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Toyota heir takes center stage in drive to shed "boring" tag
NAGOYA, Japan - Toyota Motor Corp. executives have sometimes seemed to share the personality of the automaker's best-selling cars - dependable and efficient, but also a bit boring and bland.
That's changing. In recent months, Toyota founding family scion and President Akio Toyoda has emerged from the bureaucratic shadows to present himself as the company's car-loving, fashion-forward salesman-in-chief.
The marketing campaign aides have built around Toyoda is an unconventional move for a Japanese corporate icon where team play is prized above outsized personalities.
In recent weeks, Toyoda has donned a race suit to drive the Lexus LFA super car at the 24-hour race in Germany's Nuerburgring circuit and turned up at a Lexus party in New York with a hipster bow-tie and retro glasses.
Meanwhile his assistants have kept a steady newsfeed on the "Toyota President's Office" Facebook page, which Toyoda was inspired to set up by the popularity of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's page.
"I am at the top of Toyota and drive cars myself," Toyoda told reporters at an event in May when discussing the role he can play in to promote and develop the Lexus brand, which he has been directly overseeing since April. "I was also born with this name."
Toyota, which marked its 75th anniversary last year, for decades let its product speak for itself by building value-priced cars with bulletproof quality.
In an industry with more than its fair share of celebrity CEOs comfortable with the limelight, such as Chrysler's Lee Iacocca and Nissan Motor Co. and Renault SA's Carlos Ghosn, at Toyota the real star has always been the "Toyota Way" -- the production and management philosophy passed down from one generation to next from founder Kiichiro Toyoda.
That still remains at the core. But as rivals from General Motors Co. to Hyundai Motor Co. to Volkswagen AG have narrowed the quality gap, the Japanese automaker has been forced to respond.
In a J.D. Power & Associates survey of initial quality released in June, a widely followed study in the industry, General Motors finished ahead of Toyota, highlighting the increased challenge for the one-time quality king.
To push back, Toyota has been shaking up its slow decision-making process. It recently named non-Japanese to head regional operations in some areas and split the carmaker's operations into four business teams, assigning executive vice presidents to head three of them.
"The aim is for executives close to the site to see for themselves what is happening and make speedy decisions," Toyoda, 57, told a news conference on Monday.
It is also trying to bring a new edginess to its brand image and design. That strategy has put the spotlight on Toyoda, according to people involved in the effort.
It marks an unlikely, mid-career emergence for Toyoda, the grandson of the company's founder, just a few years ago was blogging under a pseudonym.
"One of the main things he is doing is giving Toyota, the company, a personality," said Julie Hamp, Toyota Motor North America's Group Vice President in charge of communications.
"He knows that Toyota needs a story and products to fire the emotions and to ground our identity in new realities today, which is a more competitive environment."
Toyota declined to make Toyoda available for an interview.
What pushed Toyoda to embrace a radical corporate image makeover was a series of disasters including the recall crisis that hit the automaker in 2009, a senior Toyota executive said.
Toyota recalled millions of vehicles globally because of problems including a glitch in the accelerator and floormat design.
The company's response to the crisis was slow and, most damagingly, Toyoda failed to speak up for the company. After weeks out of the spotlight, Toyoda, who had only been in the top job for eight months, called a news conference in Nagoya to apologise, but struggled to provide an English soundbite.
When Toyoda was grilled by a U.S. congressional committee in February 2010, the experience was scarring, people knowledgeable about his thinking have said. It left him convinced the company had to change its approach.
The organisational changes are a key part of the response, aimed at putting more decisions at the local level so that Toyota can react to problems faster, while the embrace of social media is a means of taking control of releasing information.
Until then, Toyoda had seemed uncomfortable with reporters, only lighting up when talking about his great grandfather's loom design or the principles of Toyota's quality control, and he remained reluctant to put himself in the spotlight.
To give him a nudge, the company's designers prepared a kind of mock fashion magazine for their boss, featuring scenes with stylishly dressed male models all with Toyoda's head superimposed on the image, the senior Toyota executive said.
The idea was that Toyoda could be the star salesman if he could represent the brand and improve its image with edgy fashion at certain events.
Toyoda first balked at the idea, but has since warmed to the role. In April, he took stage with a new look -- retro glasses, hip bowtie -- at the design-themed event for the luxury Lexus brand held in New York.
Toyota still believes the ultimate differentiator will be its "ever-better cars", as he likes to put it. But expressing a bit of personality could make Toyota more inviting.
"The image of Toyota might have been that it is massive and hard to approach, especially those executives at the top who run the company - they are out of reach, above the clouds," the senior executive said. "That might have been the case in the past, but now that's no longer true."


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'Basketball Wives' Star Jennifer Williams Blogs: I Need Time To Heal Before Dating Seriously Again!
'Basketball Wives' star Jennifer Williams is blogging for HollywoodLife.com, sharing her thoughts about each episode! Read what she says below!
The Basketball Wives took an eventful trip to the "Big Apple." It's always great to get out of Miami and take a girls trip. Evelyn, Tami, Meeka and I are all from the area and as always, New York was full of tears, T-shirts, tours and shots!
Tami and Evelyn are both very passionate people. Shaunie and I decided to go for a walk in the park with Tami and see where she was with this whole T-shirt thing. I know they both feel completely different about the T-shirts but the goal was to get them to come to a middle ground. Evelyn and Tami (aka Ike and Tina Turner) finally came to an agreement about those shirts! Woohoo! Mission accomplished! So relieved that we can all hang out again and no drama. For now smooth sailing until their next fight, but let's hope no time soon!
OMG, everyone wants me to date. OK, I get it but I like to do things at my own pace. Plus, when you are going through a divorce and coming out of a 10-year relationship, you need time to heal. Yes, I was nervous to meet this guy. After all, I hadn't really known Meeka for that long and I was not sure if she knew the type of guys I liked. And why the hell did his name have to be Eric???? If that was not a sign from the start! Eric aka MM is a sweet guy however, there was no immediate love connection. I definitely loosened up a bit after the infamous shot and the evening turned out to be fun, but nothing is going on with MM and me. He might not be the one, but I must say I am definitely getting ready to date again. However, any man I date needs to know that my businesses and myself are my main priorities at the moment. Sometimes you just need to focus on yourself for a bit!
I got a little teary eyed watching Evelyn and her father. I truly believe our childhood shapes us into the adults we grow up to be. Not having the love from your father as a little girl can be difficult to deal with and sometimes affects your relationships. I have issues with my father as well so watching this really struck a chord with me. Plus I know that Evelyn has struggled with issues with her father. Every woman wants her father to walk her down the aisle on that special day so it think it was great Evelyn resolved her issues with him before her wedding.
Overall, I think New York was successful trip for the Basketball Wives. We resolved the T-shirt issue, I got up the courage to go on a date and Evelyn and her father cleared the air! Maybe we should come to New York more often….
— Jennifer Williams
More 'Basketball Wives'

subset: commoncrawl


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- 4.1 Evil–the powers opposed to God
- 4.1.1 Evil as a power opposed to God
- 4.1.2 Evil as a person
- 4.2 The fall into sin
- 4.2.1 The consequences of the fall into sin for mankind
- 184.108.40.206 Mankind in sin
- 184.108.40.206 Sinful mankind is still loved by God
- 126.96.36.199 Conscience
- 220.127.116.11 Reason
- 18.104.22.168 Faith
- 4.2.2 The consequences of the fall into sin for the creation
- 4.3 Sin and guilt
- 4.3.1 Sin
- 4.3.2 Guilt
- 4.4 God's plan of salvation
- 4.4.1 Hope for salvation in the Old Testament
- 4.4.2 Jesus Christ–Saviour and Mediator of Salvation
- 4.4.3 The preparation of the bridal congregation
- 4.5 Election
- 4.5.1 Election in the Old Testament
- 4.5.2 Election in the New Testament
- 4.5.3 God's free election by grace
- 4.6 God's blessing
- 4.6.1 God's blessing in the creation
- 4.6.2 God's blessing in the old covenant
- 4.6.3 God's blessing in the new covenant
- 4.7 The functions of the law
- 4.7.1 The term "law"
- 4.7.2 The law as a guide to righteous conduct
- 4.7.3 The law as a guide for recognising sin
- 4.8 The law and the gospel
- 4.8.1 The law of Christ–grace
- 4.8.2 The relationship between faith and works
4 Mankind in need of redemption
Mankind has fallen into sin and is thus in need of redemption from the evil one.
4.1 Evil–the powers opposed to God Back to top
The origin of evil within the order of creation cannot be rationally grasped or explained. Paul speaks of evil as a mystery (2 Thessalonians 2: 7). Evil cannot always be clearly recognised. Sometimes it disguises itself and takes on the appearance of something good or divine (2 Corinthians 11: 14). Only through faith in the gospel do the ultimate nature of evil, its power, strength, and effects, become clear.
Only God is absolutely good. In God's words, both the invisible and the visible creation was "very good" in the beginning (Genesis 1: 1-31), and thus evil had no place within it originally. God did not create evil as such. It is thus not among the things that were expressly created, but has rather been permitted.
When God created man, He made him according to His own likeness (Genesis 1: 26 et seq.). This means that man has been endowed with a free will. He has the ability to decide between obedience and disobedience to God (Genesis 2: 16-17; 3: 1-7). The ability to do evil is also rooted in this free will. Evil manifests itself when human beings knowingly and intentionally oppose that which is good by distancing themselves from God and His will. Thus the evil in man was not created by God, but was at first only an alternative which man chose by violating the divine commandment. God neither wanted nor created evil, but nevertheless permitted it in that He did not prevent human beings from exercising choice.
Since the fall into sin, evil has affected both mankind and the entire creation (Romans 8: 18-22).
Evil began to unfold when the created (man) began to oppose the Creator. As a consequence of disobedience, of the fall into sin, evil gained a foothold and led to a state of remoteness from God, estrangement from God, and ultimately godlessness.
4.1.1 Evil as a power opposed to God Back to top
Evil is a power that stems from the desire for independence from God and the desire to be "like God". This power completely changes those who fall prey to it: angels become demons, human beings become sinners.
Throughout the history of man, the power of evil has manifested itself again and again. For example, after Adam and Eve's fall into sin we see evil manifested in the Old Testament in Cain's murder of his brother, in the godlessness of Noah's time, and in the oppression of the people of Israel by the Egyptians.
Evil is a destructive power that opposes the creation of God. It takes on many forms: it is delusion and subversion, it is untruth, envy, and avarice. It seeks to destroy, and it brings death.
Since the fall into sin, it has not been possible for any human being–with the exception of the incarnate Son of God–to lead a sinless life. This is due to the human predisposition to sin (concupiscence). Nevertheless, no one is involuntarily subject to evil. Therefore, no individual human being is exempt from personal responsibility for his sins.
4.1.2 Evil as a person Back to top
Evil is not only manifested as a power, but also as a person. Holy Scripture refers to the personification of evil as "the Devil" (Matthew 4: 1), "Satan", or "unclean spirit", that is demon (Job 1: 6 et seq.; Mark 1: 13, 23).
The accounts in 2 Peter 2: 4 and Jude 6 speak of angels who have sinned. These spiritual beings fell prey to evil and became evil themselves. The Devil "has sinned from the beginning" (1 John 3: 8), he was "a murderer from the beginning", and a "liar and the father of it" (John 8: 44). The question of the serpent to Adam and Eve caused man to doubt God and rebel against Him: "You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (Genesis 3: 4-5).
The antichrist is a manifestation of evil. Jesus referred to the antichrist when He spoke of "false christs and false prophets" (Mark 13: 22). The terms "man of sin" or "son of perdition" also refer to the antichrist (2 Thessalonians 2: 3-4).
Satan is not capable of thwarting God's plan of salvation. On the contrary, "the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the Devil" (1 John 3: 8). The power of the Devil and his followers is limited, and has already been broken by Jesus Christ's sacrificial death. Jesus Christ has been given "all authority in heaven and on earth" (Matthew 28: 18). Thus He also has power over evil spirits.
According to Revelation 12, evil–which is personified as Satan, the Devil, the dragon, or the serpent–will be cast out of heaven. After the kingdom of peace, he will be given one last opportunity to unleash powers opposed to God (Revelation 20: 7-8). The ultimate banishment of evil into the "lake of fire and brimstone" is finally described in Revelation 20: 10. In the new creation, where God will be "all in all" (1 Corinthians 15: 28), evil will no longer have a place.
SUMMARY Back to top
The origin of evil cannot be rationally comprehended or explained. It is only through belief in the gospel that the true nature of evil ultimately becomes clear. (4.1)
The invisible and visible creation was very good at first. Evil as such was not created by God, but rather permitted. The capacity to do evil lies rooted in the human ability to decide between obedience and disobedience toward God. (4.1)
Evil began to unfold when the created rebelled against the Creator. This led to a state of remoteness from God, estrangement from God, and ultimately godlessness. (4.1)
Evil is a destructive power that arises from the will to be independent from God. It changes those who fall prey to it. Thereby human beings become sinners. (4.1.1)
On account of concupiscence, no human being–with the exception of the incarnate Son of God–is capable of leading a sinless life. Nevertheless, no one is exposed to evil without a choice. No human being is exempt from personal responsibility for his sins. (4.1.1)
Evil not only appears as a power, but also as a person, and is called, among other things: "the Devil", "Satan", or "unclean spirit" (demon). (4.1.2)
4.2 The fall into sin Back to top
The doctrine of sin and mankind's need for redemption is based on Holy Scripture's account of the fall into sin (see also 3.3.3): "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, '... but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die'" (Genesis 2: 16-17).–"So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate" (Genesis 3: 6).
4.2.1 The consequences of the fall into sin for mankind Back to top
As a consequence of the fall into sin, man was driven out of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3: 23-24).
Now that human beings had turned away from God through their actions, they experienced a new dimension: separation from God (Genesis 2: 17; Romans 6: 23).
18.104.22.168 Mankind in sin Back to top
Mankind sought to rise above the Creator. Thereby the untroubled relationship between God and man was destroyed. This has had drastic effects on the human race to this day.
Adam represents the archetype of all sinners, as it were. This is true as regards his motivation to sin, his conduct while in the state of sinfulness, as well as his hopelessness after the fall into sin.
The thought behind the decision to transgress the boundary imposed by God was expressed in the temptation: "... you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (Genesis 3: 5). Some of the motivations for sinful conduct are: the desire not to have any God over oneself but rather wanting to be a god in one's own right, no longer respecting the commandments of God but rather doing what one's own will and lusts desire.
The sinfulness of all human beings is portrayed in Genesis by an appalling increase in the sins of the human race: Cain rose up against God's counsel and warning, and killed his brother (Genesis 4: 6-8). As time went on, the sins of mankind continued to increase, and cried so loudly to heaven that God responded with the great flood (Genesis 6: 5-7, 17). But even after this judgement, human beings persisted in their disobedience and presumptuousness towards their Creator. For example, the Bible describes the conduct of the builders of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11: 1-8), whom God caused to fail on account of their ambition.
Apostle Paul writes as follows about the phenomenon of the sinfulness of all mankind after the fall into sin, and of the spiritual death which resulted from it: "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned" (Romans 5: 12).
The fall into sin brought about changes in the lives of mankind which they could not reverse. Fear estranged them from their Creator, whose nearness they no longer sought. Instead, they tried to hide from Him (Genesis 3: 8-10). The relationship of human beings toward one another also suffered (Genesis 3: 12), as did their relationship with the creation. From that time on, human beings had to toil arduously for their survival and, at the end of their lives, return to the ground from which they had been taken (Genesis 3: 16-19).
Man cannot return to the state of sinlessness.
126.96.36.199 Sinful mankind is still loved by God Back to top
Mankind, who had now become sinful, would from that time on have to reap what they had sown: "For the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6: 23). Despite their disobedience and presumption, the Eternal One still loved those He had created. He continued to care for them and attend to them. Illustrations of this divine care include the fact that God made tunics of hide for Adam and Eve and clothed them (Genesis 3: 21), and that He set a mark upon Cain to protect him when he feared vengeance after killing his brother (Genesis 4: 15).
The love of God, which still covered mankind even after the fall into sin, was revealed in perfect fashion through the sending of His Son. Jesus Christ came and defeated sin (1 John 3: 8). In Him, mankind was saved from the harm brought about by sin (Acts 4: 12).
In impressive contrast to the rebelliousness and presumptuousness of mankind, who had become increasingly entangled in sin, the Son of God in His human form set an example of perfect obedience to His Father (Philippians 2: 8). Through His sacrificial death, Jesus Christ acquired the merit by which human beings could be liberated from their sins and ultimately redeemed from "the bondage of corruption" (Romans 8: 21), thereby making it possible for them to live in eternal fellowship with God.
Apostle Paul makes this contrast clear: "Therefore, as through one man's offence judgement came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man's righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous" (Romans 5: 18-19).
However, sinful mankind does not automatically gain justification before God. Through the sacrifice of Jesus, God has shown His commitment to mankind: He does not condemn human beings, but rather seeks to grant them salvation. Human beings are called upon to make a serious effort to accept God's offer and attain salvation. For this purpose, God has endowed human beings with conscience, reason, and faith. If human beings align these gifts by Jesus Christ, then the justification attained by the Son of God (Romans 4: 25) becomes accessible to them by grace. That which human beings accomplish thus has no justifying effect. Rather, that which they accomplish–their works–are a necessary and self-evident expression of faith, a sign that they have accepted God's offer of salvation.
SUMMARY Back to top
The separation between man and God came into being through the fall into sin. The consequence of this was expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Adam is the archetype of all sinners. (4.2.1; 22.214.171.124)
God's love still covered mankind even after the fall into sin. It was revealed in perfect fashion in the sending of Jesus Christ, who conquered sin and death. (126.96.36.199)
126.96.36.199 Conscience Back to top
Holy Scripture uses various terms to describe conscience as a gift which mankind has received from God [1]. In reference to this the Old Testament often uses the term "heart", in which the voice of God can be heard. Thus we read in Deuteronomy 30: 14: "But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it." In contrast, Apostle Paul explains that the will of God was not only laid into the hearts of those living under the Mosaic Law, but also into the hearts of the Gentiles: "For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them" (Romans 2: 14-15). Therefore all human beings carry within themselves an awareness of the will of God–all of them possess such a conscience.
Sinful human beings are without orientation. They have lost the security and support that comes with obedience to God. Here the authority of conscience can help in making decisions that correspond to God's will. Nevertheless it is still quite possible to arrive at erroneous decisions, especially if the conscience is not guided by reason and faith.
Human beings–who have been left to their own devices–can perceive the will of God in their conscience. Thus the authority of the conscience is capable of leading an individual's will toward that which is good. For this reason, individuals should endeavour to continually expand and sharpen their conscience through the law that has been written into every human being's heart.
The conscience distinguishes between what is good and what is evil. If the conscience is governed by reason and faith, it assists mankind in acting wisely. It likewise allows human beings to recognise whether they have incurred guilt before God or their neighbour, and reveals where they have transgressed against God's will and violated His ordinances, whether in thought or deed.
First and foremost, human beings must recognise themselves and give account to their own conscience. If the conscience attests that they have sinned and incurred guilt, and–provided they allow themselves to be guided by remorse and repentance–God in His grace offers forgiveness through the merit of Christ. This is the path God has established for the justification of mankind who has fallen into sin.
Human beings can experience Holy Baptism with water as the healing care of God: "There is also an antitype which now saves us–baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 3: 21). God's word strengthens human beings so that they can continue along the path they have begun toward salvation. Thereby the conscience undergoes a constant sharpening process, which aids human beings in recognising God's will more and more clearly.
The experience of grace fills the heart with the peace of God, and the conscience, which had previously condemned the individual on account of his sins, is calmed. John sums this up with the words: "And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things" (1 John 3: 19-20).
SUMMARY Back to top
The authority of conscience can help make decisions in accordance with the will of God. It is the conscience that weighs the question of what is good and what is evil. (220.127.116.11)
If the conscience is defined by reason and faith, it helps human beings to act wisely, and allows them to recognise whether they have incurred guilt with God or their neighbour. (188.8.131.52)
[1] The term "conscience" is used in many other contexts–e.g. sociological, philosophical, and psychological–which are not treated here.
18.104.22.168 Reason Back to top
Reason is a gift of God that distinguishes human beings–as the image of God–from all other creatures. It is of particular help in structuring their existence and comprehending their environment.
Reason is revealed when human beings think and act while engaging their intellect and knowledge. In so doing, they are accountable before God and themselves, whether they know it or not (see 188.8.131.52). Human beings are capable of recognising circumstances and interpreting the connections between them. They recognise themselves as individuals and see themselves in relationship to the world. Ultimately, reason is a gift of God to human beings, which can guide them to proper conduct: "Counsel, and a tongue, and eyes, ears, and a heart, gave He them [mankind] to understand" (Ecclesiasticus 17: 5-6).
Mankind received from God the commission to "subdue the earth" (Genesis 1: 28). With their inquisitive minds, human beings seek to access and make use of that which is available to them in the creation. When they do this out of a sense of responsibility toward God and the creation, human beings act in a reasonable manner, in accordance with the gift of God.
In the Bible, reason is also described using the term "wisdom". Understood as the ability to know, it is attributed to the activity of God. "For He [God] hath given me certain knowledge of things that are, namely, to know how the world was made, and the operation of the elements ..." (Wisdom of Solomon 7: 17). Apostle Paul also used the term "human wisdom" to refer to reason. It equips human beings with the cognitive faculty by which they endeavour to penetrate divine mysteries (1 Corinthians 1: 20-21). If human beings were to elevate themselves over divine ordinances and thus over God Himself, they would thereby dismiss divine wisdom as foolishness. Ultimately this means that reason would reject faith (1 Corinthians 2: 1-16). In so doing, human beings would ultimately fail to understand the purpose of their lives. Since the Age of Enlightenment, such a tendency can be clearly identified in many areas, especially in the industrialised world. It always reveals itself wherever mankind's inquiring mind is not subordinate to his responsibility toward God and the creation.
In this respect human reason is always imperfect on account of sin. It is for this reason that, from the perspective of faith, an attitude that defines reason as the measure of all things is exposed as foolishness: "For it is written: 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.' Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?" (1 Corinthians 1: 19-20).
It is impossible for human reason in its finiteness to grasp the endlessness of God. His actions transcend all human reason. Therefore, human beings must always be aware that they can never succeed in completely penetrating divine matters with reason (Romans 11: 33).
Although reason cannot be the measure of all things, it is still needed, for example to recognise the interconnections of the gospel, and to perceive and understand words and images in Holy Scripture. We also need it to profess the doctrine of Jesus to others. Reason is a valuable divine gift, but not the highest good (Philippians 4: 7). Accordingly it must never become the only standard of measure.
Whenever reason is tempted to rise up against things divine, the individual must be aware that he is not properly engaging the gift of reason, but rather demonstrating a lack of responsibility toward God. Through faith, human beings know that it is their duty to fight against such presumption, "casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ" (2 Corinthians 10: 5).
SUMMARY Back to top
Human beings exhibit reason when they think and act by engaging their understanding and knowledge. In so doing they are responsible toward God, themselves, and the creation, whether they are aware of it or not. (18.104.22.168)
Reason is a gift of God which can lead human beings to proper conduct. (22.214.171.124)
In its finiteness, reason is incapable of comprehending God in His endlessness. God's actions transcend all human reason. (220.127.116.11)
Even though reason cannot be the measure of all things, it is nevertheless needed in order to understand and profess the interconnections of the gospel. (18.104.22.168)
22.214.171.124 Faith Back to top
The word "faith" is not mentioned in the Hebrew texts of the Old Testament. Wherever we find this term in modern translations, the original words used were "trust", "loyalty", "obedience", "confidence", or "certainty". All of these meanings are implicit in the single word "faith". In Hebrews 11: 1 we read: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (see 1.4).
Faith always starts with God, who reveals Himself through His word and His works. As long as human beings trust God completely, they are able to obey God. Disobedience caused mankind to sin and therefore incur guilt before God. Ever since, mankind has had a broken relationship with his Creator. For any human being who desires to enter into fellowship with God again, it is indispensable to believe (Hebrews 11: 6).
For the models of faith in the time of the old covenant, salvation still lay in the future (Hebrews 11: 39). When God revealed Himself in Jesus Christ, the Old Testament promises were fulfilled. Thereby faith acquired a new dimension: it was now directed at the Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Through faith in Him, it is possible to be reconciled to God and enter into fellowship with Him.
The Son of God demanded this kind of faith: "... believe in God, believe also in Me" (John 14: 1). He emphasised the consequences of unbelief in all its implications: "For if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins" (John 8: 24).
Great things are promised to those who believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and accept Him: they will "not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3: 16).
True Christian faith is always based first and foremost on God's grace of election and revelation. This is evident from the profession of Apostle Peter: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God", and Jesus' response: "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 16: 16-17). Faith is a gift of God as well as an obligation for human beings. If they accept God's word, trust in it, and act accordingly, then their faith is alive and will lead to salvation.
SUMMARY Back to top
Faith is a gift of God which constitutes an obligation for human beings. When human beings accept God's word, trust in it, and act in accordance with it, their faith is alive and leads to salvation. (126.96.36.199)
The beginning of faith is always God, who reveals Himself through words and works. (184.108.40.206)
Through faith in Jesus Christ it is possible to be reconciled with God. (220.127.116.11)
4.2.2 The consequences of the fall into sin for the creation Back to top
Mankind's fall into sin also resulted in far-reaching consequences for the creation, which is blameless.
Originally, the creation was "very good", that is to say perfect (Genesis 1: 31). Man was made regent of the visible creation. Thus man bears responsibility to God for the creation, but also bears responsibility to the creation itself (Genesis 1: 28-30). Considering that man occupies such an important position within the visible creation, his disobedience toward God also has significant effects upon the earthly creation: after mankind sinned, both the ground–as an image of the visible creation–and the serpent were cursed (Genesis 3: 17-18). Thorns and thistles–and the effort mankind now had to summon up to eke out an existence–are symbolic of mankind's remoteness from God and God's concealment from mankind, which have prevailed in the creation since that time. Mankind could no longer find direct access to God in the creation. Man's life was now accompanied by insecurity and fear.
The behaviour of animals towards each other can be seen as a sign of hostility and discord. The longing to overcome and heal


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• A daily summary of global reports on security issues.
Rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire shook Kabul this morning in a predawn militant attack on Afghanistan's international airport, which houses a NATO headquarters. Afghan forces responded to the assault quickly, putting an end to the attack four hours after it began.
The Taliban claimed responsibility via texts and e-mails during the attack, which began just after 4 a.m. All seven militants involved died – five were killed by Afghan forces and two detonated suicide bomb vests – and there were no civilian or security force casualties, reports The Wall Street Journal.
"It started just after dawn prayers and I counted about a dozen explosions, mostly RPG fire, coming from (near) the airport," a resident who lives near the airport told The Associated Press. Two buildings that were under construction and located near the airport were used by the Taliban during the attack.
Mohammad Yaqub Rasuli, the head of Kabul's international airport, said that civilian flights were halted during the attack, but runways reopened soon after. According to the Los Angeles Times, the non-civilian side of the Kabul airport has a military wing, which hosts the Afghan Air Force, and NATO's Joint Command headquarters.
This was the third attack in Kabul in a matter of weeks; a concentration of violence that analysts see as an attempt by the Taliban to intimidate locals in the lead up to the withdrawal of most foreign troops next year.
"By launching today's attack, the Taliban are showing they want to have a full hand at the negotiations table," Abdul Wahid Taqat, a Kabul-based military analyst, told the Los Angeles Times.
Striking high-profile, well-guarded targets such as Afghan and NATO bases, even if the strikes fail, achieves several objectives, analysts said. The attacks spread fear and respect for the insurgency among ordinary Afghans as well as those working with foreign troops, which can help the Taliban and other militant groups recruit members.
They send a message that even heavily manned areas aren't safe and that the insurgency can strike at will, potentially hastening the drawdown of NATO troops. And they are a show of strength to other Afghan groups and parties vying for power after the foreigners leave.
The Christian Science Monitor wrote last month that after more than a decade of international aid and military support, Afghanistan is preparing for a significant change.
Next year will mark the end of NATO's combat mission in Afghanistan. By December 2014, the 99,000 US and other foreign troops still here will be gone. The Afghan National Security Forces – Army and police – will be left to largely stand on their own against a nasty insurgency….
Afghans in and around Kabul reveal anxieties about the US and NATO drawdown, and many say they have daydreams of leaving before chaos sets in – a recent Asia Society survey found that one-third of Afghans would leave the country if they could. Many express fear of the Taliban's return to power – even though many Afghan experts assert that the country has evolved and modernized too much for that to happen.
But today's attack could serve as a glimmer of hope for some. Afghan police and Army units carried out the operation against the Taliban, with international forces serving only an advisory role, reports the BBC.
The New York Times notes, "The response by Kabul's security forces indicated that their speed and organization had improved markedly over the past few years."
In earlier coordinated attacks by insurgents, civilians caught in the cross-fire were often killed or wounded and large sections of the capital were locked down for up to 20 hours. Although much depends on the tactics of the insurgents, it appeared that the Kabul police and Afghan special forces are now able to move faster and with less disruption to daily life.


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Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Singer Serenades Fans Outside Electric Ballroom
Photos of Rob Turner's impromptu set...
Fans queuing to get into the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club gig at London's Electric Ballroom last night were treated to an impromptu acoustic performance from singer Robert Turner.
Doors to the gig didn't open until 9pm as some of the band's equipment apparently failed to make it to the venue on time.
The hundreds of fans standing on the Camden High Street to get into the gig cheered when Robert Turner suddenly appeared outside the venue with an acoustic guitar.
He then treated the bewildered fans to a Black Rebel medley after apologising for the delayed show.
You can see Turner serenading the crowd, plus shots from the gig, below:
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Singer Serenades Fans Outside Electric Ballroom - GIGWISE


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OSRAM hosts the Gala Dinner of Shanghai Lighting Fair
Together we make our cities smarter and stronger – this is OSRAM's key message in the evening of the Shanghai Lighting Fair in September. Featuring the latest lighting solutions for Smart City and Dynamic Lighting to experts, building and lighting designers, OSRAM Lighting Solutions was invited as the host of the Honourable Gala Dinner in Shanghai Lighting Fair held in Shanghai New International Expo Centre (SNIEC),China on 5-7 September, 2017.
Smart City & Interconnected Lighting
There are over 160 cities with >1M population in China, with numerous opportunities for urban nightscape lighting. The design of nighttime environments that instill feelings of both safety and enjoyment is of critical importance to the economic and identity of urban centers.
The Wuhan Two Rivers and Four Banks Project has transformed the rivers and banks into a spectacular canvas, with over 20 km of synchronized LED lightshow weaving fairytales into the night sky and river reflections.
The Project of Yanqi Lake in Beijing, venue for the Belt and Road Forum has been embellished with pavilions, hills, trees and bridges into a scroll of landscape painting.
Crystal Hall, Baku is like a gem-like glow to its jagged architectural shape in a distance.
These successful urban nightscape lighting showcases not only light up the life, but also develop economy and exploit business opportunities.==
Events News | 11 September, 2017


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DOVER, N.H. – A man who was convicted of raping and killing a University of New Hampshire student, then was recorded saying he didn't want to listen to the victim's family "yell and whine" at his sentencing hearing about what a monster he is, has dropped his bid to skip the hearing.
After an hour-long court session on Tuesday and nearly 40 minutes after court had adjourned, lawyers for Seth Mazzaglia withdrew their motion contending that he had a right to skip Thursday's sentencing.
Mazzaglia was convicted in June of first-degree murder and other felonies in the October 2012 death of 19-year-old Elizabeth "Lizzi" Marriott, of Westborough, Massachusetts, after she rebuffed his sexual advances. His ex-girlfriend testified he strangled Marriott from behind with a rope and then raped her motionless body at his Dover apartment.
Prosecutor Peter Hinckley argued the 31-year-old Mazzaglia should be compelled to attend the sentencing hearing.
"Suffice it to say there are multiple interests at stake – the court's, the public's, the victim's family and the defendant's," Hinckley told Strafford County Superior Court Judge Steven Horan.
Mazzaglia's 11th-hour withdrawal cancels the need for a ruling.
Hinckley said Mazzaglia told his mother in a recorded prison phone conversation that he may claim his lawyers were inadequate, and the prosecutor argued that was another reason to mandate his presence at sentencing. Then Hinckley referenced another recently recorded prison phone call in which Mazzaglia told his mother he did not want to attend his sentencing and "have to sit there for an hour and a half listening to them yell and whine and bitch and moan about what a monster I am," referring to Marriott's family and friends.
After court, Marriott's mother, Melissa Marriott, said she wasn't surprised by Mazzaglia's comment to his mother.
"He's just a selfish coward, and he really does not care about anybody else," she said.
She called his motion "a self-serving attempt to avoid being held publicly accountable for Lizzi's murder and rape" and said it was "a cowardly attempt to avoid facing us, the victims of his horrific crimes."
The key witness at Mazzaglia's trial, 20-year-old Kathryn McDonough, was his girlfriend when she lured Lizzi Marriott to their apartment as appeasement to him and to join their sexual escapades, which included bondage and discipline.
McDonough first told investigators that Marriott died during rough sex between the two women that involved restraints. After getting immunity from prosecution, McDonough said Mazzaglia strangled Marriott and then raped her.
Marriott's body, which prosecutors say was dumped in a river, has never been found.
McDonough pleaded guilty to hindering prosecution and is spending 1½ to 3 years in prison.
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UCONN MEN: Huskies prepare for Notre Dame
SOUTH BEND, Ind. >> Almost exactly a year ago Friday night, the UConn men's basketball team arrived at the Double Tree Hilton in downtown South Bend after its two-hour flight from Hartford and met for its team meal.
At about 7 p.m., however, then-head coach Jim Calhoun was presented with some news that soured his appetite: the NCAA was taking another look into the eligibility of Ryan Boatright, who had already sat out the team's first six games of the season. Playing Boatright in the following day's bout with Notre Dame could jeopardize the Huskies' entire season if the guard was ruled ineligible.
And so, even though Boatright expected some 300 friends and family to make the two-hour trip from his hometown of Aurora, Ill., to the Joyce Center, Calhoun was stuck with the task of telling the freshman he wouldn't be able to play.
"He was in my arms when I told him," Calhoun would later say. "That's all I can tell you, he was in my arms."
On Friday, Boatright and the Huskies were back in the same hotel, ready to head to another team meal after getting in from the airport.
"I'm real nervous," Boatright said, with a smile, before pointing to a chair in the hotel hallway. "I was sitting right there in that chair ... when I found out, madder than (bleep). All good prayers are going up right now."
In truth, Boatright has nothing to worry about this time as the Huskies face No. 17 Notre Dame today at 2 p.m. (SNY) at the Joyce Center. He'll be out on the court in front of a large contingent of friends and family who will again have made the trip from just outside Chicago.
"I'm excited just to play -- coming home, and playing a good team, one that's won 12 straight," he said. "It's going to be a good, hostile environment. It's going to be a good test for the team. If we can pull this out, we know everything we've been working for is coming along."
While the Huskies (11-3, 1-1 Big East) won without Boatright last season -- ending a 29-game Irish home winning streak -- today promises to be even tougher. Notre Dame (14-1, 2-0) has -- as Boatright pointed out -- won 12 in a row. One more sets a new program standard in the Mike Brey era.
"It's going to be tough," promised head coach Kevin Ollie. "They can shoot, they can pass, and they're veteran-laden. They're a really good team."
Ollie is hoping he gets continued good play from Boatright, who is shooting 58 percent from the floor over his last six games and is averaging 16.2 points per game on the season.
"(Friday) was one of his best practices ever," Ollie noted. "He looked like he was in a good place. Probably coming close to home, where he can see his family, puts you in that state of mind. Hopefully, he can put on a great show for his fans and family that's coming down to watch him play."
Boatright admitted he is, indeed, in a "good place."
"I'm in a rhythm, man," he said. "I've got a flow going. Last year, I was holding it out. Now, I've been playing all year, I'm comfortable. The team chemistry is great. I'm actually having fun playing ball again. All this that's gone on, it just adds fuel to the fire. Every time we come up against a Big East team, everybody doubts us. So, we're looking forward to playing them (today)."
Off the court, a report by Mark Blaudschun of ajerseyguy.com stated that UConn is seriously considering joining the so-called "Catholic 7" (Georgetown, Villanova, Seton Hall, Marquette, Providence, St. John's and DePaul) for all sports except basketball. The school was also said to be considering joining the Mountain West Conference for football.
However, a UConn official said athletic director Warde Manuel has had no such discussions and that he would never even consider breaking the school's football program away from its other sports.


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Welcome to John Knox Center, located on the shores of Watts Bar Lake in beautiful east Tennessee. We offer organized retreats and events, custom programs, lodging and program opportunities for adults, youth, children, church groups, schools, and more.
Whether you are planning a weekend congregational retreat, day meeting, or wedding John Knox Center is the perfect location. We would love to host your next business meeting and professional development or team building programs as well! Let us host your next event!
We also offer a broad variety of Christ-centered children's and youth opportunities at our summer camp program called
Camp John Knox
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Cashner, Padres outdone by Giants
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) -- San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy saw something very positive this spring training -- few injuries for the World Series champions.
"It looks like we're coming out of it pretty good," Bochy said Tuesday after a 4-2 victory over San Diego in the Giants' final home game of the spring at Scottsdale Stadium.
The Giants will wrap up the Arizona portion of their schedule on Wednesday by playing at the Diamondbacks before returning home for a three-game Bay Bridge exhibition series with the Oakland Athletics.
The only injury concern for Bochy at this point appears to be the status of third baseman Pablo Sandoval, who has been sidelined with inflammation of a nerve in his right elbow. Bochy said he is hopeful that the World Series MVP will be ready for opening day on April 1 against Los Angeles at Dodger Stadium.
Two of Bochy's top hitters this spring delivered once again. Hunter Pence hit a tiebreaking, two-run double in the fifth inning and is hitting .361.
Brandon Belt, who started in left field and finished at his regular first base spot, had three hits to raise his average to .453 after sitting out two games with a mild neck strain.
And perhaps the best news for the Giants came from one of the side fields, where opening day starter Matt Cain pitched a simulated game against minor leaguers in order to avoid the NL West Padres. The right-hander pitched six innings and threw 93 pitches.
Marco Scutaro came up with a rare play, taking an extra base after a walk. The MVP of last year's NL championship series drew a two-out walk in the third inning, sprinted to first, then kept going and stole second.
"You don't get that opportunity very often," said Scutaro, who also accomplished the feat in 2002 and 2009. "I don't know how many years it's going to take me now (to do it again)."
Pence's double came off San Diego starter Andrew Cashner.
Cashner, a right-hander who is battling for the fifth spot in manager Bud Black's rotation, had a solid effort. He gave up two runs on three hits, walked two and struck out four in four innings.
"I thought I threw the ball well," said Cashner, who threw 72 pitches.
Cashner said he has not had much luck throwing breaking balls in the desert air, but those types of pitches worked better against the Giants.
"I mixed curveballs and sliders. It was one of my best outings as far as pitch execution goes," he said.
Carlos Quentin made his first start of the spring in left field for the Padres after dealing with soreness in his right knee in the aftermath of offseason surgery. He said he felt good and hopes to continue to make progress toward the April 1 opener against the Mets in New York.
Logan Forsythe, expected to play third while Padres star Chase Headley heals from a fractured thumb, has had health issues of his own -- plantar fasciitis in his right foot. He played three innings on Tuesday.
NOTES: INF Brock Bond was chosen as the Giants' Harry S. Jordan Award recipient. The honor goes to the minor leaguer in his first big league camp who exemplifies the team's spirit. ... Padres 1B Yadier Alonso had scraped knuckles when hit by the ball on a swing in the seventh inning. He was ruled out on batter's interference and Giants C Guillermo Quiroz was nicked.


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Taronis Announces First Quarter 2019 Earnings Conference Call and Business Update
Conference Call to be held Monday, May 20, 2019 at 1:00 pm ET
TAMPA, FL / ACCESSWIRE / May 14, 2019 / Taronis Technologies, Inc., ("Taronis" or "the Company") (NASDAQ: TRNX), a leading clean technology company in the renewable resources and environmental conservation industry, today announced that the Company will host a conference call on Monday, May 20, 2019 at 1:00pm ET to discuss its financial results for the first quarter of 2019.
Scott Mahoney, Chief Executive Officer of Taronis, will host the call and provide an update on recent developments and plans for 2019. To participate in the call, please dial (877) 407-0989 (toll-free) in the U.S. and Canada, or visit the webcast link provided below. The conference ID for both the call and webcast is 13691033.
Event: Q1 2019 Earnings and Business Update Conference Call
Date: Monday, May 20, 2019
Time: 1:00pm ET
Participant Dial-in: (877) 407-0989 (toll free)
Webcast Link https://webcasts.eqs.com/taronistech20190520/en
Conference ID: 13691033
About Taronis Technologies, Inc.
Taronis Technologies, Inc. (TRNX) owns a patented plasma arc technology that enables two primary end use applications for fuel generation and water decontamination.
The Company's fuel technology enables a wide use of hydrocarbon feedstocks to be readily converted to fossil fuel substitutes. The Company is developing a wide range of end market uses for these fuels, including replacement products for propane, compressed natural gas and liquid natural gas. The Company currently markets a proprietary metal cutting fuel that is highly competitive with acetylene. The Company distributes its proprietary metal cutting fuel through Independent Distributors in the U.S and through its wholly owned distributors: MagneGas Welding Supply – Southeast, LLC, MagneGas Welding Supply – South, LLC, and MagneGas Welding Supply – West, LLC. The Company operates 22 locations across California, Texas, Louisiana, and Florida.
The Company's technology can also be implemented for the decontamination of waste water, including sterilizing water, eradicating all pathogens. The technology is being tested to determine if it can completely eliminate pharmaceutical contaminants such as antibiotics, hormones and other soluble drugs suspended in contaminated water. Lastly, the technology process is capable of reducing or eliminating other contaminants, such as harmful metals, as well as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium levels that trigger toxic algae blooms. The technology has prospective commercial applications in the agricultural, pharmaceutical, and municipal waste markets. For more information on Taronis, please visit the Company's website at http://www.TaronisTech.com.
This press release contains forward-looking statements as defined within Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These statements relate to future events, including our ability to raise capital, or to our future financial performance, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements since they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which are, in some cases, beyond our control and which could, and likely will, materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Any forward-looking statement reflects our current views with respect to future events and is subject to these and other risks, uncertainties and assumptions relating to our operations, results of operations, growth strategy and liquidity. We assume no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.
For a discussion of these risks and uncertainties, please see our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Our public filings with the SEC are available from commercial document retrieval services and at the website maintained by the SEC at http://www.sec.gov.
SOURCE: Taronis Technologies, Inc.
View source version on accesswire.com:


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Megan Racing MR-SSH-N3Z Stainless Steel Header 03-07 Infiniti G35
Megan Racing Stainless Steel Headers are made of thick T-304 Stainless Steel and are mandrel-bent to form and fit your particular application with the best performance results possible while the thick flanges and strong welds prevent cracking and offer long-lasting durability. These Headers and Turbo Manifolds help your engine maximize its performance by allowing the exhaust gasses to flow more efficiently to gain power and performance. (NOTE: For off-road use only, not intended for use on public highways.)


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Nearly 50 parents, students and community members packed the Dolores School Board of Education meeting room Tuesday night to express their dissatisfaction with a variety of things, including early-release Wednesdays, the recent ban of the Confederate flag and the possible dismissal of a football coach.
"Banning things sends the wrong message to our children," said Bill Nelligan. "I think this is a poor decision. If you don't like something, ban it. Tolerance is a two-way street."
The Confederate flag was banned at the Dolores schools last week, following an incident that school officials called a hate crime, during which a student allegedly placed a hateful display in a teacher's classroom.
Following the incident, a school wide memo was e-mailed out, calling for the ban of the display of the "Confederate Flag and any other symbols that represent and promote hate crimes."
Many parents felt the decision to outright ban the flag was rash.
"Our Constitution guarantees our right to freedom of expression," Nelligan said. "I don't have to agree with you, but you have the right to say it."
Nelligan felt that parents should have been consulted before such a decision was made.
"I feel my parental rights were usurped with this policy," Nelligan said.
Angie Sawyer felt that the decision of the administration to ban the flag, made the students that like the flag seem racist.
"My kid is a great kid. He is a good student and he is in trouble every day for wearing the rebel flag," she said.
Brenda Hindmarsh said she felt the ban, unfairly targeted her son, who painted a Confederate flag on his tailgate.
"My son has been implicated in this incident," Hindmarsh said. "He grew up watching Dukes of Hazard. This is not right, that is a good boy back there."
"If you simply wear a flag or fly a flag, it does not make you racist."
Hindmarsh said a teacher had told her son he was racist for having the flag on his tailgate and the words "Nobama" on the side of his truck.
"I don't think he is a racist," said Josh Munson, government teacher. "I just explained to him that putting those two things together may give you a reputation you don't deserve."
Keith Moore also spoke.
"The only thing we taught is through intolerance, we are going to teach tolerance," Moore said.
Football Coach Ray Weir and his players also crowded into the standing-room only board room because they felt he wouldn't be hired back.
"Why is my job back out in the paper?" Weir said. "I'm not an easy coach, but I am fair."
Rhonda Weir was also upset with the way things were handled.
"I've been extremely happy with the schools until this year," Weir said.
Parent Monica Plewe said she felt the new administration was unprofessional.
"We are in a community, we have to treat people with respect," Plewe said.
Lenetta Shull presented a plan from the recently formed student-parent coalition that will do away with early release Wednesdays and instead get teachers to collaborate in the early mornings.
"Early release is a huge, huge problem," Shull said. "It is a burden on the parents."


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Obama Gets Huge Twitter Boost After Gay Marriage Support [CHARTS]
When President Obama became the first sitting president to declare support for gay marriage in an interview with ABC News on Wednesday, the announcement sent Twitter into a tizzy. Politicians, celebrities and media personalities all used social media to react. Some expressed unqualified support, some criticized Obama for dragging his feet on the issue and others debated the announcement's actual significance (see gallery above).
But the news didn't just excite the Twittersphere — it also gave Obama a huge popularity boost on the network. Mashable contacted the social media analytics firm Topsy to see how reaction to Obama's interview played out on Twitter.
The chart below shows just how much of a positive sentiment infusion Obama got from his announcement, which came at just about noon Pacific Time. Topsy analyzes reaction to events according to a "sentiment score," and says a generally positive reception scores between 2 and 3 on the chart. Tuesday night, after voters in North Carolina passed a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, sentiment associated with his name sank below a score of -6, according to Topsy. But watch how it climbed to nearly 8 during Wednesday:
Shortly after Obama's statement of support aired on ABC, his official Twitter account posted this tweet:
"Same-sex couples should be able to get married."—President Obama
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) May 9, 2012
The message would be retweeted more than 30,000 times over the course of Wednesday afternoon. (This cool site shows how many retweets the message has gotten in total, with updates every minute.)
Twitter mentions of "Obama" spiked massively when his announcement aired as well. Check out this chart from Topsy, which breaks the buzz down nearly to the minute:
The term "North Carolina" was mentioned at a a peak of nearly 60,000 times in one hour after voters passed their gay marriage ban there on Tuesday night. But after Obama went public with an opposite stance on the issue on Wednesday, Twitter mentions of his name peaked to more than 192,000 mentions in an hour. Mitt Romney, who Obama will face in November's presidential election, also got a nice boost in mentions after he reiterated his position against gay marriage following Obama's announcement. This by-the-hour chart shows how Obama's mentions peaked through Tuesday night and into Wednesday afternoon, as well as how he compared to other hot Twitter topics during that time span:
And here's another graph from Twitter:
Did you follow Obama's support of gay marriage today? What role did Twitter play in how you learned and processed the news? Share with us in the comments.


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Center for Project Management president reveals six steps to good project management.
CIOs know they live in a place best described as Crazy World. It's a world where expectations are off the charts, requirements are vague, commitments are tenuous, priorities shift and responsibility is given with marginal authority. What do most CIOs do? They jump into the chasm and hope the rope holds.
CIO clients of the Center for Project Management (CPM), a consultancy firm, often ask the question: Of the successful CIOs you know, what's their formula for success? Is it possible to write an equation for success? Can success be broken down into a set of components that when practiced together, will result in the success of any given endeavor? Our quest for the answer included interviews with a number of "out-of-the-box" professionals -- airline pilots, an air traffic controller, chief of surgery, fire chief, magician and renowned chef.
Our in-depth discussions resulted in six imperatives common to their success: process, skills, tools, techniques, accountability and discipline. A deeper analysis of the six imperatives revealed that the first four are related to tactics (method, approach and procedure) and the remaining two to individual behavior (attitude, conduct and performance).
Success: Synonyms for success are achievement, prestige, respect, fame and prosperity. In the case of CIOs, success is defined as ensuring that IT projects are aligned with agency needs, scuttling half-baked and harebrained ideas, formulating a well balanced and robust project portfolio, accomplishing cross-boundary collaboration, ensuring effective project sponsorship, and completing a project on time and within budget and to the client's satisfaction.
Unfortunately the CPM's research data from a series of surveys of 237 federal, state and local government CIOs and IT managers shows that only 40 percent of IT organizations fall into the success category, with the remaining hovering between the challenged and failure states.
Video: Gopal kapur speaks at the California Public Sector CIO Academy in February 2009.
1. Process: It's a particular method of doing something that generally involves a number of steps or operations that result in a predictable outcome. The implication is that the actions have been tried and tested and have consistently resulted in a desired, successful outcome. Examples are financial due diligence before acquiring a business, the doctor's pre-op patient examination, the pilot's preflight check and the chef's proven recipe. Having access to a well defined process significantly improves the odds that a project will be completed successfully. Therefore, it's important that your project managers have access to a well defined portfolio- and project-management process that is followed diligently.
Yet the CPM's research reveals:
2. Skill: A succinct definition of skill is proficiency, facility or dexterity that's acquired or developed through training or experience. Obviously, to be successful in any endeavor, one must develop certain skills: public speaking, leadership, programming, negotiations and project management, to name a few. A project manager must be skilled in key areas such as:
Our data reveals that 42 percent of the surveyed CIOs and IT managers rated themselves at 3.0 on a scale of 1 (no skills) to 5 (highly skilled). However, 65 percent rated their coaching and mentoring skills at 2.3 -- most are not preparing the next generation of managers to step into their shoes.
3. Technique:
Technique can be defined in various ways:
We all know of colleagues who are highly successful in selling their ideas and can build consensus quickly, even when faced with a disparate group of people. Successful techniques are a result of practicing skills with a desire for excellence. Eventually these techniques set people apart from their less proficient and less capable colleagues. When saying no to a half-baked idea, we use the technique of "intelligent disobedience." In the use of this technique, one does not say an outright "no" to a half-baked idea. One engages the individual in a Socratic conversation driven by a series of open-ended questions.
Regarding the techniques related to upselling ideas, achieving cross-boundary collaboration and the ability to say no to half-baked ideas, our research reveals that the surveyed CIOs and IT managers rated their organization at 2.8 on a scale of 1 (none) to 5 (high).
4. Tool: Tools come in many forms. They can be a device used to perform or facilitate manual or mechanical work; a labor-saving device. Notice that in the equation for success, tools are assigned the fourth position -- the last item in the additive list. The placement indicates that tools are only helpful after there's a robust process in place; teams must already have the requisite skills and have developed high performance techniques for completing their work. Tools act as catalysts to a process -- they can make the process go faster, make it easier to complete, and help attain greater speed and precision. Conversely providing tools to people lacking fundamental skills not only wastes the investment in the tools, but also equips the people with technology that actually results in bigger losses.
Our experience shows that providing high-performance tools, such as enterprise portfolio management, to organizations where managers lack the processes, skills and techniques for filtering half-baked ideas; assessing and managing project portfolio risk; achieving cross-boundary collaboration; managing expectations; and effectively tracking project portfolio progress and status is a sheer waste of scarce resources. To the survey question of how skilled are your project managers in using the deployed project- and portfolio-management tools, the response was a rating of 3.0 on the scale of 1 (poorly skilled) to 5 (highly skilled).
There's the business adage, "a fool with a tool is a more dangerous fool." But we see it a little differently. Deploying tools in an IT organization with poor ratings for process, skills and tools is akin to "mounting afterburners onto mules." It's a waste of expensive fuel and irritates the mules.
5. Accountability: This is the first of two multipliers -- it amplifies the computed value of the equation. Accountability for the CIO means you can trust and depend on your staff to complete work to the highest quality, and it can perform work without constant oversight and micromanagement.
On a larger view, the recent news of gross mismanagement and utter absence of accountability by the country's major financial institutions, automobile industry, food manufacturers (e.g., the January 2009 salmonella scare) and government officials, has brought the nation's economy to a slow crawl.
In California, the perennial circuslike behavior of the executive and legislative branches of the government in dealing with the state budget has put government employees and citizens in great peril, and the state's financial health in great jeopardy with practically no accountability in high places. It's imperative to create an atmosphere where people rapidly admit mistakes, take responsibility and then allocate the resources necessary to fix the problem. Regarding the survey question on degree of accountability, respondents rated their organizations at a value of 2.3 on a scale of 1 (poor accountability) to 5 (fully accountable).
6. Discipline: This is the most important component of the success equation; people often mistake it for inflexibility. Discipline is behavior that leads to self-control, organization, efficiency and the absence of chaos. Some synonyms for discipline are train, educate or instruct. In the context of the success equation, the term "discipline" does not mean regimentation. Discipline means that your staff will attend to responsibilities proactively and support one another for the timely completion of assignments.
The fire chief, airline pilot and chief of anesthesia discussed the importance of discipline at length. They noted that poor discipline invariably leads to out-of-control fires, unsafe flights and death. On the degree of discipline, the government respondents rated their organizations at a value of 2.5 on a scale of 1 (poor discipline) to 5 (highly disciplined).
As a CIO, the prudent approach is to meet with your managers and key stakeholders and discuss the different components of the success equation. This session should provide you with a sense of the opportunities and challenges you and your staff will face while working to achieve your agency's mission.
The highly prevalent seat-of-the-pants approach to management success is over. Judging from the billions of dollars lost repeatedly because of sidestepping the key imperatives to success, it should be clear even to the die-hards that continuing on such a path is sheer folly.
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text:
HARTFORD, Conn. – The Board of Directors of Aetna Inc. (NYSE: AET) today declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.175 per share on the company's common stock. The dividend is payable on October 26, 2012, to shareholders of record at the close of business on October 11, 2012.
Declaration and payment of future quarterly dividends is at the discretion of the Board and may be adjusted as business needs or market conditions change.
About Aetna
Aetna is one of the nation's leading diversified health care benefits companies, serving approximately 36.7 million people with information and resources to help them make better informed decisions about their health care. Aetna offers a broad range of traditional, voluntary and consumer-directed health insurance products and related services, including medical, pharmacy, dental, behavioral health, group life and disability plans, and medical management capabilities, Medicaid health care management services and health information technology services. Our customers include employer groups, individuals, college students, part-time and hourly workers, health plans, health care providers, governmental units, government-sponsored plans, labor groups and expatriates. For more information, see www.aetna.com.
Aetna Media Contact:
Cynthia Michener
Investor Contact:
Tom Cowhey


text:
[Hook 1: Emanny]
Tell him something
Say whatever you think he'd wanna hear girl
If it don't come between me, you and this mirror girl
I don't care girl
Just tell him something
Tell him something
Tell him something
Let him know a real nigga is fuckin you
But that'll probably make you feel uncomfortable
Whatchu gonna do?
Tell him something
Tell him something
[Hook 2: Emanny]
It's crazy, it's crazy
How he got your brain
But his body don't do a damn thing for you
Now oh baby, oh baby
Been trying to get away
Cause you know I do the things he won't do
[Verse 1: Joe Budden]
You can tell him that we best of friends, or we just met
Tell him that you hate my guts, that was just sex
Can say we never kissed, those were just pecks
Tell him put your phone down, that was just a text
Or, tell him you cherish our bond on the weekly
Or how you jump in my arms when you see me
Tell him I threw on the charm it was easy
It's to the point now where your mom wanna meet me
Tell him I think you're beautiful
Tell him all the wild shit that I do to you
Would he approve of that? Or would his world be shattered?
And if you didn't care would it really matter?
Wait, could say it ain't the ride or the whips
But tell him the size of the ship
Or, just tell him you were tired of his shit
And I reminded you of how live it gets
[Hook 1 & Hook 2]
[Verse 2: Joe Budden]
Tell him you don't feel appreciated
Tell him with me it's alleviated
How I do things that he wouldn't dare to do
Or act like I ain't affraid to take it there with you
Wait, as a matter a fact
Tell him he could be mad at the fact
You finally met a nigga that ain't mad at your past
Or tell him he can be mad at the past
[Hook 2]
You get his call and he asks what you doing just say, "With your friends"
And while you on that phone waiting for him to hang up, girl, I'll be here
Ready to take over
Your body's yearning for what he can't give
And I know just how y'all's story gon' end
Once I give it to you, babe
[Hook 1]
[Hook 3]
Tell him you mourn him, tell him you're on it, tell him you can't see, your life without me
Tell him he's deaded now, all because I'm alive
Tell him it's wetter now and you love it when I'm inside
Tell him you like your hair pulled, tell him you like my tongue there
Tell him in detail, make sure you not unclear cause he gotta know, cause he gotta know
[Hook 1]


text:
A scathing new report on corporate tax breaks is out, and telcos and media companies figure prominently. Authored by Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the survey focuses on 280 corporations that it concludes paid, on average, far less than the 35 percent corporate income tax tithe.
"Over the three years covered by our study, the average effective tax rate for all 280 companies was only 18.5 percent," charges Corporate Taxpayers & Corporate Tax Dodgers, 2008-2010. "For the past two years, 2009 and 2010, the effective tax rate for all 280 companies averaged only 17.3 percent, less than half of the statutory 35 percent rate."
AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon Communications appear in the study. The last company places number 19 in the survey's list titled "30 Corporations Paying No Total Income Tax in 2008-2010."
Below is an excerpt from that roster, highlighting the top two cited corporations, followed by Verizon at 19th place. Yes, those are minus signs next to those 2008 through 2010 tax estimates.
|Company ($-millions)
|08-10 Profit
|08-10 Tax
|08-10 Rate
|1. Pepco Holdings
|2. General Electric
|19. Verizon
"These companies generated so many excess tax breaks that they reported negative taxes (often receiving outright tax rebate checks from the US Treasury), totaling $21.8 billion," the report charges. "These companies' 'negative tax rates' mean that they made more after taxes than before taxes in those no-tax years."
Verizon is hardly up there with General Electric, which the report says generated an eye-popping negative 45.3 percent tax rate from 2008 through 2010, but it identifies the wireless giant's estimated minus 2.9 percent largesse as part of a general corporate trend.
The survey also includes a list titled "25 Companies with the Largest Total Tax Subsidies in 2008-10." According to that lineup, AT&T generated almost $14.5 billion, Verizon $12.3 billion, and Comcast $2.12 billion in tax breaks during those years. The estimated total tax breakage for all the companies is $114.8 billion.
We pay our share
According to the compilation, Verizon deployed a combination of depreciation and amortization to win its tax breaks, along with a "reverse Morris trust" (property spin off) transaction that saved it about $1.5 billion in federal and state taxes.
"Over a number of years, the company has deferred approximately $2.0 billion in taxes as the lessor in leveraged leasing transactions of commercial aircraft, power generating facilities, real estate, and other assets unrelated to their core business," the survey adds
We contacted Verizon about these assertions. The company strongly disputes Citizens for Tax Justices' numbers and reasoning. Verizon spokesperson Bob Varettoni called the "union orchestrated" document "deceptive and politically motivated."
Verizon "pays its fair share of taxes," Varettoni responds:
Verizon paid out $1.79 billion in taxes over 2008-2010, and reported earnings of $5.25 billion over this same period. In addition, Verizon has annually invested $16.5 billion in technology infrastructure. This investment has created and sustained jobs, so U.S. economic development policy allows for the payment of some taxes to be deferred. The CTJ treats deferred taxes as non-existent, it does not account for the $1.79 billion in taxes Verizon paid out over the past three years despite deferrals, and it incorrectly calculates earnings for Verizon to include income belonging to Vodafone, Verizon's partner in Verizon Wireless.
We also contacted AT&T and Comcast. "We don't agree with and can't validate the Citizens for Tax Justice calculations with regard to AT&T's tax subsidies and tax rate," AT&T spokesperson Butler McCall told us, adding that between 2008 and 2010, AT&T "invested more in the United States than any other public company." McCall put the total investments at $57.9 billion—"and we're on track to invest $20 billion for full-year 2011."
The AT&T statement acknowledges that the telco has benefited from bonus depreciation rules that let it deduct more of its capital expenses, "but these rules were put in place by the Congress and the president to spur investment in the US economy, and we've done just that."
AT&T estimates its effective tax at 32.9 percent in 2009 and 48.3 percent in 2008. "In 2010, we had a tax benefit, but this was due to a settlement with the IRS over taxes paid in prior periods," McCall adds. "I'd also note that through the first three quarters of 2010, we recognized an income tax expense of $5.6 billion, for an effective tax rate of 34.1 percent YTD."
Comcast did not reply to our query.
Gaming the system
The CTJ report places the telecommunications sector at an effective corporate tax rate of 8.2 percent from 2008 through 2010. In contrast, the survey calculates the "Industrial machinery" sector's rate at negative 13.5 percent, and the "Computers, office equipment, software, data" sector at a far higher 27.1 percent.
"Only two industries, Retail & Wholesale Trade and Health Care, paid an effective tax rate of 30 percent or more over the full three-year period," the assessment contends.
In general, how do these corporations generate the breaks claimed in this survey? Offshore tax sheltering is one means. Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy cite three other ways:
Accelerated depreciation: Current tax laws let companies deduct their capital investments much faster than their actual rate of wear and tear. In early 2008 Congress and the Bush administration created a "50% bonus depreciation" provision that allowed for a much higher rate of corporate write off. The Obama administration extended and even expanded the provision.
"These changes to the depreciation rules, on top of the already far too generous depreciation deductions allowed under pre-existing law, certainly did reduce taxes for many of the companies in our study, probably by tens of billions of dollars," CTJ and ITEP assert.
Stock options: Everyone knows that big corporations give their executives stock options—the opportunity to buy company stock at a great price in the future. But these firms can also deduct the difference between what employees pay for the stock and its actual market worth.
Of the report's cited 280 corporations, 185 filed "excess stock-option tax benefits." These saved them $12.3 billion over three years. Apple gleaned $1.5 billion in this manner, the survey estimates.
Industry specific tax breaks: General Electric, which owns 49 percent of NBC Universal, has a financial services branch. A tax break attached to this sort of activity allows companies to "pay no taxes on foreign (or ostensibly foreign) lending and leasing, apparently while deducting the interest expenses of engaging in such activities from their U.S. taxable income." According to the survey, in its 2010 Annual Report GE cited the impending repeal of this provision as one of the "risk factors" it faces.
"If this provision is not extended, we expect our effective tax rate to increase significantly after 2012," the GE annual report notes.


text:
Crime Laboratory History
Corporal James Russell (left) and Dr. Bradley Kirschberger, the Director of the 1930s Laboratory, in one of the laboratory rooms.
1935: Legislation that became effective May 4 authorized the creation of a plainclothes bureau of investigation within the Division of State Police. The same legislation provided for the establishment of a State Police Scientific Laboratory and approved the hiring of civilian technical experts to investigate crimes.
1936: As part of the newly re-organized Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Superintendent John A. Warner appointed forensic chemist and noted criminologist Dr. Bradley H. Kirshberger first director of the New York State Police Scientific Laboratory. Dr. Kirshberger's laboratory in Schenectady became the first official home of the NYSP Crime Lab, which became operational May 21, 1936. Twenty-four-hour-a-day consultation services and assistance were available to any police agency, district attorney's office or department in New York State upon request.
Lab staff initially consisted of two chemists and eight assistants, clerks and typists, hired full-time through the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA), a Depression-era public works program. These personnel were supplemented by various scientists and technicians hired on a per diem basis whenever their particular skills were required.
In addition to investigation, much of the lab's early work focused on research and data collection in the fields of ballistics, photography, hair sampling, blood grouping and other disciplines. Headlight lenses, cloth fibres, paints, tire tread patterns and other diverse items were painstakingly examined and catalogued in great detail so that even the smallest shred of evidence found at a crime scene could be compared and identified. The lab also assisted in publishing a monthly (later bi-monthly) "Scientific Bulletin of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation."
1941: Following the death of Dr. Kirschberg, Superintendent Warner appointed Tpr. William E. Kirwan Jr., right, acting lab director. The promotion later became permanent. Tpr. Kirwan, who joined the State Police in 1936, continued to rise through the ranks and eventually became the seventh superintendent of the New York State Police in 1967, appointed by Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller. He served in that capacity until his retirement in 1975.
1942: During World War II, the lab examined Japanese-packed canned seafood, after reports circulated that some had been found contaminated with glass particles. Nothing harmful was ever found.
1943: In one of many organizational changes following the appointment of Superintendent John A. Gaffney, the Scientific Laboratory was relocated from Schenectady to 545 Broadway in Albany.
1948: The lab produces a training film on autopsy procedures.
1953: On April 1, the Scientific Laboratory moved from Broadway to a new, purpose-built, 7,500-square-foot structure at 8 Nolan Road in Albany, left. The new building included many features designed to be conducive to scientific criminal investigations, such as special rooms for lie detector examinations, serological analyses, microscopic examinations and other specialized work, as well as a museum for criminal exhibits, a motion picture projection room, a photographic studio and physical laboratory.
1964: In May, the Division opened its new headquarters building, left, on the State Office Building Campus in Albany, consolidating its administrative offices, Pistol Permits Bureau and Crime Laboratory in a single, central location. The move was part of a sweeping program of building assessment, re-evaluation, consolidation, construction and modernization implemented by Superintendent Arthur Cornelius Jr.
1973: As the problem of illegal drug use began to reach epidemic proportions in the 1970s, drug arrests and the related need for scientific analysis of seized or confiscated materials virtually inundated the Crime Lab. A massive backlog of drug cases developed. Help arrived in the form of a federal grant to support the hiring of 14 new scientists during 1973. New equipment also was purchased, including a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer, used to identify drugs and other chemical substances. Even so, by the following year, laboratory personnel were working two shifts to deal with the drug caseload.
1978: The State Police began a program of laboratory expansion aimed at improving evidence analysis services to local law enforcement agencies. The first new facility to come on-line under this initiative was the Mid-Hudson Satellite Crime Laboratory, located at Stewart Airport in Newburgh, which opened Oct. 5, 1978. It specializes in the areas of drug chemistry and toxicology.
1979: Laboratory expansion continued with the Feb. 2, 1979 opening of the Southern Tier Satellite Crime Laboratory on Park Street in Port Crane, near Binghamton. It specializes in the area of drug chemistry analysis.
1985: The Western Satellite Crime Laboratory, right, on Homer Street in Olean was opened. It specializes in the areas of trace, drug chemistry and toxicology.
1992: The architectural firm of Einhorn, Yaffee and Prescott was awarded a contract to conduct a needs assessment for a new State Police Forensic Investigation Center. The result of this effort was the design of a new facility by the New York State Office of General Services, Division of Design and Construction, and the firm of Ruth and Going.
1996: The Forensic Investigation Center, below, headquarters for the Crime Laboratory System, opened Oct. 22 as Building #30 on the State Office Campus in Albany. The entire $25 million state-of-the-art facility was paid for with money from assets seized from drug traffickers, making it "the house that crack built."
The facility provides the entire state criminal justice system with forensic science services and serves as home for the state's DNA Databank. This genetic data archive was originally established as a repository for blood samples taken from all felons convicted of sexual assault, homicide, manslaughter and other violent crimes committed since 1996.
In 1999, Governor Pataki signed legislation greatly expanding the list of felony offenders who must submit for inclusion in the DNA Databank. This massively expanded the state's genetic fingerprint and file of convicted criminals.
2000: The Biological Sciences section, located in the Forensic Investigation Center, underwent tremendous growth during 2000 because the State legislation expanding the DNA Databank. An additional 65 scientists and support personnel were hired to process DNA samples from convicted felony offenders statewide.
It was necessary for the headquarters laboratory to implement a second shift to train the additional staff without disrupting on-going criminal casework. The laboratory was able to upgrade and expand its aging equipment, thus increasing the efficiency of the Biological Sciences unit.
2001: Technological advances in forensic science coupled with expanding services led to the implementation of a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS). LIMS software allows bar coding of all evidence in the laboratory system and the ability to electronically track pieces of each case from receipt through processing until the evidence is returned to the requesting police agency.
The use of this system provided much needed assistance and support to New York City's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner during 9/11 when the Crime Laboratory System (CLS) was put to the test barcoding and tracking thousands of pieces of evidence from the World Trade Center disaster area.
2005: During the middle of the decade accreditation standards across the country increased for public laboratories and the CLS prepared for the 2008 ANAB-ASCLD/LAB - International program assessment. This was the first attempt in compliance with the ISO 17025 accreditation standards and the CLS was awarded successful completion of the program.
2007: As the market for illegal substances continued to pose a threat to the well being of the citizens of New York State, the Contaminated Crime Scene Emergency Response Team (CCSERT) expanded to include chemists from the four laboratories across the state. Staffing within the Drug Chemistry unit grew and this rapidly deployable unit is responsible for mitigating crime scenes statewide where methamphetamine and other illegal substances are manufactured in clandestine laboratories.


text:
Hildebrand Law Office
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Hildebrand Law Office41.676921,-86.2563547
115 N. William St.
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115 N. William St.
South Bend, IN 46601
115 N. William St.
South Bend, IN 46601
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