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In the 20-odd months since In Search of Excellence was published, I have spoken to some 400 audiences. They were in Maui, Hawaii; and Geneva, Switzerland. They were representatives of old industries like steel and forest products, and of new industries like software and gourmet chocolate-chip cookies. They included everyone from a top wholesaler of plumbing and electrical fixtures in Sweden to the owner of the world's largest dairy store, in Norwalk, Conn. Among them were 5,000 city managers, 1,000 bakers, and the senior management of Bell Telephone Laboratories Inc.
Surprisingly, despite the diversity of the audiences, they all asked similar questions. What follows is a distillation of those questions -- and of how I try to respond.
Excellence focused on large companies. But is there anything you learned that relates to the particular problems and opportunities of smaller companies?
There is a lot of advice and writing on the transition a small company must go through as it grows. It suggests an inevitable cycle of deterioration, an evolution from a highly charged, entrepreneurial, customer-intensive enterprise to a bureaucracy. The implied message is: "You're going to become calcified; it's just a matter of how soon."
There is a germ of truth in this. There is no doubt that the $15-million company, no matter what the business, needs a more highly articulated set of procedures for controlling things than the $100,000 company does.But most of the scenario is hogwash. The magic of W. L. Gore, Dana, Emerson Electric, 3M, Hewlett-Packard, Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo, Milliken, and Johnson & Johnson -- in other words, the companies we hold up as excellent -- is that they have all retained a much higher share of their "small company" simplicity and vitality than their less effective competitors have.
The message of Excellence is that the key to corporate success lies in superior customer service, continuing internal entrepreneurship, and a deep belief in the dignity, worth, and potential of every person in the organization. There is no iron law that says you must lose those virtues as you grow; in fact, the principal job of senior officers of a small corporation is to maintain them. The tools may be different for a Disneyland than for a one-park, 20-acre establishment. But the intensity of customer focus can and must be maintained. The personal touch -- we call it Management By Wandering Around, courtesy of Hewlett-Packard -- can also be maintained. Giving up MBWA is not an imperative of size. But the sad news is that small companies can lose touch very easily and that the basics of Excellence are at issue from the start.
Excellence also focused on the concerns of people who are building companies, using models of enterprises that have been people-oriented and innovative since inception. But what can you do if you inherit a company that has been bureaucratic or lackluster for decades?
Successful turnarounds are a tough act, but what is perhaps most interesting about them is that they follow exactly the same form as the new-company building efforts. The greatest turnaround artists work repetitiously on creating distinctive strategic skills. They are tireless.Each, above all, believes in the power of a thousand little things done just a bit better.
A handful of stories come to mind. Rene McPherson inherited, as chairman, a then-$1-billion (now more than $3-billion) business in Toledo -- Dana Corp., a manufacturer of such products as brass propeller blades and axles, a company he described as "having the rottenest product line ever granted by God to a Fortune 500 company." In the 1970s he turned it around to the point at which it became the number 2 company among the 500 in return to investors. McPherson radically decentralized. He gave the factory managers autonomy and the tools to do the job: finance, personnel, purchasing, computers, etc. He created an exciting, no-nonsense, competitive environment with a ceaseless focus on practical productivity improvements. His focus was the people on the line -- "the boss of their 25 square feet," in McPherson's terms.
More important was McPherson's approach to change. When he is asked to comment on the importance of any particular program in his productivity-improvement process, he shoots back with: "It is damned important. Another feather on the scale."
A different sort of turnaround is PepsiCo Inc. Fifteen years ago it was a sleepy, second-rate competitor to The Coca-Cola Co. Today it is a vital, entrepreneurial, $7.5-billion company. The magic has been brute persistence, never assuming that the job is complete.President Andy Pearson's strategy, while in the field with a division, is to avoid the executive suite like the plague. He first zeros in on the young assistant brand manager, and he always asks the same damned questions. "What have you learned in the last 96 hours? What's going on in the test market? What are you up to?" That's the PepsiCo magic. Every one of Pearson's talks is, at best, another feather on the scale.
The theme is incredibly consistent, regardless of the company, yet each variation of the theme is unique.Successful turnabout artists are, pure and simple, no more and no less, broken records. No stone is left unturned. No stone is especially important. Yet no stone is unimportant.
One of Excellence's premises is that a company's attitudes about people, products, and its way of doing business are defined by its founder. The book holds up Tom Watson, the founder of IBM Corp. and the inspiration for many of IBM's characteristic values and practices, as a model. But what if the founder of your company lacks Watson's stature?
There are several ways to answer this question. Most important is to challenge the notion that the people who run the socalled excellent companies are 17 feet tall with well-honed tap-dancing skills. It's not so. Some are extroverts. Many are introverts. Tom Watson Sr. was, in his own words, an "avowed showman." On the other hand, if you're more than seven inches away from Bill Hewlett, you have a tought time hearing him. But they all have one thing in common.Almost all are obsessives.
The issue is not one of personality. It is one of vision, persistence, and consistency. Yes, the desert is littered with the bones of those who had similar ideas and similar obsessiveness, yet failed. Obsessiveness and consistency, even with vision, don't make an automatic winner. On the other hand, we virtually never find a winner who doesn't exhibit these traits. So while we can't guarantee that obsessiveness or consistency surrounding a solid vision will produce a winner, we can almost certainly guarantee that the absence of these traits will result in a loser.
Excellence is written to and about the top managers at some of the world's largest companies. But what can be done to make your company more excellent if you're not at the top?
In the worst of companies, there tend to be good divisions, great factories, inventive product-development groups, superb accounting departments -- "pockets of excellence," my colleague Nancy Austin calls them. General Motors Corp. has a raft of problems, but the old Packard Electric division, under the guidance of Jim Rinehart (now chief executive officer of Clark Equipment Co., a manufacturer of forklifts and other industrial equipment) was a winner, and the Livonia, Mich., Cadillac engine plant, formerly under the guidance of Bob Stramy, is a star-studded operation. Pockets of excellence can occur at lower levels of operation, as well. I find superb accounting departments within hopelessly bureaucratic organizations, superb sales branches in demoralized companies, superb stores in lousy retailing operations. There is no doubt that a gutsy, obsessive, consistent visionary can bring about radical change in his or her part of the organization, even if it is at odds with the view of the "old man."
One caveat: I don't extend the argument to suggest that the excited plant or accounting department or store will be the precursor of a corporate turnaround. Pockets of excellence don't foreshadow automatic diffusion throughout the organization. We are certain that the leadership for a true corporate turnaround must come from the top person and the top team.
Excellence often seems to value just plain hoopla -- songs and parties, wandering around giving Fourth of July speeches about values, firing the accountants, and hiring the cancan girls. Surely that's not enough -- don't you need controls?
I'm not suggesting that formal control systems, budgets, and procedures be thrown out the window. But the more intriguing and important issues surround the form of control.
J. Willard Marriott Sr. had an odd habit: For well over 50 years, in what eventually became a multi-billion-dollar enterprise, he read every single customer complaint card -- raw and unsummarized. One of his senior officers summed up the impact: "You had a hundred or so property managers working 26 hours a day, eight days a week, to make sure the boss had a very, very light reading load."
A longtime Procter & Gamble Co. manufacturing manager -- the company is renowned for its rigid, yet simple, control system -- responded to the claim of a financial service company president that I was talking about balance between formal and informal systems of control. "That's B.S.," he said. Then, with great passion, he related a supporting story: "We don't have complex, mandated control systems in P&G manufacturing. We have no mandated MRP [material requirements planning] systems. I'll tell you how I learned about P&G's view of quality. It wasn't from a manual. I got a call one night, about 1:30 a.m., from a district sales manager. I was a young manufacturing supervisor. He told me, 'George, you got a problem with a bar of soap down here. "Down here' was about 200 miles away. 'How about coming down here tomorrow morning. I'd like to see you about 6:30 or 7:00, so you can get a look at it.' The tone of his voice suggested something more than an invitation. After you've once driven 200 miles through tennessee mountains to look at one damned (his word was stronger) 39? bar of soap, it suddenly sinks in that Procter & Gamble is deadly serious about product quality. They don't need to supplement that lesson with a 300-page manual."
Another friend relates a tale from Du Pont Co., known for its safety record."I was doing some work in Wilmington. I stepped into the executive suite's coffee room to grab a cup of coffee from a machine. It was one of those infernal machines where the little plastic door drops down, and three times out of four hits the coffee cup. Sure enough, I spilled some on the floor. Out of nowhere -- I swear I didn't see him before -- a Du Pont vice-president (and, she adds, they only have about 25, in spite of the company's size) swooped in on me, grabbed a paper towel, and almost frantically wiped up the coffee. I stood there gaping. He looked up at me almost incredulous: 'Don't you know people can trip and hurt themselves on those?" In spite of the vast size of Du Pont, every accident that occurs anywhere, no matter how minor, is the subject of a report dispatched to the chairman's desk within 24 hours of its occurrence -- in a $35.4-billion company. Du Pont's safety record is 17 times better than the chemical-industry average.
All of the above are examples of the most rigid control systems I've ever observed. Violate them and you're in hot water. Their simplicity invites understanding and ownership by all hands, and leaves space for creative improvements. Yet none are paper-driven, formal control devices. Their word-of-mouth nature, the attendant all-hands ownership, the constant all-hands tinkering, and the strict and regular senior involvement are what make them work so well.
We are strongly in favor of controls. Rigid controls. But control and paper, control and complexity, control and formality are not related.
Excellence speaks rather glibly about the desirability of "failure." But in many businesses -- airlines, medicine, public-sector management -- failure is catastrophic, or public. Some say a small business can't afford failure. What are the limits to the concept?
We principally, almost exclusively, learn from failure and failure alone. That is as true for the $1-million company as for the $60-billion one. As true for the airline pilot as for the hamburger chef. As true in the public sector as in the private.
Now I don't mean the $100-million failure of failing to install a control system where failure is likely to have catastrophic results. I mean inducing a strong desire in people to take an idea and test it -- now. Test it in the marketplace. Test a new procedure in a department, a bit or piece of a new product with a customer. Live tests always surprise the experts. The marketplace -- a plant for an accounting procedure, a single lead customer for a product -- is naive. It likes what it likes. The objective is to get to hard, tangible evidence quickly.
Many corporate philosophies focus on failure. Emerson Electric Co.'s "Ten Commandments," under chairman Chuck Knight, include one touting failure and calling it that. Johnson & Johnson's founder, General Robert Wood Johnson said, "If I wasn't making mistakes, I wasn't making decisions." Don Estridge, president of IBM's Entry Systems Division, says, "If I don't let people make mistakes, there is no ownership whatsoever." A Silicon Valley CEO who runs a highly successful computer peripherals company of moderate size has even quantified it: "We tell our people to make at least 10 mistakes a day. If you are not making 10 mistakes a day, you're not trying hard enough." That's not his comment after a third vodka-martini, it's part of an explicit, brief, written statement of corporate philosophy.
Managers have to assure people that failure is normal. That they have been there and back. I don't mean applauding shoddy work. The tiniest of experiments should be well thought out, designed for learning something quickly and efficiently. The only true scientific process depends on empirical progress, based in turn on the rapid collection of as many fragments of live data as possible.
For the small company, the major advantage of thoughtful failure is that it is more efficient that any other avenue to success. Failures will come -- no matter how hard or how well you plan. The issue is: Do we plan and plan and plan (and spend lots and lots of time), and then fail? Or do we test, fail, test, learn a little, test, fail, learn a little more, succeed partially, test, succeed?
Listen to your customers, build high-quality products, take care of your employees -- many of the book's key phrases sound like platitudes. Aren't these things common sense?
I often comment quite seriously that, five years after this research, there is only one question that truly interests me now: Why is it, in a roughly $20-billion industry, that only Walt Disney Productions knows how to keep a theme park really clean? "Keeping the park clean," or its analogue in other businesses, is indeed the height of effective strategic management. Common sense says listen to your customer. But few companies do. And those that do -- obsessively, over the decades -- tend more often than not to be among the winners.
The more annoying point hinted at by the question is: Why don't more companies do it? Few businesspeople are out to screw the customer. But we have come to focus on the wrong things -- technique, rather than product or service.
Business is not "management by objectives" and strategic portfolios. It is inventing things, making things, selling things, and servicing things. It is products that work and courtesy to customers. Common sense it is. But somehow we lose it. And once lost, it is extraordinarily difficult to get back
Excellence extols the "do-it, fix-it, try-it" approach, that of getting even a crude model of a product or procedure out among potential users as quickly as possible. But that seems the antithesis of planning. Is central planning really unnecessary?
Absolutely not. But large, central corporate staffs that generate 35 notebooks, each 300 pages long, are a waste of time. Many give lip service to "the right stuff," like decentralized, bottoms-up planning. But look at their apparently innocuous corporate "planning-guidance document," and you'll see that they have carved up space that should be left to the divisions. I'm in favor of sound strategic thinking and a well-drawn strategic plan -- at the division level.
Let's begin with General Electric Co., the Mecca of strategic planning, the company to which every American corporate executive came on bended knee, in the 1960s and '70s, to learn. Then Jack Welch became chairman. Jack, a former premier "skunk" and champion, drastically reduced the central strategic-planning department. Does he think that strategic planning is unimportant? No. But the plans are done by the division, within a general corporate framework. Why was Welch led to this? Because GE got behind in many major technologies. The company was well planned and under-entrepreneured. Moreover, most of its big successes in the past, even during the days of planning dominance, had come from skunk-entrepreneurs. He simply needed more of them. Welch's prime objective was to rekindle the traditional GE spirit of entrepreneurship.
Second only to decentralization is the magic word "short." Procter & Gamble has no central strategists, either. Each of its brand managers is a strategist. The P&G one-page memo rule holds for strategic planning: Each brand manager, as a part of a lengthy and intense process that occurs once a year, must boil his upcoming year's strategy down to one paragraph. That's right, one paragraph.
The reality -- I think all of us who have ever been forced through it realize it full well -- is that a strategy that is one paragraph long is harder to develop than a 50-page monograph. In 50 pages, you can be all things to all people. In a paragraph or two, you have to figure out just what makes you distinctive.
Excellence touts skunk works, but surely you have to have a master plan, not just random experiments. IBM may be able to afford seven teams working in parallel on the same project, but a small or medium-size company can't. Aren't skunk works and experiments just for the big guys, and in any size company, don't they amount to just a small share of the research and development budget?
There is truth in those statements.Development funds in the most innovative companies -- 3M, Hewlett-Packard, Johnson & Johnson, for example -- are not devoted only to skunk works. And, if you are in a $5-million company, you can't have seven parallel teams at work on the next new product. But that's where my willingness to accede ends. Our analysis of financial service firms, hamburger-makers, pharmaceutical houses, software producers finds that all successful innovation -- product or process -- starts and is nurtured in skunk works, big company or small.
The proper role for central R&D is threefold. First, central R&D gives a critical signal, the company's directional bet on the haystacks it wants to search in for its needles. This means that technical people are trained and aimed at exploiting roughly the right sciences or technologies. Second, R&D is a perfect place for the "real people," the people in the operating divisions, to steal (and the word "steal" is chosen carefully) ideas from. Finally, and most importatly, central R&D is the ideal place from which to steal people to put in the operating divisions. What central R&D is not is the place in which specific products appear at specific times, per plan.
Finally, the issue of parallel operations and experimentation in the small company. I feel almost violent about this: Experimentation and parallel projects and skunk works are vital to the $5-million company. The top problem for the fast-starting company is almost always coming up with the second or next series of products. The main block is often the founder/CEO or master designer who invented the first one. After succeeding once, he decides that he was mainly smart, rather than mainly lucky. The odds are that when a product is a commercial success, the stars were perfectly aligned the first time out. Innovation, small or large, hamburgers or computers, is a chancy activity at best. So it is very important to allow playfulness and multiple experiments from more sources than the genius-founder very early on, at $5-million sales levels or less.
The size of the skunk work or experiment or parallel project in a $4-million plumbing company is not that of Western Electric Co. The viable skunk work in the $10-million company may be just two-thirds of a person or one to two people. The experiment might take just 20 days and cost $15,000. But the principle still holds. Experimenting -- trying a new twist on a piece of software, or an accepted fashion, or a store format -- is vital from the start. We learn only in the real world.
The lessons of Excellence sound great. But do they really make a difference to the business? Do they have an impact on the bottom line?
The impact naturally varies. But top performers do hundreds of times better than the norm. Before Christmas of 1983, I visited Lockheed's kelly Johnson in Burbank, Calif. Johnson brought the expression "Skunk Work" to industry from the comic strip Li'L Abner. He designed much of what flies today -- the P-80 (F-80), the F-104, the U-2, the SR-71. Kelly's band of 125 regularly, over a period of decades, outperformed groups of three to four thousand on similar tasks. Outperformed in terms of higher efficiency, higher quality, lower budgets, and shorter development times. In one case, when he was called in to bail out an ailing operation, he reduced the number of people involved in a major aspect of it from 1,271 to 35 in the space of a year. At the same time, he raised the success rate from 12.5% to 98%.
Frank Perdue, in the mundane business of peddling fryers and roasters, gets a margin that is 800% above the industry averages -- and maintains market shares in the 50% range in tough urban markets. The new-product launch rates at Hewlett-Packard, 3M, Wang Labs, and Johnson & Johnson are miles ahead of their peers. Mervyn's, a star of the Dayton-Hudson Corp. retail operation, can remerchandise its stores in two weeks; competitors take more than three months. Raychem Corp., a highly successful $535-million company in Menlo Park, Calif., develops sophisticated, state-of-the-art, super-high-technology products from cold start to installation in periods as short as a week.
I grew up in Baltimore. The Baltimore Orioles, who for years ranked 26 out of 26 on salary, have put together teams that have executed exceptionally well: Over the past 27 years, Baltimore is well over 100 games ahead of the number two team in all of major league baseball. Those forms of dominance should be our goal -- not 2% here and 2% there.


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NOTE: The search doesn't appear to work; no idea how long it's been broken, but until I can fix it, click here to search the Book of Concord.
Disputation of Doctor Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences
by Dr. Martin Luther (1517)
Published in:
Works of Martin Luther:
Out of love for the truth and the desire to bring it to light, the following propositions will be discussed at Wittenberg, under the presidency of the Reverend Father Martin Luther, Master of Arts and of Sacred Theology, and Lecturer in Ordinary on the same at that place. Wherefore he requests that those who are unable to be present and debate orally with us, may do so by letter.
In the Name our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
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Annual report for North Bay Bancorp.
DON'T LET THE ANVIL FOOL YOU. I don't smelt iron or forge steel or get stuff really hot then hammer it. Nope. It's just part of my corporate I.D. Plus it's my last name. Cool, huh? Kind of a branding double whammy. I can do it for you, too. But your stuff probably won't have an anvil on it. Unless you really want one, that is.


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16 July, 2013 | (01 hr)
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For the past twenty years, global companies have experienced the growth of many chiefs-- chief ethics and compliance officers, chief audit officers, chief information security officers, chief regulatory officers, chief corporate responsibility officers, chief sustainability officers, etc.
In an era of increasingly complex global risks and threats to reputation and the bottom line, there are many such "chiefs" but few truly empowered C-suite level executives dealing with this vast array of governance-related issues. Companies have also suffered from functional fatigue in that too many functions are often duplicating efforts, working within silos and wasting resources. A truly empowered and supported chief risk and reputation officer may be the answer: someone who is a leader, reports to the CEO and board, oversees a portfolio of governance-related functions, and helps to tie them all to the company strategy.
Webcast speakers Andrea Bonime-Blanc, CEO of GEC Risk Advisory LLC and Chair Emeritus of the Ethics & Compliance Officer Association, and John (Jack) Lenzi, VP Corporate Responsibility & Chief Ethics Officer of ITT, will explore the feasibility and reality of this development.
In viewing, participants will:
- Learn more about the idea of a chief risk & reputation officer
- Hear about how several companies are already developing such a role
- Understand the pros and cons of such an umbrella role and structure
- Glean the business case for such a development
Audience: chief ethics and compliance officers, chief audit officers, chief legal officers, chief risk officers, chief sustainability officers, chief corporate responsibility officers, chief operating and administrative officers, chief human resources officers, others similarly situated
Andrea Bonime-Blanc, JD, PhD
Dr. Andrea Bonime-Blanc is the lead cyber-risk governance author and researcher for The Conference Board. She is the chief executive officer of GEC Risk Advisory LLC, the global governance, risk, ethics, compliance, reputation, and crisis advisory firm, serving executives, boards, investors, and ...Full Bio
John (Jack) Lenzi
John C. (Jack) Lenzi serves as Vice President, Corporate Responsibility for ITT Corporation and is based in the headquarters offices in White Plains, New York. Accountable to the CEO and Board of Directors, Mr. Lenzi has extensive experience leading and working within large-scale, globally disper...Full Bio


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Have you noticed the bizarre moves in tech lately? Apple (AAPL) has become among the most hated stocks in the universe -- something to be exacerbated Monday, I am sure by Citigroup's merciless downgraded call from buy to hold. So now, people are fleeing not just Apple but all of the Apple plays. The plunge, for example, in Cirrus (CRUS), the Apple sound play, is hideous and seems to be accelerating. Qualcomm (QCOM) is now swooning. We own Broadcom (BRCM) for ActionAlertsPlus.com, and it's become a tough hold, even though the company recently guided up and is not dependent upon Apple as so many semiconductor companies are.
But technology represents a huge chunk of the S&P 500, so you can't just overlook it if you are a portfolio manager. You have to take that Apple money, and that Apple-related money, and put it elsewhere in the sector.
Now, this is no mean feat. First you have to deal with the fact that Apple's so-called "disappointing" numbers would be nirvana for just about every other player, at least in the personal-computer area. Buying Microsoft (MSFT) here just seems like a lesson in taking a beating. Intel (INTC) is no different. We heard from Dell (DELL) last week and there's nothing worth owning there, despite Goldman Sachs' upgrade from sell to buy last week. Hewlett-Packard (HP) is a disaster and I don't think it is done going down. Western Digital (WDC) and Seagate (STX), two obvious suppliers, are dirt cheap -- but, unless they go private, they are just decent dividend plays, particularly Seagate with its 5.5% payout.
The obviousness of the declines in PC land sends most investors looking elsewhere.
So where have they been going? First, they have sought to find the stocks that have still beaten expectations handily. Unfortunately, that's a very small universe. There's Salesforce.com (CRM) and most recently there's Adobe (ADBE). EBay (EBAY) is quasi-technology, and that's worked well.
There are also two prospective earnings reports that could produce some highlight names as proxies for tech -- notably, Oracle (ORCL) and Accenture (ACN), both of which are set to report this week. I expect Oracle to be fine, although I worry that so many think it will to be much better than fine. As for Accenture, I like it and think it can surprise to the upside once again. Both of these are similar to IBM (IBM), with delicious recurring revenue from long-term contracts.
What else? This weekend we learned that Cisco (CSCO) could be selling its Linksys home-router business, something you might know as that little blue box attached to your cable wire. I never understood this acquisition to begin with, and I think that the disposal will be well-received.
That desire to own Cisco has spread to a host of networking stocks. That includes competitors Juniper (JNPR) and Ciena (CTLE), even as they have been missing quarters, as well as Xilinx (XLNX), a chip supplier.
Sure enough, other more-industrial chip companies have been doing well, too, including Texas Instruments (TXN), and Cypress (CY), which is more of a play on the Amazon (AMZN) Kindle and other non-Apple devices and looks incredibly attractive to me. So does Analog Devices (ADI).
The distributor plays look cheap, notably Arrow (ARW) and Avnet (AVT), and those who think Europe is turning can even look at Tech Data (TECD).
Finally, there's big data, and there I like EMC (EMC) and Akamai (AKAM) for storage and for streaming.
What's funny is that all of these non-Apple plays do not have anywhere near the possibility of besting Apple for product or even earnings momentum. But it doesn't matter. They are chits in the tech game, and right now those chits have more value than Apple and all of the players on its stage.


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Food & Drink
Florida's tourism gets a boost from a Brazilian invasion
By John Couwels, CNN • Updated 24th January 2012
"Oi -- Sejam bem-vindos!" -- meaning "Hi, welcome!" -- is a Portuguese phrase heard more and more these days at Florida's tourist spots.
That's because Florida is the top U.S. vacation destination for Brazilians, who are taking advantage of a favorable exchange rate and low prices. Brazilians outnumbered all other international travelers to Florida in 2011, up 41% from the previous year,
according to state tourism officials
And there's no sign of this Brazilian invasion slowing down: The U.S. Commerce Department projects 1.5 million Brazilians will visit the United States in 2012 -- and most of them will head to Florida.
Floridians are used to seeing Brazilian tour groups marching through outlet malls and theme parks, usually dressed in matching T-shirts in single-file lines behind their leader. These Brazilian tourists are usually loaded with cash and ready to clear the shelves of the name-brand outlets. That's because even at regular price, many goods and services in the United States are much cheaper than in Brazil, where tariffs, taxes and transportation costs can mean higher prices.
"We [took] about 15,000 passengers on shopping tours, and they on average spend about $300 to $400 each person," said Claudia Menezes, vice president of Pegasus Transportation. And those were just the Brazilian tour groups visiting outlet malls and theme parks in South Florida and Orlando.
Cash-flush Brazilians are looking for deals, and Miami is the place to find them. CNN's John Zarrella reports.
President Obama unveils a plan to boost tourism at Disney World ahead of the GOP primary in Florida later this month.
Menezes says she expects her business to double in 2012. That could be a conservative estimate as the United States plans to expand its global entry program, which aims to speed up the visa approval process for international visitors.
President Obama announced the expansion of the plan last week at a news conference at Disney World in Orlando, Florida. He said he hopes to make it easier for visitors from countries "with rapidly growing economies, huge populations and emerging middle classes" like Brazil and China to visit the United States. He said he wants the plan expanded "this year."
He said Brazil was "especially important for Florida" because it has "a huge population that loves to come to Florida ... but we make it too hard for them."
"We want them spending money here, in Orlando, in Florida in the United States of America, which will boost our businesses and our economy," he said.
It's a long process for many Brazilians to get to the United States: On average, people have to wait 76 days just to get an interview at the largest U.S. consulate in Brazil, in Sao Paulo. And with only four U.S. consular offices in a country that is bigger than the continental United States, a lot of Brazilians trying to visit the U.S. must travel long distances for their interview. As a result, many are opting to travel to Europe because the visa process is easier.
Menezes says her tour business depends on the United States improving its visa process:
"If they make it easier, it would be even more people coming here," she said.
On a recent afternoon at the Orlando Premium Outlets near Disney World, one of the hottest-selling items among the Brazilian tourists is luggage. They buy the suitcases, then stuff them with recently purchased shoes, clothing, bags and electronics until the luggage is almost bursting at the seams.
That kind of spending has translated into billions of dollars in revenue for the United States. In 2010, Brazilian visitors spent nearly $6 billion on U.S. travel and tourism-related goods and services, nearly 30% more than the prior year, according to a
report from the U.S. Commerce Department.
It's a trend that has been going on since 2003 and has, according to the report, "propelled Brazil up the rankings to become the fifth largest international market for U.S. travel and tourism-related exports."
You can spot Brazilian tourists in Florida by their matching T-shirts and large tour buses.
John Couwels/CNN
Florida's retailers aren't the only ones getting an economic boost: Many of Central Florida's numerous theme parks have also seen a large increase in Brazilian tourists. Disney World says 2011 was a record-breaking year for Brazilian guests at its parks.
As a result, Disney hired 54 Portuguese-speaking "Super Greeters," most of them from Brazil, to assist Brazilian tour groups throughout Disney's parks.
SeaWorld Orlando has seen a steady increase in guests from Brazil over the past five years, says Peter Frey, senior marketing officer with SeaWorld Parks.
As a result, SeaWorld
recently launched a website in Portuguese
, and Frey says the company is looking to expand its Portuguese-speaking employees.
"We are offering classes for employees to learn the basics of Portuguese," he said.
Brazil's economy is booming after a quick recovery from the global economic downturn, and a new class of Brazilians is traveling and spending money, giving Florida a much-needed economic shot in the arm, according to Sean Snaith, an economics expert at the University of Central Florida.
"There is an emerging middle class [in Brazil] who has disposable income," he said.
Only a few years ago, Brazilian tourists were not always welcomed by shop owners in Central and South Florida, a tour guide said. Today, businesses are catering to these cash-laden Brazilian tourists.
Brazilians are also investing in Florida's sagging real estate market, particularly in South Florida, either for a vacation home or just as an investment. The prices in Miami are a bargain, compared with the prices in Brazil, according to Miami Realtor Cristiano Piquet.
"In Brazil or Rio, high-end real estate is around $1,000 per square foot, while in Miami, you can find high-end oceanfront property, like the Trump Towers, for only $500 per square foot," said Piquet, who gets 80% of his business from Brazilians. He has 75 agents.
"Brazilians love Miami, the weather is similar to Brazil, [it's] very safe ... [and there are] daily flights from Brazil to Miami," he said.
Diego Gasques from Rio de Janeiro, who owns two condominiums in Miami, agrees.
"It's kind of a vacation place for us," he said. "Of course Miami is a beautiful place, a lot of nice people around -- a lot of bodies ... it's a nice place to hang out to have some fun."
While Spanish is still the most popular second language in most South Florida businesses, these days it's becoming more common to hear, "Obrigada e volte sempre!" -- Portuguese for " Thank you, come again!"
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HAPPY NEW YEAR and "HARDCORE ZEN TOUR: The Movie" Saturday at Hill St. Center
Happy New Year!
Hope your year is wonderful. I'm busy doing a half-assed version of 大掃除, which is pronounced "oh-so-ji"and means "big cleaning." It's something you do on New Year's in Japan. You clean up every damn thing in the house. I'm not going quite that far, but I'm doing some special cleaning tonight. Which is why this is gonna be short.
Today I finally watched Sike Sillanpää's film "Hardcore Zen Tour," a 30 minute documentary about my tour of Finland this summer. I'm really impressed. Sike followed me around almost 24/7 while I was in Finland this August filming every damned thing I did. He cut the footage into a 30 minute piece that he is trying to get exhibited in Finnish TV and elsewhere. I really love it.
For those of you who wondered, we will have our regular Zazen thing at Hill Street Center on Saturday, January 2nd starting at 10 am. The complete info on how to get there and all that is at the link over to your left that says Weekly Zazen Classes on Saturday Mornings (or just click on those very words in this very sentence).
I'm guessing we won't have a lot of people this coming Saturday. But for those of you who do show up, as a special treat I will show the movie! So be there if you wanna see it.
OK. Gotta go now.


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The mass shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school has left many parents concerned about their children's safety, says a school board trustee who wants more vigilance about letting strangers into Vancouver schools.
Ken Denike said he received numerous phone calls from concerned parents in the aftermath of the massacre in Newtown, Conn. that left 20 children and six adults dead last December.
"The issue is the policy. We have an open-door policy. We've had it for some time and I think it's left the board in good stead in the past," he said. But now, "(parents) are asking what kind of security do we have in the schools and when they go to the schools, they find there's basically none.
"Over the last several years we've had other situations develop, the lockdowns in schools, evacuating schools. We've had to deal with intruders, we've had to deal with events in the surrounding neighbourhood," Denike said, citing a police standoff two blocks from John Oliver elementary school in Sept. 2011 that ended in a gunman's death.
Before the suspect died, he shot up several cars in the 600-block of East 45th Avenue, and the school was put on "code yellow," meaning students were not allowed to use certain school exits.
In December, Thunderbird elementary school near East Broadway and Rupert streets was locked down by Vancouver Police for four hours over an unspecified threat that officials said could have affected students. Three days before, on Dec. 14, 20-year-old Adam Lanza opened fire at Sandy Hook elementary before turning the gun on himself, reigniting debates over gun control and school safety.
In Vancouver, many teachers and staff are conscientious about who comes in and out, despite the open-door policy, which was created to encourage the school's integration into the broader community. But Denike and fellow trustee Sophia Woo are calling on the board to consider more formal procedures in a motion to be presented at Monday night's board meeting.
"Our open-door policy needs to be evaluated, and that's what I am asking for," he said. That would mean working with security services and first responders to find out how to improve communication with schools if a situation arises that requires police, fire or ambulance, he said. More significant changes could mean controlled entrances, buzzers or using one main door only to control visitors' entry, and keeping side doors locked.
"I think we've been extremely complacent, and I think we have this view we can handle everything internally and we won't have problems, but I think that's a bit naive, given what's happened," he said.
Denike said he doesn't think schools need to have a greater police presence, but rather start with increased supervision of who comes in and out of school buildings.


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FORT BRAGG, N.C. -- A military judge on Tuesday ordered two U.S. Army generals to testify about whether they were pressured by superiors to charge another general with the sexual assault of a female captain.
The judge, Col. James Pohl, granted a pre-trial motion from lawyers representing accused Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair. It compels testimony by Gen. Dan Allyn and Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Colt.
Sinclair's legal team alleges that high-ranking Pentagon officials may have placed improper pressure on Allyn, then the commander of the 18th Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg and Sinclair's boss.
A court martial for Sinclair is scheduled to begin June 25 on charges that include forcible sodomy, indecent acts, violating orders and adultery.
Allyn, who was recently promoted to head the Army's Forces Command, could testify as soon as Wednesday. It is not clear when Colt, the current commander at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, might take the stand.
In court Tuesday, Sinclair's lawyers cited e-mails obtained over the weekend that they contend suggest top Army generals might have been consulted ahead of Allyn's referral of the charges last year. Under the military code of justice, a commanding officer weighing whether to charge a subordinate with a crime is supposed to be insulated from the influence of those farther up the chain of command.
Richard Scheff, Sinclair's lead civilian lawyer, told the judge that Allyn, Colt and other Army officials had declined requests to speak to the defense team voluntarily and asked that they be subpoenaed.
"I've got e-mails that suggest the involvement of senior officials in this case," Scheff said. "This is not a fishing expedition."
Sinclair's case is heading to trial amid the sting of sexual assault allegations and embarrassing sex scandals involving the military. President Barack Obama publicly warned the Defense Department earlier this month that he expects its leaders to take tougher action against sexual predators and redouble efforts to prevent assaults within the ranks.
A 27-year Army veteran, Sinclair faces life in prison if convicted on the sexual assault charge. It's rare for an Army general to face court-martial. There have been only two cases in recent years.
Pohl agreed Tuesday to a request from prosecutors to dismiss one of the more minor charges against Sinclair, that he violated an order by possessing alcohol while on deployment in Afghanistan. An unopened bottle of scotch was found in his quarters - a gift defense lawyers said came from a top Pentagon official visiting the Muslim nation.
Sinclair was deputy commander in charge of logistics and support for the 82nd Airborne Division in Afghanistan before being relieved in May 2012 during the criminal investigation. He has been on special assignment since then at Fort Bragg.
The female captain at the heart of the case said she carried on a three-year sexual relationship with Sinclair, a married father of two who was her direct superior. Adultery is a crime under military law, and the admission could end her career.
She testified at the evidentiary hearing last year that she repeatedly tried to break off the affair, but that Sinclair threatened to kill her and her family if she told anyone about their frequent sexual liaisons in hotels, headquarters and war zones.
The woman said she usually wanted to have sex with the general, though she said that on two occasions after they had argued he exposed himself and physically forced her to perform oral sex, even as she sobbed.
The Associated Press does not publicly identify victims of alleged sexual assaults.
Two other female officers who served with Sinclair also testified that they had given the general nude photos at his request.


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New scientific riches from Integral
Astronomers from around the world have been discussing the extraordinary scientific riches that have flowed from ESA's orbiting gamma-ray observatory, Integral. Here we present the gist of some of the astonishing ones.
When Integral was launched in 2002 it was intended to take detailed gamma-ray images and spectra of the universe and to look for new types of sources in this relatively unexplored field. In all these objectives, it has excelled.
"Integral discovers about 100 new gamma-ray sources a year," says one of the conference organisers, Angela Bazzano, Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica, Roma. These objects are spread throughout the Universe.
Its instruments have been fine-tuned to the so-called soft gamma-ray band, where the majority of celestial gamma rays are emitted. It has used these instruments to identify some of the most puzzling sources of celestial gamma rays. These Tera electron Volt (TeV) sources were first seen from telescopes on Earth looking for the brief flash of light that occurs when highly energetic gamma rays enter the atmosphere.
Integral identified the TeV sources based upon the much lower energy gamma rays that they emit. It discovered that most are a compact object called a pulsar surrounded by a nebula of gases. Each pulsar is the tiny core of a once giant star. Although just 15 km across, each pulsar contains more mass than the Sun, and generates an intense magnetic field.
The Integral results suggest that these particular pulsars give off a 'wind' of electrons that collides with the surrounding nebula and is enormously accelerated by the strong magnetic field. These ultra-fast electrons give off the gamma rays seen by Integral and ground-based telescopes.
Sources almost invisible to X-ray telescopes, the strongly obscured supergiant binaries have been revealed. Multiwavelength observations show that in these systems gigantic stars, each containing many tens of times the mass of the Sun coexist with neutron stars. A dense envelope of gas, a cocoon, shed from the giant star engulfs the neutron star.
In 40 years of X-ray astronomy, only a dozen supergiant X-ray systems had been found. Integral has already doubled this number and shown that most of them are persistent emitters of X-rays and gamma-rays, most probably slow pulsars.
The transient sources are a special breed as well. For reasons still under debate, every now and again, they flare up brightly for a few hours, up to a day, and then disappear again from sight. Without the sensitivity and observing strategy of Integral, these short bursts of gamma rays would have escaped detection and this class of celestial object would remain undiscovered.
Integral has been surveying gamma rays that are given out by radioactive isotopes created inside stars and spilled out into space at the end of the star's life. By measuring the amount of these isotopes from the brightness of the gamma rays they emit, models of stellar interiors and their nuclear energy sources can be checked. Integral has been looking at radioactive forms of aluminium and iron.
The results have been surprising and are forcing a rethink of the details about how those high-mass stars work. "Theorists have been alerted to review the complexities of convection in stellar interiors, and new experiments have been started to understand the relevant nuclear reaction rates," says Roland Diehl, Max Planck Institut für extraterrestrische Physik.
He adds that Integral's astronomers will be checking their own data on more observations hoping to converge on a better understanding of stellar interiors, and of the dynamics of hot gas in the inner regions of our Galaxy.
Integral observations have posed another puzzle to astrophysicists by mapping the gamma rays from annihilations of positrons, a form of antimatter produced in various ways including radioactive decay, plasma jets around neutron stars, and probably by the decay of some varieties of dark matter. The galaxy's disc is fainter than expected, the inner part of the Galaxy outshines it by far - a puzzle still unsolved.
Integral has opened the gamma-ray universe to astronomers like never before. "Integral is now a major, worldwide observatory," says Pietro Ubertini, Director of Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica, Roma.
Notes for editors:
These results were presented at the 'Five years of Integral' workshop held from 17-19 October 2007 in Sardinia, Italy. It was attended by about 130 scientists from around the world.
For more information :
Christoph Winkler, ESA Integral Project Scientist
Email: Christoph.Winkler @ esa.int


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How has your day been so far? Did you make it through brushing your teeth this morning without disfiguring yourself? Then you're better off than some unlucky owners of the Spinbrush toothbrush, which the FDA has just issued a warning about. Apparently, they've been chipping people's teeth, cutting up gums, and doing all manner of damage to people's faces. Open wide!
According to the FDA, the battery-operated brushes (which have been sold by both Arm & Hammer and Crest) have parts that have broken off and been, "released into the mouth with great speed, causing broken teeth and presenting a choking hazard." That certainly sounds unpleasant. The offending brushes are sold for both adults and children under a number of different names. The adult brushes have a removable head that has popped off, "exposing metal pieces that have poked users in the cheek and eye areas, causing injuries." Ahh! And the kids models (which come in Spiderman and Thomas & Friends, for maximum psychological scarring) have caused problems like "cut lips, burns from the batteries, and bristles which have fallen off and lodged in a child's tonsils." Well, that should fuel any number of dental nightmares for the next few months, and if you've got one of these terrible contraptions, for God's sake don't put it anywhere near your face.


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$ 109.40
The Talk to Write, Write to Learn™ Kit is designed to improve listening, reading/comprehension, and expository text comprehension and writing for students in grades two through six.
Item No. 02 005-QStart
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This is a Special Collection of Selected MindWing Materials (An OVER $1200 value!). This is the perfect collection for those who are in private practice, a clinical setting, or in a school-based position dealing with varying ages and abilities, and wish to have a selection of materials from each of our kits without having to purchase each kit separately.
This collection does not include the following products that serve specific populations: SGM® Spanish Maps (Story Grammar Marker® translated into Spanish); Holding Stories in the Palm of Your Hand (for DHH/ASL); the DRIP-EY Diagnostic Record & Intervention Plan Set (For Deaf or Hard of Hearing) or Refill Pack; and The Essential SGM® (for colleges and university programs). These preceding products may be ordered separately if needed. The Ultimate Collection also does not include the SGM® iPad App, which must be purchased in the iPAD APP STORE.
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VIDEO PREVIEW!! Click here to watch a video about all of the exciting features and benefits of the SGM® App!
The purpose of the SGM® App is to help children think, communicate and learn. Since 1991, millions of children worldwide have benefited from using the colorful, patented icons of the Story Grammar Marker® (SGM®), a research-based tool for helping children with telling and retelling stories, comprehension, writing, reading comprehension and social communication. Now, the SGM® has come to life in the form of an App with exciting animation and engaging features that allow kids to see, listen, touch, move and interact with the icons to tell create a story!
Teachers, speech language pathologists, reading specialists, literacy coaches and parents can use this App with kids to help them "Become a Star Reporter" and create & tell their story or re-tell something they have read, seen or experienced. This app will help children to organize their thoughts for expressing or writing. It can help them with critical thinking and problem solving skills as well as to make connections among texts, themselves and the world around them.
The icons in this App are designed to "free up" working memory by giving kids a visual representation of the parts of a story that they can see, touch and move! They can type, draw, import images or import pictures from the camera roll to create a unique story or to retell a story from a book, show or movie. After creating each story, they can use the SGM® to assist them in telling their story and recording it. They can then become the SGM® Star Reporter and hear themselves telling their story! Each story can be saved and/or emailed to parents/teachers/specialists to monitor progress.
The Story Grammar Marker® can be used to support Common Core State Standards. This app is fun and engaging — and the methodology is research-based! Enjoy!


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Every week, editors Adam Bryant and Natalie Abrams satisfy your need for TV scoop. Please send all questions to email@example.com.
How will Bree fare in the trial on Desperate Housewives? — Whitney
NATALIE: It should come as no surprise that Bree will start to fall for her lawyer (Scott Bakula), which could compromise her case in more ways than one.
Now that Diane has approved a raise for Alicia, is she going to get her old house back on The Good Wife? — Shannon
ADAM: She will certainly try in this week's episode, which features several flashbacks to the Florricks' best and worst times in the house, including the morning after Peter's infamous press conference, when Alicia braced the kids for life after the scandal. But it won't be easy to reclaim her space. There will be another interested party, and trust us, it's not who you — or Alicia —suspects at all.
How long will Bonnie be mad at Elena for causing her mother to turn on The Vampire Diaries? —Michelle
NATALIE: Elena's actions may have led to Abby's transformation, but she certainly didn't plan for it to happen! Ultimately, Bonnie will understand that, but perhaps not as well as Caroline. "Caroline realizes she's made decisions that have affected people's lives, so she's not one to judge Elena for having to make big decisions, whether they turned out well or not," Candice Accola tells us. "We'll definitely see more beautiful friend moments as the season comes to a conclusion."
Is Quinn the mystery bride at Barney's wedding on How I Met Your Mother? — Mark
ADAM: Depending on how you interpret this bit of news, I'd say it's a strong maybe! In the finale — you know, the one where we're supposed to learn with whom Barney's swapping vows —Barney and Quinn face off with airport security when Barney refuses to open a metal box in his luggage. There must be something pretty important (and perhaps sparkly?) in that box, no?
Got any scoop on Glee? — Debra
NATALIE: We haven't seen the last of tough-talking synchronized swimming coach Roz (Nene Leakes). While details of her return are being kept under wraps, we hear it'll be in April.
What's coming up for Sweets and Daisy on Bones? — Jenny
ADAM: We can confirm that Daisy will appear in the show's April 2 episode, and she comes down with a little baby fever after meeting the mini-Bones. But we don't think a baby is in the cards for these two. In fact we're hearing that Sweets will be paired up with an acerbic, fresh-out-of-the-academy FBI agent who might not keep things exactly professional with her new partner.
What's coming up on True Blood this season? — Gina
NATALIE: The fifth season will feature a flashback to the 1930s that will show us the fate of Bill's daughter Sarah (aka Portia Bellefleur's great-great-great-grandmother — ick). Appropriately, Bill Compton himself — that is, Stephen Moyer — is stepping behind the camera to direct the episode.
What can you tell me about what's next on NCIS? — Tyler
ADAM: Oh, you know, just another day of saving the entire country! The team will be called in to work closely with the Chief of Naval Operations to stop an imminent attack against the U.S. They'll also be collaborating with an eccentric businessman whose son was killed in a terrorist bombing. He must be quite an asset: I hear he will recur this season and possibly next.
The car chase scene in the Alcatraz finale looks awesome. What can you tell us about the Tommy-Rebecca showdown? — Samuel
NATALIE: Prior to the big car chase — which has been likened to Steve McQueen's Bullitt (see awesome clip here) — Rebecca and Diego will discover more about Tommy's involvement in the bigger mystery, which will be the catalyst for the desperate hunt to track him down. More importantly, Ray's change of heart about Tommy will be explained.
I'm really loving Awake. Got any teases for me? — Jared
ADAM: Michael's dual realities will work together in a way that puts him on the trail of a serial killer who everyone — including the FBI profiler who followed him for 12 years — thought was dead. In an effort to find out just how Michael cracked a previously uncrackable case, the killer starts digging into Michael's private life and uncovers a deep-dark secret.
Thanks for the Breaking In scoop. What else can we look forward to? —Kathryn
NATALIE: Is Christian Slater dusting off his black trench coat? Because it looks like the show will be paying homage to one of our favorite movies in an upcoming episode titled "Heathers." This time, the Heather in question is an old friend of Veronica's (get it?) who shows up to help Contra Security. But you must have had a brain tumor for breakfast if you think her motives are pure. Winona Ryder, call your agent! We have just the karmic part for you.
I miss Sons of Anarchy. Now that Gemma's left Clay, might she have a new boyfriend this season? — Jessica
ADAM: Katey Sagal is certainly campaigning for a new man. "She's going to be loose, a free woman for a while, hopefully [with] a nice younger man," she says with a laugh. Unfortunately, it won't be Unser, who has pined for Gemma since Day 1. But that doesn't mean Gemma won't get involved with someone we already know. "I don't think Tig and Gemma have ever hooked up, [but] there's always been an attraction, executive producer Kurt Sutter says. "Tig has been the third wheel for a lot of years, but I think there is that connection with the two of them."
Natalie's Mega Rave: It was the moment I waited nearly an entire season for — Lucy finally woke up from her coma on Alcatraz — and it was a fun, clever eye-opening nod to Lost. It is a J.J. Abrams show, after all. Let's just hope Fox wakes up, too, and renews the series.
Adam's Mini Rant: Really, Desperate Housewives? That was your send-off for Mike Delfino? I know life on the Lane must go on, but couldn't the ladies have forgotten about themselves for just one day?
Crave scoop on your favorite TV shows? E-mail Adam and Natalie at email@example.com or drop us a line at Twitter.com/TVGuide
(Additional reporting by Robyn Ross and Kate Stanhope)


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Microsoft recently updated its Windows Store policy to include the sale of games rated Mature by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB).
Windows' Corporate VP of Web Services Antoine Leblond settled the issue this Friday by clarifying the issue.
According to Leblond, a number of ESRB Mature games will be coming to the Windows Store, despite their cross-reference as PEGI 18, a banned rating according to the European rating system.
Updating the Windows Store update
The confusion arose when observant developers first noticed the following statement in the Windows 8 app certification requirements:
"Apps with a rating over PEGI 16, ESRB MATURE, or that contain content that would warrant such a rating, are not allowed."
As it turns out, there are a number of popular games that fall under the banner of PEGI 18 and ESRB Mature, like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Skyrim, Mass Effect 3, and Assassin's Creed 3.
Now these games are getting the green light for the U.S. Windows Store, although the policy change won't go into effect until December.
The updated policy still excludes games rated Adult by the ESRB, which is mostly reserved for games with pornographic content.


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Don't miss the new i+s insider newsletter!
Made from recycled polyester, BeeHave by Guilford of Maine meets 75,000 double rubs and is available with antimicrobial, moisture and stain protection, making it ideal for high-traffic environments like education and hospitality. This textured solid is available in 11 colorways. Woven in the USA and CarbonNeutral certified.


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New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte has proposed legislation to help rural states get a larger percentage of the Universal Service Fund.
Rural communities desperate for money to invest in technology upgrades and expanded broadband access could have a new best friend in New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte.
Ayotte introduced legislation last month that would return 75 percent of all funds collected through the Universal Service Fund (USF) – created by the FCC in 1997 to support telecommunications services in public areas such as libraries and schools – back to rural states.
Currently a percentage of the USF is distributed back to states using a complex formula. The USF Equitable Distribution Act, S. 1766, would change the distribution formula and require that any state designated "rural" under the act would be given back 75 percent of their USF contributions. The Act defines "rural state" as having less than 200 people per square mile.
According to a press release from Ayotte's office, New Hampshire only receives 37 percent of what it pays into the USF, donating $37.9 million to the fund in 2011, receiving $14.2 million back.
"A portion of Granite Staters' telephone bills goes to the Universal Service Fund, and there's no reason why we should be shortchanged by a program that's supposed to help deploy critical communications services to every area of the state," Ayotte said in a statement. "The legislation I introduced would reform the Universal Service Fund to ensure that more of the money New Hampshire citizens contribute to the fund is invested in our state instead of subsidizing other states."
Like this story? If so, subscribe to Government Technology's daily newsletter.
Liz Johnson, Ayotte's press secretary, refuted the notion that states not classified as "rural" under the bill might have a bigger need for USF money due to population size. In an email to Government Technology, Johnson said states that have more people are not necessarily more expensive to provide universal broadband deployment, as it is cheaper for providers to reach customers in urban and suburban areas.
Former FCC Chief of Staff Blair Levin, now a communications and society fellow for the Aspen Institute, an education and policy studies organization, questioned what type of problem Ayotte was trying to solve. Levin told Government Technology that if Ayotte was trying to solve just the problem of New Hampshire being shortchanged, he understands the motivation behind the bill. But he's not supportive of the national repercussions the measure could have.
"If we switch to thinking that every state should get at least 'X' percent back of what they put in, that has the appearance of fairness and in that sense is a very sympathetic argument," Levin said. "But if you look at its long-term impact … I think ultimately it moves it to a very different kind of program."
When asked how Ayotte arrived at the 75 percent figure in the USF Equitable Distribution Act, Johnson said the percentage acknowledges unique deployment challenges numerous states have, such as the mountainous terrain in Alaska. She added that ideally, New Hampshire should receive a dollar-for-dollar return on its investment to the USF.
Levin felt Ayotte's bill narrowly focuses on an understandable, but "ultimately not productive" view that every rural state should get a minimum percentage of what it contributes to USF back. Levin argued that would be unfair on principle to nonrural states.
"If the point of politics and what we're doing is simply appropriations committee kind of politics, which is 'I want mine, Jack,' I get it and understand it," Levin said. "But that's now how Universal Service has been. And if you get everybody thinking that way, the program will disappear. And rural America will be a lot worse off."
Looking for the latest gov tech news as it happens? Subscribe to GT newsletters.


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Visitors to the special Doctor Who immersive theatre experience, The Crash of the Elysium, got a surprise yesterday when the Doctor himself popped in to see them!
Photo: Manchester Evening News
Photo: BBC News
Photo: Manchester Evening News
Photo: BBC News
A fan of the organisers Punchdrunk since seeing one of their shows in New York, Matt Smith wanted to see the current production based around Doctor Who that has been taking place at the Manchester International Festival this month; normally, videos of the Doctor appear during the show, but producers arranged for him to appear in character yesterday instead of the final video, much to the delight of the 6-12 year old audience.
Commenting on the project, he said:
Punchdrunk and Doctor Who! A Marriage made in creative space heaven. It's been a privilege to work with Punchdrunk to put children at the heart of a Doctor Who adventure. I've always watched Punchdrunk shows and marvelled at their inventiveness and individuality. Put that together with Doctor Who and there is a wonderful template to tell unique stories in unique ways. The Doctor would definitely approve.
The final performance of The Crash of Elysium is today.


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Exclusive rights to over £350m of cancer research per yearOur marketed drugs include Temodal, Zytiga, Erivedge, Lynparza and Rubraca.


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Counting Islam: Religion, Class, and Elections in Egypt
Consensus after Conflict: Electoral System Choice in Revolutionary Egypt
Ten Years after September 11: An Analysis of Public Opinion in the Muslim World
The Unintended Consequences of Successful Resource Mobilization: Financing Development in Vietnam
Beyond the Apex: Toward a System Level Approach to Higher Education Reform in Vietnam
Structural Change: The Only Effective Stimulus
Funding Economic Development: A Comparative Study of Financial Sector Reform in Vietnam and China
Vietnam's Industrial Policy: Designing Policies for Sustainable Development
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The Structural Roots of Macroeconomic Instability


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Read and Lead Fundraising
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Product Lines: Magazines
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Notes: Offers primarily a paid e-mail distribution program.
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Youth Sports Fundraising – Tips for improving the results of your youth sports fundraising – Fundraisers for youth sports teams that always do well.
Fundraising Articles – Full list of articles and great event ideas from Fundraiser Help.


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I Stand Prepared
Jesus told his disciples he'd come again
to a world full of wickedness and sin.
Jesus taught on the Mount of Olives of these latter days
when Satan's pow'r would rule the hearts of men.
I stand prepared in the armor of God
as the valiant unite in defending truth and right.
I'm a noble spirit reserved for this day.
I have strength to resist Satan's plan.
The gospel teaches me I can.
Text: Rebecca Adams
Music: Rebecca Adams
Artist: Adams
Album: Music Published in the Church Magazines: Friend
Composition Date: 1995-01-01
More Info: Friend


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Wednesday, September 4: Watch LinkedIn, H&R Block
Polya Lesova joins the News Hub with a look at which stocks to watch today, including LinkedIn, Dollar General, and H&R Block. Photo: AP.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
... the ... let's move on to three stocks you're looking at today ... is the first one yet that that with one of the company announced that yesterday after the market close to one billion dollar asset and a stock offering ... so they're looking to raise money ... in order to expand abroad extend its run that the bill about the sales team aam and of course we need to keep in mind that thinking shares had to fight off the pitch ... Thursday initial public offer things certainly interesting yet they they went public to forty five extended now to two forty five yes and in jokes alot on the onthe day in its IPO you could make an argument that bankers ... under sold that stocks didn't raise much money ... as they could have with their own stock sale but now ... they're going back for more yes so after an eight inch Acer Dollar General is the mix reveal that no agenda no ... good pointed this out with that data point to fifteen percent rise in earnings ... I the companies of course a deep discount that so that the attacking Fugro software's when this economy ... or are planning to to its stories of four around ... in a well priced right and so on in and the company did very well intending to split the class when teacher block yet with that that's the leasing company also reported to the south ... which were not so good so the point that wider than expected ... in Dallas and back again to overshadow the fact that the end of the new house more than expected ... nineteen Craig found expenses ... aam and and therefore the white given all the time the shares were down about one


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Step into the shoes of the legendary hero, Indiana Jones, in an all-new epic adventure. Set in the year 1939, Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings follows the rogue archaeologist on an all-new globetrotting quest.
From San Francisco's Chinatown to the lush jungles of Panama, Indy must use his whip, fists and wits to fight through ruthless opposition as he spars with his nemesis, Magnus Völler, in a race for a relic of biblical proportions - the Staff of Moses.
• Face overwhelming odds and escape signature run-for-your-life moments
• Experience thrilling chases and control vehicles
• Navigate Indy through challenging terrains with a variety of manoeuvres
See it in action


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Tarot Card Meanings
The Tower
You are the one to serve as a catalyst for change.
The Devil
The Star
Watch Now: The Tower Video
Learn the meaning of The Tower Tarot card in under a minute!
General Meaning
In practically all renditions of the Tower card, disaster is striking or has just struck. The demons of madness and despair are released from ancient hiding places, and nature conspires with human failings to destabilize a society. The upheaval is collective and impersonal. Let us remember these images were created for the educated nobles and clergy -- reminding them that they have the most to lose if the hierarchy is toppled.
Lightning is a fitting karmic payback for the guilt of those whose fortunes come from the exploitation or abuse of others. A modern subtitle might be "revolution," indicating that through drastic social change, oppressed people can find renewed hope of better times. The Tower experience comes like a flash of lightning to topple the hierarchy of the old order, after which everyone can have a fresh start on a more equal footing.
In the Reversed Position
The Tower card reversed suggests that the drama is over. All the leaning towers have fallen. Leave behind the issues and emotions that caused this to happen.
Ask yourself what you can do now that the options of your past are closed. As you pick yourself up and begin again, you will find renewed energy for your next significant endeavor.
In the Advice Positon
With the Tower card, think of yourself as an agent of transformation. This self-sacrificing role is likely to create stressful situations. Your vision shows you that a radical change has already been unleashed by forces much larger than mere mortals, and therefore you are no longer resisting.
Now you may be at the forefront, acknowledging and accepting the bracing presence of the future bursting in on the present. Try to mediate the harsher parts of the changes as they unfold, so the most vulnerable are the most cushioned. Acknowledge yourself, as well as the others in your life, who are offering their resources to usher in a better future.
A powerful message is waiting for you! Get your Reconciliation Tarot Reading NOW...
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Fantastical Creatures
View Any Card in Fantastical Creatures Deck:
WANDSAce of Wands
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Seven of Wands
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Nine of Wands
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Queen of Wands
King of Wands
CUPSAce of Cups
Two of Cups
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SWORDSAce of Swords
Two of Swords
Three of Swords
Four of Swords
Five of Swords
Six of Swords
Seven of Swords
Eight of Swords
Nine of Swords
Ten of Swords
Page of Swords
Knight of Swords
Queen of Swords
King of Swords
COINSAce of Pentacles
Two of Pentacles
Three of Pentacles
Four of Pentacles
Five of Pentacles
Six of Pentacles
Seven of Pentacles
Eight of Pentacles
Nine of Pentacles
Ten of Pentacles
Page of Pentacles
Knight of Pentacles
Queen of Pentacles
King of Pentacles


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If you have or you are thinking of having a real estate website, the next essential step is to make sure that you are using search engine optimization to its fullest. However, achieving good SEO is not a simple task, as it involves technical (programming code website, quality of the server that hosts the web, etc.), design and content. It is a task that must be maintained over time, and that you should keep in mind every time you post new content on your real estate website or in your blog.
Therefore, our professional team manages targeted online campaigns that will drive both home sellers and buyers to your website.
With our expertise and strategies you can be sure we will generate qualified leads with high conversion rates. Then, hiring out services of Lead generation for real estate agents in Jacksonville will ensure you successful online marketing and this will translate into satisfactory returns of investment.
Ranking your site well with search engines so that people can easily find your site, will result not in small changes in demands but in great revenues increases. Our search engine optimization team focuses on providing reliable SEO/SEM solutions using the best human resources and technology to guarantee the top positioning of our clients' websites on all major search engines and directories
For additional information about our services of Lead generation for real estate agents in Jacksonville and other marketing solutions go to: http:/www.xperiencems.com/


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1/31/19, 3:45 pm - 4:30 pm
Seward Memorial Library
The library offers Story Time during the school year. All that is necessary to join these classes is an active library card and pre-registration.
- Children 3-6, who have not attended kindergarten yet, come independently to a group setting.
- Classes begin with a time for the children to select books, followed by stories, songs and movement.
- Story Times run for 12 weeks in the Fall and 12 weeks in the Spring.
- Each child may check out a library bag for use during the 12 week session.
To register please visit, http://www.sewardlibrary.org/story-time/


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Export 12 results:
Filtres: Author is Shen, Li [Enlever les filtres]
Stress resilience is promoted by a Zfp189-driven transcriptional network in prefrontal cortex. Nat Neurosci. 2019;22(9):1413-1423.
Corrigendum: Sex-specific transcriptional signatures in human depression. Nat Med. 2018;24(4):525.
Estrogen receptor α drives pro-resilient transcription in mouse models of depression. Nat Commun. 2018;9(1):1116.
Cocaine-Induced Chromatin Modifications Associate With Increased Expression and Three-Dimensional Looping of Auts2. Biol Psychiatry. 2017.
Ketamine and Imipramine Reverse Transcriptional Signatures of Susceptibility and Induce Resilience-Specific Gene Expression Profiles. Biol Psychiatry. 2017;81(4):285-295.
The methyltransferase SETDB1 regulates a large neuron-specific topological chromatin domain. Nat Genet. 2017;49(8):1239-1250.
Sex-specific transcriptional signatures in human depression. Nat Med. 2017;23(9):1102-1111.
Integrative Analysis of Sex-Specific microRNA Networks Following Stress in Mouse Nucleus Accumbens. Front Mol Neurosci. 2016;9:144.
ACF chromatin-remodeling complex mediates stress-induced depressive-like behavior. Nat Med. 2015;21(10):1146-53.
Role of Tet1 and 5-hydroxymethylcytosine in cocaine action. Nat Neurosci. 2015;18(4):536-44.
β-catenin mediates stress resilience through Dicer1/microRNA regulation. Nature. 2014;516(7529):51-5.


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It was one of those urban '!?!?' moments. I was leaving the V&A a couple of days ago when I saw this huge hoarding outside, advertising luxury apartments in the museum. For a moment I wondered whether the funding cuts had finally forced the V&A to convert some of its space into high-end accomodation. But I was in a rush and didn't have time to investigate.
Today Deana Sidney (of LostPastRemembered) sent me this link to an article in the New York Times which explains everything. The artists Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset have transformed the V&A's former Textile Galleries into a site-specific, immersive installation.
Visitors can wander through the grand but slightly disheveled South Kensington apartment of the fictional Norman Swann, an elderly modernist architect. Presumably there is an intentional echo here of Charles Swann, the elderly dandy in Marcel Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu.
Swann's apartment contains the remains of what appears to be an inherited family collection, as Chinese porcelain, Louis something furniture, ormolu candelabra and Victorian pictures mix with a 1950s Heal's-style desk and a minimalist kitchen.
Was Swann the last of the family line? If he was a visionary modernist architect ('Building for the masses' proclaims a framed poster in his office), why did he hang on to his family memorabilia? There are indications that he is now broke and is selling up (hence the apartment being advertised for sale). Is this the end for him, or will he have a Proustian moment of temps retrouvé?
I am writing this without as yet having seen the installation, which I could justify by referring to Proust's insight that what is imagined is so much more enchanting than what is experienced. But in fact I do hope to visit du côté de chez Swann very soon.


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P*ss like a racehorse (or pack mule)
Posted by R. Berg on January 07, 2007
In Reply to: P*ss like a racehorse (or pack mule) posted by Smokey Stover on January 07, 2007
: : P*SS LIKE A RACEHORSE - "Why do people say, 'I have to p*ss like a racehorse'?...In adult humans, the average urine production is 1 to 2 liters per day. Normal urination for a 1,000-pound horse is about 1 to 2 gallons a day. And then there's the horse's famously forceful urinary stream - a torrent that could blast rioting demonstrators against a wall! But this saying may actually have gained currency as the result of the widespread practice of giving racehorses a drug called furosemide prior to a race.horses given furosemide lose about twenty pounds of their pre-race body weight through urination. And, at the track, lighter means faster." This practice is "chemical cheating." From "Why Do Men Fall Asleep After Sex? More Questions You'd Only Ask a Doctor After Your Third Whiskey Sour" by Mark Leyner and Billy Goldberg, M.D., Three Rivers Press, New York, 2006. Page 74-75. These guys are also the authors of "Why Do Men Have Nipples? Hundreds of Questions you'd Only Ask a Doctor After Your Third Martini." Back to the phrase - the version I've heard is "p*ss like a pack mule." Alliteration at work there, I guess. Either way, as someone raised on a farm who now lives in horse country, the phrase was not a mystery to me. But I thought I'd share in case anyone else was puzzled.
: : PS -- The phrase isn't used in polite company.
: Well, what's polite company these days? Your post was interesting, and now I know why my doctor prescribed furosemide for me. Actually it's just one of many diuretics prescribed for humans, and horses, but a bit on the strong side.
So, Smokey, how's your running speed now? ~rb
- P*ss like a racehorse (or pack mule) Bob 08/January/07


text: The Knoxville Girls Basketball Squad made the state tournament Tuesday night by defeating Carlisle in the Class 3A Regional Final 50-43. This is the first time since 1975 the Panthers have made the state tournament. Knoxville will now play Waukon next Tuesday evening at 6:30 in the first round of the state tournament. The Pella girls fell to Ballard in another 3A Regional final 51-25. Pella ends an excellent season at 18-5. The Lady Dutch were going for their fourth consecutive trip to the state tournament.


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Refund Policy
The following information applies to Brown County Parks Department activities and facility rentals.
Shelters & Grounds:
A shelter refers to an open-air or enclosed structure reserved through the Department. Grounds refers to a designated area of ground rented for private use.
Rentals:A rental refers to supplies provided by the department for your event or activity. Examples of a rental include: snowshoes, tables, chairs, decorative arch, grills, tents, lighting, etc.
Public Programs:Individuals canceling a reservation where payment has been made will not be refunded, unless the program is canceled by staff due to environmental limitations (weather, wind chill, etc.). In which case a full refund will be applied.
School Programs at Barkhausen:Schools canceling programs (unless due to weather emergencies/school closings) will be charged a $50 cancellation fee per reservation day unless cancellations are made at least two weeks ahead of time, where a full refund will be applied. This will enable us to better accommodate schools on our extensive waiting list.
Camping:Camping locations at Bay Shore Park and the Fairgrounds are handled on a first come first serve basis. Camping reservations are also available on-line for Bay Shore Park. A minimum of a two-night reservation is required with the exception of holiday weekends (Memorial Day, Labor Day weekends and July 4th) where a three-night reservation is required.


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Valhalla junior goalkeeper Febronio "Dimas" Orozco blocks the penalty kick that allowed the Norsemen to defeat Hilltop in the first round of the San Diego Section Division II playoffs. Valhalla prevailed 3-2 on PKs after a 1-1 tie in regulation.
CHULA VISTA Sandwiched between the goal posts, Valhalla goalkeeper Febronio "Dimas" Orozco stared his opponent directly in the eyes.
"That instant, I knew exactly where he was going," Orozco said.
Hilltop's Rigoberto Marciel struck the soccer ball. Without hesitation, the Norseman junior dived — hands fully stretched — to the right.
Match over.
The save propelled Valhalla (12-7-6) past Hilltop (9-8-6) in a penalty kick shootout (3-2), earning the Norsemen a date with top-seeded Mt. Carmel in the San Diego Section Division II quarterfinals Saturday.
"Fantastic. A fine save," Valhalla coach Brad Baughan said of Orozco's match-sealing deflection.
"It was ironic seeing the two goalkeepers standing side by side, the other goalie having a foot on him. But Dimas reads the game so well and he is quick like a cat."
It appeared Valhalla's season would end yet again against the Lancers at Robert Dodds Stadium — like last season — after Steven Jaramillo netted a goal two minutes into the match, but the Norsemen rallied.
Senior midfielder Andrew Ogilvy scored an injury-time equalizer just before halftime. The ball bounced to his feet around a pile of defenders and he smashed it in.
Forty minutes later, the game remained 1-1, sending the match into a 15-minute golden-goal period that produced a handful of saves from both keepers.
"We didn't want to make mistakes in the back," Baughan said.
Both teams missed their initial PKs, standing 2-2 after six kicks. Valhalla capitalized on the ensuing kick. Hilltop didn't.
"A slip of a foot or an overpowering kick happens sometimes," said Lancers coach John Salts. "It just didn't go our way. Our guys normally hit 10 out of 10 in practice, but hats off to Valhalla."
Orozco summed up this match in three words.
"Revenge," he said smiling. "Sweet revenge."


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Two notable female fighters return tonight with a title fight between Strikeforce champ Marloes Coenen and Liz Carmouche and non-title affair with Bellator champ Zoila Frausto vs. Karina Hallinan.
With other popular female fighters soon returning to the cage, they became the focus of our latest MMAjunkie.com/"Inside MMA" poll.
In it, we asked which fighter is the current face of women's MMA.
The results were revealed on Friday's new episode of "Inside MMA," HDNet's weekly MMA news show, and two fighters ran away from the pack.
In fact, those two fighters fought in arguably the biggest fight in women's MMA history back in August 2009. The show, which held the Strikeforce-Showtime ratings record until just this past month, saw Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos defeat Gina Carano for Strikeforce's first women's title.
Santos, who's defended her title twice since then, earned an overwhelming 58 percent of the vote. The Brazilian picked up the 2010 World MMA Award for "Female Fighter of the Year" and now owns a 10-fight win steak with eight knockout victories.
Although Carano hasn't fought in the 17 months since the loss to Santos (her career first), she earned 33 percent of the vote. While she spent 2010 starring in the Steven Soderbergh film "Haywire," she's expected to make her long-awaited return to the Strikeforce cage in June.
Rounding out the list were injured top Strikeforce contender Miesha Tate (4 percent), Japanese veteran Megumi Fujii (3 percent) and titleholder Coenen (2 percent).
Did the voters get it right? Is Santos the sport's most recognizable female fighter, or has another competitor earned the honor? State your case in the comments section below.
Additionally, don't forget to vote in this week's new poll on the MMAjunkie.com homepage. We want to know if fast-rising UFC 128 headliner Jon Jones was rushed into a title fight with champion Mauricio "Shogun" Rua too quickly.
(Pictured: Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos)
HDNet's "Inside MMA" and MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) run a weekly poll thanks to a partnership between the two news outlet. Catch new episodes of "Inside MMA" on Fridays at 9 p.m. ET. For more information on "Inside MMA" and HDNet Fights,
visit www.hdnetfights.com. For more information on HDNet and how to subscribe, visit www.hd.net.


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Hey, I'm trying to deploy my application in a minified manner and I am following these instructions:
All the produced files look good. all-classes.js and app-all.js look like they contain my JS files and looked to be minified in the app-all.js. However, when I try to include just my app-all.js the webpage tries to dynamically load my other JS files. So even though my ExampleStore.js is in/defined by my app-all.js the webpage tries to load my ...sencha_bundled/app/store/ExampleStore.js?_dc=1354044172696
Am I missing some configuration option or is my understanding of what the Sencha SDK tool is suppose to do incorrect? Here is my index.html:
When I load this page Firebug clearly show in the console a get request requesting my various models, stores, and views.PHP Code:
<title>Hello Ext</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="extjs/resources/css/ext-all.css">
<script type="text/javascript" src="extjs/ext.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="app-all.js"></script>
Thanks for your help!


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[Review] Lollapalooza celebrates 25 anniversary in a big way
The Chicago staple of music festival excellence brought forth yet another unforgettable weekend of music and stellar performances. Lollapalooza celebrating it's 25th anniversary in the biggest way possible. Extending the festival to four days created a marathon of incredible musical… Continue Reading


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Veterans' Corner
By Dale Midgley
Sanford News Guest Columnist
The VA Maine Healthcare System will be hold its 15th Annual "Homeless Veterans Stand Down" event on Saturday, Oct. 20, at the TOGUS VA Hospital in Togus from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
All veterans who are homeless or need assistance or a health checkup are invited to attend.
New winter clothing and boots, personal care items, haircuts, eyeglasses, flu shots, oral cancer screening, legal services, IRS/TAX advocates, housing assistance, employment assistance, mental health and substance abuse screenings, health care services, massages, food stamp applications, women's wellness services, counseling and claim filing assistance and more will be available.
There will be a continental breakfast for all attendees as well as a hot lunch.
There is always a need for volunteers to assist at the "Stand Down," as they are the backbone of the event. If you are interested in volunteering, call the local Vet Center at 490-1513.
Despite a challenging economy, more homeless veterans are being cared for and there was a 20-percent reduction in the number of veterans at homeless shelters from 2010 to 2011.
The Disabled American Veterans will be providing van service to the "Stand Down" at Togus. Vans will be leaving the Sanford Vet Center at 628 Main Street in Springvale at 7 a.m. for the Togus VAMC and the York County Shelter at 147 Shaker Hill in Alfred at 7:30 a.m. If, you need more information, you can contact Maggie Fitzgerald at 207-623-8411, ext. 5408.
If you know of a veteran who needs help, let him or her know about the "Stand Down," as it could make all the difference in that person's life. All of us who have been in the military know that there are times when everyone needs a friend to solve a problem or just be there to say, "Thank you for your service."
The following services, activities and special events are planned in October for veterans and their families in the Sanford-Springvale area.
q Sunday, Oct. 7: The Southern Maine Chapter of Vietnam Veterans of America will hold its general meeting from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Elks Lodge on Elm Street.
q Wednesday, Oct. 10: VFW Post 9935's executive board will hold a meeting at 3 p.m. at its School Street headquarters.
q Sunday, Oct. 14: Rolling Thunder will hold a general meeting at AMVETS Post 3 on School Street from 12 to 2 p.m.
q Monday, Oct. 15: American Legion Auxiliary will hold a meeting at the Main Street headquarters at 6 p.m. VFW Post 9935 will hold a general meeting at 6 p.m. at its School Street headquarters.
q Tuesday, Oct. 16: The Sons of the American Legion will hold a meeting at 6 p.m. at their Main Street headquarters.
q Wednesday, Oct. 17: AMVETS Post 3 and Auxiliary will hold a general meeting at their School Street headquarters at 7 p.m.
q Wednesday, Oct. 17: The Marine League Detachment will hold a general meeting at the AMVETS Post 3 on School Street in Sanford at 6 p.m.
q Saturday, Oct. 20: Rolling Thunder of Maine will hold a "Famous Family Buffet" at the VFW Hall on School Street from 4:30 to 6 p.m. The public is invited for this all-you-can-eat meal. Adults can eat for $5 and children 12 and younger can eat for $2.50. All proceeds will assist veterans' families and the POW-MIA cause. For more information, call Cindy at 207-892-5333.
q Monday, Oct. 22: American Legion Post 19 will hold a general meeting at 6 p.m. at its Main Street headquarters.
q Wednesday, Oct. 24: The Marine League Detachment will hold a general meeting at the AMVETS Post 3 on School Street at 6 p.m.
q Tuesday, Oct. 30: Disabled American Veterans Chapter 19 will hold a general meeting at the VFW Post 9935 on School Street at 7 p.m. Active and inactive members and guests are welcome to attend. Refreshments will be served.
Sanford Free Meals Kitchen
Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, free hot meals are served from noon to 1 p.m. at the Masonic Lodge on Elm Street in Sanford. All veterans are welcome. These meals are provided by York County Shelter Programs in Alfred.
Counseling and Referral Services for Veterans and their Families
Sanford Vet Center
U.S. Dept. of Veteran Affairs
628 Main Street
Springvale, Maine 04083
(207) 490-1513
The center's hours of operation are 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Mondays through Thursdays and 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Friday. Appointments with counselors can be arranged by calling the center.
Veterans Job Assistance
The York County Career Center at 3 Bodwell Street offers veterans' job services in Springvale. The center is open Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The center is one of 12 located across the state to assist veterans with finding employment, making career changes, receiving job Information, training and benefits and meeting other needs. Priority services are provided for all veterans who identify themselves as such.
The center is a division of the Department of Labor and its services are provided at no cost. A veteran representative and professional counselors are available to help meet veterans' needs.
Any questions, just call 324-5460 or 1-800-343-0151, or visit online at www.mainecareercenter.com. for monthly schedule of programs.
Veterans Clothing Assistance
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has a military surplus program for homeless veterans in need on Jagger Mill Road in South Sanford. The program is now open on Fridays from 9 a.m. to noon.
Attention all veterans: If you haven't joined any of the local veteran's organizations in the Sanford-Springvale area, you are missing a great opportunity for assistance and camaraderie.
Have a question about veteran benefits or activities? Just send Dale Midgley an email at midgleydearthlink.net or call 590-3532 and he will get back to you.
Veterans invited to 'Stand Down' on Oct. 20
Veterans' Corner


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Penn State always has had a strong reputation for producing top talent for General Electric. Because of this, General Electric has awarded a shared GE Partnership Award to Penn State Career Services, the College of Communications and the Smeal College of Business.
The GE Partnership Award is presented to schools who are top producers of GE talent and whose students excel in academics, leadership and work experience. The award is presented just once every five years.
"The sheer number of employees at General Electric who are Penn State graduates is significant," said Michael Antonietti, chief marketing officer for GE Capitol and Penn State recruiter. "Penn State is the largest pipeline for talent at GE."
According to Penn State Alumni Association records more than 1,500 alumni are employed by GE.
Antonietti also said that Penn State provides a diverse mix of academic and experiential programs that assures its students will become hard working, well-motivated and well-rounded individuals.
Career Services shared the award with the College of Communications and The Smeal College of Business for providing top talent in GE's communication and business programs.