciting opportunities that this co-branded promotion brings to our loyal fans and Matco Tool users."
Throughout the sweepstakes, technicians that visit a Matco Tools store will also be able to view the G.I. Joe: Retaliation movie trailer along with other promotional pieces such as posters, truck signs and decals. In honor of the partnership, for a limited time, anyone who completes an interview with a Matco Franchise Sales Manager will also receive a free pair of movie tickets.
For more information on the Matco Tools movie promotions, visit www.matcotools.com/gijoe. To find out more about the G.I. Joe: Retaliation movie, visit www.gijoemovie.com.


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"Violetta and Velma" – that's how we always said it, never "Velma and Violetta," and rarely just one name at a time. That's how close they were.
Dick and Violetta Ryan, Velma Woodring Mary Frances Jollett Davis on a picnic I guess Woody took the picture. |
Velma and Violetta about 1947 or 1948 I don't know why they are dressed alike here. Such was not their habit, as far as I know. |


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With a regular drop 24".
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This is an excellent first purchase kilt, ideal for the Football, Rugby Games, Scouts, or simply fashion wear.
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The Holidays in June
First things first: The whole Dad-Blogger Group Hug, aka Totally Manly Handshake (which, yes, does sound like a circle jerk, Urban Mommy. Which only makes me like the name more), seems to be posing a challenge, insofar as some of you are saying that you don't read many - or, gasp, any - Dad-Bloggers.
(Shocked silence)
There's a Gender Studies thesis here somewhere, I think. Snips and Snails and Daddy-Blog Tales: The Sexual Politics of Parent Blogs. Mommy Bloggers get all of the attention - the conferences, the 'zines, the big-ass corporate-backed community sites and endorsements from Meredith Vieira and Andrew Shue. Dad-Blogs remain a more obscure corner of the blogosphere. Sure, Daddy Types and The Blogfathers are out there proclaiming their fatherhood and making virtual celebration of it. But Dad-Bloggers who don't align themselves with roaming blogger gangs, or openly hang with the chicks, are somewhat harder to find.
So. Evidence of anti-male, anti-father bias in Western culture?
(A warning. If you click the above link, you will be confronted by a flashing fart button that will burn your corneas. And, you will have to ponder what exactly the aforementioned fart button reveals about Western culture. Such as it is.)
Prolly not. More likely that it's just further demonstration that the blogosphere may be like high school (an assessment that I disagree with, by the way). Or in this case, grade school. Everybody keeping to their side of the playground.
But I know that this is not entirely accurate, either. I see Dad-Bloggers - Dutch, MetroDad - mixing it up all over the place. And I see you, mama-bloggers, 'round their parts - no pun here -all the time, too. So maybe the crickets I'm hearin' on the Dad-Blogger Shout-Out has more to do with Post Assignment Exhaustion (not AGAIN, dude. Just finished that Mommy Blogger Post. And got my hands full with figuring out WTF one does for Father's Day at home - more tools? A tie? - never mind in the blogosphere. Give it a rest.) than with anything else.
Whatever the case, I don't want to abandon the Dad-Blogger Handshake. But I will revise it, to make it more accessible. You don't need to write a whole post. (Of course, if you do write a whole post, you will get mad props from me.) Just post a comment here, noting your favorite Dad-Blogger, with a line or two explaining what it is that you like about him. And if you really aren't that well-acquainted with many Dad-Bloggers, go get yourself acquainted, as a special Father's Day gesture.
To get you started, here are some of the Dad-Blogs (including Dad/Mom tag-team blogs) that I read and love:
Sweet Juniper (where Dutch keeps up the Dad-end of the wonderful tag-team parent blog that he maintains with the super-awesome and only sort of intimidating Wood)
Mother-Woman (where P-Man occasionally contributes alongside the incomparable mama that is Mo-Wo)
MetroDad (I somewhat ashamed to admit that I usually only lurk here)
Laid-Off Dad (who is el Grande in la casa of the la fabulosa Moxie)
Dad Gone Mad (whose first post for The Godfathers challenged the Kegel-toned dam that holds back the giggle-pee. You've been warned.)
Cocktails with Kevin (who I only recently discovered, through Mom-101's blogroll, and whose blog you must go visit now. You'll thank me.)
The Blogfathers (roaming street gang of Dad-Blogger thugs who have been known to spontaneously break into dance routines.) (Okay, I made that last bit up. I was thinking of Hot Cops.)
Go, read, laugh. And then come back and leave a note saying why that was such fun. And I'll do a post listing the Dad-Blogs that you like, with lovely little quotations and credits to those who join in.)
Got that? Good.
Now, on the topics of marginalized fathers and street thugs and men who spontaneously break into dance, a story...
Zanta Is Comin' To Town
The other day, WonderBaby and I took the subway downtown. (Mission: find funky onesie to replace famous Mutha Sucka tee, which only has about a week's wear left in it. WonderBaby, she grows. And grows and grows and grows.)
The subway car that we rode in was almost entirely occupied by children between the ages of about 6 and 9. Boys and girls, accompanied by a small posse of teachers, out on a late-term excursion. The girls huddled in their seats and whispered and giggled; the boys jostled and poked and pretended that they were riding surfboards as the subway car rattled and lurched its way downtown. The teachers scolded the boys repeatedly while the girls continued to giggle.
We were just approaching Bathurst Station when one of the teachers, having had, presumably, her last teacherly nerve frayed to the breaking point, shouted down the aisle at the junior Kelly Slaters riding the transit waves:
What we did we say about CORRECT SUBWAY BEHAVIOUR this morning?!? What DID WE SAY?!?
And then, just at that very moment, the subway doors opened and this character leapt onto the car:
That towel, I'm guessing, is in case he needs to do any inter-galactic hitchhiking...
And immediately flings himself to the floor and commences push-ups, like Jack Palance on meth, steroids and in flame shorts. Shouting I'm not Santa I'm not Santa!!!!
The children fall totally silent.
Dude jumps up.
I'm Zanta! With a Z! Santa is spelled with an S! Zanta with a Z! Z! Z! Yes yes yes.
He swings his towel over his head. Then, drops the towel and grabs the overhead handrail and begins swinging.
Zanta with a Z! Yes yes yes! Yes yes yes!
A little girl begins to cry, softly.
He drops to the floor. It's OKAY! I'm not Santa! I'm Zanta! I've been doing push-ups LIKE THIS (falls into push-up position) WITH MY KNUCKLES since my wife took my daughter away and I'm gonna keep doing them 'til I get her back!!! Yes!
Begins striking bodybuilder poses.
Lunges forward in fencing-strike pose.
Makes stabbing motion with one arm.
Makes punching motion with other arm.
HBM cannot contain herself any longer. Asks if she can take a picture.
Strikes some bodybuilder poses.
Got that? How 'bout this? Or this? Got it? This is a good one. Got that?
Got it.
And then, in a flash - yes yes yes! yes yes yes! - he was gone. Just like that.
Once the subway doors were safely closed, the children - with one or two exceptions choking back muffled sobs - burst into the loudest gale of laughter that I have ever heard.
WonderBaby (who slept through the whole thing) and I had overshot our destination by three stops. But it was worth it. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but it was worth it.
Here's to you, Zanta. May push-ups restore your sanity, and, courts willing, your family to you. And may your Google dreams of superherodom come true.
And, boys and girls, I hope that you now all better understand correct subway behaviour.
We have another visitor hangin' in the Basement. Bring your cookies and give her your support...


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Associated Press
Jan 3, 12:34 AM EST
Cliff averted, next fiscal crisis in 2 months will be over taxes, spending _ plus debt limit By ANDREW TAYLOR |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Onward to the next fiscal crisis. Actually, several of them, potentially. The New Year's Day deal averting the "fiscal cliff" lays the groundwork for more combustible struggles in Washington over taxes, spending and debt in the next few months. President Barack Obama's victory on taxes this week was the second, grudging round of piecemeal successes in as many years in chipping away at the nation's mountainous deficits. Despite the length and intensity of the debate, the deal to raise the top income tax rate on families earning over $450,000 a year – about 1 percent of households – and including only $12 billion in spending cuts turned out to be a relatively easy vote for many. This was particularly so because the alternative was to raise taxes on everyone. But in banking $620 billion in higher taxes over the coming decade from wealthier earners, Obama and his Republican rivals have barely touched deficits still expected to be in the $650 billion range by the end of his second term. And those back-of-the-envelope calculations assume policymakers can find more than $1 trillion over 10 years to replace automatic across-the-board spending cuts known as a sequester. "They didn't do any of the tough stuff," said Erskine Bowles, chairman of Obama's 2010 deficit commission. "We've taken two steps now, but those two steps combined aren't enough to put our fiscal house in order." In 2011, the government adopted tighter caps on day-to-day operating budgets of the Pentagon and other cabinet agencies to save $1.1 trillion over 10 years. The measure passed Tuesday and signed Wednesday by Obama prevents middle-class taxes from going up while raising rates on higher incomes. It also blocks severe across-the-board spending cuts for two months, extends unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless for a year, stops a 27 percent cut in Medicare fees paid to doctors and prevents a possible doubling of milk prices. The alternative was going over the cliff, an economy-punching half-trillion-dollar combination of sweeping tax increases and spending cuts. Despite the deal, the government partially went over the brink anyway with the expiration of a two-year cut in Social Security payroll taxes of two percentage points. Action inside a dysfunctional Washington now only comes with binding deadlines. So, naturally, this week's hard-fought bargain sets up another crisis in two months, when painful across-the-board spending cuts to the Pentagon and domestic programs are set to kick in and the government runs out of the ability to juggle its $16.4 trillion debt without having to borrow more money. Unless Congress increases or allows Obama to increase that borrowing cap, the government risks a first-ever default on U.S. obligations. Republicans will use this as an opportunity to leverage more spending cuts from Obama, just like they did in the summer of 2011. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, vows that any increase in the debt limit – which needs to be enacted by Congress by the end of February or sometime in March – must be accompanied by an equal amount in cuts to federal spending. That puts him on yet another collision course with Obama, who has vowed anew that he won't let haggling over spending cuts complicate the debate over the debt limit. The cliff compromise represented the first time since 1990 that Republicans condoned a tax increase. That has whipped up a fury among tea party conservatives and increased the pressure on Boehner to adopt a hard line in coming confrontations over the borrowing cap and the spending cuts that won only a two-month reprieve in this weeks' deal. Put simply, House Republicans are demanding new spending cuts – possibly through changes in Social Security and Medicare benefit formulas – as a scalp, and they're dead set against raising more revenues through anything less than an overhaul of the tax code now that Obama has won higher taxes on the wealthy. "Now the focus turns to spending," Boehner said after Tuesday's vote, promising that future budget battles will center on "significant spending cuts and reforms to the entitlement programs that are driving our country deeper and deeper into debt." Obama is just as adamant on the other side, saying higher revenues have to be part of any formula for further diverting the automatic spending cuts. While conservative activist Grover Norquist gave Republicans a pass on violating his anti-tax pledge with this week's vote, he and other forces on the right won't be so forgiving on any future effort to increase revenues. The refusal of Republicans to consider additional new taxes is sure to stir up resistance among Democrats when they're asked to consider politically painful cuts to so-called entitlement programs like Medicare. Democratic protests led Obama and Boehner to take a proposal to increase the Medicare eligibility age off the table in the recent round of talks. The upshot? More scorched-earth politics on the budget will probably dominate the initial few months of Obama's second term, when the president would prefer to focus on legacy accomplishments like fixing the immigration problem and implementing his overhaul of health care. The relationship between Boehner and Obama has never been especially close and seemed to have suffered a setback last month after the speaker withdrew from negotiations on a broader deficit deal. The two get along personally, but politically, a series of collapsed negotiations has bred mistrust. The White House has the view that Boehner cannot deliver while the speaker is frustrated that matters brought up in his talks with the president are not followed through by White House staff. And on the debt limit, Boehner and Obama at this point are simply talking past each other. "While I will negotiate over many things, I will not have another debate with this Congress over whether or not they should pay the bills that they've already racked up through the laws that they passed," Obama said after the deal was approved. Said Boehner spokesman Michael Steel: "The speaker's position is clear. Any increase in the debt limit must be matched by spending cuts or reforms that exceed the increase." © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. |


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WASHINGTON –– As people of faith and as Americans, the nation's Catholics should kneel in prayer and also stand in defense of religious freedom, Washington Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl said July 4 during the closing Mass for the Fortnight for Freedom at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.
"There is a time to be on one's knees. There is also a time to stand up. … Today, there are things that should mean enough to all of us, including our religious liberty, that we simply need to stand — to stand up for what is right, to stand up for what is ours, to stand up for freedom of religion," the cardinal said.
The cardinal said that American Catholics, through their faith and love, can change the world and make it a better place. "It begins with all of us having the courage to stand for what we believe … (to stand up) for our faith and freedom."
The Mass marked the close of the second annual Fortnight for Freedom, a two-week period in which the nation's bishops called on Catholics across the country to pray and act in defense of religious freedom.
Dioceses across the U.S. celebrated Masses, held prayer services and organized marches and other events to mark the close of the fortnight, which began June 21, the vigil of the feast of Sts. Thomas More and John Fisher, who were martyred for their faith.
In Washington, the liturgy –– televised nationally by EWTN –– drew an overflow crowd of 5,500 people and was concelebrated by five bishops and by 72 priests. An honor guard of dozens of Knights of Columbus saluted the clergy as they processed into the Independence Day Mass.
People of all ages and backgrounds, ranging from families with young children to senior citizens, filled the pews and lined the outside aisles of the cavernous shrine.
In welcoming the congregation, Msgr. Walter R. Rossi, the basilica's rector, praised the individual Catholics who had driven from different parts of the country and members of movements like the Neocatechumenal Way, some of whom came in buses and played joyful music outside the shrine's entrance before the Mass. Their witness, Msgr. Rossi said, demonstrated that "faith matters."
Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori, chairman of the U.S. bishops' Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty who opened the fortnight with a Mass at his city's historic basilica, was among the concelebrants for the July 4 Mass in Washington, and he spoke after Communion. He noted that the Supreme Court's recent decisions on same-sex marriage, and the ongoing controversy over the federal contraceptive mandate, demonstrate real-life threats to religious liberty.
"We must stand firm and be emboldened by the strength of our religiously-held convictions not just two weeks a year, but always, for the threats continue to come," Archbishop Lori said. "We defend marriage and defend religious liberty not for our own sake, but for the good of our church, for the good of our fellow man, and for the good of the United States of America."
He said the Supreme Court's decision the Defense of Marriage Act "effectively paves the way for more lawsuits to redefine marriage to include two persons of the same sex, and in doing so, raises the religious liberty stakes for the men and women of conscience and the religious institutions that continue to teach the truth about marriage."
Archbishop Lori encouraged the nation's Catholics not to be "unfairly shamed into remaining silent when it comes to supporting marriage." He added, "We are not against anyone. … We are for marriage, we are for children, we are for families, and we are for preserving the religious liberty God has given us and our Constitution guarantees us as Americans who are also people of faith."
Speaking about the HHS mandate that would force Catholic institutions like schools, hospitals and social service agencies to violate Church teaching by providing employee health insurance coverage for abortion inducing drugs, contraception and sterilizations, Archbishop Lori said, "Sometimes issues like a government mandate can seem abstract. But they affect real people and real ministries." He encouraged people to go to the USCCB website at www.usccb.org and see a video about three women whose conscience rights have been violated in the medical field and in private business.
One day before the fortnight's closing Mass, New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, said that the HHS final rule on its mandate requires action in Congress and in the courts. Numerous Catholic dioceses, institutions and private businesses are challenging the mandate in court.
In his homily, Cardinal Wuerl spoke about the nation's legacy of religious freedom, and he noted how Maryland is regarded as the birthplace of religious liberty in the United States, because the colony was founded in 1634 on the principle of religious toleration. But by 1704, the royal governor there ordered a Catholic chapel in St. Mary's City, then Maryland's capital, to be locked, and until the American Revolution, Catholics there could not worship publicly and faced a variety of restrictions.
In 2009, the cardinal participated in a ceremony in which the doors of the rebuilt 1667 Brick Chapel in historic St. Mary's City were unlocked, and he helped push open the doors.
That story, the cardinal said, demonstrates the fragility of religious freedom, and the need for people of faith, like the early Marylanders, to persevere in their defense of "our inherent human right to religious liberty and the blessing of freedom of conscience."
Cardinal Wuerl noted how there are still efforts to lock the doors of people's religious freedom, and he pointed to a case this past spring, when a small group of students tried to oust Father Greg Shaffer, the chaplain at George Washington University in the nation's capital, because at Mass he taught "what Jesus said about marriage."
Intolerance against people of faith "is the new form of locking doors," the cardinal said. He encouraged Catholics not to respond in kind, but as followers of Jesus Christ, to speak the truth in love.
The intercessions at the Mass including a prayer for government officials to respect religious liberty, and a prayer for Catholics in educational, health care and social service ministries to have the freedom to carry out their work while remaining true to their faith.
After the Mass, people leaving the national shrine reflected on why they had come to Mass on July 4 to pray for religious freedom.
Juliana Anamelechi, a member of the Nigerian Catholic Community in Washington who works as a pharmacist at Providence Hospital in the nation's capital, said: "Today is Independence Day. We want to pray for the country we're living in … so our country will allow us to live a Catholic life, the way God wants us to live, without any hindrance from politics or a government mandate."
Zimmermann is editor of the Catholic Standard, newspaper of the Washington Archdiocese.


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Shonda Rhimes finally spoke publicly about Katherine Heigl's tension-filled departure from Grey's Anatomy in 2010, and her comments were slightly barbed, to say the least.
Shonda Rhimes finally spoke publicly about Katherine Heigl's tension-filled departure from Grey's Anatomyin 2010, and her comments were slightly barbed, to say the least.
Rhimes opened up to — who else? — Oprah Winfrey about Heigl's exit in an interview for Oprah's Next Chapter. Winfrey asked the Grey's creator about Heigl's behavior in 2008, when she withdrew her name from consideration for an Emmy award because she didn't feel the writing was deserving of a nomination. (Heigl had won the prize for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama the year before.)
"On some level, it stung and on some level I was not surprised," Rhimes told Winfrey coolly before echoing a piece of Oprah advice that she said had served her well over the years. "When people show you who they are, believe them."
Fifty Shades of Lame! Check out TV's unsexiest sex scenes
At the time of her withdrawal, Heigl said in a statement: "I did not feel that I was given the material this season to warrant an Emmy nomination and in an effort to maintain the integrity of the academy organization, I withdrew my name from contention. In addition, I did not want to potentially take away an opportunity from an actress who was given such materials."
After taking subsequent leaves of absences from Grey's Anatomy on more than one occasion, Heigl officially left Seattle Grace in 2010, saying she wanted to spend more time with her family. Her character Izzie left Seattle to start a new life elsewhere.
"Everyone had been working really hard to find an amicable and gracious way of letting go and moving on," she said at the time. "It's sad but it's what I wanted."
In January of this year, Heigl said she'd like to return to the show and revisit Izzie's story line — but Rhimes doesn't appear to be on board with the idea.
Losties? Trekkies? Which TV show has the best fans? Vote now!
"It was really nice to hear her appreciating the show," Rhimes told TV Guide in March. "We are on a track we have been planning, and the idea of changing that track is not something we are interested in right now."
Watch part of Rhimes' interview with Oprah below:


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The one-year anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement brought rallies and arrests Monday, as protesters marched in New York and other cities. More than 100 arrests were reported in New York, where activists marched near the city's stock exchange.
In Manhattan, protesters who support the grass-roots movement "came bearing birthday balloons, confetti, and a slew of slogans excoriating everything from Wall Street bailouts and fracking to campaign finance laws and student debt," report Stephen Nessen and Brigid Bergin of WNYC.
As of 4 p.m., nearly 150 protesters had been arrested in New York, NBC News reports.
While some protesters told WNYC that they were prepared to be arrested, others said they merely wanted to celebrate the Occupy movement's anniversary. Police effectively kept groups from banding into a large crowd.
"Police are in force and have barricaded streets around Wall Street," the CBC's David Common reports. "If you aren't in a suit, [there's] no chance [of] getting past the barricade."
Organizers gathered a crowd at Bowling Green, home of the charging bull statue that is an icon of Wall Street. There, they sang "Happy Birthday" in honor of some insiders are calling an "occu-versary."
Protesters were later told to meet at Zuccotti Park, where the movement's main camp in downtown Manhattan was dismantled last November. Other than New York, Occupy groups in cities from Toronto to San Francisco held rallies to mark the one-year occasion.
Monday's turnout in New York wasn't nearly as large as the 2011 protest that helped the Occupy movement spread to other cities in America and worldwide, as thousands of people gathered to protest income inequality and blamed banks and politicians for coddling corporations and the top "1 percent," referring to the wealthiest citizens.
Since then, income inequality hasn't gotten any better, says The Atlantic's Jordan Weissmann. Citing new data from the U.S. Census Bureau, he writes, "From 2010 to 2011, the top 5 percent of U.S. households upped their share of the country's income by 5.3 percent. The top 20 percent got a 1.6 percent bump. And while the country's poorest saw their piece of the pie grow by a smidgen, the middle classes lost ground."
On its anniversary, the Occupy Wall Street Twitter feed featured a mix of messages of support along with simple congratulations and shout-outs to groups who were gathering in San Francisco and other cities.
As NPR's Corey Dade reported recently, the Occupy movement is struggling to reorganize itself — and to prove that it can bring about change as it matures into what many call Occupy 2.0.
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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You're far from alone in not being aware of the cloud.... copy this into your browser: forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=130225
Happy birthday יום הולדת שמח מזל־טובֿ צו דײַן געבוירנטאָג
More or less so. I not anywhere near native but I am probably a nice mid range intermediate level. If I were forced to keep a daily journal in Koine Greek or Japanese I'd pick Japanese.
"Is Japan as crowded as they describe it?" Tokyo and other big cities are crowded and expensive just like you might imagine. However once, you travel into the prefectures far away from Tokyo and Osaka you will find there is a lot more personal space as well as land and nature. I live in the northern most prefecture (Aomori) of the main island(Honshu). It is fairly rural up here. And, most seafood is really cheap here! Beef and Chicken are more expensive here than in the states.
"Your story was very interesting." Anyone's story can appear interesting in a highly abridged form and if only a few milestones are mentioned. I'd be curious to know where you developed your proficiency with the Hebrew Bible though. Proficient? The more I learn, the more I know I need to learn. "How do you like living in Japan and how long have you been there? Do you ever miss home (wherever home was for you)?" I have been here for about eight years, I enjoy life here, and I do miss my family and friends back home. I plan on returning (or at least I hope to) for graduate school some day.
Sure, I'd be happy to answer your question Irving. Well, I in University(undergraduate) I took 5 semesters of attic/koine Greek (the first semester was by accident). It was then that I was actually forced to read the NT and study it seriously for the first time. But, I really did not have the right heart or mindset then to really understand what I was reading and I tried to find contradictions in it and Hebrew Bible/Tanakh. It was only after university that the the LORD opened my eyes and I was ready for true conversion. During, my university days I met my wife to be who happens to be Japanese. After, graduation I decided that I needed to understand her culture, language, and mindset more before we got married so I came to Japan to do that. After, my first two years in Japan we were married and I have been here ever since.
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How to test if a remote control is sending an Infrared (IR) signal.
- This Answer is for infrared remote controls with the (IR) mark.
- The (IR) mark is not on Android TV remote controls released in 2016, but they are nonetheless infrared remote controls.
An IR Remote Control sends out a signal using Infrared light. You cannot see this light with your eyes, but by using a digital camera, cell phone camera, or camcorder in camera mode you can see the signal.
To check if your IR Remote is sending a signal, follow the steps below:
- Pick a device to use:
- Digital Camera - turn the camera on.
- Cell Phone with camera - open the camera app.
- Camcorder - turn the camcorder on an set it to Camera mode.
- Point the end of the remote control with the IR emitter at the camera or camcorder lens.
- Look at the viewfinder or LCD screen.
- Press and hold one of the buttons on the remote control.
If the remote control is sending a signal, you should see a light in the viewfinder or cell phone screen when you press buttons on the remote control.
NOTE: Infrared light may not be visible on some smartphones. In that case, check for infrared light using the front-facing camera mode, or if it still cannot be checked, use a digital still camera or other mobile phone.
If the transmitter is visible | If the transmitter is not visible |
The remote control is normal. | The battery is dead or the remote control may be damaged. |
Depending on whether the transmitter is visible or not, follow the instructions below:
- If the light of the remote control transmitter is not visible when any button is pressed, there is a possibility the batteries are spent. Switch to new batteries and check whether or not the transmitter lights up.
NOTE: Insert a battery consistent with the + pole and - pole according to the indication.
If the symptoms do not improve, the remote control may be broken. - You can also test each of the buttons on the remote by pressing them one at a time and checking to see if you see a light from the emitter.
NOTE: If you see a light when no button is pressed, one of the buttons on the remote may be stuck and preventing other buttons from working. If this is the case:
- Remove the batteries.
- Press and release each button a couple of times to see if you can free the stuck button.
- Replace the batteries and test the remote again.
If you continue to see a light when no button is pressed, the remote control may need to be replaced.
- If it does not light up when its specific button is pressed, the button may be broken.


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Choosing any of these tubs will make it easier—and safer—to bathe your baby.
Bathing baby can be a fun, relaxing experience for mom, dad, and baby. Or there can be times when things do not go as smoothly as one would like.
Until the umbilical cord falls off, The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that you sponge bathe your baby no more than twice a week to prevent skin dryness and possible infections as her belly button heals – this can be up to 3 weeks.
When giving baby a bath, here are some tips I have learned along that way that will make this experience the most enjoyable for mom, dad, and baby:
Make sure the room where baby will be bathed is warm, draft-free and you are comfortable. A good bet is to place a portable heater or hair dryer next to the changing station. After a bath or family shower, you can soothe baby with warmth and white noise.
Think about where you place the baby bath and find a comfortable spot for you, even if you don't have a bad back. You will need a spot that is stable and at a comfortable height.
Avoid giving your baby a bath imme- diately after she's eaten. There could still be the opportunity for spit up with an infant or depending on your baby's schedule, the opportunity for poop. You want to avoid having to bathe your lit- tle one for a second time after you just finished her first bath.
Essentials for bathing include a soft hooded towel that will completely cover baby, a few washcloths, mild soap, baby wipes, clean diaper, and a change of clothes.
The water in baby's bath should be warm (between 90-98 degrees). Check the temperature with your elbow. Water should feel warm and not hot.
Ease baby into the water, while keep- ing her head supported. Use your other hand to gently wash her from top to bottom. Placing a washcloth drenched in bath water over their abdomen helps keep baby warm and happy.
As a first time mother, I never realized there were so many options for bathtubs out there. Out of instinct, you realize that you cannot place your baby in an adult tub because it is too big. A sink is too small and sometimes too deep. Clearly, there must be another option for such tiny humans.
And of course there is! Actually, many options, depending on what you think is best for baby and you. However, the number one concern when looking for the right tub is safety and not the aes- thetics of a baby tub. Check out our Buyers' Guide on baby bath tubs for a few of our favorites after looking over the many tub options.


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Find anyone in the country by their phone number with our complete US phone directory.
- Who's been calling your house and hanging up?
- Who's been texting your children?
- Who are you really doing business with?
- Who is telemarketing to you against the Do Not Call registry?
How to use the PhoneOwner phone directory...
- Step 1: Choose the area code of the caller
- Step 2: Find the prefix for their number
- Step 3: Select the correct phone line
Result: You will get a listing of all the people, family members, and locations for anyone who owns the phone number.
When other reverse phone lookups have given no results, the PhoneOwner phone directory will narrow you in on the right number until you find the person or company that you have been looking for.
We have a landline and cell phone directory for Sprint, Verizon, AT&T, T-mobile and more.


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You know what it is to be born alone,
Baby tortoise!
The first day to heave your feet little by little from the shell,
Not yet awake,
And remain lapsed on earth,
Not quite alive.
A tiny, fragile, half-animate bean.
To open your tiny beak-mouth, that looks as if it would never open,
Like some iron door;
To lift the upper hawk-beak from the lower base
And reach your skinny neck
And take your first bite at some dim bit of herbage,
Alone, small insect,
Tiny bright-eye,
Slow one.
To take your first solitary bite
And move on your slow, solitary hunt.
Your bright, dark little eye,
Your eye of a dark disturbed night,
Under its slow lid, tiny baby tortoise,
So indomitable.
No one ever heard you complain.
You draw your head forward, slowly, from your little wimple
And set forward, slow-dragging, on your four-pinned toes,
Rowing slowly forward.
Whither away, small bird?
Rather like a baby working its limbs,
Except that you make slow, ageless progress
And a baby makes none.
The touch of sun excites you,
And the long ages, and the lingering chill
Make you pause to yawn,
Opening your impervious mouth,
Suddenly beak-shaped, and very wide, like some suddenly gaping pincers;
Soft red tongue, and hard thin gums,
Then close the wedge of your little mountain front,
Your face, baby tortoise.
Do you wonder at the world, as slowly you turn your head in its wimple
And look with laconic, black eyes?
Or is sleep coming over you again,
The non-life?
You are so hard to wake.
Are you able to wonder?
Or is it just your indomitable will and pride of the first life
Looking round
And slowly pitching itself against the inertia
Which had seemed invincible?
The vast inanimate,
And the fine brilliance of your so tiny eye,
Nay, tiny shell-bird.
What a huge vast inanimate it is, that you must row against,
What an incalculable inertia.
Little Ulysses, fore-runner,
No bigger than my thumb-nail,
Buon viaggio.
All animate creation on your shoulder,
Set forth, little Titan, under your battle-shield.
The ponderous, preponderate,
Inanimate universe;
And you are slowly moving, pioneer, you alone.
How vivid your travelling seems now, in the troubled sunshine,
Stoic, Ulyssean atom;
Suddenly hasty, reckless, on high toes.
Voiceless little bird,
Resting your head half out of your wimple
In the slow dignity of your eternal pause.
Alone, with no sense of being alone,
And hence six times more solitary;
Fulfilled of the slow passion of pitching through immemorial ages
Your little round house in the midst of chaos.
Over the garden earth,
Small bird,
Over the edge of all things.
With your tail tucked a little on one side
Like a gentleman in a long-skirted coat.
All life carried on your shoulder,
Invincible fore-runner.


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Good for carrying almost any product, custom printed paper bags make great promotional items for your company to brand your signature business logo. Ideal for all types of organizations, custom promotional paper bags are able to carry all kinds of miscellaneous items you may need for any particular circumstance.
The printed promotional paper bags at IASpromotes.com come in all sizes and colors for any business to customize to suit their brand. All types of promotional paper bags are easy to print with your company logo, name, and any message that showcases your brand's image.


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Anna Olson's Orange Olive Oil Cake |
I am sure you have all made something at one time or another that is a keeper. Something that you know you will make time and time again, something that is special enough to make for company, something that your friends ask for the recipe? This cake from Anna Olson is one of those things. I took a few pieces to work and now I will be making this cake once a month because a co-worker wants me to make him THIS cake and pay me for it. I am happy to oblige because I am happiest when I am creating in the kitchen...although it doesn't usually involve sugar and flour.
1 -1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3/4 cup 2 %milk
zest of 2 oranges or tangerines
1 cup + 2 T all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
dash salt
icing sugar for dusting
2 honey tangerines
2 blood oranges, clementines or limes
2 tablespoons good quality extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons sugar
To prepare Orange Olive Oil Cake: Preheat oven to 350 °F and butter and flour a 9-inch round cake pan.
You are reading this post on More Than Burnt Toast at http://morethanburnttoast.blogspot.com. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to the author/owner of More Than Burnt Toast. All rights reserved by Valerie Harrison.


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Aaron Harang (1-1, 5.40) vs. Mike Minor (2-1, 3.10).
Minor's on a roll, having allowed one unearned run to the Brewers over 7 1/3 innings, then following that by holding the Diamondbacks (sans Upton and Young) to two runs over eight innings. The NL-best 13-4 Dodgers counter with Harang, who anchored the Dodgers' sole win in Milwaukee last week.
But all eyes will be on the Dodger bats, which cranked out 15 hits against the Braves last night. Will Andre Ethier and James Loney continue their hot streaks against a lefty? Will Loney even start? (UPDATE: No.) Will Juan Uribe's tender wrist actually force him to continue making contact? Can Dee Gordon and Ajellis keep getting on base? Will SoSG readers Alex and Bryan send us pictures of themselves in a Dodgers sleeved blanket? The tension is killing me!