text: The summer capital of the British Raj, Shimla is until today, a popular hill station getaway, located in the State of Himachal Pradesh in northern India. Sitting resplendent at 8000 feet (2438 metres) and surrounded by 23 acres of fragrant cedar forest is Wildflower Hall - the magnificent former residence of Lord Kitchener. Mashobra Himalayas, Chharabra, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh 171012 +91 177 2648585 email@example.com

subset: commoncrawl


text:
The University plan is our lowest possible subscription tier, and is the perfect way to test out AdEspresso for a month at a low cost in preparation for a heavier commitment, or for users just starting out with Facebook ads! It comes with access to our University Group, a ton of training material on Facebook ads and AdEspresso, and the use of the platform for a spend maximum of $500 each month. The subscription for University is $19 USD/month.
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Modem will retain its name and become a unit of TN Technologies. Greg Blaine, chairman-CEO of TN Technologies, will keep his title and head up the combined company. G.M. O'Connell, founder and partner in Modem Media, will be president-chief operating officer. Modem's two other partners, Robert Allen and Doug Ahlers, will serve as president of Modem Media and president of TN Technologies' Relationship Technology Group, respectively.
Modem Media will receive $25 million in True North common stock at the closing of the deal, expected in November. It will receive an additional $4 million upon completion of the IPO. Modem will retain a substantial minority interest in the new combined company.


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The Hens, the Grey Fox, and the Coyote
The Woodpecker made a guitar and gave it to the Butterfly to play on, and the Cock danced a pascual, and the Cricket danced with the Locust, and the Hen was singing. While the dance was going on, the Coyote came to see what he could get from the feast, and the Grey Fox also came, and he brought some tunas (fruit of the nopal cactus). They were very nice and sweet, and he gave one to the Coyote and said, "Here, Brother Coyote, take this nice mouthful." He had well rubbed off the spines, and the fruit tasted well to the Coyote. It made his heart glad, and he wanted more. The Grey Fox said to the Coyote, "I will give you more tunas, but you must eat them with your eyes shut." He gave him some tunas from which he had not cleaned off the spines, and as the spines hurt the Coyote he became very angry and wanted to eat the Grey Fox. But the Fox said to him: "Don't be angry, Brother Coyote: I will give you a drink; and don't howl, because there are dogs around." He went to the Cock and to the Hen, and asked them for tesvino, and he brought it to the Coyote and said, "Here, Brother Coyote, drink this." The Coyote drank two gourdsful, and then a third one, and when he had finished this he began to howl, because he was very drunk, and he asked the Grey Fox, "Why are they all dancing?" The Grey Fox replied: "They dance, because Miss Cricket married Mister Locust; therefore the Butterfly is playing on the guitar, and the Cock dances with delight, and the Hen is singing." But the Coyote said: "I don't want the Hen to sing; I want to eat her." Then the Grey Fox took the Coyote into the arroyo and told him to remain there, while he went to fetch the Hen. But instead of the Hen he got two very fierce dogs and put them in a bag, and carried them into the arroyo, where the Coyote was waiting. He was very drunk and very angry, and he said to the Grey Fox, "Why did you keep me waiting so long, you cursed old Grey Fox t" The Grey Fox replied: "Don't be angry, Brother Coyote; here I bring you some very nice Hens. I was looking for many of them, that is why I remained away so long. Now, shall I let them out one by one, or do you want them all at once?" The Coyote replied, "Let them out all at once, that I may have a good old time with them." Then the Grey Fox opened the bag, and out came the two fierce dogs; and they caught the Coyote and bit him and tore him to pieces. The Grey Fox ran away and hid himself, but afterward he came and got the paws of the Coyote and threw them into a water-pool.
The Mountain Lion and the Bear
The Mountain Lion killed a deer, and the Bear wanted to take it away from him. They fought, and the Lion won, and the Bear asked his pardon, because the Lion is more powerful than the Bear.


text: Majik Hair Building Fiber 36 Gm With Hold Spray Hair Loss Is A Very Common Problem That Number Of People Suffer From. There Are Number Of Products Available In The Market To Prevent This Problem. If You Are Suffering From A Drastic Hair Fall And Partial Baldness, You Could Opt For Hair Building Fiber By Majik. Majik Is A Swiss Based Brand Which Is Recognized As One Of The Most Reputed Hair-Care Brands All Over The World. From The Manufacturer What It Is Majik Hair Building Fibers, Made Of 100% Human Hair, Blend Undetectably With Existing Hair Strands To Instantly Create The Appearance Of Naturally Thick And Full Hair.


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Missing since July 22, 2001
On July 22nd 2001, 28 year-old Niqui McCown disappears from a local Laundromat near her home in Richmond, Indiana.
Richmond investigators soon focus on Niqui's fiance. His actions in the week after her disappearance are suspicious, but their inquiries lead them nowhere. Four months later, Niqui's car surfaces in a parking lot, forty miles from her home. Although no clues are found in the car, its location is near the home of Niqui's former colleague, Tommy Swint. Police discover that Swint and Niqui had a complicated relationship, and that Swint once threatened her. However, they find no specific evidence that he is involved with her disappearance. All they can do is tag him as a "person of interest," someone they believe knows something but is not talking.
Then, six years after her disappearance, Richmond detectives learn that Tommy Swint has been hired as a police officer by a neighboring department. Furious, they inform their colleagues that Swint is a person of interest in their case, which prompts his firing and lands Niqui's case back in the headlines. Then, in a development no one saw coming, police in nearby Dayton, Ohio receive an anonymous phone-call linking Swint to an unsolved murder of a different woman.
Dayton detectives use DNA to connect Swint to the crime scene, and new fingerprint evidence to prove that he was the killer. In November 2009, nine years after Niqui's disappearance, Swint is indicted. Detectives on Niqui's case feel sure that this is their moment -- that Swint, in custody, will tell them what they want to know. But as they close in on Swint, another shocking development unfolds causing the story of Niqui McCown to remain a mystery that continues to haunt her loved ones.


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A Social Media Manager's Guide To Social Media Reporting
Social media reporting is important for social media managers to prove the ROI of social media to their boss. And it's a social media manager's job to choose the right social media report to effectively report on the success of their social media strategy. With no social media strategy being identical, social media reports should be custom made to achieve social media reporting goals.
We've discussed which social media metrics you should track, this time we're going to focus on how to create custom social media reports in Hootsuite and highlight analytic modules to use when building your social media report.
How to customize your social media reporting in Hootsuite
Step 1: From the navigation panel on the left hand side of the dashboard, click Analytics
Step 2: Click the Build Custom Report button found under the Customize field from the left-aligned menu.
Step 3: Select Custom Report in the select a template window
#SMCTIP: Customize your social media reports by branding them with your company logo or with descriptions and paragraphs.
Adding custom social media report modules
Now that you know how to create a custom report in Hootsuite, you now need to start combining various analytics modules to start building your social media report. Each module is reflective of the Social Network it represents.
To add modules, click on any social network under the Analytics Modules and then click the + symbol next to the module you want to add.
This guide highlights some of our most popular modules, grouped by social network:
#SMCTIP: Organize your report by dragging and dropping the modules to appropriate places.
Put your social media report together
To put everything together, we've created three useful reports you can build to help get you started. Each report listed below requires a different number of points to create. The point system attached to each report is reflective of how in depth or comprehensive you want your report to be.
Discovery Report: 50 Points
This report give you an overview of your social media activity across various networks. It requires the 50 points that is included with Hootsuite Pro to create. This report is free with your first 50 points.
In Depth Insights Report: 100 Points
Wow your boss and take your reporting to the next level by providing a deeper analysis into understanding your customers and their needs with this simple In-Depth 100 point report.
Comprehensive Listening: 150 Points
Customize your report to directly reflect your unique business needs and the various social networks connected to the dashboard. Using 150 points ensures you are understanding not only what content your customers are most engaged with, but how your brand is performing on social media.
#SMCTIP: Learn how to use Hootsuite Points for your social media reports
Find your social media reporting success with Hootsuite Pro.
Start your Free 30-day Trial Today!


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815 West Broad Street- Columbus, Ohio
Design of a new 32,000 s.f. medical office building at the gateway to Mount Carmel West. The project posed a challenge with designing on a tight site with a utility easement running through the middle. The lack of site area and the size of the building dictated planning a garage for the ground level of the building and housing the tenants on the second and third floors. Carney Ranker was responsible for all building design and contract administration for the project.


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The word "collective" has gained special status the last several years. Progressives like to toss it about often regarding everything from collective responsibility to collective bargaining. President Obama even uses it in his brand of Christianity, saying, and I quote, "my individual salvation depends on our collective salvation." Collective, in case you weren't aware, is a buzzword that is used in the place of words such as "socialist" and "communist" or "Marxist"…those are dirty words now. It's an old game…change the words, but the meaning behind them always stays the same. Well I'd like to borrow their hijacked word today and ask, what exactly do we have on our collective minds?
On a sleepless night in September, when I couldn't get the world and it's myriad of issues off my mind, I began to do some research. I plugged in word after word after word trying to figure out what exactly was on the minds of other people just like me. What were their thoughts? What do they really care about the most? The internet is the most powerful tool that has ever been in the hands of mankind. At our fingertips lies a vast universe of anything we want. Anything. So what do we want? Let us allow the facts tell the story as I present you with the findings of my research.
The following figures are all from Google depicting the number of times each word was searched globally in the past month on their search engine, the most widely used in the world.
So the big question…WHAT is it we think about more than anything else? By a million miles too I might add. I bet you can guess. Not too difficult to figure out. Sex. A mind-blowing 618,000,000 people searched the word sex on Google last month. No other word that I could think of even remotely came close. Not even a distant second, unless you count the 83, 100, 000 that searched the phrase "free porn." Sex and free porn is what the world really cares about. Nothing else comes close. So why I am wasting my promising ability writing about the things I do?…I'll never know…because you don't care…and you really aren't reading them. I have had 2 separate posts make the WordPress Daily Top 20 before…I guess I'll have to rest on that level of success. The world doesn't need another person talking about sex and I'm not starting a porn site…especially a free one. That said….let's dive into what I found…because the numbers are eye-opening…mostly in a negative light on our collective souls…but not all of it. There are positive signs of hope that offer a glimmer that maybe our souls aren't completely fried to a crisp yet. But mostly? Mostly…we suck.
Here are the sexual based words I researched and the results:
Sex = 618,000,000
Free Porn = 83,100,000
Seks = 37,200,000 (this found by mistake in the sex search…37 million of us can't spell sex, but we sure know where to look for it…humorous)
Escort = 30,400,000 (that's a lot of men looking for a hook up)
Herpes = 6,120,000
And just for the fun of it, I tried to think of the nastiest thing I could think of sexually and at 4 am in the morning I came up with…
Dog Sex = 2,240,000 (seriously people?)
Ok, so it's clear that we like sex, and 2 million plus of you have dog sex on your brain. I can only hope most of them are dog breeders. That…I can process.
How about we look at how Jesus stacks up against prominent personalities?
Jesus = 24,900,000 (falls just a TAD shy of the 618 million sex seekers eh?)
Lady GaGa = 24,900,000 (same figure as Jesus)
Justin Bieber = 45,500,000 (Almost twice as many people searched Bieber than they did Jesus)
Karl Marx = 1,000,000
Lenin = 1,830,000
George Washington = 2,740,000 (at least he beats out Lenin and Marx)
Simon Cowell = 450,000 (OUCH…Simon buddy…bad move)
Steven Tyler = 823,000
Snooky = 74,000
The "Situation" – 4,090,000 (apparently Abercrombie helped the boy out with their request)
Glenn Beck = 1,220,000
Van Jones (Beck's arch-enemy) = 40,500 (Ouch again)
George Soros (Beck's SUPER arch-enemy and threat to all of western civilization) = 246,000 (that's good in his eyes….he prefers the shadows)
Satan = 5,000,000
The Devil = 16,600,000 (seems people still prefer to call him the Devil)
Anti-Christ = 450,000
Allah = 13,600,000
The top winner? Beating even Bieber…GOD = 55,600,00 (That feels good…until you compare with the 83 million who searched Free Porn)
Any of this grabbing your attention yet? Hope so. But let's keep going. How about Social items? I know one biggie…
Gay = 124,000,000 (Is that right? 124 million searched for "gay?" That tops even free porn…hard to do)
Marriage = 24,900,000
Gay Marriage = 1,000,000 (doesn't seem to add up to the whopping figure above now does it?)
Divorce = 9,140,000
Lawyer = 13,600,00
Lesbian = 30,400,000 (the world is certainly interested in lesbians)
homosexual = 24,900,000
Jersey Shore = 6,120,000
Sugar = 20,400,000 (people love it sweet)
Diabetes = 13,600,000 (the end result of sweet)
US Day of Rage = 480 (something tells me that figure is about to soar next week)
Hey, what say we dive into the Presidential candidates since it is that time again…
Obama = 13,600,000 (tied with diabetes…losing badly to sugar)
Perry = 24,900,000 (well now…seems like we know who the opponent will be)
Romney = 450,000
Ron Paul = 550,000
Bachman = 1,500,000
Palin = 3,350,000
Obama vs. Perry in 2012…Perry wins…by a landslide. Gary calls it now
Important places and geopolitical tidbits?
Israel = 13,600,000 (Israel, Obama and Diabetes)
Palestine = 4,090,000
Republic = 16,600,000
Dictator = 550,000
Iran = 11,100,000
Egypt = 37,200,000 (uh oh)
world war = 16, 600,000
Taliban = 673,000
Terrorism = 2,740,000
Jerusalem = 4,090,000
Mecca = 2,240,000
Communism = 823,000 (boy does their word change game ever work)
Marxist = 1,500,000
China = coming in at a big ol' fat 68,000,000
United States = 55,600,000
How about how we feel about ourselves? Are we happy…are we depressed…do we hate ourselves? Let's look.
Joy = 13,600,000
Depression = 9,140,000
Murder = 20,400,000
Suicide = 7,480,000
Breast Implant = 1,000,000
Breast Reduction = 246,000
Plastic Surgery = 3,350,000
Diet = 30,400,000 (bloated figure for our bloated bodies)
Weight loss = 11,100,000
Fat = 30,400,000
Stress = 9,140,000
Therapy = 37,200,000 (Hello Mr. Shrink…I think I have a slight problem)
Cheating = 37,200,000 (not a shock whatsoever)
Cotton Candy = 246,000 (I like to be random)
Prison = 16,600,000
Pregnancy = 30,400,000
Safe Sex = 201,000 (this paired with pregnancy? What ya think?)
Morals = 450,000 (compared to cheating…hmmmm)
Coffee = 45,500,000 (nearly doubles Jesus)
Aliens = 11,100,000
Parenting = 1,500,000
Babysitter = 3,350,000
Daycare = 6,120,000
Stay-at-home Mom = 165,000 (far less interest in being a parent than there is in pawning off…might have considered the safe sex)
Death = 83,100,000
Life = 151,000,000 (Life wins!)
Star Trek = 4,090,000 (making a point)
Ok…so you all feel fat, you all want babies, don't want to take care of them though, but you DO want to live as opposed to dying…for the most part…except the suicide people.
Religion is probably on our minds more than anything though right? In this day and time…we are looking up and asking for forgiveness. Hmm…really? Kinda….but compare the numbers to say "coffee"…and religion…trouble is a brewin'.
Bible = 20,400,000
Koran = 7,480,000
Torah = 1,000,000
Witch = 7,480,000 (equal to the word of the Islamic faith and blowing away the book of the Hebrews)
Atheist = 1,220,000
Mystic = 2,740,000
Christian = 37,200,000
Muslim = 16,600,000
Jew = 2,740,000
Cross = 55,600,000 (that is refreshing to me personally)
Heaven = 13,600,000
Hell = 20,400,000
Evil = 24,800,000
Good = Winner, winner chicken dinner…101,000,000 (good always triumphs over evil don't ya know)
So where does this leave us? There has to still be more room in our brains…ohhhhh…sports…we DO love us some sports on this planet. More than God that's for sure.
Football = 124,000,000
Beer = 16.600,000
Golf = 68,000,000 (howdy Mr. White Middle Class)
Soccer = 45,500,000
Exercise = 20,400,000
Obviously we place sports high on our priority lists. The numbers don't lie. They just count what we do. There are (2) other things on our minds these days though…the two things that make the secular world go round…Money and Work:
Gold = 83,100,000
Job = 226,000,000 (Coming in 2nd place behind Sex)
After all this…this is what I get from it. Give us steady sex with no responsibility, a good job with good pay, put a good game on…and son…we are all set. We will worry about God and the afterlife when we're old. Politics? The World? That's negative…ewwww…negative….that would make me search depressed…and we certainly can't have that can we Mr and Mrs Sunshine?
Don't shoot the messenger….I'm just reading the facts as they tell me the story.
Gary Wayne Abernathy


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|My preciousssss...
I turned back to the path and ran for the village.
Happy release day, everybody!!!
|My preciousssss...
How exciting!
And your stick figure "precious" drawing is just too cute.
i really love this opening!
good decision!
Congratulations! That's awesome!ReplyDelete
And it's already tops on my Amazon Wish List. Probably will buy it on Friday when I get paid. {rubs hands together, Mr. Burns style} Excellent.ReplyDelete
Thank you so much for send me an ARC! The book was wonderful and my review is set to go live on April 7 @ 4am EST. I will post to Amazon/B&N/Goodreads also.ReplyDelete
Happy release day!ReplyDelete
Happy release day!
The first chapter is amazing and I cannot wait to read more :)
Happy Release day Kate! Enjoyed reading the first chapter.ReplyDelete
Way to go. :) I think I have a few dollars left over from an Amazon gift card... once I get my laptop up to speed again I think I'll download your book. Your price seems way good when compared with the quality of your first chapter. :) Happy release day to you!ReplyDelete
Congratulations! The book sounds fabulous!ReplyDelete


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A Touch Of Spring
Be inspired for Spring 2017
Be inspired for Spring 2017 with simple statement pieces that will lighten and brighten the home. Clever colour choices mean you can add a touch of the key spring trends to your scheme while ensuring that your rooms still work all year round.
Spring 2017 sees a shift towards lighter, cleaner shades as well as intricate patterning and these simple yet stylish pieces provide the perfect backdrop to welcome the bounty of spring in style.


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Call For Appointment: (831)-899-5464


text:
Set sail on a voyage of discovery through the world of food and drink.More...
Cape Town Series: The striking contemporary architecture of the Durbanville Hills winery tasting room is an inviting destination to sample their wine range. (more…)
It was real delight to meet winemaker Jaco Poitgeiter from Douglas Green Bellingham (DGB) group, one of the big players of the South African wine industry. DGB operates three winemaking facilities: at Boschendal, Franschhoek Cellars (for the Bellingham label) and in Wellington where they blend then bottle négociant wines (bought from various cooperative cellars) for Douglas Green, Tall Horse, The Beach House, Culemborg and Saints labels. My invite for the private wine tasting came from Meenal Kansara, marketing manager at Mohans Oysterbay Drinks Ltd, who import and distribute DGB wines in Tanzania.


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Hiya bloggers,
This post is a winter clubbing outfit inspiration. Hopefully it might give you an idea on what to wear if you go to a party in the winter.
I wore a crop top with denim jeggings and to keep myself warm, I wore my aviatar jacket.
I think I did look sort of 80's well I felt 80's. I wish I lived in that era 'cause they had great fashionable items and the style and music was so creative and fun.
I hope you enjoyed my post. Thank you for reading


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My little brother just
I stuck to the book's recipe, but used half all-purpose and half whole wheat flour. Then I frosted them with a spoon because I still hadn't replaced my burst pastry bag, stuck an eighth of a graham cracker on each one and used a vegetable peeler to put some semi-sweet chocolate shavings on top for that little bit of extra birthday fancy.
Everyone is so used to standard chocolate or vanilla cupcakes with the difference being in the filling or topping that my family and brother's friends were pleasantly surprised by the graham taste of the cupcakes themselves. And they all agreed my decorating skills had improved since my first try, despite the fact that I was back to working with a spoon. The best part was now that I was finally getting the hang of the baking thing (and I was only doing one batch, not six), everyone still thought it took me ages to make the cupcakes, but it didn't take much time at all.


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Join us on Saturday 29 July 2017 for our feeder ride to Ride London.
We will meet from 10am for a 10.30am sharp departure. The meeting place is in Brook Green on the corner of Dulsany Rd.
Details of specific rides and events we plan and have done, along with details of good rides to try and cycle by bike in Hammersmith and Fulham. Historic information on older rides is on our old website.
Join us for our Sunset Ride to Richmond Hill on the 15th of June!
This will be a leisurely ride from Hammersmith to Richmond Park. If any of the resident deer are so friendly to present themselves we will stop and have a look. We will end up at the Roebuck on Richmond Hill where we will meet up with other West London Groups for for some drinks and laughs. Remember to bring lights for the ride back.
Meet from 7pm for 7.15 departure. At the observation platform overlooking the Thames at the end of Queen Caroline street, almost under Hammersmith Bridge. W6 9DA
Contact: Konstantinos on email@example.com
07904 843 005
On the weekend of 9/10 August 2013, the revamped, rescheduled and renamed annual festival of cycling supported by TfL RideLondon took place. The media focus was largely on the Sunday which saw Boris Johnson and around 16,000 others take part in a marathon style challenge to ride 100 miles in Surrey and back (via Hammersmith and Fulham over the flyover) and then a professional race later in the day.
We meanwhile, had a strong involvement in the Saturday even, a 'freecycle' enabling 50,000 people including many families with members young and old alike to cycle in safety and pleasure on closed roads around St James's Park, along the embankment up to Tower Hill and back. 70 fellow riders accompanied us from out start in Brook Green.


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To be free of other people means ultimately to kill them. Everyone is irreducible to other individuals as regards his mind. When he feels endangered or bothered by them, it is threatened his existence in the world among them, not his inner existence. Therefore, the price of freedom should be the elimination of other people's existence.
The political movements for freedom seem to know this and often use to massacre a lot of undesirable people.
In the private lives, the killing is not a common solution, and not only because the laws would punish it. The peaceful elimination of other people from our existence by letting them to live provides the advantage of feeding permanently our freedom with a sense of superiority. Those who were moved out from others' existence seem to live for this reason a life which is inferior to that belonging to those who banished them.
Anyway, the freedom which needs to be confirmed as a superior state is not a real freedom, since it depends on somebody else.
On the other side, the killing does not provide by itself a superior state of freedom. On the contrary, it is an atrocity which downgrades the life of the killer, even if there were many who praised notorious criminals for their seeming superiority.
A middle solution for a superior freedom would be to let other people to live and still to forget them as if they were killed. However, it is not a peaceful state of mind: sometimes you may feel guilty of an unknown murder, sometimes you may feel in need of those forgotten people.


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As a marketing guy who dabbles in political commentary, I've always been interested in seeing how politicians—particularly candidates—brand and position themselves in the field.
(I've been observing this for years, but rarely discuss it, since I don't like to besmirch marketing's good name by comparing it to politics.)
Anyway, I just had to comment on a recent stunt that (in my opinion) was nothing short of marketing genius: John McCain bringing his mom on the campaign trail.
Though not my personal preference for President, McCain is one of my all-time favorite senators, a man of intelligence and integrity. Yet his campaign has been sputtering all year, and I recently wondered if he was virtually eliminated from the race.
Until now.
Don't underestimate this move. Mama McCain's presence isn't just some feel-good story that'll blow over. It's a brilliant strategic move that will have lasting impact, mostly because it addresses head-on those critics who attack John's age. How can they say that now, with his 95-year-old mom traveling around town? How can they question his health and stamina, when he's displaying genetic proof of his endurance? And how can the crowds not go crazy for this adorable old lady?
My guess is McCain's just quieted a few naysayers while earning himself a nice chunk of elderly and mom-loving voters—perhaps enough to get back into the top three Republicans.
This is not your father's John McCain.


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Gadolinium based contrast agents in CMR19 June 2014
BCS Editorial
By: Amardeep Dastidar
Gadolinium based contrast agents in CMR
Use of contrast enhanced imaging techniques makes it a unique modality allowing:
Contrast agents in CMR
All the contrast agents used for CMR essentially contain Gadolinium (a lanthanide group element) as a paramagnetic Gd3+ ion, which has seven unpaired electrons in its half-filled 4 f outer shell. Gd3+ has a long electronic relaxation time based on its totally symmetric S state making it well suited for use as an MR contrast agent. It accelerates the relaxation of the water molecules present in the tissue, giving rise to an enhanced signal on T1-weighted images and, together with appropriate sequence parameters, an improved image contrast. (1)
Mechanism of hyperenhancement
The superior tissue characterisation is possible due to the varied hyperenhancement patterns seen in different cardiovascular conditions. The mechanism of hyperenhanement is based on two principles. Firstly, gadolinium chelates are inert extra cellular contrast agents which cannot cross the intact/normal myocyte cell membranes.(2) Secondly, in normal myocardium, myocytes are densely packed and thus myocyte intracellular space forms the majority (85%) of the volume. (3) Hence, the volume of distribution of gadolinium in a hypothetical voxel of normal myocardium is small, and the overall number of gadolinium molecules is low. In the setting of acute pathology (like myocardial infarction), there is myocyte membrane rupture, which allows additional gadolinium to diffuse into what was previously intracellular space. This in turn results in increased gadolinium concentration and therefore hyperenhancement. In the setting of chronic pathologies (like chronic infarct or cardiomyopathies), myocytes are replaced with collagenous scar. As a result interstitial space is expanded which again leads to increased gadolinium concentration and therefore hyperenhancement. (4)
Types of gadolinium based contrast agents (GBCAs)
Nephrogenic sytemic fibrosis
In the early days of contrast MRI, GBCAs were considered safe with only rare side effects like allergic reactions or local irritation from extravasations. However, a new disease called Nephrogenic Fibrosing Dermopathy emerged in 1997. Cowper in 2001 described the disease (6). Its association with GBCA exposure was strongly suspected since 2006 (7,8). Later this condition was renamed Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis (NSF) when involvement of internal organs was discovered. The NSF Registry, www.icnfdr.org so far identified over 380 cases, all occurring in patients on dialysis or with severe renal dysfunction (9). However since the connection between NSF and GBCAs has become known changes in MRI protocols with the focus on prevention has led to a decrease in NSF incidence. In spite of continued use of GBCA, virtually no new NSF cases since 2008 has been reported (both in patients with normal renal function and patients with renal impairment) (10,11).
Association of NSF with kidney impairment
GBCA are more-or-less entirely excreted via the kidneys. In patients with kidney disease, administered GBCA will require more time to exit the body. If there is no residual urine output, the only way such agents can exit the body is through diaysis procedures. In patients with normal kidney function, GBCA are considered safe because the bond between the toxic Gd atom and its ligand molecule is extremely strong and because the GBCA molecule is flushed from the body so rapidly. There is a small risk that Gd atoms could dissociate (unbind) from their carrier ligands, but if this occurred, Gd (which acts much like calcium atoms in the body) would likely bind to readily available phosphates and form insoluble molecules. In patients who receive large doses of GBCA and do not undergo rapid and effective dialysis, there is a risk that larger amounts of these gadolinium compounds could develop and remain in the body in a form that is not readily removable.
Incidence and Prevalence
The majority of NSF cases have been reported in patients undergoing GBCA enhanced imaging. Interestingly about 5% of NSF cases showed no traceable prior exposure to GBCAs (12). The GBCAs are a cofactor in developing NSF. The incidence depends on kidney impairment (especially if dialysis or kidney impaired patients develop sepsis or proinflammatory process) (13,14) and also on the type and dose of GBCA. Patients who receive a GBCA dose (e.g. 0.1mmol/kg) overall incidence is near zero, regardless of their renal function.
In UK Gadovist and Dotarem are the most commonly used CMR contrast agent.
Table 1: Properties of GBCAs and reported cases of NSF (16)
Clinical Features and Treatment of NSF
NSF usually present with indurated plaque like skin lesions, typically beginning on the distal extremities later on spreading to the upper extremities, trunk and eye. The plaques are symmetrical and are described as brawny, with hyperpigmented adjoining areas. Sharp pain as well as pruritus, causalgias and paresthesias in affected areas is a common symptom. Stiffness and joint contractures can lead to decreased mobility. In an estimated 5% of cases the progression is rapid leading to immobility and in a few instances death has been attributed to NSF. Other internal organs can be affected including lung, heart, liver, bones and kidneys. The diagnosis can be confirmed with a deep punch skin biopsy. (17)
There is no proven definitive therapy for the treatment of NSF and the treatment options are limited to symptomatic relief. However there are reports that NSF can be cured with restoration of normal kidney function by renal transplantation. Literature review suggests the role of other therapy options like extracorporal photopheresis, plasmapheris, UV-A1 Therapy, high dose intravenous Immunoglobulins, Imatinib Mesylate, Rabamycine and Pentoxifylline. Considering the small numbers of case reports and the fact that NSF can possibly be avoided by preventive measures, the focus should be primarily on prevention. (1)
Recommendations by US FDA and MHRA UK on use of GBCAs:
US FDA 2010 Guideline (18)
Link SCMR online
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Yeh, the monkey with the gun is about what I think many Financial Experts are doing right now....shooting with their eyes closed, guessing WTF is going on in the financial sector right now GLOBALLY....Circuit City, which has been around since I was 12, just went the way of the Do-do bird and is now extinct. It is a really weird feeling for me. I have a place in my heart for Circuit City. It is where I, as a young 12 yr old, became interested in "all things electronic"....I guess since today is the 4th anniversary of my fathers death from a massive stroke, I guess I need to do a little reflection on how I came to be who I am.......A Bama fan and a good father.(I hope, you never really know since there is no instruction manual, or unless your kids tell ya.) :)
My dad was, to me , the worlds greatest mechanic since he came from a generation of "do-it-yourself" or "build it yourself", and ironically, my Grandfather or "Paw-Paw", was a Master Mechanic and electronics wiz, and welder, and farmer, and carpenter, and brick mason, landscaper,fisherman, hunter, iron worker, all wrapped up in a 5'9, 160 lb frame. Both he and my dad were very similar in build, and appearance. Both are short, wiry, bald and have forearms that belong to bodybuilders since they work on stuff and have a grip that would break your hand if they wanted to. Only difference was that they were 20 yrs apart, and always felt that one was smarter than the other.
My dad didnt care for telephones, or the new fangled car computers, or cell phones or home computers that they were coming out with in the 80's, he was raised on carbs and gas and all things that make cars go fast. For comparision, when he was 14-15 til the time he was 18, before he went off to war, he built and restored an old '32 Ford from the ground up, full on frame restoration, painting the frame, restoring and rebuilding the motor, tinkering with the pistons, headers, anything to make it the baddest thing on the strip, very similar to the guy in the yellow car in "American Graffitti" that ended up racing Harrison Ford in the '55 Chevy. My grandfather told me that my dad rarely, if ever, asked for advice or help, that he had a knack at looking at things, taking them apart, putting them back together, usually modifing them someway to make it run better, and could usually put things back together with his eyes closed. Of course, my grandfather was the same way, and although he worked a full time job, many people knew he could fix things, and many times he would for extra money, though many times he did it for free.
Both were stubborn as old mules and wouldnt take advice from anybody, much less each other.
And both were alcoholics from the word "GO". It didnt matter, beer,wine, whiskey, moonshine, it was always drank the same way, in huge gulps. And it always was done either around cars or during football season on Saturdays, and on Sunday during the games.
So when a car was being fixed and one was helping the other, alot of loud talking about how things should go where always came up. The one that was "helping" usually left in a huff...
"Fine fix it your damn self" type of conversation. My dad finished the 32 Ford, and sold it, for 4 times the money he had in it, and thought he should have held onto it, but he found a niche in restoring things and selling them as a hobby. By the time I came along, he had finished several projects and decided to go to work full time, and kinda let the restoring stuff go on the back burner.
Now by contrast, when I was 12, I was interested in electronics and took Beta Maxs apart, VCR's that were as big as briefcases and those things had parts you actually could replace. I had a working knowledge of electricity thanks to my Granddad and dad, and learned to read schematics. When computers came around..IBM, Apple IIe and IIc, I was "all up in it", learning why and how and what this and that was........
All this will tie back to Circuit City, eventually, hang with me here..... But growing up, they had a passion for Dragster and Stock Car Racing. Mind you, this was in '77-78-79 and the sport was really made up from people who were rich and could afford the best parts, etc, and many times the "guys with money" were the dominant force from the local tracks to the big tracks in Talladega and Atlanta. I remember them and my other uncles in the garage, the smell of hot metal, freshly welded pipes, the smell that a wheel grinder gives off as it cuts into metal, and of course, cutting torches. It was like some medieval torture chamber, but for cars. I remember getting scolded for playing with the friction igniter that they used to light the blowtorch cause it would make these cool ass sparks. And blowtorches are cool for playing, but they are meant for working and I wasnt a metal worker. I asked my Dad, how a welder could weld for 8 hours a day for a career, and he said "Thats why you stay in school, most welders I know are drug addicts, mostly junkies and dropouts, from looking at that bright little dot all day in 100 degree weather!"
I usually sat back in amazement as all of this stuff, a wheeless frame from some car from the junk yard, became this tubular cage of a race car. Even though this was for a late model car, and on a very tight budget, I felt my dad and grandad had missed their calling by not being in NASCAR as crew chiefs or head mechanics, hell, even fabricators. The care in which they built these things and the bond he and his 3 brothers had doing this stuff together with his dad was what I envied since I only had 1 sister while growing up,and all she wanted to do is play with damn dolls, plus she hated race cars , because when they fired it up with out the pipes, fire would race out of the heads and it was LOUD!!!And it scared the living hell out of her.....And to a little boy(me), thats was awesome and it blew me away. I was 7 at the time and all I could think about was "I wanna drive it.....NOW!!!"....Thats when I knew I wanted to go fast,and had the need for speed.
Well my dad and granddad couldnt drive it, wouldnt let me drive it, and they really built it for my youngest uncle to drive at the local track. Once they put the finishing touches with the sheet metal, it was a clone of a car that #11 car Cale Yarborough drove in the Nascar Winston Cup Series that year. I was just as excited to see this project come together since I couldnt wait to jump in the seat, press the button, and feel the car come to life. My dad told me to get in one day when they were tuning it up, and he told me to cover my ears...He primed it, flipped a bunch of switches, then pressed the button and fired that mutha up!! I swear once it rumbled to life, it scared teh shit outta me, and the only thought that went thru my shaking skull was "THAT IS AWESOME!" The whole car jumps to life in a loud ROAR of thunder and the whole thing shakes, the earth moves, and I swear I was scared and thrilled since you cannot hear yourself think.
No wonder my Granddad and dad are half deaf...... My granddad was the proudest as I have ever seen him when my uncle took it to the track, and won it on the last lap. I got to ride in the car on the victory lap, and even though I was 7, I never forgot the scene of the crowd, the smell of burnt rubber, crashed cars and antifreeze, exhaust fumes, and the lights and the cheers as he drove by with the checkered flag......It was one of the last times we were all together since in the next few years, Paw-Paws health went downhill, and my cousins tragic death from street racing, plus the economy wouldn't allow any extra money for racing, it all went away except basically for Alabama football. And yes, Bear Bryant was a central part of influence on my Grandfather and Dad. They were passionate about racing, whiskey, Alabama football, plus we were really spoiled from '76-81' when the Tide was rolling thru their winning seasons and Championship Days....I remember going to a game in Bham with my dad and Grandfather where their passion was barely matched by thousands in the stands. It was like church. And everyone wanted to shake Bear Bryant's hand, and I believe all of them would eat out of it, if he would let them... And God forbid if we lost(only once or twice that I saw or could remember), because Paw-Paw was in-con-sol-able....usually because he was drunk by the 4th quarter, and whiskey or bourbon has the ability to make someone really over dramatic. I think it is one of the few times he actually wept, besides Bear Bryant's death and my Grandmothers funeral(there was no sadder image I have ever seen and is burned in my memory than when, after my Grandmother had passed from a heart attack, during the funeral,my Grandfather walking up to the casket, and she was in her favorite Sunday dress,and he slowly gazing up and down the casket during the wake, and all the while, big tears streaming down his face, he tenderly leans over and kisses her on the cheek, and whispers something in her ear, gently lays his wedding ring on her hand, and walks away, a broken man. He wept. He was embarrassed of the pain showing in his face, and he hurriedly wiped his eyes with his handkerchief he always had with him, although he shouldn't have been embarrassed. He immediately walks outside to smoke one of his favorite cigars, and to simply decompress.) My father told me later when I asked him, since all the children they had together were there, watching this unfold(they had 4 boys and 2 girls together) my father told me Grandad told her that he loved her since the first day they met in 1st grade(they married at 14 and quit school), and he thanked her for all the kids that they together, that she was a great mom and grandmother and that he wished he would have been nicer at times, and that he really loved her more than anything in the world and he would have a hole in his heart and miss her cooking and the smell of her perfume, and he didn't know how to say goodbye, and he didn't want to go home alone. I could tell this really moved my dad, since that whole family was not the touchy-feely-lovey-dovey type of family, no one really showed emotion except at funerals or births of babies.
Other than that, maybe Alabama football games is where I saw the next set of tears from my Grandfather, God forbid if they lost, then it was a tirade for the history books.
He would spend 30 mins lamenting on blown coverage, missed blocks, turnovers, bad tackling. Although there were few losses, those stung because he felt Bama could beat anyone in the universe as long as Bear Bryant was on the sideline. You could tell he was really mad if he went into the garage and started throwing tools around, or hitting stuff with a sledgehammer. Plus finances were tight and he was pissed about not racing or building stuff to race, so a loss just mounted that much more rage to expel. He never had high blood pressure since he seem to vent rather well. My dads thing was throwing shoes, or anything he could get his hands on. Mainly my collection of Hot Wheels. One time he threw Mini-Ha Ha, a car that was made from an oversize Red Army Helmet, about 100 yrds out the back door...It took me a week to track it down. I am glad my Grandfather passed soon after Bear Bryant, or it would have killed him to see the past 10 yrs. His head would have exploded.
Soon after his death, it seemed that the other parts of the family began to fall apart. It seemed like my Grandfather and Grandmother really kept the family together, and once they were gone, the aunts and uncles left behind really were kind of lost. They had saved well, had prime property-beach front propery, hunting land in prime spots, with acres and acres of waterfront river property on a part of Alabama that was being developed to be the "next place to be". Long story short, they had well over $1 mill. in assets,in 1985, and many of my aunts and uncles kinda felt it was worth something, but had they known what it was to become, they would have kept it and made 30 times the amount. But greed drives people apart, and throw in the mix some of the vague language in both of their Wills, things got interesting real quick. Some of these people were slowly beginning a spiral of self destruction. Here is where the fun starts....
Growing up, you know that your mom and dad may or may not like someone from the other side of the family. They keep things from you, so you don't freak out or say something out of line whenever both sides of the familys are together, like the holidays. Enter my Uncle Donnie.(he looked like Steve Buscemi with a Dr. Phil bald-head hairstyle, only white-trashier)
For some reason, my Grandmother felt the need to have names that sound alike.
My dads name is Johnny, and he had 3 brothers, Jerry, Ronnie and Donnie. I knew my dad liked to drink, no big deal. What I didnt know is that the rest of his brothers pretty much went a little off the edge when Grandma died. They went completely off the reservation when "Paw-Paw" died, except they did it in piles of money. And drugs, and money, and more drugs.
My Grandparents house was a huge 2 story, antebellum looking scaled down plantation in a small town in Alabama, on about 30 acres, about 40 miles away from any real civilization. Rolling hills, lakes, ponds, pastures, horses, cows, chicken, pigs, all that. My Grandpaw had a pecan orchard and a lot of farm land and gardens and the like. He was a typical retired farmer, who loved to get up at 4 am, do chores, repairs, feed cattle, the whole bit. HE was not lazy, he was driven. Once he passed away, somehow Jerry, Ronnie and Donnie, and my dad, were given an equal share of the "farmland". My dad is the only real business mind in the bunch. He knew if they were given anything in the form of cash, it would be gone. The problem was, Donnie had gotten divorced and moved in with PawPaw after Grandmaw died. Donnie was your atypical Vietnam Era vet who was well on his way to becoming your prototypical homeless vet. Long beard, bad hygiene and pretty much a full bore wino-alcoholic who could drink 24/7 for no particular reason.
Paw Paw(PP for short) had decide if Donnie didnt straighten up, he would be cut out of the will and be on his ass, or in jail. PP could whoop any of them with no problem, and he told them if they wanted a piece of him, to bring it on. I remember the last year when PP was alive, my mom relunctantly agreed to let me stay up there with PP and Donnie and go rabbit hunting, and deer hunting. Only problem was, Mom didnt know that Donnie was running a little MaryJane business, and strung out on about 4 various heavy drugs I knew of, and assorted pain meds . I was about 14, and I remember walking up to the house. Donnie had to be at least 30ish or so, and had just lost his job as a welder at a shipyard. He came out, high as a kite. It was 10 am, and PP had to run into town to get some feed for the cattle. I, being a church going, middle schooler from an uppity private school, had never come in contact with someone that was high on "dope" as mom used to call it. Mom dropped me off and told me to call her if I wanted to come home early, if I got bored or what-not. I have been hunting with mainly my uncles from my moms side of the family, the pure bred Baptist who didnt cuss or drink and took their hunting seriously. I had killed 3 or 4 deer from the time I was 12, so I knew how to shoot a 30.06 pretty well. They were professional about hunting and were very skilled, with many trophies at their camp in the middle of Alabama. Even taught me how to skin or "dress" a deer. Real Rambo like stuff, plus they like to shoot skeet, target practice, the whole deal..This was not like that at all.
The first thing Donny asked me was(he talks just like Youtube Bama fan--CowboyinTn1979)
UncleDonnie: "Hey man, lets go deer hunting, follow me...You got a light?"
ME: "No, Uncle Donny, I dont smoke, I'm like 14."
UD: "Bummer, man, lets go back here ,I wanna show you some cool stuff I found over here...."
We start walking to the house, he goes in and grabs a .22 automatic rifle, and I have a 12 gauge shotgun.
UD: "Hey man, you got Buckshot in there? I swear I saw a buck with a rack the size of a moose down by the swamp. Be ready, sometimes he likes to charge me and fire shoots out of his nose."
ME:"Uhh, I dont think fire comes out of his nose"
UD:"Man, you dont know, I know, I live here, there are dinosaurs back in them woods, man, I am raising them, they all come out at night and talk to me. I call them my little friends." Right then, I suspected he may be on PCP, something we had learned about by becoming Junior Deputies and watching all the Refer Madness films they showed 6th and 7th graders at a private church school. It was all of 10:30 and I found out later that he was tripping on acid, or "that crazy shit" my dad called it.
ME: "UD, are you ok, you seem to be acting like you are dizzy or whoozy."
UD: "Man, look at the sun, man, its drippin down like candle wax.....wow, you look funny..man...when did your hair turn blue and shiny, ....wow....you ever smoke weed? Lemme tell you man, it will make you think more, man, make you a deep thinker...everyone here does it, all your cousins do it, Tanya does it....and she's alot younger than you, she loves weeeeed..man.."
ME:"UD, Tonya is like 7 yrs old, I dont think she's smokin anything...."
UD:"You callin me a liar?(voice gets raised a lil bit, now he is struggling to stand up, its 11:04 am)..cause I can kick your ass, just so you know that, I can kick your ass, I dont care if you think you are bigger than me(I was, at 12, 5'7 155 lbs, he was 30ish ,5'6 145)..I was in Vietnam goddammit, and I will KICK YOUR ASS!!!(starts doing a weird version of a clumsy Kung-Fu Bruce Lee, complete with spastic chopping motions and high pitched Kung Fu noises like Hi-YA, Woooooo,weee,woooo goddammit!!!) (now he is staggering and as he is saying the last goddammit!, he sits down by a fallen pine tree, lays his gun down) man why is the ground so muddy(it wasnt) hey Bubba(dont know why he called me Bubba, but from then on, I was called Bubba by UD til he died, my dad said he had a friend in 'Nam named Bubba that was shot in an ambush, just like in Forrest Gump. This was like in 1981...Donny never saw Forrest Gump, but the movies he did see, "Platoon" being one, was, to him, utter bullshit. His fav was Apocalypse Now)
"Get your ass over here and get me out of this mud before the leeches get me.....HURRY!!!(only problem was, he was obviously seeing things that I couldnt see and he is starting to freak TFOut, and me being 12, was getting a little antsy, I had a loaded 12 gauge and felt , if I need to use it , I will)
ME: "UD, just pull yourself up onto the log that you are leaning up against, all you have to do is stand up! There is no mud here, dude, hell there aint no water in 3 miles from here."
UD: "Fuck you, I am in quicksand now and I dont know if I can touch the bottom(he was slowly sliding from a sitting position on the log and oozing onto the ground, as if he was actually going under water or quicksand...a mime would have been proud) throw me a limb and pull me out--- PLEASE...O God, a goddamn alligator GODDDAAMMM ALLIGATORRRR!!! FUCKIN HURRY!!!"
ME: ( I am wondering if anyone else can see him. I have never seen anyone do this, ever, and its really kinda funny and amusing, its like he is putting on a show for me, or a one man Broadway stage act, and its pretty entertaining with all the emotion, if we would have YouTube back in '81, this would have like 10 million hits....) "Donny, trust me, there is no gator, no leeches, no quicksand, no mud, no nothing, dude, all you have to do is stand up."
UD: "The gator is smiling at me, he knows he is gonna eat me, HURRY THE FUCK UP....holy Shit, a dinosaur just got that gator ....look!!(he points maybe 2 feet away from the soles of his boots) My friends have saved me!! My friends in the forest!!! I knew they would come and help!! I knew it!!(Ok, thank god for the damn dinosaur that he can see and I can't. It is all of 11:15 am and I can tell this is gonna be a looonnng 3 days)
ME: "Uh, yeh, great, now can you stand up now? Are you sure you dont want to go back and lie down at the house, we are pretty close and you can rest and pull yourself together"
UD:"Maaaann, yoouuu dooonnnnn'''tttt unnnnndddeerrrstannnnd, you cant leave my friends here without talking to them, that would be mean.....you cant see them?(I nod my head No)
Well thats your loss man, your mind is closed off, man, thats why, your not tuned in, you need to see the promised land, and ease your mind...."
ME: "Uhh, ok, do you think you can walk? I really think we should go back... and...."
UD: "HUSH, you will scare them off...(he stands up, and wobbly legs and all, he heads towards the treeline, and seems to be ok under his own power, my fear was that he would think his legs have fallen off and I would have to drag his sorry ass all the way back)
ME: "Where in the hell are we going? How far do we have to go?"
UD:"We gotta cross this fence over here....barbed wire, man, it will chew you up if you run into it at full speed,man, I KNOW!"(lifts his shirt, and, yes he is scratched up like a tiger swiped his ribs)ME: "Ok, point taken.." We cross the fence, and we are officially tresspassing. I have no clue where we are, and we walk toward what looks like netting in a clearing, something you would see from M"A"S"H...
UD:"Well look at this, hey Bubba walk over here....."
ME: "Ok, whats up?" Then I step on a tall, green plant that is like 7 ft, and turns out, a Marijuana plant, and here comes phase two of a major freakout.
UD:"What the hell are you doing? Do you have any fuckin idea what that or this is? You owe me like $300 bucks, dude!"
ME:" Uh, sorry, but I didnt know plants cost that much. Is it rare? Seems to me there are several hundred just like it right here and right over there...."
UD:"Stay away from them....I sell these to people. This is weed, man, and its easy money.....you got friends that smoke Malboros, right? "
Me: "NO!"
UD: "Cause if you do, they will buy weed by the truckload man.....and I need someone who can help me move this before it goes to waste or I smoke all of it up......thats why you need to try it..."
ME:(the whole time he is talking, I am shaking my head in the "No" way) "I dont smoke, UD, its bad for you and I hear drugs are bad"
UD:"The only reason people tell you drugs are bad is because they want more for themselves, man, especially the goverment, man,...back in 'Nam, we had all the drugs we wanted, hell we need them, it was kinda like bonus money....its the governments fault I like 'em so much....
we need to go back to the house, I need to pick something up.....my buzz is wearin off and Im thirsty......"
It seemed that he was gettin more and more coordinated and less agitated, and I was guessing what drug had a hold of him was wearin off, and I was guessin he wanted another hit or something.......to be continued................I'll complete Uncle Donnie, part 2 later.......
Now getting back to electronics....my dad slowly came around to push button phones, and even bought a Fish Finder for fishing, which it did help us catch more fish and cut down on the guess work. As for a comparison of my 14-15yr old self vs his 14 yr old self, the most ambitious thing I ever did was take out the seats and carpet of '82 Camaro my soon-to-be car and install my new Coustic Auto Reverse Head Unit w/Bass Boost, and wire it to 3 amps via a Coustic 3 way Crossover, and build and install 2 -12" M&M Subwoofers, and install 2 Tweeters, 2 6x9's.
All in all, it cost me about $1000.00 from my summer yard cutting money, and my mom picked up some of it. My dad did help a little bit to make sure I didn't mess up any wires behind the dash, and making sure I didn't blow up the battery in the mean time. The biggest difference between my generation and my dads generation is that they were taught the value of a dollar and how to take care of things, since they were hard to come by. The car eventually became a running joke, a real training tool for me, learning how to fix stuff on it with his help. The Car may be broken down, but the stereo sounded good. He felt that stereo was overkill, and didn't see the need of it. Always the performance minded, he said for $1000.00 I could have bought new heads and get some more HP out of that 305 Chevy.
My dad was one of the few people who could keep something good as new for 10 yrs, even with everyday use, wear and tear. I remember some tennis shoes I bought him when I was 6, or my mom bought him and let me give it too him for his birthday. When I was 16, he still had them, good as new. And he wore them every weekend for 10 yrs. He was all about maintaining things. Things always had a schedule for this and that, and he always had clean tools and the best running lawnmowers. His shop/garage, was always pristine like a Nascar Garage with posters of hot Snap-On tools calendars of big breasted women in tight shirts, or bikinis. He was methodical, and I guess it came from his time in the military. He felt that people who couldn't take care of their things shouldn't be able to get new things. And that was his rule. I guess you could say he was a tightwad, and my mom was the free spirit as far as money goes. My dad was a master of hoarding money away in various accounts that my mom didn't know about. My dad was also, it turns out, a master gambler. He knew the game of football, and I guess he was good cause he had an eye for talent and could tell a mismatch when he saw one. He rarely went with the Vegas picks, he went with his gut, on both the pro and college game. My mom had no clue, since he never bet more than he could afford to lose, plus he went to church and I think that is where he did his transactions. I am convinced one our Elders, a real estate guru, was his bookie, or dad was his bookie, I never knew.... I'll never forget, one day he was at work during the summer when I was about 8, and I remember stumbling onto a military ammo box that was in the bedroom closet. It was behind about 4 boxes of shoes of his, and underneath several Louis L'amour western books. The reason I was in the closet in the first place was that one of my hamsters, Mr. Whiskers (how original) had escaped his existence in the Hamster 'Quarium, and had crawled under the door and wiggled into his closet. Hamsters are quick when they want to be, and will multiply if you let them run wild in the house. I had to stop this rodent before he turned our house into one big Hamster-Rama.....
Anyway, for whatever reason, I thought the hamster had gotten into the box, so I opened it, and underneath a pile of papers from the military and some ribbons, there was a stack....let me rephrase this......a pile of money....I had never seen so much cash, ever.... I had both hands like I was holding a hamburger, a big ass hamburger, made of money...it had to be at least $20,000 because underneath that pile was a stack just as big, all neatly bundle up in $100.00 bills with bands around them.....I think this is what many married men refer to as the "rainy day fund" than many men, me included, have stowed away, away from the spending fingers of wives.
It smelled like old money, that stale, almost mildewy, old sweaty smell of wealth. The whole closet smelled like that. One thing was for sure, I couldnt tell my mom........TO BE CONTINUED>>>>>


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spacekadt Posted:
yeah sometimes you can do that but it's really only if either you're there when the guy runs his visits or if he doesn't use his scoops at all. Once you card down or use pistachio you can't be sure which is which.
|Posted On: 03/26/2009 10:15AM
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It may not contain off-market and private listings, properties with unknown sold dates and listings that may be exclusively listed on other websites.


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Spring, summer, fall and winter: Each season has its own characteristics, and thus the garden pond also requires appropriate care. We have put together several tips for seasonal cleaning and care to ensure enjoyment of your pond throughout the year, the wellbeing of the fish, and that the natural balance remains intact.
Adjusting your maintenance with the change in seasons is an integral part of water gardening. OASE is here to help you navigate the year with ease!


text:
GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Bicyclists from across gathered in Guilford County on Wednesday for a ride purposed to draw attention to cyclists who share the road with motorists.
"Tonight's ride is to make others aware... The road is there for all to share," cyclist Ross Hiller said, reciting a poem before Greensboro's annual Ride of Silence.
Hiller is still recovering from injuries after getting hit by a driver last December off Lake Brandt Road.
"Unfortunately the rider didn't see me and I was hit from behind. From there I was thrown into a mailbox and a yard," Hiller said.
Hiller, along with dozens of other riders, wore a red arm band to signify he has been injured while riding. Dozens more wore black in memory of cyclists killed by a distracted driver.
The most recent accident took the life of Kathy Shubert, who was hit and killed in Summerfield in April. She was an experienced cyclist and triathlete.
"It was an absolute shock. She knew what she was doing out there. She wasn't all over the road and dangerous or anything like that," said John Hepburn, who used to ride with Shubert.
Stories like Shubert's make Susan Abels much more apprehensive when riding.
"It scares me on the road if I'm riding by myself," Abels said. "I have chosen ever since David Sherman was killed I do not ride by myself."
Hiller said he hopes more drivers will pay closer attention to their surroundings and share the road so no other cyclists will have to suffer the consequences.
"I was lucky that I'm not a statistic, but I'm proof that it can happen," Hiller said.


text:
|I have a point of view.
This is my personal soapbox, my rants & my raves.
All focused on our often-beleaguered nonprofit sector (meaning I promise to restrain myself and focus).
See also Q&A, Downloads, and Current Developments pages.
|Journalists & Form 990
The Fourth Estate and
the Third Sector
|If there is any doubt in your mind that Form 990 is an increasingly public document, spend some time
poking around at www.fets.tv/ which is about a program called The Fourth Estate and the Third Sector
(Fourth Estate = press, Third Sector = nonprofits). It is an educational program now at the University
of Mississippi which teaches reporters how to understand nonprofits and how to read and analyze
Forms 990; however, I note that the site doesn't appear to have been updated since 2006, so I
wonder if it's still active.
|Here's a great little Ethical test I picked up from the YMCA of the USA that talks to staff about ethical
issues. It would be perfect published in tandem with a good whistle-blower policy:
|Buffett & Gates
on Video!
|The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has a video feed of the public session where Warren Buffett
announced he was pledging the lions' share of his wealth to the Foundation. The session is full of
interesting material....almost 90 minutes and well worth it. Not to denigrate Buffetts admirable
brilliance in doing this but have any of you tax experts noted that it might be a POF play by Gates Fdn?
|Do not self-insure on
state unemployment !
|Well, I just received my third consecutive (over a couple years) call from a group facing possible
bankruptcy. The group is self-insured and if it lays off all its staff the unemployment insurance bill
could be staggering, precisely when the organization can least afford it, so their question (which
answer apparently not clear), is whether the Board will be responsible personally for any shortfall in
funds vs. the unemployment claims. The moral of the story is: do NOT self-insure. Just pay the state
your 3% or whatever and be happy.
|Too Many Train Wrecks
in search of a savior
|Guest rant: On Financial Staffing
I wrote casually to a colleague I have come to admire, who is largely self-taught and new to being a
finance director, in response to her shout-out for finance staff help for a local social service agency: "I
have a sense that there's a true, bad, shortage of mid-scale nonprofit financial managers out there."
She writes: "It certainly seems to me that you are right about the lack of qualified people. I think that
so many of these places have other organizational problems and anyone who is any good learns to
steer clear of them and go somewhere where they get more respect and less aggravation. So often,
no one else gets the importance of the Finance function, treats it as a necessary evil and doesn't
want to hear about it. Accountants also bear some responsibility for not always being able to
communicate well with program people."
That in turn reminds me of a list I recently ran across of twenty "Signs a Board May Be in Trouble,"
from "Governance DO'S & DON'TS - Lessons from Case Studies On Twenty Canadian Non-profits,
Final Report" Mel Gill, April 23, 2001, available from a Canadian charity, The Institute on Governance,
(very cool site!). In the excerpt I have posted here, I covered up his preamble which suggested that
even one of the twenty would indicate potential trouble. Unfortunately, the Boards I know who are in
trouble have most of the twenty, um, attributes.
|Cooking the Books to
Please the Press
Feeding the Hungry
|Are we all sick of the obsession of the press with Program v. Overhead expenses as the sole
indicator of effectiveness of a given charity?
One of my biggest concerns is that there is too much focus on, and unrealistic expectations about,
the cost of Mgt&Gen+Fundraising as a percentage of total costs.
I reckon 40% is a realistic number, but the public expectation, set unreasonably low by United Ways'
low-balling the number for so many years, is closer to 20%.
It becomes a big game where everyone works to state their supporting costs as low as possible to
feed the beast of public opinion and in the meantime the number is actually higher.
I don't know who is going to step forward first and say "hey, we think 40% is fair; it takes strong
administration and fundraising to do our work" but it's not going to be *my* clients.
We need to educate the press, the self-appointed watchdogs, and the regulators, or this is going to
blow up into the major scandal of the sector.
|Foundations Hobble
Groups with Restricted
|Small and mid-size charities have a difficult time calculating: the cost of their work on a given issue,
with a given constituency, or in a given region.
Foundations should pick effective groups, and make general support grants to them. The Foundation
should say "we were particularly drawn to you by your important work on Z, and when you report to us
at the end of the grant period, please highlight your continuing work on Z." That will be heard loud
and clear by the recipient group, and, I would argue, better advance the Foundation's agenda and
allow the group to build strength, all while making it clear that the Foundation wants to see work done
on Z.
How the World looks to a Foundation. Foundations see a zillion problems, and have only so many
dollars; unbelievable though it may seem to a supplicant, they mostly feel constrained. "So many
problems so few dollars." As a result, funders often prefer to fund special projects, particular projects
with a limited duration, projects that will become self-sustaining, and projects that might go on to
leverage government funds. For this reason, they like to have policies against general support. They
are trying to be strategic with limited funds.
Foundation Trustees have their Passions. Your foundation says it wants to work on Marine issues;
Trustee X reads a Sunday NY Times Magazine article about problems in a given fishery that are of
global significance. That Trustee will support proposals for work on that fishery, but possibly not
others. Foundation staff, trying to move cash to the group, lean on the group to craft its proposal in a
way that will garner the support of Trustee X. They are trying to help.
Temptation to Bejewel the Proposal. The natural instinct for a fundraiser is to dress up a proposal
with all sorts of jewels that the funder will want, such as special conferences or publications that may
not be in the workplan and budget already. These can become unfunded promises if they are used
to get a grant and are not 100% paid for by the grant, and are not already in the workplan and budget.
Too often at that point, the funder goes for the bejeweled proposal, the money is taken in, spent, and
the jewels are not all delivered. The resulting balance sheet shows a positive balance for temporarily
restricted net assets and a negative balance of unrestricted net assets: ergo, Board has violated its
duty of care.
Three -Way Slicing. It is difficult to do the cost allocations well. Factor in the skill level of bookkeeping
talent that a group can 1) identify, and 2) afford to pay. The job is excruciatingly difficult. It requires
first a "slicing" of the program work according to the priorities or strategic plan of the group, and then,
secondarily, a "slicing" of the program by funding source. (Note that now we are THREE "slices" in,
since we began with program-admin-fundraising…note also that the funder "slice" can conceivably
cross program "slices" supporting parts of two programs). Want to see the spreadsheet? Didn't
think so. Restricted grants can in fact hobble small groups. Two "slices" is even harder than one, so
all too often, groups begin to define their work as a series of grants rather than a series of initiatives,
programs or projects conceived by the group based on its (presumably greater) understanding of the
issues it faces. They can become permanently stuck in this "defined by grant" financial view of their
work. At that point the Foundations are really in charge. The group has lost its soul, its compass,
and will soon lose its spirit.
Old Dogs Just Make It Up. Interestingly, the very best executive directors just estimate the numbers
after the fact and focus instead on the narrative and the quality of work performed. That's all the
Foundations meant to ask for in the first place, really. (Nevermind that they cloned another
Foundation's award letter and it says 'you must be prepared at all times to tell us how our own
dollars were spent, how much you spent on the program, and how much you are spending
organization-wide'.) There is even a fancy way to describe this in GAAP speak: (FAS 117, 21)
"However, donor-restricted contributions whose restrictions are met in the same reporting period may
be reported as unrestricted support provided that an organization reports consistently from period to
period and discloses its accounting policy."
"Yeah, that" says the seasoned director. So, s/he just makes a reasonable estimate, fills in the
financial report, and sends it in (sometimes without even asking the quarrelsome overworked
bookkeeper who has a low tolerance for ambiguity). It is the less experienced, rising directors, who
struggle dangerously with grant restrictions.
Creating Fiduciary Exposure. Accepting too many restricted grants raises needless fiduciary
exposure for boards of directors, and creates friction between the development side of the "house"
and the finance side of the "house." Violating fiduciary duty means that board members are
individually exposed to Attorney General action for violating the charitable trust, and possibly to action
by grantors and donors. I recently received a call from an important group considering Chapter 7
bankruptcy because of a $200K restricted balance and a $<200>K unrestricted balance (i.e.
"misspent funds).
"But that's only if they're not doing their work and not keeping good records!" say the funders, feeling
so wronged by the implication that they have led to this problem, just like so many Visa card issuers
encumbering the working class. Might be a good time for those funders to help the group's staff
figure out how to fill out a timesheet so we can figure out what discrete portion of their time is spent
on the funder's pet project. Once everyone's trained up on the timesheet then we can begin to figure
out how to account for payroll, benefits, benefits administration, rent, dial-tone, supplies, insurance,
legal fees, accounting fees and other expenses not directly attributable to the pet fishery.
|Screeds / Opinion
|IRS on Good
Are they out ahead of
their skis?
|Update Dec 2009: see my 990 page for discussion of the IRS' new governance "guide sheet"
(towards the bottom of that page on my site.
IRS has begun publishing material on what constitutes good governance, joining Charity Navigator,
Wise Giving Alliance and who knows how many other self-appointed watchdogs. The IRS clearly
feels that if there are good governance practices, that exempt purposes are more likely to be adhered
to. I heard legal scholar Bruce Hopkins suggest that they are way beyond their legal authority (and
competence) (apologies if I've mischaracterized what he said) and had another conversation with
former boss and legal scholar Thomas Silk, who has a more sanguine view of growing regulation of
nonprofit governance generally, as reflected in this article.
What do I think? (like it matters?). I agree that this is not really IRS' area of authority - governance is a
matter of state law; for example, California requires most charity boards to meet at least annually, and
what it takes to do their jobs prudently and in good faith is a matter of seasoned legal advice - some
charities should meet monthly, while annually is fine for others. Wise Giving Alliance/Give.org
requires 3 meetings a year of which one must be face to face (nice that they're willing to give mass
legal advice (!)). IRS going off on governance is a bit like that. But...I also thought their document,
linked above, was short enough, readable, and if practiced would generally have good results. So
while I'm interested in what Silk has to say, I'm afraid my smaller groups, while not at all corrupt, will
be made to look as if they are cavalier or wasting public resources.
|(1-23-2011 and updated...see the very bottom for the latest across my desk)
First of all, at 183 pages, the decision is going to take some time for experts to fully digest. I
recommend progressive nonprofits keep their eye on the Alliance for Justice Advocacy Blog and get
on their mailing list. At first glance, it is a horrifying decision, and the Republicans should never again
be allowed to portray themselves as being "originalists" or "strict constructionists" in judicial matters.
Make no mistake: this is a putsch by the Court that will loom larger in history than 2000's Bush v. Gore
travesty, and Anthony Kennedy has ruined his judicial legacy (and the lives of his grand-children).
OK, enough ranting, what does it really mean?
Background: tax [exemption] law says that 501(c)(non-3) organizations (mostly 501(c)(4), (c)(5), (c)
(6) organizations) may engage in electioneering for candidates for elected office so long as that
activity is 1) legal and 2) not the primary activity in any one tax year.
Under this Court's decision, gutting much of the law and the Court's own decisions going back to
1907, the definition of "legal" will now change. Since issue-based c4/5/6's are corporations (and (c)
(5)'s are usually labor unions not incorporated but covered by this law), they have long been
hamstrung from direct intervention in electioneering unless done through a political committee,
properly formed and funded in compliance with FEC and state and local equivalents. (At a State level,
in CA that's the Fair Political Practices Commission, in OR the Secretary of State, in WA the Public
Disclosure Commission, and so on.)
This law will allow unlimited "free speech" by such organizations (since corporations are now even
more fully "human," per this so-called originalist court, (may the founders rest in peace), and so
probably c4,5,6's can now directly intervene using general funds (there may still be a 527(f) tax that
requires planning for if an organization has much investment income). While the Court's decision is
only about Federal races, since it is very broadly written and about "free speech" it is likely to rapidly
invalidate similar bans on corporate money directly in electioneering at lower levels of government as
The FEC, FPPC et al may still be able to limit direct contributions to candidates, but so long as a
campaign intervention communication is done "independently" there is unlikely to be any limits.
NPR's Nina Totenberg says that the only thing necessary to conduct an independent expenditure
campaign is to copy the favored candidate's message. This is why the press calls it opening the
"floodgates" because big money will now rush in like we have not seen. The public will need to think
very critically about messages it hears. FEC et al may also still be able to force accurate attribution of
ad sponsors, but we've seen how hard that is to track already ("Citizens for this or that" - in the case at
hand, "Citizens United" is really the organization which wanted to run a movie about Hillary Clinton.
The Court used a limited set of facts and leaped to a much large decision in a very classically activist
judge fashion.)
So what does it mean for 501(c)(3)'s? Well, they will find big lies being told about issues that
concern them, and will need to be very clear about truth and falsehood. There may be a big "market"
created for even-handed thoughtful treatment of issues as reporters (if there are any left) hopefully
look for rational voices to fact-check the lies that the corporate interests will promote. It could be an
important time for issue-advocacy (c)(3)'s to staff up in the "institute" fashion with good researchers
and fact-checkers so they can be ready tor respond quickly.
In the near term, 2010 could easily be a Republican tidal wave as the money hits politics, and the
best hope for the public may be in 2012. My own guess is that this is the end for any sort of carbon
limits or cap and trade, as well as any real controls on the financial industry. Health care could still
be reformed since corporate interests will benefit from broadening coverage and payment for
If you want to see/hear a true screed from the screed-master on this, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann did
one, which I had linked initially, but I think more rational voices have provided better material below.
Still, you might consider YouTubing him. (Disclaimer: as one friend writes: "[Olbermann] has gotten
a lot of flack for his histrionics...[ref: Jon Stewart on Olbermann's attack on MA Scott Brown]...that kind
of hysteria I think only turns people off". I say: maybe it turns them off, maybe they're in denial.):
A possibly optimistic take on the situation (I think it's naive) by David Kirkpatrick in the NYTimes.
And the Chronicle of Philanthropy logs in with a prediction by prominent exempt-org tax expert Fran
Hill that C3's will now sue for the same rights. IMHO this will lose charities any remaining "halo
effect" of being charities (if successful). Regan v. Taxation With Representation was essentially on
the same question, under a different Supreme Court, and concluded that it wasn't about free speech
it was a limit on what charities could do with their tax-subsidized monies. So presumably the case
would fail. But then with this Court, who knows?
1/26/2010: Gail Harmon's firm (and many others, including Beth Kingsley and John Pomeranz) have
published their in-house "Navigator" take on Citizens United, the best piece I have seen so far
sorting out the meaning for nonprofits. (Note for the future: I can see that this link doesn't have shelf
life, so it's their 2010 Issue 2.
1/23/2011: One year later. Greg Colvin, a former boss of mine and a partner at Adler & Colvin who is
an expert in "political tax law" has proposed a solution via constitutional amendment. This remains
a serious problem. I also believe the IRS should be auditing some of these (c)(4) and (6)
electioneering stalking horses, but perhaps that should be a separate screed. Colvin's blog post
entitled Only People Can Vote—Only People Should Finance Campaigns is here.
|Citizens United v. FEC
What does it mean for
|Rethinking Overhead
as THE key metric
Signs of hope!
|Technology Network (NTEN) (www.NTEN.org) called The Overhead Question: The Future of
Nonprofit Assessment and Reporting which was a follow-up to an important joint press release in
January, that I'd only read about secondarily. The press release, and even more so the webinar's
panel members, raises the question of why "overhead" is such an obsession in nonprofit ratings
(program / admin / overhead). Most hopefully, Charity Navigator has announced they are dropping it
as their key metric (over time).
NTEN has posted a transcript and a recording of this webinar; if you're interested you can get to them
here (registration required, but it is free). You might also be interested generally in their blog.
The panel was:
Bob Ottenhoff, Guidestar
Ken Berger, Charity Navigator
Lucy Bernholtz, Blueprint R & D
Peter Campbell, TechCafeteria
Christine Egger, Social Actions
David Geilhufe, NetSuite
Sean Stannard-Stockton, Tactical Philanthropy
Holly Ross, NTEN
The call's best sound bite was Ottenhoff saying that the "popular" approach to overhead is like
choosing an airline based on which one spends the least on maintenance. :) [To be fair, Berger did
suggest that it might pay off to examine the outliers: very high or very low reported overhead.
Someone else more or less said that the numbers are too varied in practice.]
Another fascinating sound bite / factoid is that 6% of nonprofits get 94% of the money. (And I think
someone said that 0.2% of nonprofits get 60% (?) of the money !) This was in re: who should be
expected to really track and report effectiveness measures.
|The Death of Manners
What has happened to
common courtesy in
hiring? Is it bad
manners, tactical
stupidity, or a toxic brew
of both?
|I recently went through the process of seeking a new job. Business practice in the nonprofit world
confounds me. It's a small world; you don't want to burn applicants to your organization because in
ten years you may be in a position where you need their respect. Let me say again: SMALL world.
I've done plenty of searches myself. In my opinion, perhaps no acknowledgment is needed of every
resume that comes rushing in from a Craiglist post, but as soon as you've taken someone's time in
even a phone interview, let alone face-to-face, IMHO you owe it to them to tell them if you've hired
someone else. Likewise, if you're the applicant and get a different job but are an active candidate
somewhere (have been interviewed), you owe it to them to tell them. Here's one story from a close
friend that rings all too true:
"It totally sucks that companies are so ill-behaved that you don't get feedback on whether you are a
live or dead candidate. I had a similar experience in Nov/Dec where I thought I'd nailed a lunch
interview (this was following a 30 min phone screen) where the woman I was meeting with ended our
conversation with explicit next steps ("I think you'd be a great fit for this job. Would you mind doing a
series of phone interviews as a next step since the team is back East?"). She never even replied to
my thank-you email and I've not heard a peep."
All I have to say is even if your Mama raised you badly and you have no manners, on a tactical level at
least, it's plain stupid to treat serious candidates this way; I don't care how busy you think you are. It
is a very small world in any given industry or field and one doesn't build for success by burning their
way through a rolodex. Enough. I daresay the results are obvious enough, and weakness is evident
where it is found.
|[Dashed] Signs of
Hope: [once]
fascinating new
developments in the
world of political
Is IRS going to get a
spine on this stuff?
Hope springs eternal.
[Sprang eternal!] :-)
|Unfortunately (IMHO) this did not go anywhere: In the words of Greg Colvin: "The IRS just announced
that it will not pursue gift tax audits of donors to 501(c)(4) organizations, and close the outstanding
examinations. Further, it is coordinating prospective only and after notice to the public." Greg, like
many tax lawyers, I suspect, welcomes this, since surprise enforcement, uneven enforcement, and
arbitrary enforcement ultimately weakens our laws. I haven't a clue how he feels about the
substantive matter. The IRS' retreat letter of 7.7.11 is here.
## Background:
For some time it has been technically true that large gifts to 501(c) organizations other than
501(c)(3)s are subject to a gift tax on the donor, with an annual exclusion currently at $13,000 and a
lifetime exemption currently at $1M (which includes the donor's estate).
Gifts to 527 organizations are not gift taxable (same as with (c)(3) orgs) but are not tax deductible
either. Back in the day this gave rise to the "527 organizations" so called because they were
sufficiently political to be beyond (c)(4) and into 527 yet stopped short of express advocacy and
escaped FEC reporting and donor disclosure. That was fixed in 2000 so now such an organization
discloses donors on a tax form (8872).
In turn, major donors seeking secrecy then flocked to 501(c)(4)'s especially after the awful Citizens
United decision of the Supreme Court (discussed below on this page). A 501(c)(4) organization is
required to be operated primarily for social welfare purposes, not political (electioneering) ones, in
EACH year. The most high-profile of these was Karl Rove et al's "American Crossroads" a tandem of
a (c)(4) and a 527.
There was always a risk that donors would owe the gift tax, although that had not been enforced, and
there may be some ways that donors will litigate if IRS really tries to enforce this. IRS announced in
its current workplan that it was going to begin looking into certain 501(c)(4,5,6) matters. (There is a
parallel problem of giant corporate gifts into political funds at the US Chamber that also flooded the
airwaves in 2008).
Citizens United unleashed all these organizations because in the past they were somewhat
hampered, as corporations, from direct intervention in candidate elections, but now those
corporations have been granted corporeal "free speech" by the Right Wing Thomas Court. Going in
to the 2012 cycle, Obama's team threw over their much vaunted values about special interest money
and announced that well-connected former aide Bill Burton and one other were going to start a
similar (c)(4)/527 tandem to play in 2012. One hook is that to work and escape FEC limits (not just
disclosure which is still on 527s) they must spend money without coordinating with the candidate
committee or party ("independent expenditure.")
About two weeks ago, on 5/10/11 as I write on 5/25/11, news broke on Politico.com that certain
donors had gotten letters inquiring about gift tax on large contributions to C4's. Later, NYTimes
covered it and quoted Greg Colvin, my old boss, on the left, as having gotten at least one of these to
one of his clients, so it's clear that as usual the IRS is balancing itself politically, although the Right
Wing has abused this stuff far worse. And now, as of this morning, Huffington Post ran a great story
that the American Crossroads C4 may not be granted which could lead to a huge tax bill for it. Some
history is in order on this: some years ago (10?) they tried to argue that Ralph Reed's Christian
Coalition was not a genuine C4 and was primarily political and the IRS never seemed to get traction
on that and eventually lost. It would be great if they'd enforce 1) the primarily social welfare rules on
C456 orgs, 2) the gift tax, and 3) the non-deductibility to business of political expenditures (i.e.
through the Chamber).
Readings: Politico's coverage, the letter from IRS to an unknown client that a tax lawyer source
made available to Politico, a great newsletter on the topic that Harmon Curran Spielberg &
Eisenberg, LLP sent out which discusses the arguments litigants might make in resisting IRS (and
links to many of the other docs discussed here), the NYTimes story on 5/12, another Politico piece on
5/18 about Republican Senators push-back on IRS :-) and this morning's seemingly well-researched
Dan Froomkin piece in Huffington Post on the story about whether the Crossroads C4 application is
in trouble.
Newer developments. Rep. Dave Camp, Republican (of course) Chair of the House Ways & Means
committee wrote a public letter to IRS demanding all sorts of information about how decisions were
made to send the C4 gift tax letters and who made them. Decide for yourself if it is a naked attempt to
intimidate IRS. IRS: be strong! If I find a way to express this sentiment to IRS I will post it here.
Kathleen Ronayne writing on the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecretsblog, described a
subset of so-called Super PACs" (Independent Expenditure PACs not limited in expenditures) where
donor gives to C4, C4, as a newly-unleashed corporation, gives to PAC, and donor remains
unknown. Curiously, they led their list with longtime community organizing stalwarts Kentuckians for
the Commonwealth at $130K for this sort of "play" - chicken feed I say. The lists finishes with a
7-figure play by the National Association of Realtors. I assume this is to avoid charges of bias
leveled against CRP. I first read about this in a short post on Politico.com.
If any of these links are broken, please write me - I have saved PDF's of them.
Press coverage on
issues one knows
about: the supposed IRS
scandal on conservative
groups scrutiny, May 2013.
|Instead of a mere single Screed on this one, I posted a whole page - in place of the outdated "new"
990 page. See Comment: IRS Uproar.