text:
By traditional reckoning, this has been a disastrous year for me as a coffee buyer. I have been consistently wrong on my price fixing against the market. As I look today the "C" market, the place on the commodities market where mild Arabica coffee contracts are traded, the price closed at $2.05. The coffee we received on contract in December was booked at $2.63 at a time when coffee prices were peaking out at $3.00.
Now, I realize that our image of a coffee buyer is a carefully constructed fiction of a world travelling explorer on an Indiana Jones style quest for God in a Cup. Look at virtually any coffee roaster's website and somewhere you will find a story of their intrepid Coffee Buyer out in the deep coffee lands choosing the rarest and most exclusive coffee beans. Usually there are some pictures of said explorer standing next to some green shrubs wearing their requisite coffee buyer garb of Dockers Khakis and an Ex-Officio travel vest. Never mind that they are on a sponsored mass group tour in Costa Rica.
Indeed, whenever I identify myself as a Coffee Buyer invariably the first question I am asked is if I get to go to all the places we get coffee from. This question always tends to pose a problem in answering. It would be easy to say, why yes, I have travelled around the world on coffee expeditions; and feed into the common misperception. Depending on the situation, however, I try to explain the travel in a more nuanced way. The fact is, in my experience, I have rarely bought coffee on one of these trips, so to suggest that I am travelling around the world buying coffee misses the point.
The value of travelling to coffee growing communities, and I believe it is invaluable, lies in a better understanding both of the environmental and social conditions that coffee is grown. While, as I said above, I have rarely bought coffee on these trips, I have decided not to buy coffee from particular suppliers based on what I have experienced. In one case it was due to very large differences of opinion on growing techniques, in this case the use of herbicides and mechanical pruning/harvesting methods that clearly wrought environmental damage. In another case it was less obvious, hard to articulate beyond to say that something seemed off on the farm and I felt more comfortable working with another farm that exhibited more of the values of relationship that I share. These are important reasons for visiting the places you do business with, not the least that they are a reflection of what you represent.
More often, though, I visit a coffee growing community that I have developed a buying relationship to express my gratitude for their hard work and persistence. Growing coffee is largely a thankless occupation populated by some of the most marginalized people. The typical coffee farmer, especially a small coffee farmer, never meets the people who ultimately buy their product. At worse, they are taken advantage of by local coffee buyers, "coyotes", who would cheat them; at best, they meet with an exporting firm or maybe an importing firm who tend to keep compliments to a minimum and instead voice a steady drumbeat of better quality. Maybe this is due to a rationale that if they were to compliment the quality the price would go up, and from an exporter's perspective just a couple of pennies difference in price can have a huge impact on their bottom line. Especially when you are competing on the commodities market.
What I want to accomplish, though, is a long term relationship with our coffee producing partners. When all is said and done, I am a pretty lazy coffee buyer; I would rather have a consistent source of reliable quality than to go searching for it every year. And experience has shown that coffee producers are much more likely to offer a higher quality lot to a long term buyer than some gringo that flies in boasting how much money they are willing to spend. While there are those who always want something different, I prefer having coffees that can be relied on each year. This is particularly true when it comes to something really important like an espresso blend. And this is where we come back to the traditional concept of a coffee buyer.
Historically, a coffee buyers job was to ensure that the brand's coffee blend flavor profile did not change. It is a difficult task to maintain blend consistency with imputs that are in varying degrees of flux, not just year to year but within the year itself. Much easier to simply throw a bunch of ingredients together and call whatever the result is good. But to maintain a blend consistency requires fair amount of perseverance. Perhaps this is why some roasters have abandoned the idea completely and opted for "seasonal" espresso blends.
By and large, with the exception of a screw up from our supplier, which to their credit they promptly corrected, our espresso blend profile has remained constant. Its in the realm of the other aspect of a traditional coffee buyer's job that has been the disaster: forecasting the price.
And here is where things get a bit tricky. For most of our coffees I try to forecast how much we will expect to use until the next crop and the price is set according to what the market is that day, plus whatever "differential" premium is set for that coffee. Differentials are determined by the exporting agent based on, well, any body's guess really, but largely around an additional value a particular coffee may have. It used to be that Differentials were quite small, five or ten cents, plus or minus the market based on perceived quality and supply. Today, Differential premiums can be quite large, sometimes as much as the market price itself, since there has been a real decline in availability of top quality coffee.
Now, in the case of the espresso blend we have some other options. Since I generally know how much coffee we will use over the course of the year I can book that coffee without setting a price. Maybe I think the prices are artificially high and that the market will cool off at a later date. Or, perhaps I think the exact opposite, that coffee prices are set to go up, I could book out even a year's worth of coffee based on the market price. I could do the same with the differential. So here's my options: I can book the coffee price and differential to be fixed; I could set the price and not the differential, or the differential and not the price; or I could book the coffee price and differential at an agreed price set for up to a year.
Normally I book our espresso blend coffees in the fall of the year for the next year. The year before last the prediction when I booked the coffees was that the market was a little overpriced and would probably come down about ten cents. Supply was a bit of a concern so I went ahead booked the differential but left the price to be fixed later. Then, the coffee prices began to climb. And Climb. And Climb. We started off around $1.70 and by years end had passed $2.50. This was unprecedented. Moreover, the price continued to climb throughout the new year and there was much talk of it topping $3.00.
The reasons for this dramatic volatility in the market stems from a number of factors. Some of it is due to the concentration of coffee production to just four main countries supplying the majority of coffee. Last year saw serious crop shortages in two of the four. IMF and World Bank policies have virtually destroyed the coffee industry in most African nations and many nations are dealing with the effects of climate change, Coupled with the fact that warehouse inventory stocks have seen a steady decline to historically low levels due to supply consistently lagging consumption and one would conclude that the higher prices are here to stay. However, the combination of algorithmic trading and too few people with too much money makes the commodities market operate simply as a casino. I could see a report that the Brazil crop is larger than average and the price goes up. Now we are seeing reports of diminished supply and the price goes down. The price no longer reflects supply and demand, or any fundamental market conditions. Prices are determined largely by emotionally charged speculation fueled by computer frenzied automated buys.
The idea behind fixing prices on a forward delivery contract is to have a sort of insurance policy on your price through the year. Mostly what you want to do is to hedge yourself to an overall average price so you can set prices for the year. One thing people hate is to have the price change, well, change upwards anyway. A Coffee Buyer can set forward delivery contract prices against future months. In this way, the price paid throughout the year is averaged. This works great in normal times, but these are not normal times.
So now we have coffee coming in that is far above market price. I would have been better off never fixing the price at all and letting the price be determined when we took delivery. But to do so would make setting our prices impossible. We would never know what our cost of goods would be from delivery to delivery. Currently, forward delivery contracts against September are about $2.10, far below what we are paying now. The question now is am I willing to gamble? If history is any guide, I'm a terrible gambler.


text:
I've always loved Jonathan Adler's apple mirror. I think I'm finally going to buy it for Lyla's bathroom. It's such a fun and colorful piece.
And speaking of mirrors, I recently bought this one from Jayson Home and Garden. It's quite lovely and I was sold on it's hanging attachment.
However I have to say my favorite mirror right now is this one by Grain, but it is very much out of price range.
photos top to bottom:
{apple mirror by jonathan adler}
{freeman mirror by jayson home and garden}
{bound mirror by grain design via remodelista}
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Mirror, Mirror
8 comments:
- Momichka said...
Lovely pieces.
Post some pics of the apple mirror once you buy it.
- October 19, 2011 at 5:12 PM
- Ridgely's Radar said...
The apple mirror is so cute!
- October 25, 2011 at 2:16 PM
- ms.composure said...
o wow all are very cute! that last pic is def my fav!
- October 26, 2011 at 11:25 PM
- NYC Wedding Dresses said...
I agree, more of the Apple mirror!
- October 29, 2011 at 4:00 PM
- Kimberley - Dream. Delight. Inspire. said...
LOVE the apple mirror! :)
- November 2, 2011 at 5:06 AM
- imparali said...
i kinda liked one you bought from Jayson ..thank you for this lovely post.
- December 20, 2011 at 3:57 AM
- Lexi said...
Maybe you could attempt to DIY those last mirrors ... perhaps with washi tape? Just an idea - they are lovely!
xx Lexi
FASHION: Glitter & Pearls
WEDDINGS: Glitter Weddings
- January 9, 2012 at 11:55 PM
- Ann said...
Pretty mirror,like apple
- January 31, 2012 at 4:22 AM
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
10 Gorgeous Women Who Got 'Ugly' For a Movie
Hollywood is a strange, strange place. While most of the time you're rewarded for the glitz and glamor, sometimes packing on the pounds and the ugly can earn you an Academy Award, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild Award, or even all three (We're looking at you Charlize Theron.)
Here are some of the hottest woman in Hollywood who have found themselves in some not so attractive situations.
Charlize Theron [Monster]
Charlize Theron admits that when it's time to get into character, she becomes obsessed. When Charlize prepared to play serial killer Aileen Wuornos in the movie Monster, the blonde bombshell put on over 30 pounds, and from what it looks like - used her own hair grease as a styling tool for her sweet femme mullet. However, her commitment earned the stunning actress more than a few nods – 13 awards total for the film.


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Inside Google London
Google has harnessed the power of the internet to change our lives. But could the world's most powerful company change the way we work, too? Simon Usborne discovers the power of free beer, table football – and office dogs
Teri Pengilley
It's remarkable to think that only ten years have passed since a pair of idealistic lads in a garage set up a company that would change the way many of us live. What's more surprising is that Larry Page and Sergey Brin have achieved global domination while preserving the cuddly image that always set Google apart. Their search engine may have evolved to map the planet and spawn a swarm of products, but its breezy logo and fuzzy persona still evoke the cosy culture born in that Californian car port.
Nowhere is that ethos more visible than at Google's offices, which famously eschew the stark trappings of corporatism in favour of fun. Last week, Google released a video tour of the Googleplex, its global HQ near San Jose. "Googlers", as the company's 20,000 employees are called, can be seen cavorting on buggies and bikes, playing volleyball and downing wheatgrass shots.
If this is the face of one of the world's most recognisable brands, then it's one Google is increasingly having to protect. The company's most vocal critics paint it as a tentacled beast monopolising cyberspace and peering into our lives through our computer screens. In March, when Google launched Streetview, its bid to photograph every corner (and therefore front door) of our cities, one commentator mused that where once we Googled, now it is Googling us.
To find out what's really happening behind the revolving doors, how the Googlers-in-chiefs are answering their critics, and what these people actually do when they're not kicking back in a break-out space, The Independent took up an invitation to spend a day at Google London. Is it really the greatest place to work in the world?
The video star
The towering doors at the entrance in Victoria wouldn't look out of place at some Red Square ministry – they are distinctly un-Google and revolve slowly into a vast, echoing lobby. You have to get to the sixth floor of the shared building for the fun to begin. Google's own reception desk is replete with sweet jars and lava lamps. That's more like it.
I'm directed into the legendary canteen (more of which later), where I stock up on coffee and croissants and sit down with my first Googler of the day. Ed Sanders works on YouTube, the Google-owned video site. He loves it here. "It's an amazing place to work," he gushes. "I'm constantly staggered by the calibre of people and the culture of entrepreneurialism. It's just so exciting."
Sanders's most recent project was YouTube's Symphony Orchestra project, in which thousands of amateurs auditioned to perform a live concert at Carnegie Hall. "I don't think a project like this would have got off the ground anywhere else," Sanders says. All very communal and cute, but surely there's somebody here who hates their job?
The mind reader
Negotiating the colourful corridors that are home to branded red phone boxes, or "Googleboxes", I find Sian Townsend in her lab. Her job is to read your mind. Well, sort of. She's a researcher for Google's "user experience" team. Bright-eyed and fresh-faced, she doesn't look like a dissenter. "It's super energetic and inspiring here. It's hard not to rave abou-" . Enough! What does Townsend actually do? She whips out an iPhone to demonstrate. "I work in mobile search," she says, tapping "pizza" into the Google application. Do the same on a desktop and the Wikipedia entry for "pizza" comes top. Useless if you're out and about and hungry. First result on Townsend's phone is the Fresh Pizza Co, a local restaurant. "Because modern phones know where you are we can tailor search results,"she says.
One technique she uses to better understand how people use their phones involves recruiting volunteers to go out and get searching. "They log a diary at the end of each day and tell me about what they were thinking each time," says Townsend, who feeds results to engineers to make searching better.
The Googler-in-chief
All very good, but it's time to put the big questions to the big boss. Matt Brittin, a former Olympic rower, was appointed Director of Operations in March. Just days into his tenure he was plunged into the media storm that followed the launch of Streetview. I find him, still reeling, at Kew Gardens – all the rooms on this floor are named after London Underground stations linked by tube lines painted on the ceilings.
"There's an image of Google and a reality," he says, launching into a well-practised defence. "It's easy for people to say Google knows a lot about us but it's not the case. We have a thin layer of information about what you're searching for but that's it. It's also easy to paint us as a big organisation trying to penetrate every area of life, but ultimately consumers can choose to use Gmail or Google Earth or something else."
What about Google's cosy workplace ethos, which staff evangelise with sometimes cloying zeal, often inciting derision among sceptics? "God knows why there are rubber ducks on the ceiling out there," Brittin says pointing to a breakout space on the way to Earl's Court. "But what's important is recognising people don't necessarily work best sitting at a desk. Playing on the Wii or going for a run might fuel new ideas. We look after our staff so that they want to come to work."
The Gooogle geek
Speaking of which, it's lunchtime. Never has a work canteen been so enticing. Mountains of fresh salad stretch as far as the eye can see, while steaming joints of ham wait to be carved. As staff trickle in (they consult webcams from their desks to avoid the salivating queues), a chef lays out pastries that would make Escoffier drool. And it's all free! I make a beeline for the sushi counter and take a seat with Dave Burke.
As an engineer, Burke ought to be every inch the Google geek but with his sharp suit jacket, he looks more like a contemporary Don Draper from "Mad Men". I don't even bother asking him what he thinks of this place – he's too busy wolfing down a free smoked salmon sandwich. But Burke knows about the work ethos. Between mouthfuls, he demonstrates a tool he conceived during what's known in Googlespeak as "20 per cent time" – the day in the week staff are encouraged to devote to their own projects (it gave rise to Gmail and Google News).
Without touching his phone's screen, he raises it to his ear and says "pictures of the Empire State building." By the time Burke lowers the handset, images of the skyscraper have appeared. Burke programmes phones to recognise the particular movement we use to raise them to our ear, as sensed by the position-detecting accelerometers built into most new devices. The motion triggers the voice-activated search.
The brain feeder
After the lunchtime rush dies down, it's time to meet the man who feeds 600 hungry Googlers. Adrian Evans is head chef and honed his skills at some of London's top restaurants. His brief: to nourish brains. This must be one of the only canteens in Britain without chips. "We also put the desserts at the end of the line so there's no space on people's trays by the time they get there." Evans's canteen is the site of TGIF (Thank Google it's Friday). Fridges of beer are padlocked in preparation for the event, where the pool cues come out and musicians are invited to perform.
The canine consultant
Grabbing a chocolate �clair on my way out (cannily side-stepping the chef's "full tray" approach to healthy eating) I prepare to re-enter the real world. First, though, the games room for a round of table football. Or ping pong, or a jam on Guitar Hero, or a bash on the Wii. There's also an electric piano, where a Googler called Lee says he writes songs during his lunch hour. What's wrong with an M&S sandwich and a packet of a crisps on a park bench?
Time to go. On my way out, I bump into a Googler called Elwood. He's wearing his security pass, complete with passport photo, on a collar round his neck. That's because he's a dog. He belongs to a chap called Ash. What's Elwood's job title? "General Morale Booster," Ash says. It's a cutesy coda to a day in which I almost feel as if I've been thrown into a Google washing machine. Perhaps I've been shielded from the reputed sinister underbelly of this beast of the internet, but I leave secretly wishing I were a Googler. It would be worth it just for the canteen.
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text:
Jeanette M. Carolan of Mahopac died on Sunday, Oct. 29, at Northern Westchester Hospital. She was 45.
Carolan was born on March 8, 1972, to Carlos and Rosa (Martinez) Zapata in Forest Hills Queens. On Sept. 11, 1999, she married Christopher Carolan in St. Elizabeth Ann Seton R.C. Church in Shrub Oak, and together they had two children; Anna Maria and Victoria Grace.
Carolan worked as a substitute teacher for the Lakeland School District. In her spare time, she enjoyed knitting, museums, zoos, ancestry research and was an avid reader. She always put her family first and if a friend was in need she was always there to lend a helping hand. No better example of her kindness was her selfless act of donating stem cells and t-cells to her younger brother during his fight with multiple myeloma.
She is survived by her husband Chris; her maternal grandmother, Micaela Ferrer Martinez; her parents, Carlos and Rosa Zapata; her in-laws, William and Kathleen Carolan, and her two daughters, Anna Maria and Victoria Grace who were her entire world.
She is also survived by her sister Laura Zapata, brother-in-law Robert; sister-in-law Denise, sister-in-law Jackie; sister-in-law Rebecca, and her nieces and nephews; Katie, Stacy, Liam, and Lionel.
A memorial gathering to honor Carolan will be held from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 5, at Cargain Funeral Homes, Inc., 418 Route 6, Mahopac.
A Mass of Christian burial will be held on Monday, Nov. 6, at 11:15 a.m., at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton R.C., Church, 1377 East Main Street, Shrub Oak. Following mass, she will be brought to the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.
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Public Safety Commission discusses Border Security report
and the Criminal Alien threat to Texas
and the Criminal Alien threat to Texas
During today's Public Safety Commission (PSC) meeting, Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) Director
Steven C. McCraw discussed the border security strategic assessment that was conducted by General Barry
McCaffrey (Ret.) and Retired Major-General Robert Scales as a part of HB 4 from the 82
The report highlighted the efforts that Texas has put in place in order to combat the threat from the Mexican
cartels and commended Texas for being "the most aggressive and creative in confronting the threat."
The report further determined that "criminality spawned in Mexico is spilling over to the U.S. and Texas is the
tactical close combat zone and frontline of this conflict."
The Commission also discussed the impact criminal aliens were having on communities in Texas. Director
McCraw stated that criminal aliens were responsible for a significant amount of crime and constituted a serious
As of September 15, 2011, 6,508 illegal aliens have been identified in Texas Department of Criminal Justice
(TDCJ) units. These 6,508 criminal aliens are responsible for 27,880 total crimes over their criminal careers.
Furthermore, from October 2008 through August 2011, Texas has identified a total of 88,080 unique criminal
alien defendants in Texas. These defendants are responsible for 344,398 individual criminal charges over their
criminal careers, including 2,245 homicides and 46,412 sexual assaults. Director McCraw provided a detailed
breakdown of the violations committed by the 88,080 criminal aliens.
Breakdown of 15 of the 50 Criminal Justice Information Systems (CJIS) crime categories committed by
the 88,080 criminal aliens


text: Where superyachts are bornUpdated 6:58 AM ET, Tue September 17, 2013 Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what's happening in the world as it unfolds. Photos: Where superyachts are bornWhere's Wally? – It would be difficult to miss this luxurious 26-meter yacht cruising the waves. But what about the workshop where it was built? In this series of striking images, British photographer Benedict Redgrove was given a sneak peek into the hidden world of the Wally Yachts boatyard in Monaco. Hide Caption 1 of 7 Photos: Where superyachts are bornBig business – Founded in 1994, Wally Yachts is the design and manufacture company behind some of the most innovative -- and expensive -- superyachts in the world. Here, the 50-meter boat "Better Place" takes shape -- one of the largest carbon fiber sailboats ever built by the firm. Hide Caption 2 of 7 Photos: Where superyachts are bornBright white – From sailboats to speedboats, the 26-meter "Wally Ace" (pictured) features a fuel-efficient engine able to travel from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean on one tank of diesel.Hide Caption 3 of 7 Photos: Where superyachts are bornClean cut – "The way I shoot is quite clean and graphic," said Redgrove, who splits his time between London and New York. "I wanted to show a beautiful and clean environment."Hide Caption 4 of 7 Photos: Where superyachts are bornBehind the scenes – Redgrove's stark images offer a rare glimpse into the exclusive world of superyacht design, where Wally vessels can cost as much as $30 million. The company is the only boat builder to win the prestigious Compasso d'Oro award for industrial design twice -- in 2004 and 2008. Its groundbreaking projects have included the world's fastest motor yacht and a floating island.Hide Caption 5 of 7 Photos: Where superyachts are bornShip shape – While the workshop appears white as snow, Redgrove revealed it was actually sweltering. "Inside the Wally 'Better Place' yacht, it was disgustingly hot, there was no air conditioning, and you have a lot of men working -- so we all sweated a lot," he told CNN.Hide Caption 6 of 7 Photos: Where superyachts are bornWater works – Luckily for Redgrove, he wasn't in the workshop for long, heading out on to the open waves for an action photo shoot. "It was an early start at sunrise," he said. "I was trying to get a shot from another boat, to get a dramatic angle over the waves. It was quite difficult and felt like we were in a James Bond movie."Hide Caption 7 of 7Powered by Livefyre


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After O'Reilly's "War On Christmas" Rant, Fox Wishes Viewers "Happy Holidays"
Blog ››› ››› TODD GREGORY
Bill O'Reilly delivered an eight-minute monologue about the threat that "secular forces" pose to America -- using the nonexistent "war on Christmas" as an example -- but Fox News punctuated the segment with an animation telling the audience "Happy Holidays."
Fox News has repeatedly attacked people and organizations who use the word "holiday" instead of "Christmas," claiming that they are engaging in a "war on Christmas."
In November, Fox & Friends expressed outrage at the fact that Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee has used the term "holiday tree" rather than Christmas tree, only to air a segment minutes later about the show's "Holiday wish list."
Because Fox News revisits the "war on Christmas" every holiday season, there are plenty of examples of its hypocrisy on the subject.


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|A-Z Challenge
page, with 669 views. I wish people would instead read some of my other posts which are about things more interesting than failure!
Last year (2012) I participated in the Challenge and, as I am principally interested in genealogy and family history, each of my daily A - Z posts were about genealogical things; and I propose to do the same this year. Last year, with about a dozen views per post, I wrote about topics as diverse as Englishry (many bloggers found this fascinating), Hiring Fairs, Scanfest, and Time Immemorial (which had 652 views as opposed to the usual dozen!). This year, the timetable runs like this:


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I think many people presume that when they walk into a sexy lounge they have to order a cocktail, like a gin and tonic or a martini. There's an immediate assumption that lounges don't serve qualities wines.
Continue Reading Below
But wine lovers rejoice.
Scott Gerber, principal of Gerber Group, and arguably one of the influential nightlife proprietors in the world, is trying to change that.
As the founder of 23 iconic venues worldwide like The Whiskey; Whiskey Blue; Living Room; and Stone Rose Lounge, in Manhattan, he frankly has no choice.
As of June 2011, Americans now drink more when than the French. So the demand is there.
And while wine orders are still only about 25% of his business, Gerber is paying attention. He selects light, easy-drinking wines that do not necessarily need food to compliment them. He says the hottest trending red right now is Malbec because customers believe it represents value and quality. "We sell Tierra Secreta Malbec from Mendoza, Argentina. It's a great balance of fruit and acidity."
And the new hot white? Pinot Gris, the American version of Pinot Grigio, that tends to have more body. Gerber sells Etude Pinot Gris, which is actually considered a cult wine at the moment.
So he is trying to stay ahead of the curve.
That's why adding the Honig Cabernet makes sense too. Honig, a family-owned sustainable farmed winery in California, is the pioneer of the responsible farming movement in the wine-making industry. Customers love that.
Gerber knows what he's doing. The Gerber Group is credited with opening the first as a 'hip' hotel bar with The Whiskey at The Paramount Hotel, in 1991.
The company also has strategic partnerships with Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Host Hotels & Resorts, Accor, W Hotels Worldwide, Sofitel Luxury Hotels, Strategic Hotels & Resorts, Related Companies and Noble Investment Group.
So know that you can walk into any of Gerber's lounges and skip the highball. Order yourself a fine glass of wine instead.
Questions for Our Wine Pro
What is your death row wine? Opus One.What region produces the best wine? Napa Valley, CA.What is the best wine and food pairing you've ever had? Opus One and a great burger.
What will the U.S. wine industry look like in 10 years? The U.S. is now the largest consumer of wine, but like Scotch and Bourbon, I think Asia will start importing more U.S. wine. If that happens, U.S. prices may increase and we most likely will start importing more wine from Chile, Spain and Argentina.


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Young Adult Services | YARP: Young Adult Reading Program | 2012-2013 Reading List: Annotated
2012-2013 Reading List: Annotated
- Middle School Annotated List
- High School Annotated List
Anna and the French Kiss
Stephanie Perkins
Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris - until she meets Etienne St. Clair: perfect, Parisian (and English and American, which makes for a swoon-worthy accent), and utterly irresistible. The only problem is that he's taken, and Anna might be, too, if anything comes of her almost-relationship back home.
As winter melts into spring, will a year of romantic near — misses end with the French kiss Anna has long awaited?
Grade level: 9 & up
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
Ilsa Bick
An electromagnetic pulse flashes across the sky, destroying every electronic device, wiping out every computerized system, and killing billions.
Alex hiked into the woods to say good-bye to her dead parents and her personal demons. Now desperate to find out what happened after the pulse crushes her to the ground, Alex meets up with Tom—a young soldier—and Ellie, a girl whose grandfather was killed by the EMP.
For this improvised family and the others who are spared, it's now a question of who can be trusted and who is no longer human.
Grade level: 10 & up
Publisher: EgmontUSA
Beauty Queens
Libba Bray
Teen beauty queens. A "Lost"-like island. Mysteries and dangers. No access to emall. And the spirit of fierce, feral competition that lives underground in girls, a savage brutality that can only be revealed by a journey into the heart of non-exfoliated darkness. Oh, the horror, the horror! Only funnier. With evening gowns. And a body count.
Grade level: 10 & up
Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
Berlin Boxing Club
Robert Sharenow
Karl Stern has never thought of himself as a Jew; after all, he's never even been in a synagogue. But the bullies at his school in Nazi-era Berlin don't care that Karl's family doesn't practice religion. Demoralized by their attacks against a heritage he doesn't accept as his own, Karl longs to prove his worth.
Then Max Schmeling, champion boxer and German hero, makes a deal with Karl's father to give Karl boxing lessons. A skilled cartoonist, Karl never had an interest in boxing, but now it seems like the perfect chance to reinvent himself.
But when Nazi violence against Jews escalates, Karl must take on a new role: family protector. And as Max's fame forces him to associate with Nazi elites, Karl begins to wonder where his hero's sympathies truly lie. Can Karl balance his boxing dreams with his obligation to keep his family out of harm's way?
Grade level: #
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Blood Red Road
Moira Young
Saba has spent her whole life in Silverlake, a dried-up wasteland ravaged by constant sandstorms. The Wrecker civilization has long been destroyed, leaving only landfills for Saba and her family to scavenge from. That's fine by her, as long as her beloved twin brother Lugh is around. But when four cloaked horsemen capture Lugh, Saba's world is shattered, and she embarks on a quest to get him back.
Suddenly thrown into the lawless, ugly reality of the outside world, Saba discovers she is a fierce fighter, an unbeatable survivor, and a cunning opponent. Teamed up with a handsome daredevil named Jack and a gang of girl revolutionaries called the Free Hawks, Saba's unrelenting search for Lugh stages a showdown that will change the course of her own civilization.
Grade level: 7 & up
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Veronica Roth
In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.
During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves… or it might destroy her.
Grade level: 9-12
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Kimberly Marcus
Sixteen-year-old Liz is Photogirl—sharp, focused and confident in what she sees through her camera lens. Confident that she and Kate will be best friends forever.
But everything changes in one blurry night. Suddenly, Kate is avoiding her, and people are looking the other way when she passes in the halls. As the aftershocks from a startling accusation rip through Liz's world, everything she thought she knew about photography, family, friendship and herself shifts out of focus. What happens when the picture you see no longer makes sense? What do you do when you may lose everything you love most?
Grade level: 9-12
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
I'll Be There
Holly Goldberg Sloan
Sam Border wishes he could escape. Raised by an unstable father, he's spent his life moving from place to place. But he could never abandon his little brother, Riddle.
Riddle Border doesn't talk much. Instead, he draws pictures of the insides of things and waits for the day when the outsides of things will make sense. He worships his older brother. But how can they leave when there's nowhere to go? Then everything changes. Because Sam meets Emily.
Emily Bell believes in destiny. She sings for her church choir, though she doesn't have a particularly good voice. Nothing, she feels, is mere coincidence. And she's singing at the moment she first sees Sam.
Everyone whose path you cross in life has the power to change you—sometimes in small ways, and sometimes in ways greater than you could have ever known
Grade level: 7-12
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Joshua Cohen
Sophomore Danny may be a rising star on the gymnastics team, but that figures little in his daily life, where his small size makes him a target for the school's ruling class—the hormone-pumped, college-scouted stars of the football team. A minor grudge escalates until horrific revenge is taken upon one of Danny's teammates. Coming to the rescue, however, is Kurt, a behemoth new fullback whose scarred face and stuttering speech hint at a past that puts him at odds with his teammates.
Grade level: 9-12
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Ransom Riggs
Sixteen-year-old Jacob Portman no longer believes the stories his grandfather told him when he was a little boy. These are obviously fairy tales about children with mysterious abilities, such as a girl who could levitate and a boy with bees inside him, and not real memories from his grandfather's childhood. Grandpa's sepia-toned photographs of his strange friends also seem fake to Jacob. However, when he gets a chance to visit the island where the stories took place, he can't resist delving into his grandfather's past. Could these odd children really have existed?
Grade level: 8 & up
Publisher: Quirk Publishing
Please Ignore Vera Dietz
A.S. King
Vera's spent her whole life secretly in love with her best friend, Charlie Kahn. And over the years she's kept a lot of his secrets. Even after he betrayed her. Even after he ruined everything.
So when Charlie dies in dark circumstances, Vera knows a lot more than anyone—the kids at school, his family, even the police. But will she emerge to clear his name? Does she even want to?
Grade level: 9-12
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Rot & Ruin
Jonathan Maberry
In the zombie-infested, post-apocalyptic America where Benny Imura lives, every teenager must find a job by the time they turn fifteen or get their rations cut in half. Benny doesn't want to apprentice as a zombie hunter with his boring older brother Tom, but he has no choice. He expects a tedious job whacking zoms for cash, but what he gets is a vocation that will teach him what it means to be human.
Grade level: 8 & up
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Swati Avasthi
Sixteen-Year-Old Jace Witherspoon arrives at the doorstep of his estranged brother Christian with a re-landscaped face (courtesy of his father's fist), $3.84, and a secret.
He tries to move on, going for new friends, a new school, and a new job, but all his changes can't make him forget what he left behind—his mother, who is still trapped with his dad, and his ex-girlfriend, who is keeping his secret.
At least so far.
Worst of all, Jace realizes that if he really wants to move forward, he may first have to do what scares him most: He may have to go back. First-time novelist Swati Avasthi has created a riveting and remarkably nuanced portrait of what happens after. After you've said enough, after you've run, after you've made the split—how do you begin to live again?
Grade level: 11 & up
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Josephine Angelini
Helen Hamilton has spent her entire sixteen years trying to hide how different she is—no easy task on an island as small and sheltered as Nantucket. And it's getting harder. Nightmares of a desperate desert journey have Helen waking parched, only to find her sheets damaged by dirt and dust. At school she's haunted by hallucinations of three women weeping tears of blood… and when Helen first crosses paths with Lucas Delos, she has no way of knowing they're destined to play the leading roles in a tragedy the Fates insist on repeating throughout history.
As Helen unlocks the secrets of her ancestry, she realizes that some myths are more than just legend. But even demigod powers might not be enough to defy the forces that are both drawing her and Lucas together—and trying to tear them apart.
Grade level: 9 & up
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Stupid Fast
Geoff Herbach
Felton Reinstein's late puberty during his sophomore year turned him into an incredible runner, which has landed him on both the track and football teams. Socially isolated, he is resigned to a lonely summer with his unpredictable widowed mother and piano-prodigy younger brother. But things become complicated as Felton meets beautiful new girl Aleah, he is drawn into the football team's summer workouts, and his home life disintegrates
Grade level: 9 & up
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Incorporated
Want to Go Private?
Sarah Darer Littman
Abby is starting high school—it should be exciting, so why doesn't she care? Everyone tells her to "make an effort," but why can't she just be herself? Abby quickly feels like she's losing a grip on her once-happy life. The only thing she cares about anymore is talking to Luke, a guy she met online, who understands. It feels dangerous and yet good to chat with Luke—he is her secret, and she's his. Then Luke asks her to meet him, and she does. But Luke isn't who he says he is. When Abby goes missing, everyone is left to put together the pieces. If they don't, they'll never see Abby again.
Grade level: 10 & up
Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
Permission: Book jacket covers displayed through an affiliate contract with Barnes & Noble.com .
Each year the Young Adult Reading Program (YARP) Committee of the South Dakota Library Association publishes a list to promote quality literature and to help South Dakota teachers and librarians in selecting and promoting books for adolescents. The books are selected from among the many young adult and adult books that have received positive reviews by national reviewing periodicals.
South Dakota State Library Cornerstone
SDSL's e-Newsletter articles include:
- School Libraries
- Technology
- Teens
- Young Adult Reading Program
And many more!
Puzzle Map
Download and print this PDF file for a listing of electronic resources made available to South Dakota.
Updated, October 2017
Laura Kelly
Children's & Youth Services Coordinator
605-773-3131, Option 5, 1
Alissa Adams
School Library Technology Coordinator
605-773-3131, Option 5, 3


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Cold Streak Broken On Cold Night
With an Alberto Callaspo home run and a Rick Ankiel RBI double that four-game losing streak in Game Two after an Opening Day home loss is over. It was cold, but it was a win and a sweet one at that.
Now let's go for the series win!


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When my mother knew Uncle Thaxter, he and his wife Mabel were living in Belmont, on a large estate with beautiful gardens.
|The family Estate in Belmont
According to my mother's recollections, Aunt Mabel was a good friend of Mrs. Gardner, of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. She remembers going to tea at Mrs. Gardner's house once. She said that Aunt Mabel's hair was bright red, but that Mrs. Gardner's hair was even brighter red. She remembered that she had a lion as a house pet and my mother thought it was a very large dog. Somehow, Mrs. Gardner was very friendly with some circus folk and through these circus people she acquired some performing dogs for my mother's grandmother. One of the dogs was named Trixie. Trixie could walk on her hind legs, holding my great grandmother's hand for the whole length of a city block. Now that would have left an impression on me, too.
|Isabella Stewart Gardner
Mrs. Gardner was credited with the quote: "Don't spoil a good story by telling the truth." Unfortunately, I must say that what my mother remembered, was more likely something she was told. It is unlikely she went to tea with Mrs. Gardner since Mrs. Gardner died 4 years before my mother was born.
Since that bit of information really didn't pan out in the investigation, I went on to the normal research of census records and the like. Not knowing much about him except his name and his profession and that he was married to Aunt Mabel, it was a bit of a challenge. How Uncle Thaxter was related to us was another mystery that I had to solve and that I thought might lead me to some answers.
My mother knew that Uncle Thaxter's wife's name was Mabel, but she did not know to which branch of the family Mabel belonged. In one census record, Mabel's middle initial was W. I made the assumption that she might have been a West, my great great grandmother's maiden name. That assumption proved to be accurate and through the census records in Southbridge I found out that there was a Mabel West born almost 20 years after my great great grandmother Clara West Paige.
|Clara West Paige my GGGrandmother.
They shared the same father but Mabel had a different mother. So, Uncle Thaxter was my great great grandmother's half sister's husband. Not exactly in my direct line. But, still interesting to me.
Although that mystery was solved, I wanted to know more about Uncle Thaxter. What I found out is that he was born in Boston in 1872, the son of a Boston physician and a wealthy socialite. I found out that his first name wasn't Thaxter, but rather Herbert and Thaxter was his middle name.
Uncle Thaxter was an architect of some note, as my mother remembered. He designed many public buildings and many private homes in the Boston area, but more specifically in Belmont, Mass. I found several Boston business directories listing Uncle Thaxter's architectural firm on Boylston street. He designed several municipal buildings in Belmont, including the Junior High School and the Police Station. He designed the Sacred Heart Church rectory in Malden, the Watson Memorial Chapel in Acton and many homes throughout the greater Boston area.
His uncle Loring, a landscape architect, designed the first outdoor pool in America for the community of Belmont and Uncle Thaxter designed the locker rooms and the bathhouse for the pool, pictured below. The land on which the pool was built, surrounded by a large playground, was donated by Thaxter's Uncle Henry.
Uncle Thaxter was an interesting and successful fellow, I learned, but some of his relatives really piqued my interest along the way. He came from a large family of over achievers. His sister Ethel was an accomplished artist and was known in particular for painting miniature portraits. Perhaps that was how Mabel met Mrs. Gardner, or whomever.
Thaxter served on the Belmont Board of Assessors for almost 30 years and was a town meeting member for many years. He was president of the Middlesex County Assessors Association and the Massachusetts Assessors Association. He was a director of the Waverly Cooperative Bank, a charter member of the Boston City Club and several other charitable fraternal organizations. He was very active in his church as well.
At some point he became one of the most knowledgeable builders and architects of bank buildings, particularly in and around New Orleans. But he returned to the Boston area and that's where he died at the age of 77 and in his obituary in 1949 he left no children, just his wife Mabel, his sister Ethel and a niece from Peabody.
|The outdoor pool at Belmont
At some point he became one of the most knowledgeable builders and architects of bank buildings, particularly in and around New Orleans. But he returned to the Boston area and that's where he died at the age of 77 and in his obituary in 1949 he left no children, just his wife Mabel, his sister Ethel and a niece from Peabody.
|One of Ethel's miniatures.
|Building the Shakespeare Garden in 1916
|Shakespeare Garden at Vassar today
|W. Lyman and Loring enjoying nature
|Bruno in the living room in Belmont
|Baby Ursala and Bruno and Mrs. Weldon-nursing her cubs.
|Uncle Lyman and Bruno
Thaxter's great grandfather William, father of nine, started a condiment company in 1822. This successful company was the source of much of the family's wealth. His son William J. carried on the family business. In turn, William Lyman, although most well known as the photographer, also was very involved in the company and took on the task of improving the process of preserving foods.
In 1836 the company had switched from storing the condiments and other foods in glass containers to using cans lined with tin because Boston glass manufacturers couldn't keep up with the demand. However, there were often problems with bulging cans and tainted food. During the civil war, Uncle Thaxter's great grandfather's company supplied much of the food to the Union Army in the field and one wonders if the food these cans contained may have caused some of the casualties of that war.
Years later, during the late 1890s, Uncle Lyman, in a forward thinking stroke of genius, approached the biology department at MIT in order to solve the problem of safely preserving foods that plagued the company since its inception. In collaboration with MIT professor Samuel Cate Prescott, Uncle Lyman spent 1895 and 1896 researching clams. With Uncle Lyman's photographic skills, he was able to capture images of microscopic bacteria that assisted in this research. What this partnership between industry and academia accomplished, aside from solving the problem for the family business, would be a breakthrough in time-temperature research changing the entire food industry. It would also lead to 'food science and technology' as a profession. William Lyman retired from the company business in 1899 and for the next 30 years, until his death in 1929, he devoted his time to the study of bacteriology at MIT and took no pay for this work.
|Uncle Lyman and Professor Prescott
It was a devil of an investigation that I thought would take me somewhere else entirely, but I loved ending up here!


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Ancestry.com - Search Newspapers & Publications
Ancestry.com has searchable indexes; database results and some digitized images are available with a fee-based subscription. Free articles and helpful research materials.
Heights - the Boston College student newspaper began publication in November 1919. Issues from 1919-2013 are available online. Sacred Heart Review - the Review was a newspaper published in Cambridge and Boston between 1888-1918. The 885 was the student newspaper of Newton College of the Sacred Heart, a Catholic women's college in operation from 1946 through 1975. The Stylus - The earliest of the Boston College newspapers, the Stylus was founded by students in 1883.
Daily newspaper for the Cape Cod & Island area in Massachusetts. Includes obituaries archived from 1997-present.
Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers
Search and view newspaper pages from 1880-1922 and find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress as part of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).
Search by a series of choices including state/county/city, date, keywords, and type of newspaper.
Fold3 - Massachusetts Newspapers $
Brookfield Citizen, Vineyard Gazette. Fold3 is an online repository for original historical documents, combined with the ability for users to make comments, annotations, and upload their own documents. The focus of Fold3 is to be a comprehensive collection of U.S. Military records. Some areas of Fold3 are free to use, while others can be freely searched and then viewed with a paid subscription.
GenealogyBank.com - Historical Newspapers - Massachusetts $
GenealogyBank's collection includes modern obituaries, historical newspapers, books, pamphlets, military records, and government documents. The 2,400+ historical newspapers include letters, speeches, opinion pieces, advertisements, hometown news, photographs, illustrations and more. Searchable database results shown, images available with a fee-based subscription.
Home Town News - Massachusetts
Directory of daily and weekly newspapers in the United States.
From October 1831 through October 1921, the Boston Pilot newspaper printed a "Missing Friends" column with advertisements from people looking for "lost" friends and relatives who had emigrated from Ireland to the United States. This extraordinary collection of 37,921 records is available here as a searchable online database, which contains a text record for each ad that appeared in the Pilot.
NewspaperARCHIVE.com - Massachusetts $
The world's largest online newspaper archive. Featuring billions of articles from historical newspapers around the U.S. and the world. This unique archive spans more than 400 years of family history, small-town events, world news and more. Searchable database with the number of results shown, images available with a fee-based subscription.
Newspapers.com - Historical Newspapers in Massachusetts $
Newspapers.com, a fee-based subscription site, is one of the largest online historical newspapers sites, adding millions of pages each month and making it easy and convenient to search or browse millions of newspapers to find news, notices of births, marriages and deaths, and much more. The site offers the ability to make "clippings." Clippings are an easy way to keep track of interesting things you find on Newspapers.com. You can clip an article, a page, a newspaper, a search, or another member's profile. Once it's clipped, you can easily find it again, share it with friends, and receive notifications when it's updated.
Online Historical Newspapers Website
The purpose of the site is to have links to all online newspapers in one place, listed by county and city. It is meant to be used as an aid to genealogists, historians, and other researchers.
Texas Digital Newspaper Program - Massachusetts Newspapers
Digitized newspapers through the Portal to Texas History.
The Ancestor Hunt - Massachusetts Online Historical Newspapers Summary
A list of links to newspaper resources online for this state.
Founded in 1873, from Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The United States Newspaper Program - Massachusetts
Cooperative national effort among the states and the federal government to locate, catalog, and preserve on microfilm newspapers published in the United States from the eighteenth century to the present.
United States » Massachusetts » Newspapers
30 Links


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SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. – The York College men's cross country squad competed at the Galen E. Piper Alumni Open / Cross Country Challenge Friday evening at Shippensburg University. In an under-the-lights event, the Spartans took fifth out of eight schools in the 6k race.
"Overall a great showing at the meet," Spartan head coach Stephen LoBianco said. "The best times as a team in a 6k in recent history. The guys worked together the first few laps and then had a strong last 2k."
Senior Tim Hartung (Mohnton, Pa. / Governor Mifflin) paced the Green and White as he put together yet another quality performance. Hartung, who finished eighth overall out of 125 runners, was the top Division III finisher as he crossed the line at 19:25.
York rookies Matt Hayes (Drexel Hill, Pa. / Cardinal O'Hara) and James Gonzales (Baltimore, Md. / Dundalk) proved the Spartans' second and third finishers with times of 20:06 and 20:22, respectively. For their efforts, Hayes snagged 24th overall and Gonzales 37th while Coach LoBianco noted that both "had very good paced races and solid last 1ks."
Notching a pair of personal-records at the 6,000-meter distance, Will Murray (Cape May Court House, N.J. / Brick Township) and Craig Eppler (Bethlehem, Pa. / Northampton) each ran solid races. Murray clocked in at 20:38 while Eppler registered a 20:42.
York returns to action on Saturday, September 14, as hosts of the 2013 edition of the Coach Achtzehn Classic. Start time from John Rudy Park is slated for 11:00 am.
PHOTO: Tim Hartung competes at last season's Coach Achtzehn Classic in York. Courtesy of Scott Guise - York College (Pa.) Director of Athletic Communications.


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192 Views
Music video spoof.
A woman blackmails her husband into signing divorce papers without making a scene.
The Lady of the Court finds her power and stands up to a King who has kept her under his control.
A girlfriend is fed up with all her boyfriend's strange requests.
Richard threatens the board over brewing scandal.
Girl telling her best friend that she is dating her teacher.
Eduardo is being interrogated by his crime boss who thinks he snitched. This scene must contain some...
Basketball player tells his friend that he doesn't need his team to win the game.
Guy telling best friend that he's in love with her.
Two U.S Diplomats discuss their options dealing with a tense situation affecting the Ambassador.
A sarcastic medical examiner tells the detective that the victim's death was a homicide.
A friend trying to explain the Mandella Effect.
An overconfident, arrogant guy tries to convince a twin to go out with him.
Young Actor/Rapper demands more action from his manager.
A snobby florist advises a customer on which flowers he will and won't work with for her wedding.
Lawyer is determined to save an elderly neighbor from being admitted into a nursing home.
Ray is ordered to step down from his position as director of homeland security, after being accused ...
A young woman gets a completely unexpected diagnosis.


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Notice to Members 99-23
SEC Approves New Arbitration Fees
On February 16, 1999, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved amendments to the fee schedules for customer and member arbitrations contained in Rules 10205 and 10332 of the National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc. (NASD®) Code of Arbitration Procedure (Code). This is the first increase in these fees since 1990. The filing fees and hearing session deposits are being increased to permit the NASD to cover more of its costs of operating the arbitration forum from revenue generated by the users of the forum; however, a large portion of the operating costs are covered by surcharges and other fees imposed only on members. In addition, even though filing fees and hearing session deposits are being increased, the small percentage of arbitration fee revenue paid by customers versus the large percentage paid by members will remain approximately the same as in the past. Arbitrator honoraria are also being increased in order to attract and retain qualified arbitrators willing to devote the time necessary to thoroughly consider arbitration claims.
The filing fee and hearing session deposit increases will be effective on March 18, 1999, for all cases filed on or after the effective date of the amendments. The arbitrator honoraria increases will be effective for arbitrators appointed to hear cases filed on or after the effective date of the amendments. The text of the amendments, including the new fee schedules, follows this Notice.
Questions regarding this Notice may be directed to Tom Wynn, Associate Director, Office of Dispute Resolution, NASD Regulation, Inc. (NASD RegulationSM) at (212) 858-4392; or Elliott R. Curzon, Assistant General Counsel, NASD Regulation, at (202) 728-8451.


text: Okay so ... Oddly enough I've had QUAKE on the brain for some reason or another, so that's probably where this came from. Started as a speedpaint, turned into something a bit more. I see it as some kind of Strogg-like cyber-creature that drops down from ceilings and crevices to cause havok for some poor space marines. Enjoy.


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Alert 2014-19
Subject: Counterfeit Official Checks
Date: April 18, 2014
Description: Security National Bank, a Branch of Park National Bank
Counterfeit Official Checks of Security National Bank, a Branch of Park National Bank, Newark, Ohio
To: Chief Executive Officers of All National Banks and Federal Savings Associations; All State Banking Authorities; Chair, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System; Chairman, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; Conference of State Bank Supervisors; Deputy Comptrollers (Districts); Assistant Deputy Comptrollers; District Counsels; and All Examining Personnel
The above-named bank has reported that counterfeit official checks using a correct routing number of 044101305 are being presented for payment nationwide in connection with a secret shopper scam.
The counterfeit checks do not resemble the bank's authentic checks. Counterfeit items may be identified by several traits:
Counterfeit checks presented to date have been made payable in the amount of $1,996 and contain a remitter name of Fowler Grillo.
Correspondence accompanying the counterfeit checks is purportedly from Christopher Green, Head of Recruitment, MS Recruitment, (860) 469-2142. The correspondence explains that the recipient is to use the majority of the funds to purchase an international money transfer. Details of the transfer are to be sent via e-mail to Christopher Green at [firstname.lastname@example.com].
For additional information and to verify the authenticity of official checks drawn on Security National Bank, a Branch of Park National Bank, please contact Jullene Barnes, Administrative Manager, Loss Prevention Department, 50 North Third St., PO Box 3500, Newark, OH 43058; by telephone at (740) 322-6836; or by e-mail at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Consumers who receive counterfeit or fictitious items and associated material should file complaints with the following agencies, as appropriate:
Additional information concerning this matter that should be brought to the attention of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) may be forwarded to
For additional information regarding other types of financial fraud, please visit the OCC's anti-fraud resources page at www.occ.gov/fraudresources.htm.
Ellen M. Warwick


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About 700 shopping center owners and managers across the United States recently received form letters from a major big-box retail tenant. "Since times are tough, we've decided to unilaterally reduce our rent by 25 percent," the letter read. Enclosed in the envelopes were checks to the landlords for the newly decreased amounts. In all, that 25 percent slashing of rent translates into a $30,000 annual reduction per lease and total annual savings of $21 million for the retailer in question.
One owner who received the letter (who didn't want to be named in this story) wavered between disgust and admiration for the retailer's "chutzpah". He says he's never been in a position where a retailer simply asserted a rent reduction and assumed it would fly with no input at all from landlords.
"I can't accept the check and just move on," the owner says. "I can't allow my tenants to change the terms of their leases at will and set their own rent. If they need relief, they should come to me and ask for it. Then I can make a decision about whether they get it or not."
These are uncharted waters. Faced with arguably the deepest and longest recession since World War II and the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, the tenant/landlord relationship is being tested in new ways. How both sides respond could go a long way in determining the health of the industry in years to come.
Both owners and retailers are hurting. Each side is trying to survive. On the surface, it looks like they have opposing objectives: one wants to preserve rent and the other wants to reduce rent. And both parties are suspicious of each other–owners fear retailers are trying to take advantage of them, while retailers feel owners simply are being unresponsive to their struggles. That may make it hard for landlords and tenants to be able to put themselves in each other's shoes and find a way to work together.
Yet many owners and retailers are slowly coming to realize they are not in contretemps, and in fact share the same goal–they both want the retailer to be successful and to continue to operate in the center. With this common ground, they're taking a collaborative approach in dealing with today's market and are working through rent relief requests as a team.
"I am seeing more of a partnership between landlords and their tenants," says Henry Pharr III, an attorney with Charlotte, N.C.-based Horack Talley who specializes in landlord/tenant litigation. "They are saying 'We're all getting hit hard so let's try to work together as best we can.' The games played during the go-go times… the egos and pride… that has all gone away."
To be sure, these troubles are coming after an extremely robust run for landlords, who enjoyed a long boom in the sector and capitalized with healthy rental gains for years. Over the 10-year period spanning 1999 thru 2008, effective rents rose 23.2 percent, according to Reis. Owners suffered negative rent growth only one year during that period–a decrease of 1.1 percent in 2008. Over the past five years alone, effective rents spiked 10.8 percent, Reis reports.
Today, that situation has reversed. Retail vacancies are rising, reaching levels not seen in a decade. At the end of 2008, the blended retail vacancy rate (which looks at regional malls and community and power centers) hit 8.3 percent, according to Reis Inc. At neighborhood and community shopping centers, the vacancy rate rose to 8.9 percent from 8.4 percent in the third quarter, the highest since Reis began publishing quarterly data in 1999. Regional mall vacancies rose to 7.1 percent last quarter from 6.6 percent in the third quarter. It was the highest vacancy rate since Reis began tracking regional malls in 2000.
Yet, it's impossible to ignore how much retailers are also suffering. Retail sales in January 2009 were down 11.0 percent year-over-year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. To put that in perspective, during the last recession, retail sales didn't drop at all. In 2001 retail sales rose 3.5 percent and in 2002 they rose 2.8 percent.
Because of such dismal sales, retail tenants have seen their occupancy costs as a percentage of sales increase. In the 1990s, for example, occupancy costs were typically below 10 percent. Throughout this decade, they've escalated (as rental rates have increased), yet remained manageable at 10 percent to 12 percent. Today, it's not unheard of for a retailer's occupancy costs to exceed 15 percent or even 20 percent–an amount that makes most stores unprofitable, according to Mez Birdie, director of retail services at NAI Realvest in Maitland, Fla.
For many retailers, the situation is desperate. Industry experts are predicting between 10,000 to 20,000 store closings in 2009, and a number of retailers including Circuit City and Linens'n'Things have already filed for bankruptcy and handed the keys back to their landlords.
Overall, that creates a difficult environment that landlords and tenants will have to negotiate in 2009 and beyond.
Necessary tenants
Today, owners are receiving rent relief requests from retailers of all shapes and sizes.
"Even in good times, some mom and pop retailers ask for help with their rent, but now it's even worse because we have smaller retailers and national retailers hitting up their landlords at the same time," says Scott Frank.
Experts advise that landlords need to first evaluate their own situations before considering retailer requests, Pharr says. First, owners should think about how much they need that particular tenant in their center. Landlords have to consider, for example, if losing a tenant could put the center's cash flow in more jeopardy than accepting reduced rent. "In today's market, a little money is better than no money," Frank says.
Moreover, owners should consider a center's tenant mix and the position the tenant fills. They need to have a clear understanding of the options if a tenant defaults or terminates a lease, experts suggest. For example, losing particular tenants could trip co-tenancy clauses, potentially causing more harm to a center's occupancy and cash flow. Of equal concern, if a retailer closes shop, how quickly will the owner be able to lease the space and at what rate?
"When the market was stronger, owners had no problems evicting their tenants because they had tenants waiting in the wings to take the space," Pharr says. "No one is waiting in the wings today."
Pharr recently helped an owner negotiate a recent reduction package with one of its restaurant tenants. The owner was willing to work with the tenant because the restaurant anchored the small strip center and because the space adjacent to the restaurant was already vacant. The modified lease allows the restaurant to pay a rent equal to 10 percent of sales for six months, and the difference between that amount and the original rental rate would be amortized over the life of the lease.
"Overall, the decision wasn't that hard to make because the owner said: 'I'd like to have this tenant because it attracts people, and that's good for my center,'" Pharr says.
Review the numbers
When it comes to making rent relief decisions, most owners consider both quantitative data such as historical sales reports and financial statements and qualitative information including the long-term viability of the retail concept.
The information used to make a decision regarding rent relief is similar to the due diligence that owners conduct when they first negotiate a lease to bring in a new tenant, according to Frank Tobolsky. At the top of his list is a Dunn & Bradstreet report, along with letters of credit and personal guarantees.
Owners also look at historic sales data. While some only review sales data for one particular store, experts suggest they also review historic chain sales, as well as average store level sales. This information will give owners a clear view of how the retailer's store in their particular center measures up to other stores within the retailer's chain, Birdie says.
Publicly-traded retailers and large national chains usually have this information readily available, so the only roadblock is their willingness to share. Smaller retailers and mom and pop operations rarely have extensive data, so owners might have to be creative in getting access to financial information.
For example, Woolbright Development looks to the sales tax reports its tenants file with the state of Florida, according to CEO Duane Stiller. The Boca Raton, Fla.-based company, which owns and operates a shopping center portfolio totaling 3.5 million square, prefers retailers' rental expense to be 10 percent of sales or less.
"Retail tenants need to be completely transparent with their landlords," Birdie says. "Owners will work with retailers that provide detailed information."
Unfortunately, retailers are not in the position to demand the same level of transparency from their landlords (unless their leases are coming up for renewal). Yet, they still need to do their own evaluation to determine whether their landlords are in a position where they can offer rent relief.
Retailers that occupy space in centers owned by REITs will be able to access their landlords' earnings reports and financials. These documents will give tenants an idea of how much pressure their landlords are facing.
Obtaining information on private landlords will likely be more difficult. In this case, retailers might have to rely on word of mouth. Alternatively, retailers could ask their landlords about their financial situation and hope the landlord will answer the question honestly.
Retailers also need to determine if their landlords can make rent modifications without involving any lenders. In many cases, owners aren't always the final decision makers when it comes to rent relief requests. Owners with mortgages on their properties often cannot negotiate rent reductions without the blessing of their lenders.
Pharr, for example, has worked with owners who have wanted to offer rent relief, but have run afoul of their lenders. "In a lot of situations, lenders are preventing owners from helping their tenants," he says, adding that he has found himself in the unenviable position of playing referee between lenders and owners. "Most lenders start off saying they can't do it, but we try to loosen them up and sometimes our message resonates with them."
Stiller has become a big critic of the way lenders deal with owners and tenants who need rent reduction. "Saying no to every request is such an absurd stance for a lender to take," he says. "We're rapidly approaching the day when we're going to see some owners have to make a choice: do I respect what my banker is telling me to do or what my long-time tenant is asking me to do?"
For his part, Stiller says he's going to do "what's right for the company and the tenant," regardless of what his lenders tell him to do.
Hardball tactics
However, landlords are unhappy with the hardball tactics they feel some retailers have resorted to. Owners expect retailers with upcoming lease expirations to be tough negotiators and push for lower rents for their lease renewals. But owners say that the majority of rent relief requests are coming from retailers that have several years left on their leases.
Retail property owners that consent to rent reductions or abatements are putting their incomes at risk and likely decreasing the overall return on investment. "If we give up rent, we have to figure out where else we can find the savings to make up for it," says Jim Mastandrea, CEO of Houston-based Whitestone REIT, which owns and operates a portfolio of more than 3 million square feet of commercial property across the Southwest.
In other cases, retailers are threatening to close stores if abatement demands aren't met. For example, Fort Worth, Texas-based Pier 1 Imports last month went public with its push for concessions warning owners it would terminate leases on up to 125 underperforming stores if landlords deny its requests for lower rents.
And in Manhattan, Sierra Realty Corp. President Jim Wacht is dealing with a local retailer that is downsizing from 11 stores to seven stores as part of its bankruptcy reorganization. "This retailer is using bankruptcy to cherry-pick the leases and has basically given its landlords an ultimatum–the stores that will stay open are the stores that have the lowest rents," he says. "They're really putting the screws to the landlords, and if my client loses this tenant, it's really going to cost him. He feels like he has no choice."
Beware sinking ships
Stiller estimates about one-third of his tenants have asked for rent relief, so he's busy trying to figure out not only which ones need it, but which ones deserve it. The numbers only tell part of the story, he says, and don't provide any insight into the relevance of the retail concept and the quality of the retailer's operations.
"Some of the evaluation is numbers based, but some of it has to be subjective where you use your best judgment," Stiller says. "If a retailer has a concept that just isn't working, it needs to remake itself, and that's something I can't help."
Birdie of NAI Realvest says owners have to be careful not to make the mistake of bailing out a sinking ship. "You don't give a lifeline to a Titanic because you're just delaying the inevitable," he contends. "You just have to bite the bullet and take the space back."
In Manhattan, Wacht recently advised one of his owner-clients against providing rent relief to a tenant that sold high-end antiques. The tenant, which had already gone through its working capital and savings, needed a substantial reduction on its space (which was already priced at below-market rates).
"I made the recommendation to let the tenant go out of business and re-lease the space because his business is not going to get any better and he's not going to make it anyway," Wacht explains. "It was based on instinct, but the owner decided to give the tenant the rent relief. He said 'Let's try to keep him in business because there's too much uncertainty in the market.'"
Wacht admits the dismal market conditions are influencing how owners approach requests for rent relief. "For some owners and some situations, the devil you know is better than the devil you don't," he says, paraphrasing the well-known religious idiom.
Working together
Wacht and his owner-clients have acquiesced to about half of the requests they've received for rent relief. Some requests were denied because the retailers weren't willing to work with their landlord and offer anything in return for the landlord's flexibility.
"You can always tell which retailers really need help because they're willing to give up some of the options they have in their lease," Wacht says. In exchange for rent reductions of 10 to 15 percent, for example, retailers routinely give up their first right of refusal on expansion space or accept more stringent subleasing restrictions, among other things.
Wacht and his clients rejected some requests because the retailers didn't really need any concessions and were just trying to take advantage of the situation. In fact, many landlords suggest retailers are being opportunistic when they approach landlords, although retail sales data suggests otherwise.
"Some tenants are asking for rent relief just because other tenants are asking for it and brokers are recommending they do so," Whitestone REIT's Mastandrea says. "We're trying to determine whether they need some help or if they're asking because the guy next door got it."
Mastandrea points to a recent situation in which one tenant paying $30 per square foot for space in an Arizona shopping center petitioned the REIT for a reduction. The tenant was only a couple of years into his multi-year lease. "His business is doing well, yet when he found out the new tenant next door is paying only $24 per square feet, he wanted us to bring the rate down," he recalls. Whitestone's answer was a resounding "No!"
These baseless, opportunistic requests frustrate and anger landlords and make it even more difficult for retailers with real problems to get the help they need. Mastandrea likens these requests to landlords breaking their contracts with their tenants and changing the leases to raise rents when rates are increasing.
If the retailer's request does have merit, then landlords should act, Stiller says. "I believe it's in everyone's best interest that we come up with a solution and work with tenants to adjust the rental rate to something they can afford," he contends. "We can't be rigid because that's not going to work. We can't use an on-off switch and just kick them out; we need to use the dimmer switch."
That's why Woolbright Development has crafted a three-pronged approach to help its struggling tenants. The firm is working with retailers to provide rent relief; launching and paying for new marketing programs; and working with retailers to help them cut their expenses.
"Now is the time to come together because the alternative is failure, as an owner and as a retailer," Stiller says. "It's important that all of us make some sacrifices and respond to this economic crisis."
Thank you to Retail Traffic Magazine for this reproduction.
Tags: commercial rental reduction, rent reduction, rent reduction attorney, rent reduction letter, rent reduction request, rent reductions, rental reduction


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PARIS (AP) — The diamond show was staged on the ground floor of a hotel that thieves had targeted before — and which, in fact, had featured in Alfred Hitchcock's high-karat classic "To Catch a Thief." The guards were few and unarmed, and nobody thought to tell the police about the tens of millions worth of gems on display for more than a month.
As more details emerged Tuesday, questions grew about how the collection was so vulnerable, and how a single thief with a handgun could make off with one of the biggest hauls in history — a total of $136 million in jewels — without firing a shot.
It was the second time in a week that unarmed guards were overwhelmed by jewel thieves. At a Swiss prison near the French border, a member of the notorious "Pink Panther" gang escaped after accomplices rammed a gate and overpowered unarmed guards with bursts from Kalashnikovs.
Private security guards are generally prohibited from carrying weapons in France and Switzerland — that's reserved for police — but special authorizations can be granted when high-value assets are at stake.
"The public carrying of weapons — even by security guards and police officers — is much less visible throughout Europe than it is in parts of North America," said Keith Krause, program director of the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey, a nonprofit that monitors global views of weapons.
"Given that civilian possession of weapons is much less available, they're unlikely to have weapons because they're unlikely to be facing people with weapons."
Zakaria Rami, a union representative at the Carlton Intercontinental Hotel in Cannes who has worked there for 16 years, said show organizers didn't formally advise police of the show. Only a few guards hired by the jeweler provided security in a hotel showroom site where the robber struck on Sunday.
"If police knew there was $100 million in jewelry, I think they would have put a patrol car out there," he said.
The show was far from inconspicuous: One-story tall, bright pink banners covered the front facade of the Carlton, one of the most famous hotels on La Croisette — Cannes' best-known seaside promenade.
Rami wasn't at the Carlton in 1994 when a gunman opened fire at the hotel, injuring a guard before making off with $45 million in jewels. That robbery prompted the city to suspend the gem shows that draw jewelers to the French Riviera each summer, hoping to catch the eye of travelers with money to burn. The ban expired years ago, and the shows resumed.
The jewels on display routinely catch some unwanted attention. Rami said he can think of four or five other major robberies in his time in Cannes, which appears to be a favorite target this year — in May it was struck by other two highly publicized heists during the Cannes Film Festival.
"For security in a hotel that was housing such a collection, it's more a question that can be asked of the victim — and its insurer — than of police services," said Cmdr. Bernard Mascarelli, head of the judicial police in nearby Nice, whose Bureau for the Repression of Banditry is leading the investigation.
The owner of the collection, Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev, has said little about the theft, but said in a statement Tuesday that the company was working with police and insurers.
"Leviev takes the security of our staff and merchandise very seriously and all reasonable security measures required by our insurers were implemented prior to the robbery taking place," the statement said.
Philippe Vique, an assistant prosecutor in the Riviera town of Grasse, said there was no break-in at the hotel, and the private security guards were not armed. The gunman went in through French doors and exited less than a minute after the hold-up, he said. Rami, the union official, said the suspect was not pursued.
Alain Bauer, a leading French criminologist and security expert, said the show's organizer "could have called on the police — that in this specific case would have put armed officers in place."
Bauer, who is currently teaching in Colorado, acknowledged there is a different mindset about the right to bear arms in the European Union and in the United States.
"Between losing several millions of euros and killing someone, Europeans' choice has been that we'd rather lose several million euros," he said by telephone. "The idea that having more firearms creates more security isn't convincing in Europe."
"In this case, it's more a question of disorganization than of weapons," he said.
Police in Cannes haven't drawn any specific links between Cannes and the escape Thursday of Milan Poparic, the third member of the group to break out of a Swiss prison in as many months.
"But the Pink Panthers are known for these brazen acts of rushing into a place, quickly intimidating the people there and getting the loot and making their getaway," said Scott Andrew Selby, co-author of "Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History," about a 2003 heist in Antwerp, Belgium.
For the thieves, France is a place "they're comfortable hitting."
Selby said it's unlikely the bandit was working alone — suggesting he might have had a "scout" to scope out the hotel beforehand, or a getaway driver at the ready, even an adviser to help fence the stolen diamonds later on.
French authorities were poring over video surveillance footage, going back over other jewelry-theft case files and conducting other "standard judicial police work," said Mascarelli by phone.
The Carlton featured in Hitchcock's "To Catch a Thief," which starred Grace Kelly as an heiress and Cary Grant as a reformed burglar chasing a jewel thief. The thief, at least in the Hollywood ending, is caught in the chase.
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