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Pay now and not only will you lock in this year's dues rate, your membership will be good through the next program year (August 31, 2015). Learn More!
The BBA' s Summer Jobs Program has officially kicked off thanks to a sendoff from Boston Mayor Marty Walsh. Follow our students progress on our public service blog, Beyond the Billable, here.
One More Week. For the full post, click here.
New York Times Supreme Court Correspondent Adam Liptak will keynote 2014 Annual Meeting Luncheon on September 12th. Learn More.
A forum for criminal defense lawyers and prosecutors to explore practice issues and strengthen skills
Yesterday at the Federal courthouse, BBA volunteers and employment law specialists Alida Bográn-Acosta (Sugarman, Rogers, Barshak & Cohen, P.C.) and Allyson Kurker (Kurker Paget LLC) assisted PILP9 by delivering an informative presentation on employment law basics — a particularly important issue to the probationers. With 21 probationers in attendance, Alida and Allyson answered countless questions that the group brought to the table.
This presentation was the 7th and final module in the pilot series. Next month, PILP 9 will meet with the probationers from the CARE and RESTART programs for an informal discussion intended to gather feedback on the 7 pilot lessons. Stay tuned for updates. Alida Bográn-Acosta (Sugarman, Rogers, Barshak & Cohen, P.C.) and Allyson Kurker (Kurker Paget LLC) presented the last Community Reentry Readiness session on employment law to probationers at the Federal Court yesterday.
For more Beyond the Billable posts, click here.
Section Co-Chair
Lawson & Weitzen, LLP
(617) 439-4990
Burns & Levinson LLP
(617) 345-3644


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He created the most popular site on the Internet, had a movie made about his life and has nearly 700,000 likes on Facebook. And guess what — he has great taste in coffee.
Mark Zuckerberg stopped into Verve Coffee Roasters on 41st Avenue on Tuesday around lunch time for a cup of coffee.
At noon, the local business sent out the following Facebook post:
Mark Zuckerberg - Thanks for stopping in! Glad to hear you enjoyed the coffee, and we hope to see you soon.
Within an hour, the post racked up 94 likes and six comments including one from a Verve fan named Peter, who said, "I hope he tipped." Back in May, Zuckerberg famously left no gratuity after dining at a restaurant in Rome on his honeymoon.
Have you had any other celebrity sightings in town? Who have you seen? Tell us in the comments!

subset: commoncrawl


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Sort: publication date | titles A - Z
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For children growing up in foster care, the role of their birth parents is an important factor in the success of their long-term placements. Understanding the experiences of parents is therefore essential for social workers. This book set out a model of good practice, based on the experiences of these parents and social workers. more »2010, Paperback: £22.99/ $36.95
Keywords: adolescence, adoption, adults, attachment, child development, child protection, children, communication, domestic abuse, drugs, emotions, families, fostering, looked after children, mental health, parenting, relationships, residential care, resilience, safeguarding children, self esteem, social care, social policy, social work, teenagers, transitions, trauma
This edited collection offers an international perspective on the challenges of designing and undertaking outcome-based evaluation of child and family services. It introduces the key ideas and issues currently being debated in the evaluation of these services and provides examples of evaluation from policy and practice. more »2010, Hardback: £60.00/ $95.00
Keywords: adolescence, adoption, advocacy, attachment, carers, child development, child protection, child psychiatry, child psychology, children, children's rights, disability, domestic abuse, early intervention, families, fostering, health care, joint working, looked after children, mental health, mental illness, parenting, residential care, safeguarding children, social care, social policy, social work, supported living, teenagers, transitions, trauma
Emotional maltreatment is widespread and has a profoundly harmful effect on a child's development. The effects of abuse are often carried into adulthood, and emotionally abused children are more likely to experience a range of problems as adults. This book sets out to identify 'what works' in preventing emotional maltreatment from recurring. more »2010, Paperback: £18.99/ $32.95
Keywords: adolescence, adoption, attachment, child protection, child psychiatry, child psychology, children, cognitive behavioural therapy, counselling, domestic abuse, early intervention, educational psychology, emotions, families, health care, joint working, looked after children, mental health, mental illness, parenting, psychiatry, psychoanalysis, psychology, psychotherapy, residential care, resilience, risk assessment, safeguarding children, self esteem, self harm, sexual abuse, social care, social policy, social work, substance abuse, teenagers, therapeutic communities, trauma, violence, youthwork
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(3 titles match the current selection)


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Hitman: Blood Money places gamers once again in the role of the world's greatest assassin, Agent 47. When assassins from Agent 47's contract killing firm, The ICA, are systematically eliminated in a series of hits, it seems a larger more powerful agency has entered the fray. Sensing that he may be the next target, Agent 47 travels to America, where he Prepares to Make a Killing. In Hitman: Blood Money, Agent 47 finds himself in the midst of a war between two rival contract agencies. When assassins from his contract agency, the ICA, are systematically eliminated in a series of hits, it seems a larger, more powerful agency has entered the fray. Suddenly, Agent 47 loses contact with the ICA. Sensing that he may be the next target, he travels to America where he attempts to carry on with business as usual.
Hitman: Blood Money is a Shooter/First-Person Shooter video game for PlayStation 2 developed by Eidos and published by Eidos Interactive on May 31, 2006. It's rated Mature by the ESRB and 125 of our users have voted it 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Our newest cheats for Hitman: Blood Money were added December 14, 2009. We also have the game available on Xbox, PC, Xbox 360, in addition to PS2.
At the main menu screen enter: Triangle, Triangle, Square, Circle, R1, Circle, R2, X, X.
At the menu screen enter: Triangle, Square, Square, Right, Down, Left, R2, X, X.
Pause the game and press: R1, L1, R1, L1, Left, Right, Up, Down, Square.
If you find yourself where the screen starts turning red you need to shoot at least three people in the head to come back to life. Once you come back to life you might want to take the painkillers or adrenaline shot.
First get to the lobby of the hotel and get to the casino (remember when you get to the casino by stairs correct? The stairs is split in 2 get to the right stairs)you will see a door to the right, open the door and you will see 1 door in front of you and corner to the left, corner to the left and you will see 3 door get to the first door go inside and wait for the your first target to come. When you kill your target get his suit and his keycard (room 707). You will notice that your second target is arriving by a car. You must get to the lobby go up the stair in the left and get to the elevator in the left climb the hatch at the elevator and wait for your second target get in the elevator strangle him and you will see a black briefcase take the briefcase and hide it somewhere that can't be found. Get to the room where your first target's room take the dna briefcase and get to the lobby, get to the casino place where there is a 2 guard standing that their suit is like a FBI agent. Wait there and you will see your third target get in to the place. Get in there to but you will be checked first surrender all your weapon (If you bring it)get in the room that your target is. They both will start talking (don't get from the room)there will be a girl dancing throw a coin and the girl will start going out from the room and your target will standing get behind him and poison him. Take the black briefcase and escape. PRESTO YOU WILL GET HITMAN RATING.
When you start out in the mission go to the truck where is donuts in the back take them and take it behind the hedge bush and poison them. Then take them to the FBI agents in the van drop them and then walk away they will take them and eat the donuts they will get sick and die after that happens go into the van steal the video tape so you wont be caught on the video camera then dress up as a FBI agent then leave the van. Start walking into the house the agents will automatically let you in as long as you are dressed like them. Then go up stairs and go into the room that the guy goes into to check his computer then just place a mine by the computer when he goes in there detonate the mine. Now you are on getting the last thing to do go out back there will be a shed pick the lock and go in there and get the lighter fluid and go over to the grill and make sure no one can see you do this you rig the grill when the girl lights the grill she will be caught on fire and start running around then she will fall into the pool after the FBI agents walk away from her go into the pool and take the mirco film and just walk out of the place and escape and you should get a hitman rating and on the news article it will say HITMAN WANTED!
First, get your coat from the officer in the front desk. You will retrieve a WWII pistol. Next go to the bathroom and wait for the construction worker in the green. When he comes sedate him with the sedative, take his clothes, and then hide his body in the container. Then, run down to the first floor, take a right and go down the stairs where the construction worker in white is painting. Go straight through the hallways, and once you get to the room with another construction worker take a right to the big doors. Keep going straight and follow the signs on the doors that say stage. Once you get to where it splits into two doors take the one on the left. It should be the men's locker room. Keep going straight and exit that room. Take a right to where there is a guard sitting. There is two doors in front of him; enter the one on the right. Hide in the closet. Wait for the actor to come to his room where you are. Wait for him to leave. Walk towards the mirror and press "x" when it says to place the real gun. Take his prop gun. exit his room run through the big doors and run upstairs. Go through the door. Place a bomb where the rope is. Now go all the way back to the main lobby. Go back to the bathroom and change back into your suit. Wait for the end of the play. He should be shot for real and after 15 seconds the ambassador should come running out. Follow the ambassador he should trip. When he does blow the bomb and escape. The chandelier should fall on him if you time it right.
In the last mission, Requiem when you kill the old guy on the wheelchair take his Custom 1911 and shoot the wheelchair with it. The wheelchair should bleed. (only sometimes it works)
When you start out the mission "A New Life" you will start out at a large gate, in front of you, you will see, about a few yards away, a man hole surrounded by wooden barricades. you can dispose of bodies in here by throwing them over the rail of the barricade.
We all know how risky it is to dart to an exit with a rifle without a case... especially if your hauling other luggage. Example: The SVD Dragunov is available in only 2 levels (That I know of), The tutorial (first level, "Death Of A Showman"), and "A Dance With The Devil". The tutorial is easiest, but u cant keep the guns you finish with right? Wrong. The ICA case you get the RU-AP mine from saves whatever you put in it - including rifles / pistols / smg's and even melee weapons. In "The Murder Of Crows" it is rather easy to obtain the SG-552 rifle, go thru the level and when you have done everything, kill the bird- guards outside and in the compound - there is a an unmarked case across from the dumpster in the eastbound courtyard from the main bird compound (not the starting point, just northeastof that). I think you get the point.
When you die, you have those last moments to choose whether to give up or die with as many kills as possible. I have found that quite often when i die and keep on killin', I actually get a second chance. It takes about 4-6 kills while dying to get a second chance, And its quite hard too. The second chance allows you to use painkillers or adrenaline (unless your in Requiem). If die again - no 3rd chance, or if u cant get to painkillers in time - one more shot (to you) and you drop what you got.
There is going to be a crowd of tourist one lady is going to take a smoke break on the other side of the bus, so what you do is follow her on the other side of the bus then she is going to put down her suit case place a bomb into the suit case once she enters the medal detector. Blow the bomb as a devious. Or you can place your ballers in to the suit case, they will then arrest the lady, then kill the guards at the door then hide the bodies by the bus. Then go to the police room to retrive your Ballers.
At the end of the game, when your at the level "Requiem" the credits will start rolling, and the background is Agent 47 laying down supposedly dead, and thats his funeral. But if you rotate the left analog stick, your life will go up, and you will be revived. 47 will grab the two pistols on his chest, and you have to kill all the guards. Once you've killed all the guards, exit the funeral place, and go outside. Go out onto the road, and follow it till you see the two cars. Kill any guards remaining, then kill the guy in the wheelchair, and the other guy who tries to run away. If you do this successfully, you will see the alternate ending.
Last updated: October 28, 2009 by LegendaryGun
Last updated: July 8, 2006 by Dub-5
Last updated: July 8, 2006 by Dub-5
Last updated: July 9, 2006 by Dub-5
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Last updated: June 11, 2008 by El Verdugo
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Looking for phones? CNET's reviews of the best phones include photos, video, and user reviews.
The Sonic Impact Video 55 provides a convenient way to watch and share video on the go. If you own an iPod, don't want to lug around your laptop, and have 300 bucks to spare, it fits the bill.
The first Bose VideoWave impressed with its surround sound, but the attached TV fell behind the times. The VideoWave II looks more likely to sweep us off our feet.
An excellent dSLR for experienced shooters or Nikon professionals looking for a relatively cheap option, the Nikon D7000 delivers on almost all counts, including the company's best shooting design to date.
A lightweight, compact design coupled with its stabilized 400mm-equivalent focal length zoom and affordable price make the Canon EF-S 55-250mm f4-5.6 IS a versatile lens for entry-level shooters and amateurs on a budget.
The Nikon D40x makes a very nice first dSLR, though experienced SLR shooters looking for a Nikon should spend the extra cash for the D80.
Lenovo's Yoga 2 11 combines the popular Yoga hybrid design with an affordable 11-inch ultraportable for a system that's budget-feeling but sturdy, and one of the best of a new breed of low-cost hybrids.
If you can't quite afford the Yoga 2 Pro but still want a full-time laptop and a part-time tablet, the 13-inch Lenovo Yoga 2 is an excellent choice.
While it includes some performance and graphics concessions on the lowest priced model, the 21.5-inch iMac brings Apple's iconic design and top-notch bundled accessories and software to a wider audience.
With their 360-degree rotating screens, the new 13.3-inch Pavilion and 15.6-inch Envy x360 convertibles join the budget-friendly 11.6-inch x360 from earlier this year.
The Encore 2 starts at $200 and comes in 8- and 10-inch flavors, but they offer largely identical features.


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Photos and VideosMore Photos and Videos
Russia's Maria Sharapova holds the cup after defeating Italy's Sara Errani in their women's final match in the French Open tennis tournament in Paris.
Maria Sharapova won the French Open on Saturday, defeating Sara Errani 6-3, 6-2 in the final to complete the career Grand Slam.
Second-seeded Sharapova, who was guaranteed of moving to No. 1 in the world regardless of the result, jumped to a quick 4-0 lead against the 21st-seeded Errani, who was in her first Grand Slam final.
Errani battled back on a blustery day at Roland Garros, but Sharapova's bigger serve and bigger groundstrokes eventually wore down Errani, who at 5-foot-4½ stands 9½ inches shorter than her Russian opponent.
Sharapova added this year's French Open title to championships at Wimbledon in 2004, the U.S. Open in 2006 and the Australian Open in 2008 to become only the 10th woman to win all four major tournaments.


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Welcome to Hickory Springs Farm
Boarding...Grooming...Training...Day Care
Whether you are one of our oldest friends or are here for the first time our commitment is the same - to offer your beloved pet(s) the best possible care, bar none. We figure animals have a right to fun and pampering just like people and we look forward to caring for (maybe even spoiling) your four legged family member. Contact us today for more information.


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Dan Wilson Radio
Dan Wilson has been a cult hero of American smart pop music since the late 1980s as guitarist with the bands Trip Shakespeare and Semisonic, and in the 21st century he's quietly embarked on a solo career. Born in Barrington, IL on March 25, 1969, Dan Wilson grew up in Minneapolis, MN, and like his brother Matt Wilson he developed a passion for music and learned how to play guitar in his teens. Wilson studied art at Harvard University, but after graduating, he returned to Minneapolis to discover his brother Matt's band Trip Shakespeare -- a locally popular trio who fused pop hooks with a psychedelic sense of aural wanderlust -- was thinking of adding a second guitar player. Dan joined Trip Shakespeare shortly after the release of their first album, 1986's Applehead Man, and made his recorded debut with the group on 1988's Are You Shakespearienced?. Trip Shakespeare signed a deal with A&M Records in 1989, and they recorded three albums for the label, 1990s Across the Universe, 1991's Lulu, and 1992's Volt. Unfortunately, the group's following never grew beyond an enthusiastic cult, and A&M opted not to release Volt, which instead came out through Minneapolis indie label Twin/Tone. After A&M dropped Trip Shakespeare and the group parted ways, Dan Wilson concentrated on writing songs before forming a new band, Semisonic, in 1995. Featuring former Trip Shakespeare bassist John Munson and drummer Jacob Slichter, Semisonic's approach was as pop-oriented as Wilson's previous band, but with a more accessible melodic sense, and the group earned positive reviews and a devoted fan following for their debut EP, 1995's Pleasure, and their first full-length album, 1996's The Great Divide, which was Semisonic's first release under a deal with MCA Records. 1998's Feeling Strangely Fine was a major commercial breakthrough for Semisonic, scoring two hit singles ("Closing Time" and "Secret Smile") and earning the group a platinum album. However, while 2001's All About Chemistry received enthusiastic reviews and the single "Chemistry" was a hit in the U.K., the album didn't click with record buyers, and Semisonic quietly went on hiatus, though they made periodic concert appearances and compilation appearances. As Semisonic went into semi-retirement, Wilson focused his energies on songwriting and studio work; he produced albums for Mike Doughty, Epic Hero, the New Standards and Storyville, and wrote several songs with Jewel, Jason Mraz and the Dixie Chicks, including the Chicks' "Not Ready to Make Nice," which in 2007 won the Grammy award as "Song of the Year." Wilson has also signed with Rick Rubin's American Records as a solo act; his album Free Life, featuring a guest appearance from Sheryl Crow, landed in October 2007. Wilson also performs occasionally with John Munson and Matt Wilson in their side project the Flops. ~ Mark DemingPortions of Content Provided by Rovi Corporation.
© 2014 Rovi Corporation.


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Instructor: Fred Smith
Date: February 2, 2013
Time & Day: Saturday
Basic Class: 9am to 12pm
Intermediate Class: 1pm to 4pm
Class Fee: Each class $35.00 OCAF Members &
$40.00 Non-members
Both Basic and Intermediate classes available. You will need a Quick-Pulp Papermaking Kit for both classes. Basic students will learn to use the kit to make and customize paper. Intermediate students must have taken the Basic class and will learn additional customizing, shaped-paper,
and 3-D techniques. For more information about this and other classes go to our website at www.ocaf.com under Art Education, email us at email@example.com, or call our office at
(706) 769-4565.


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The York County Sheriffs Office has arrested three men they say are responsible for a February power outage in Clover after they stole copper wire from a York Electric sub station.
The men cut grounding wires at the Green Pond sub station on the night of Feb. 20, according to a news release from the sheriffs office.
After the electric co-op reported the theft, the York County K-9 team led deputies nearly 1.5 miles to 111 Cloverleaf Dr. in Clover, home of 27-year-old Gary Lee Scott and 23-year-old Mark Allen Main, the release states.
After searching the home, detectives seized evidence related to several theft cases.
Information from the search also led detectives to search 3262 N. York St. in Sharon, home of 45-year-old Robert Keith Sweeney, the release states.
Detectives found cut wire connectors and four large batteries at Sweeneys home, according to the news release.
Main, Scott and Sweeney are believed to be involved in nine theft cases in York County and also cases in Charlotte and Gaston County, N.C.
Police estimate that the men have stolen or damaged nearly $22,500 worth of property, according to the release.
Since December 2012, the sheriffs office has been investigating copper thefts from various cell phone towers and electric co-op substations located in Clover, Sharon, Hickory Grove, York and Smyrna.
The York County Sheriffs Office is still investigating the case.
Anna Douglas 803-329-4068


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Jaime Pressly Crewneck Sweater
Jaime Pressly looked cozy in her black crewneck sweater, teamed with a scarf, during the premiere of 'The Lego Movie.'
Jaime Pressly Print Pants
Jaime Pressly's camo-print skinnies were a perfect blend of sexy and tough.
Show Jaime Pressly Looks With:
Crewneck Sweater also worn by: more Crewneck Sweater looks »


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This may come as a surprise to many, but last month was the
151st anniversary of the first Congressional Medal of
Honor. The medal was first established in December of 1861.
There is a great deal of history behind both the medal and those
who have received one.
For anyone who is unaware of the award, the Medal of Honor is
defined by the Congressional Medal of Honor Society as: "the
highest award for valor in action against an enemy force which can
be bestowed upon an individual serving in the Armed Services of the
United States."
The medal has a long and interesting history. It
was first introduced by Iowa Sen. James Grimes, who first introduced
the idea of "medals of honor" for the Navy. Shortly after the
idea was raised, President Lincoln signed the bill that started the
Navy Medal of Honor on Dec. 21, 1861. Soon after, in February
1862, the Army Medal of Honor was signed into effect by President
R.T.G Winkler, an employee of William Wilson & Son Company
in Philadelphia, created the design for the Navy Medal of
Honor. It was then sculpted by the Philadelphia Mint's Anthony Paquet. A few
months later the Army's Medal of Honor design was created. To
this day each military branch has a different design. The Navy
Medal of Honor continues to use the 1861 design and is awarded to
members of the Navy, Marines and Coast Guard. The Army Medal
of Honor used today is a wreath version designed in 1904. The
final Medal of Honor version is the altered wreath version for the
Air Force which was designed in 1963 and adopted in 1965.
(Photograph: Today's Army
Medal of Honor)
During the initial years that the medal was awarded, the
criteria to receive a medal was not as stringent as it is today.
Awards were given out to soldiers for simply performing their
duties, or they were given out as personal awards to friends and
relatives. Due to a large number of requests in 1890, President McKinley directed the Army to
establish new regulations.
In 1916, a Board of Generals reviewed past award recipients and
removed 911 awardees from the honor roll. Included in that list was
William F. Cody, better known as Buffalo Bill,
who had received the award as a scout after participating
in the Indian Campaigns. The other prominent name stricken was
Dr. Mary E. Walker, who volunteered during the
Civil War as an assistant surgeon. She participated in campaigns
including Bull Run and Chickamauga, and she was held prisoner by
Confederates. She had been the first woman awarded a Congressional
Medal of Honor. Both of these historic figures were stricken from
the honor roll due to their civilian status.
It was not until 1977 that the Medal of Honor was restored to
Walker by President Carter. Today, Walker remains the only
woman who has received the award. Years later, in
1989, William Cody and 5 other civilian scouts had their medals
The Congressional Medal of Honor has been awarded to more 3,400
recipients. Leslie Sabo Jr. was the last recipient of the
award in May of 2012, but as we all know, it is certain that he
will not be the final recipient of the award.
If you wish to view the Congressional Medal of Honor and
other historical military medals and artifacts, visit the Money
Museum at 818 N. Cascade Ave. in Colorado Springs, Colo.


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HARPERSFIELD — Brenda Catanese, 44, of Harpersfield, Ohio, died Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2013, at her home.
Friends will be received 4 to 7 p.m., Sunday, at the Behm Family Funeral Home, 175 S. Broadway, Geneva, Ohio.
Graveside service will be 1 p.m., Monday, at Harpersfield Cemetery, Rt. 307, Harpersfield.
Arrangements by The Behm Family Funeral Home, Geneva.


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PowerPivot currently has no programmatic interface, so there is really no automated way to leverage its capabilities (other than those provided by PowerPivot for SharePoint). However, we must remember that one way to consume PowerPivot data is through an Excel pivot table (there are others, like Excel Cube functions). Pivot tables do have an API, which allows for a certain degree of programmatic interactivity with PowerPivot data.
A client recently asked me if a PowerPivot report could behave in this way: upon expansion of a row lable, a graph should display only the 'child' members of the selected row. A screenshot will probably help in explaining the desired effect:
One may be inclined to think this functionality is now possible but keeping in mind that pivot tables do have an API, it was worth giving it a try. As you may have seen on my prior blog entries, PowerPivot automatically generates an interface of measures and dimensions. We can use this interface to dynamically generate the desired effect.
The first thing we must do is generate a second pivot table with countries in the row labels along with a slicer for the 'Sales Territory' (the one the user will be clicking on). I call this second pivot table a utility pivot table as it is not meant to be shown to the user, but will allow us to get the job done. It will not only be sliced by the same 'Calendar Year' as the original one, but will serve as the source for chart data.
In order to have both tables react to the slicer, we must configure the 'Calendar Year' slicer to connect to both. This can be easily done in the slicer ribbon tab:
Now all we have to do is generate a VBA script to take the user selection of 'SalesTerritoryGroup' (in the slicer) and filter the utility table as well. First we must pick the right event handler to capture a user click. For this we can use the Worksheet_PivotTableUpdate event handler. Once the event is triggered, we can capture the text on the active cell, and pass that to the slicer on the utility pivot table.
Private Sub Worksheet_PivotTableUpdate(ByVal Target As PivotTable)
ActiveWorkbook.SlicerCaches("Slicer_SalesTerritoryGroup").VisibleSlicerItemsList _
= Array( _
"[DimSalesTerritory].[SalesTerritoryGroup].&[" & ActiveCell.Text & "]")
End Sub
"Slicer_SalesTerritoryGroup" is the name of the slicer of the utility pivot table. Upon pivot table update, we pass to that slicer a reference to the fully qualified dimension member which the user has just clicked on. The result is a chart that dynamically shows the child countries of the territory the user just double clicked on. This happens at the same time the row expands to show those children in the pivot table itself:
Though the solution may not be perfect (the effect happens not only on expansion but also when collapsing a row), it is still an interesting way to add functionality to a PowerPivot report.
Lets examine what the options are for calculating Quartile / Percentiles in PowerPivot. On my last post, I explained one way to calculate Median using pure DAX. Though the calculation works, don't expect it to be speedy when dealing with large datasets; The reason for this is that it relies on row context iterations to rank values prior to selecting the median.
As similar technique can be used to calculate Quartile or Percentile, following this blog entry. However, the result is not always optimal: not only the calculation can be slow, be the results do not match Excel's native functions. The reason for this is that Excel uses interpolation to calculate both Quartile and Percentile, whereas the DAX expression above picks one value out of the set (in other words, its just an approximation).
Can we use a technique to match Excel's results within a PowerPivot model? The answer is yes, though the technique discussed here does not use DAX. What I want to share is another way of using the inherent capabilities of PowerPivot: being itself a version of SQL Server Analysis Services, it is actually able to understand MDX. It is quite interesting to notice that PowerPivot can behave in ways that reveal its SSAS nature: from the ability to respond to Excel cube functions to generating a trace file which can be read in SQL Profiler.
So what does this have to do with calculating Percentile? Well, even though DAX does not include any of those functions you can leverage PowerPivot's multidimensional interface to create an MDX calculated member that will encapsulate each of those functions. Lets see how.
In order to see PowerPivot queries to the Vertipaq engine in MDX format, we can use a free codeplex add-in called 'OLAP PivotTable Extensions' (download it here, and be sure to select the correct bitness version). This add-in was created with SSAS in mind, but – without any further effort from the add-in itself – PowerPivot responds to it. Once installed, create a PowerPivot table and then use the add-in to view the MDX query (select the 'MDX' tab on the window that appears when you click on the OLAP Pivot Table Extensions menu item)
Sample PowerPivot table using AdventureWorks data
The MDX query we get is:
NON EMPTY Hierarchize(
FROM [Sandbox]
[Measures].[Sum of SalesAmount]
NON EMPTY Hierarchize(
FROM [Sandbox]
[Measures].[Sum of SalesAmount]
So lets create a calculated member to compute Median.
Select the 'Calculations' tab on the add-in menu. This is used to submit calculated members along with the rest of the pivot table query. Type the following query:
[DimDate].[CalendarYear].CurrentMember *
, CoalesceEmpty ( [Measures].[Sum of SalesAmount] , 0 )
This should look in the add-in window as follows:
The result matches Excel regular 'Median' function:
Lets examine the actual query. MDX has a built-in 'Median' function ( see definition here ). As you can see, the expression uses parameters that look like regular SSAS dimensions. This is the PowerPivot data model though, and we didn't have to use Visual Studio to create it: the PowerPivot engine automatically creates dimensions based on the tabular model loaded into Vertipaq.
The measure [Sum of SalesAmount] is the aggregate PowerPivot created based on the Sales Amount column of the in-memory fact table. Once it became an actual measure in the PowerPivot model, we can use it as the measure expression of the MDX function.
Lets try now creating Quartile and Percentiles. It gets more interesting here: Unlike the 'Median' function, MDX has no built-in Percentile or Quartile function. So here we have it: neither DAX nor MDX will help us here. However, we can leverage a another feature of SSAS: the ability to perform COM interop calls through the ExcelMDX assembly. You can see this library on a regular SSAS installation by browsing the assemblies folder:
It is quite interesting when you think about it. We are asking an Excel pivot table to communicate with the PowerPivot engine through a calculated member which in turn invokes Excel functionality not present in the MDX language. Pretty cool indeed. So lets try it: Using the following expression we can compute Quartiles:
SetToArray (
( [DimDate].[CalendarYear].CurrentMember * [DimDate].[EnglishMonthName].[All].Children
, CoalesceEmpty ( [Measures].[Sum of SalesAmount] , 0 )
The output is the following:
As you can see, the output matches Excel's native quartile function. The calculation is now built into the PowerPivot model, and hence is dynamic and can respond to slicers and filters, as well as cell context by using MDX properties like 'CurrentMember'. And though the PowerPivot is performing a COM interop call to Excel (marshalling calls from one environment to the other), it should still perform better than a DAX calculation based heavily on row context.
If you examine the MDX that is sent to the Vertipaq engine, you will notice the calculated member is declared as a query scoped expression:
MEMBER [Measures].[Quartile] as Excel!Quartile(
SetToArray (
( [DimDate].[CalendarYear].CurrentMember * [DimDate].[EnglishMonthName].[All].Children
, CoalesceEmpty ( [Measures].[Sum of SalesAmount] , 0 )
[Measures].[Sum of SalesAmount],
FROM [Sandbox] CELL PROPERTIES VALUE, FORMAT_STRING, LANGUAGE, BACK_COLOR, FORE_COLOR, FONT_FLAGS
The dimension used (DimDate) as well as the measure (Sum of SalesAmount) were automatically created by the PowerPivot engine. This is what provides compatibility with OLAP interfaces: for each table in the PowerPivot model, a default 'count' measure has been created as well as a dimension, in which each column is an attribute. In other words, dimensions and measures are somewhat interchangeable in PowerPivot, following a more flexible model than with the traditional SSAS engine. Also, notice the query is executed against a cube called 'Sandbox'. This is the default cube-interface name for Vertipaq PowerPivot databases. It is the same name you will see in the cubes generated in the dedicated SSAS instance used on PowerPivot for SharePoint (This is an instance of SQL Server Analysis Services 2008 R2 in Vertipaq mode).
One downside of this method is that the PowerPivot field list is not aware of the calculation. However, if you open the standard pivot table field list you will see it there. In other words, and as I said before, this calculation is now part of the data model. Which means you can access it outside of the constraints of the pivot table: through Excel cube functions. As an example, using the following formula expression on a worksheet cell we can dynamically invoke the MDX calculated member against PowerPivot, with the ability to specify a query context to it:
=CUBEVALUE("PowerPivot Data",CUBESET("PowerPivot Data","Head([DimDate].[CalendarYear].[All].Children)"),"[Measures].[Quartile]")
The result will be 925,015 again. In other words, we were able to dynamically invoke the first member of the CalendarYear attribute on the DimDate dimension and leverage the MDX calculated member, all in one cell – no need of pivot tables. Pretty powerful right?
You can verify that our Quartile calculation is now part of the intrinstic model by browsing through measures members when constructing the cube formula:
What I find pretty interesting is that the list of available measures on the PowerPivot model includes now regular DAX measures ([Measures].[Sum of Sales]) as well as MDX measures ([Measures].[Quartile]).
How about Percentile? Using the same method, it is pretty simple to calculate it. Just replace Quartile in the MDX expression… that's it!
SetToArray (
( [DimDate].[CalendarYear].CurrentMember * [DimDate].[EnglishMonthName].[All].Children
, CoalesceEmpty ( [Measures].[Sum of SalesAmount] , 0 )
Be careful to not define your underlying measure as 'currency' type. Though I always thought data types in the PowerPivot window were purely decorative (as they don't carry over the pivot table), the MDX calculated member will not work on currency types. Instead, try decimal type and you will be fine.
And one last thing… as you may have noticed, this technique opens the possiblity to a huge range of calculated expressions. An though it is not the standard PowerPivot/DAX implementation, it still leverages PowerPivot technology by making use of its inherent data model. In other words, PowerPivot applications can not only benefit from the amazing power of DAX , but also that of MDX (which in turn opens the door to further functionality through interfaces with Excel and VBA). Things like Internal Rate of Return (IRR) are also possible using this method
Excel!IRR( SetToArray ( [Table3].[b].[All].Children, [Measures].[Sum of a] ) )
Although PowerPivot – in its currently implementation – lacks a dedicated 'median' function, it is possible to recreate it using existing functionality. There is a great blog entry here by Marco Russo where he describes how to calculate median over the values of a PowerPivot column.
His calculation is as follows:
MINX( FILTER( VALUES( People[Age] ),
CALCULATE( COUNTROWS( People ),
People[Age] <= EARLIER( People[Age] ) )
> COUNTROWS( People ) / 2 ),
People[Age] )
Recently I tried to adapt this calculation to a PowerPivot application I was working on. I ran into two issues:
1) The calculation can be applied over a regular column on a table in the PowerPivot window or a DAX calculated column. However, what if you must calculated the median over the output of a DAX measure instead of a regular or calculated column? In this case, you won't be able to use the DAX functions EARLIER and VALUES, as these only take columns as parameters. Due to this, the calculation above won't work
2) I realized there should be a separate logic depending on whether the set of values is even or odd. For even sets, there is no discrete middle value and one must calculate an average of both values in the middle.
Fortunately, it is fairly easy to deal with both issues. With Alberto Ferrari's help, I implemented the calculation below. There are three steps for it, the first one which implies the creation of an index, which we will use to select the values in the middle. I then created an alternate execution path for even sets, which simply averages the two values in the middle.
To see how it works, copy and past the data below and import it into PowerPivot (as a linked table):
Step 1
Create a measure. This is to test that we can calculate a median over a column or measure using the same method.
[Test Measure] =SUM([Amount]) / 2
Step 2
Create another measure which will serve to rank the months by the value in [Test Measure]. We will use this ranking value to determine which value is the median (in case of odd sets), or to average the two values in the middle (in case of even sets)
Step 3
Create median expression, reflecting the logic discussed above:
[Median] =IF( COUNTROWS( VALUES( Table1[Month] ) ) > 1,
IF( MOD( COUNTROWS( ALL( Table1[Month] ) ) ,2 ) = 0,
CALCULATE( MAXX( Table1, [Test Measure] ),
[Index] <= ROUND( COUNTROWS(ALL(Table1[Month])) / 2, 0)
) +
CALCULATE( MINX( Table1, [Test Measure] ),
[Index] > ROUND( COUNTROWS(ALL(Table1[Month])) / 2, 0)
) / 2
[Test Measure],
[Index] = ROUND( COUNTROWS(ALL(Table1[Month])) / 2, 0)
The calculation first uses the MOD function to determine if the set is even (which is the case in our example). It then gets the two values in the middle by:
1) Filtering the months for all that have an index of less or equal to the count of months divided by two. Take the maximum value of [Test Measure] for this set.
2) Filter the months for all that have an index greater than the count of months divided by two. Take the minimum value of [Test Measure] for this set
3) add these values and divide by two (simple average)
The calculation is correct and matches Excel's regular median function output. One word of caution: this expression relies heavily on row context which can greatly impact performance over big datasets. In the following blog post, I will talk about a potential way around this issue in which we can arrive to correct the Median output by leveraging PowerPivot's intrinsic compatibility with MDX.
When developing DAX calculations in order to create meaningful business metrics you normally want to remove or refine an existing filter in the current filter context. For example, when calculating the sales contribution of a country to the sales across all countries in the Adventure Works sample database one could use:
This would yield the following result
So far so good. However, what if we want to pick only certain years and have the expression dynamically recalculate only for the selected years? We could add a slicer with the year values. This won't work, though: the ALL function will force the filter context to evaluate across all years – regardless of slicer selection:
As you can see, DAX computes the contribution across the total for all years in the in-memory DimDate table. The result incorrectly adds up to only 54.82% as the denominator is still taking into account all years, not just the selected ones. How can we make this dynamic, to use only the selected values on the slicer?
The solution is to take advantage of the inherent flexibility offered by calculated columns. We can create another 'Year' column in our data model, and then add another context to the calculation that will use ALL years but only within the boundaries defined by the user defined filters. The nice thing about this solution is that the output only takes into account the years in the slicer (in other words, the query context), instead of either taking ALL years or just the CURRENT year.
So how to do this?
1) Add a calculated column called "QueryContextYear" to the in-memory FactResellerSales table, using this DAX expression :
2) Replace the slicers in the spreadsheet with this column: Instead of using the CalendarYear from DimDate in the slicer, use the new QueryContextYear from FactResellerSales
That's it! Now the result is dynamic to your slicer selection: the denominator will be calculated only using the selected years.
The reason why works is that the ALL function in the DAX expression removes the filters only on the DimDate[CalendarYear] column, but not in FactResellerSales[QueryContextYear]; The output of a calculation in DAX is always the result of stacking all the filtered tables. So while FactResellerSales[QueryContextYear] is being filtered, DimDate[CalendarYear] is not; And the intersection of these filters determines the calculation output.
If PowerPivot for Excel was working fine and all of the sudden it disappeared, try checking to see if the add-in got disabled (it has happened to me a few times and I'm still not quite sure why Excel disabled it)
Go to File -> Options -> Add-ins. Once there, Select COM Add-Ins and click 'GO'
Once there, a window with open with the option to re-enable PowerPivot again
Recently, I encountered a situation that required the use of SUMX as part of a DAX measure. Interestingly, SUMX seemed to only be taking in the integer part of the decimal used as part of the expression.
DAX expression # 1:
SUMX(FactResellerSales, FactResellerSales[SalesAmount] * 0.9 )
The result is 0 for all the cells on the pivot table.
DAX expression # 2:
SUMX(FactResellerSales, FactResellerSales[SalesAmount] * 2.9 )
The result reflects the fact that DAX only used 2 in the multiplication (instead of 2.9)
Hopefully this will be fixed in the next release.
As a workaround, you can create a DAX calculated column (instead of a measure), as the decimal is used properly there:
On March 19, I will be speaking about DAX Evaluation Context at SQL Saturday # 70 in Columbia, SC. As part of the presentation, I will compare the different ways in which DAX and MDX derive context when interpreting an expression.
Here is a link to the event: http://www.sqlsaturday.com/schedule.aspx
If you can make it to the event, please pass by and say hello!
One of the interesting DAX Time Intelligence functions is the TOTALYTD, which can define a measure calculation over a year in a cumulative way.
The same output can be achieved in alternate ways using the CALCULATE function. Nevertheless, as it is a very common computation in Excel reports, the PowerPivot team has created a dedicated function in order to help developing YTD calculations much faster.
A TOTALYTD behavior that is worth nothing however, is the fact that if a filter context defines multiple years (perhaps accidentally), this function will then use the last year available in order to perform the aggregation.
The screenshots below show a simple pivot table using Adventure Works data. The DAX measure defined for YTD aggregate is:
TOTALYTD(SUM([SalesAmount]), DimTime[FullDateAlternateKey], ALL(DimTime))
When the slicer selection specifies only one year, the regular aggregate of [Sales Amount] over each month as well as the DAX [YTD] measure act on that sole year.
However when two years are selected, the regular aggregate of [Sales Amount] acts over the correct filter context (defined over two years), whereas the YTD measure uses only the last year (2002).
At first it can be confusing, but if you select different sets of multiple years in the slicers it becomes evident pretty quick that the YTD is only showing the latest year of the set.
At first it can be confusing, but if you select different sets of multiple years in the slicers it becomes evident pretty quick that the YTD is only showing the latest year of the set.
Although it can be argued that it is a good assumption given that the TOTALYTD function is not meant to work over multiple years, it is still worth documenting this behavior and keeping it in mind in case a complex report produces unexpected results due to a YTD formula that is picking for you what year should go into the calculation.
This is the final installment on the series of blog entires regarding how to leverage PowerPivot data using Excel cube functions. The main purpose of the series has been to explain how to use Excel in a way that allows the report author to create appealing reports and dashboards using PowerPivot in-memory data but beyond the constraints and limitations imposed by Pivot tables.
As you can see, the final report (screenshot above) uses a combination Pivot table references, MDX filtering functionality, DAX measures and Excel Cube functions. There is a reason why each of these was used, which is what we discuss next.
To recap, is worth mentioning a few things that you can do when working with PowerPivot data using Excel cube functions:
- Cube functions access the in-memory tables using the workbook connection named "PowerPivot Data", which was automatically created when importing data to PowerPivot.
- Even though the storage is SSAS in-memory columnar mode (Vertipaq), Cube functions can access this data as if it was SSAS in OLAP mode.
- Cube functions allow using a limited amount of MDX functionality which is very useful when constructing custom sets to be used across the report
- DAX calculated columns and measures can be called via Excel Cube functions. Even though they are essentially relational, when using these DAX calculations over Excel Cube functions you can think about them in terms or traditional UDM/OLAP measures and dimensions.
Cube functions: not a vehicle for free form MDX
Even though MDX is allowed inside Cube functions, do not think they will just simply pass the MDX expression to the storage engine (SSAS in OLAP or Vertipaq mode), as if you were in a free form query window like SSMS. There are limitations that are important to keep in mind:
- CUBESET function only allows one expression when building the set. What this means is that you cannot combine two filters in the functions to create a set across 2 or more dimensions (in othere words, a single-tuple set). You can construct this kind of set however, if you hardcode the set definition manually.
Only one set expression is allowed. Two filters cannot create a tuple set, unless hardcoded manually, as in the expression below:
=CUBESET("PowerPivot Data","({[DimDate].[CalendarYear].[All].[2005],[DimDate].[CalendarYear].[All].[2006]},[DimGeography].[ContinentName].[All].[Asia])","MySet")
Remember: [DimGeography] and [DimDate] are not real OLAP dimensions when using PowerPivot data in this report. They are in-memory tables. PowerPivot converts them to 'dimension equivalents' after loading the data. But, you may ask, how does PowerPivot know what is supposed to be a dimension and what a measure? It doesn't. In Vertipaq, any field can be either a dimension or a measure. Try dragging [DimGeography].[RegionCountryName] to the values section of the Pivot table. Vertipaq automatically turns it into a measure, which is by default a count of values.
- Even though you can define tuples that include more than one dimension following the technique above, the result will be equivalent to a resultset over a column or row axis with crossjoined dimensions. In other words, there is no way to generate the equivalent to a 'slicer' axis using the CUBESET function.
There is no equivalent slicer axis in the CUBESET function. Displaying members of a tuple set will yield duplicate values. In this case the first Asia value is associated with Year 2005, and the second one with Year 2006.
- CUBEVALUE function only allows calling a measure which is then filtered using member expressions. What this means is that you cannot create MDX calculated members on the fly using the CUBEVALUE function.
In order to compensate for the first two limitations above, if there is a need to apply a slicer to a set it is best to reference existing pivot tables, as the default behavior on them is to filter the dimension members on the column or rows axis in a way that is equivalent to the 'WHERE' clause in T-SQL or MDX (slicer axis).
In a pivot table, members are filtered following the behavior of a WHERE slicer clause. When building custom reports, there may be a need to reference pivot tables in other spreadsheets if slicing the data in this particular way is necessary.
Regarding the CUBEVALUE limitation (not being able to construct on the fly calculated members), the way to circumvent it is by way of DAX calculations. These can be called as if they were MDX members, even to the point of being able to change the context of a calculation in the exact same way once you would when invoking a regular SSAS measure. This is due to the fact that both languages assign context as a function of the coordinate pointers over stored data's memory space. MDX does it over a cube space, wheras DAX does it over a relational system of tables and relationships. However, they are in essence very similar, and to Cube functions they look exactly the same. An example will explain this better:
In order to calculate the Accumulated Sales Growth Since Inception of the product, we use the following DAX measures:
Measure [Sales (RunningTotal)]:
IF([Sales] <> "",
CALCULATE([Sales],DATESBETWEEN(DimDate[Datekey],CALCULATE(FIRSTDATE(DimDate[Datekey]), ALL(DimDate)),LASTDATE(DimDate[Datekey]))),
Measure [Product Sales Growth (Since Inception)]:
IF([Sales (Running Total)] <> "",
[Sales (Running Total)],
ALL(DimDate[CalendarMonth]), [Sales (Running Total)])) -
ALL(DimDate[CalendarMonth]), [Sales (Running Total)]))
) /
ALL(DimDate[CalendarMonth]), [Sales (Running Total)]))
This function removes any current filter context on [CalendarMonth] when calculating growth. It won't affect, however, the [CalendarYear] attribute. When applying this DAX measure to a specific calendar Year, it will reflect the accumulated sales growth over the year by using a simple growth formula:
(Final Accumulated Sales – Initial Sales) / (Initial Sales)
If what we want is to display the growth for ALL years, we must remove any existing filter context for the [CalendarYear] attribute when evaluating the DAX measure. In the sample report, we also want to display this total rate in one cell, outside of a pivot table. We can accomplish this using the following Cube formula:
We can call the DAX measure within the Cube formula, and by specifying the [All] member of the [CalendarYear] attribute we change the filter context of evaluation, which gives us the total accumulated sales growth across all years.
Finally, despite the limitations exposed above regarding MDX functionality in Cube formulas, it can be used when filtering set values or constructing custom sets. In the sample report the X axis values applied to the chart where filtered to only the years that have associated fact data, which was accomplished using the MDX 'Exists' function. In that way, the chart won't show empty labels for those years that have no data.
The MDX 'Exists' function keeps only those ones that have [Sales] data. MDX can be used even though Vertipaq is fundamentally relational, not multidimensional.
In summary, Excel cube functions using PowerPivot data is a great combination that gives I.T. or data analysts a way to build custom Excel reports and dashboards that break out the constraints of pivot tables. DAX calculation and MDX set manipulation functions can be used in a single Excel report in order to generate highly customized views of data that a user can still interact with.
Even though you can directly reference the slicer name range in the cube formula, it won't work if you select multiple slicer values –
But there is a trick I learned thanks to the great PowerPivotPro blog.
Going back to the sheet that holds the PowerPivot table, we had previously selected 'Calendar Year' as a vertical slicer. Interestingly, you can also drag and drop the same field into the report filter field, which in effect enables this field to be both a slicer and a regular filter!
By using this trick, the slicer selection will always be in sync with the pivot table filter. And in turn, we can use the regular filter cell reference in the cube formula, as they graciously understand multiple selected members in a regular filter.
After you change the cube formula, you may have to refresh the PowerPivot table, in order to override the cached values.
PowerPivot Slicers
Slicers are a new addition to Excel 2010. They allow filtering in pivot tables, but with a lot of added advantages compared to traditional filters. First, they look a lot better – they are much more inviting! Second, when multiple filters are selected, you can actually SEE the selected options as opposed to the [multiple values] that you get with traditional filters. And last, when using multiple slicers against a pivot table, they can actually autoselect the members with available data based on the selections on the other slicers (in effect, generating a cascading filter)
It is possible to add a slicer to an Excel worksheet without any pivot table at all. However, in order to benefit from the cascading mechanism, we must tie it to Pivot table (in that way, members of the slicer will know if they have or not numeric data available for them).
Load the PowerPivot window with the prepopulated Contoso BI data, and select PivotTable under the PowerPivot home tab. When asked where it should be placed, select "new worksheet".
Add the RegionCountryName to the rows field, the Sales Amount to the Values field, and the Calendar year and ContinentName as vertical slicers.
The reason we add the rows and values, even though all we want is the slicers, is to generate the autoexists functionality in the slicers as described above (they will act as cascading filters). In the picture below, you can see this feature in action – members without any data are colored in grey, indicating they have no measure values associated with them.
If we move the pivot table to another page (PivotTable Tools tab->Move PivotTable), the slicers will stay on the current spreadsheet. In that way, we can use them when constructing our cube formula based report while still having the PowerPivot field list available to us in case we want to review available dimension/measure attributes or create new DAX calculations.
There are 7 cube functions in Excel. They can be used to simulate MDX query functionality, from set creation to retrieval of measure values based on filter expressions. In our current report, we will use 3 of them -
CUBESET: used to define a set of members. You can leverage this function to create tuples that span multiple dimensions as well; its usage is not restricted to members of the same dimension as in regular named sets.
CUBERANKEDMEMBER: used to access each of the members of a CUBESET.
CUBEVALUE: used to retrieve measure values in the context of specific slicers (expressions).
If we wanted to know - for example - the total sales for Greece in our sample Contoso BI data, we could use the following formula:
=CUBEVALUE("PowerPivot Data","[DimGeography].[RegionCountryName].[All].[Greece]","[Measures].[Sales]")
The formula queries Vertipaq and retrieves the measure from the equivalent MDX expression of
Aggregate([DimGeography].[RegionCountryName].[All].[Greece], [Measures].[Sales])
In order to tie our current slicers with the cube functions, we can leverage the fact that Excel makes available a name range as a pointer to the slicer member set.
Query against Vertipaq
When building cube formulas against the Excel vertipaq database, we leverage the automatically generated "PowerPivot Data" connection. There is intellisense in the formulas, which helps guide us see the options we have available.
Note how Vertipaq generated a dimension for each of the queries loaded in-memory. There is also an automatically generated 'Measures' dimension.
This dimension holds a not very intuitive 'count' aggregate for each of the queries in the vertipaq data store as well. This was done in order to force Analysis Service to create a measure group placeholder, in which to build on when creating DAX calculations. In our example using Contoso BI, some DAX calculated members were already created for us, and Vertipaq correctly placed them as Measure members ([Measures].[BaseQty] below)
You can also see and edit these DAX measures in the PowerPivot field list. They have a calculator icon next to them.
In our specific report example, we will be using the [Measures].[Sales] DAX calculation, which is simple a SUM of all SalesAmount values in the FactSales query. This DAX measure will be evaluated in the context of the slicers used as expressions within the cube function. The picture below shows the DAX measure editor for this calculation.
Add both slicers to the formula -
Add both slicers to the formula -
Tying everything up, we end up with the formula below.
=CUBEVALUE("PowerPivot Data","[Measures].[Sales]",Slicer_ContinentName, Slicer_CalendarYear)
This allows us to uses the slicers to dynamically evaluate the [Measures].[Sales] member in the context of the slicers' selection.
In the next entry, I will continue building the report in the attempt to answer the questions:
which are the top 5 selling countries per continent and year?
Which were the best selling brands for one or more of the countries above?
Which was the top product out of the best selling brand group above, and what were it sales performance for the last year?
PowerPivot Data + Cube Formulas = a powerful combination
One of the interesting things about PowerPivot is that it really is, under the covers, an instance of SQL Server Analysis Service. And because of this we get some features for 'free', features that already work nicely and reliably in the traditional SSAS engine. One of those features is the interactive functionality between Excel and the cube, and specifically - Excel Cube functions. These are functions that allow us to build highly customized SSAS connected Excel based reports, well beyond any inherent limitations of pivot tables. You may have seen these formulas automatically generated by Excel, when selecting the option to convert an SSAS connected Pivot Table to formulas (via the OLAP tools menu) -
PowerPivot Data + Cube Formulas = a powerful combination
One of the interesting things about PowerPivot is that it really is, under the covers, an instance of SQL Server Analysis Service. And because of this we get some features for 'free', features that already work nicely and reliably in the traditional SSAS engine. One of those features is the interactive functionality between Excel and the cube, and specifically - Excel Cube functions. These are functions that allow us to build highly customized SSAS connected Excel based reports, well beyond any inherent limitations of pivot tables. You may have seen these formulas automatically generated by Excel, when selecting the option to convert an SSAS connected Pivot Table to formulas (via the OLAP tools menu) -
Two great advantages of using these functions are that we can build highly customized, asymmetric reports and that we can use MDX functionality to query either a traditional SSAS cube or the in-memory Vertipaq engine.
The term "Excel functions" and "Excel formulas" is sometimes used interchangeably. Excel Cube functions are the 7 built-in functions available in the formula bar, under the 'Cube' category; Excel cube formulas are cell formulas that use cube functions in order to achieve dynamic query behavior to the Analysis Service instance.
But how? If PowerPivot is loading data in-memory in what looks like a relational schema (one tab for each table), then how is it that we connect to a 'cube'?
But how? If PowerPivot is loading data in-memory in what looks like a relational schema (one tab for each table), then how is it that we connect to a 'cube'?
Well, PowerPivot (or Vertipaq, shall we say) builds an in-memory OLAP cube. You can see this when running DAX queries against the PowerPivot data, Excel displays a 'Running OLAP query' message on the status bar. (It really is, when you think about it, an amazing technology… cubes are embedded in the workbook!)
Anyhow, going back to topic – cube formulas. PowerPivot creates an embedded connection to the in-memory data. You can see the connection string under the data tab in the Excel ribbon. Select connection and you will see one called 'PowerPivot Data'. This was automatically created when importing data via the PowerPivot window.
When building customized Excel reports, you can retrieve data from this source with any of the built-in Excel Cube functions.
PowerPivot applications... without Pivot tables!
Cube formulas are good to build custom reports that are difficult to create with standard pivot tables, yet still leveraging the functionality of being connected to the database (in the case of PowerPivot, the in-memory Vertipaq database). We can also leverage DAX measures, and execute them through Cube functions outside the pivot table.
I the next following posts I will go over a sample report, highly customized to create the type of business reporting that decision makers would want to see. The example uses the new Microsoft business intelligence database, Contoso Retail DW (available for download here), and leverages some of the interesting features of PowerPivot and Cube functions to build Excel reports that require functionality beyond what is normally exposed through pivot tables.
The new SSAS engine (only currently available to PowerPivot, either as part of Excel or Sharepoint 2010, and shipped along with SQL Server 2008 R2) has a completely different architecture than the traditional disk based storage engine.
As a columnar database, its driving principle is that the variation of data across 1 column is usually low (for example, if a column stores "gender" it only needs to store two values for the entire column). This in contrast to the traditional storage in which values are stored for each row, no matter how much data variance there is (as you can see - when storing columns with high degree of variance, the columnar approach may lose its advantage).
Due to the reduced need to store discrete values (along with other data pattern algorithms), high levels of compression are possible which allows the Excel version of Vertipaq to run in-memory, all based on RAM storage. The huge advantage here over traditional disk based SSAS storage is data retrieval and calculations happen at a much faster rate, as disk I/O processing is omitted.
Given that current personal computers have much higher RAM specifications, it is finally possible to hold in-memory an entire database table representing millions of rows, thanks to the Vertipaq's architecture.
Another characteristic of PowerPivot's Vertipaq engine is that it is an in-process memory storage. That means it is bound to Excel, as they are both the same file. The advantages are it allows portability, as the file IS the database; however, the disadvantage is that any process failure compromises the whole system.
Vertipaq, in its PowerPivot for Sharepoint version, requires a dedicated SQL Server Analysis Server instance which only responds to the PowerPivot system, and as its Excel counterpart, does not store the data in pre-aggregated mode but instead computes aggregations on the fly. Other server functions like data unloading (removing data from cache at specified intervals, if users do not make requests) are also featured in this type of configuration.
Some of the features that were currently left out for version 1.0 of PowerPivot (like many-to-many relationships and dimension hierarchies) are available to the underlying engine, as it really is in fact, a repackaged SSAS instance. Those features will eventually be exposed, in order to make the Vertipaq/PowerPivot system even more robust.
At this point, it is not possible to access PowerPivot OLAP cubes via a programmatic interface (though you can access OLAP cube members via Excel cube functions). Let's hope the next version will include a way to interact with it (and with Vertipaq) via managed code.
I wrote a small article that describes the process here: http://www.msbicentral.com/Resources/Articles/tabid/88/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/103/Beyond-Excel-pivot-tables-Leveraging-cube-formulas-with-MDX.aspx


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One winter day, I was walking alone under the depressing interstate that runs through the middle of my neighborhood. The tunnel of cold concrete, dull and dead, could have been built by robots. At any rate, it wasn't built by anyone who had our best interests at heart.
Feeling more demoralized by the minute, I looked up and saw a name painted on the wall—a sign, at least, that another individual had passed this way before me. Later, on Mitchell Street under Interstate 40, "Dewyane loves Heather." Somehow, these words, spray-painted in a wobbly hand, revealed a human heart and lent a satisfying poignancy to a boring and lonely walk.
A few years ago, Scott and Bernadette West created a bit of excitement when they invited Knoxville artists Cynthia Markert and Brian Pittman to paint on the plywood covering the windows of their building under construction on Wall Avenue. Other artists and passersby joined in, creating a temporary public graffiti wall. Pittman free-handed a precise Gothic cathedral in ink. An anonymous artist tacked a plush bunny to the wall. In March 2010 the cover of Knoxville Magazine featured a photo of Cynthia Markert's iconic delicately-rendered flapper women painted on the scarred plywood. The headline read, "Graffiti Art: Ugly Eyesore or Legitimate Art?"
The plywood on Wall Avenue is long gone now and so is the art. The brick is freshly painted, and the new windows gleam. I've never been interested in trying to nail down what makes art legitimate in any scholarly way, but I do have a plea. Citizens of Knoxville, please keep painting on the walls. Street art—even tags or silly sketches—adds an interesting and valuable dimension to our city.
In Alleyways: recommended policy and guidelines, a collaborative effort of the East Tennessee Community Design Center and the University of Tennessee's College of Architecture and Design, I find a recommendation for "themed murals depicting images of local folklore and other types of civic art" to fill up "prominent blank walls" in the city. I also find this warning, "where ... graffiti exists, someone will ... spray more graffiti."
Last Fourth of July, riding my bike through the Sixth Street/I-40 underpass, I saw a new sentence freshly painted on the east wall: "We want to live." Or maybe it was, "We want to believe."
"Did you see what that said?" I asked a fellow biker.
He hadn't. We were late for the Freedom Thighs bike ride so we rode on. The next day when I went back, the words were gone, covered by a beige square of paint, still tacky.
The city attacks graffiti in this area with a bewildering ferocity. Someone pointed out that as a gateway to Parkridge, maybe the city wants the underpass to look nice. Maybe, but demoralizing lengths of empty concrete walls do nothing to improve Knoxville.
Markert painted her last illegal piece in 1994, after a policeman told her to stop. But she continues to make street art—with the permission of shop owners. Markert only paints on old, beat-up wood. "It begs me!" she says.
Her sweet-faced flapper women are their most evocative when come upon unexpectedly, peering out of a grimy, boarded up window. Art doesn't just belong in a gallery. Discovering a dinosaur painted on a concrete wall above the rushing waters of First Creek is exciting.
A local graffiti artist tells me he finds street art appealing because it is "unsanctioned and unbound. On the street, you can do anything."
Alleyways concludes, "Where a space receives no regular maintenance or generally appears to be uncared for, someone will assume it must not belong to anyone ... (so why shouldn't it belong to them?)."
Yes, why shouldn't it belong to us? Writing on the walls is illegal, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't do it. A lot of Knoxville graffiti art displays sweetness, humor, and an earnest desire to engage with the world. "Empty walls mean empty minds," reads a wall in an Old City alley.
In blighted areas of our city, words and images scrawled by ordinary citizens are a sign of life, expressions of a desire "to live" (or perhaps "to believe"). They are messages from an engaged mind.
© 2012 MetroPulse. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Also in A Living World by Eleanor Scott
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---- — WILLSBORO & GRANVILLE — June Frances Lincoln, 87, passed away on Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2013, at The Orchard Nursing & Rehabilitation Centre in Granville following a long illness. She was born on Oct. 4, 1925, in Reber, N.Y., the daughter of Raymond and Flora (Baker) Boardman. June attended Willsboro Central School graduating in the "Class of 1943".
She and her late husband, Walter C. Lincoln, Jr. were united in marriage in 1945. Walter passed away in 1992. June was a gentle lady and matriarch of the family.
June was a dedicated volunteer in her community, serving on several boards and donating her time to numerous organizations. June was a member of the United Methodist Church of Willsboro where she served as a board member and as a volunteer for numerous events and activities. She provided floral arrangements from her garden for her church for many years. She served on the board of the senior housing facility in Willsboro and spent many hours transporting elderly friends and neighbors to various activities and appointments. In addition, she volunteered regularly for New Beginnings, Willsboro Visitor's Center, the Beautification Committee, and the Willsboro Heritage Society.
She enjoyed spending time with family and friends, reading, playing cards and Scrabble, gardening, traveling, baking and was well known for the best strawberry-rhubarb pies in the area. She was formerly a floral designer for a local flower shop in Willsboro, and a seamstress for many years.
Besides her husband, Walter, she is predeceased by two brothers, Wendell and Belden Boardman; and one sister, Shirley Cross.
She is survived by her three daughters, Kristie L. Gijanto of Granville, Sharon K. Lincoln of Hemet, Calif., and Narayan L. Lincoln of Portland, Ore.; one brother, Dale Boardman of Willsboro; two sisters, Virginia Sayward of Elizabethtown and Patricia Lincoln of Willsboro; eight grandchildren; 6 great-grandchildren; and several nieces, nephews and cousins.
A Memorial Service and Celebration of Life will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 5, 2013, at the Willsboro United Methodist Church, 3731 Main Street, Willsboro, with Janice Allen, lay leader, officiating. Graveside services will be private for the family only at the Memorial Cemetery, Willsboro. Friends are invited to call on the family at the church from 10 a.m. until the time of the services. There will be a reception following the service in the church hall.
The family suggests that memorial contributions be made to the Willsboro United Methodist Church in her memory.
Arrangements are under the direction of the Michael G. Angiolillo Funeral Home, 210 Broadway, Whitehall.


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2011 Ironman 70.3 World Champion Joins Pro Line-Up at Laguna Phuket
Media Release
Current Ironman 70.3 World Champion Melissa Rollison will contest the Ironman 70.3 Asia-Pacific Championship at Laguna Phuket on 4 December – the latest addition to a stellar line-up of elite professional triathletes heading to the island.
Rollison, of Australia, completed her first Ironman 70.3-distance race in September 2010 and in just 12 months, has gone on to claim three 70.3 series titles, as well as the prestigious World Championship trophy.
A former steeplechase runner, Rollison took up cycling to maintain her fitness during bouts of running-related injuries. This inevitably led to her first triathlon.
Rollison finished third in last year's inaugural Asia-Pacific Championship race, but her World Championship title-win in September in Las Vegas proves she is a force to be reckoned with. She is set to face off against reigning champion Caroline Steffen of Switzerland who has confirmed she will be coming back to Phuket to defend her 2010 title.
More than 950 athletes, including 31 pros and 9 relay teams, are now registered for the Ironman 70.3 Asia-Pacific Championship.
Other international pros that will compete for top honours include 2010 Laguna Phuket Triathlon champions Massimo Cigana of Italy and Australia's Belinda Granger;2011 Ironman 70.3 world champion runner-up Chris Lieto; 10-time Ironman New Zealand Champion Cameron Brown; 2011 Ironman 70.3 winner and talented up-and-comer Paul Matthews; and 2010 ITU Long Distance World Champion Silvain Sudrie.
Professional athletes will compete for a slice of the US$75,000 prize purse, as well as 30 qualifying slots for the 2012 Ford Ironman World Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii and 45 slots for the 2012 Marine Corps Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Las Vegas. Laguna is one of only a small number of worldwide Ironman 70.3 triathlons offering 2012 Kona and Las Vega slots for winners of age group categories.
Laguna Triathlon Director, Debbie Dionysius, says: "We're thrilled to have such a star-studded line-up at this year's Ironman 70.3 Asia-Pacific Championship.
"Top athletes who competed in last year's inaugural race are coming back in 2011and that reflects well on the event. It proves that the Ironman 70.3 Asia-Pacific Championship is a world-class race and that Phuket is a world-class triathlon destination."
01 May - 31 Oct
24 Sep - 02 Oct
06 Nov


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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The Obama administration wants Congress to raise the U.S.'s borrowing limit by year-end, White House spokesman Jay Carney said Thursday. "We...expect Congress to deal with the debt ceiling as part of an end-of-the-year deal," Carney said at the daily briefing. Congressional Republicans have rejected a White House idea to extend a procedure that allowed the debt limit to be raised three times in the past two years. Some Republicans think the fact that Congress is likely to need to raise the debt ceiling sometime in the first quarter gives them leverage in the deficit-reduction talks. On Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said he is "absolutely" ready to go over the fiscal cliff if there is no deal that includes raising tax rates for the wealthy. Carney said that Geithner was simply reiterating prior statements that President Barack Obama "won't accept a bad deal," he said.
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The first thing members of the Methacton High School Electric Car Club noticed about the BMW ActiveE was the lack of the familiar engine roar.
Instead, the all-white BMW 1 series two-door seemed content to merely hum as it pulled up in front of the high school building.
Tracy Miehlke, PJM Interconnection senior analyst, was invited to show off the electric car for the MHS students on the afternoon of Nov. 15.
PJM, a regional transmission organization, which manages the operations of wholesale electricity in several states and Washington, D.C., has its facility based in Lower Providence.
As an electric industry leader, Miehlke explained that BMW approached PJM this year to participate in an advanced pilot project for the BMW ActiveE electric car.
According to the BMW website, for its ActiveE car, participants of this field-trial project are referred to as "Electronauts."
She told the students that BMW provided the car for PJM employees, who are allowed to borrow the vehicle for a scheduled period of time.
According to Miehlke, the borrowing program at PJM has become very popular among her coworkers, sharing that the car has been reserved during weeknights through December and on weekends through June of 2013.
"There are a lot of folks that are engineers and IT drivers" Miehlke said, explaining the popularity of the car at PJM. "So, this is the coolest thing."
The BMW ActiveE
For her visit with the MHS Electric Car Club, Miehlke provided a tour of the BMW electric car, as well as an opportunity to for a ride-a-long.
She first explained that the BMW ActiveE is not an electric car from the ground-up, rather a retrofitted BMW 1 series two-door. Its all-white body also has a different kind of racing stripe, made to resemble speeding currents of electricity.
"This car goes about 65-miles on a charge, with absolutely no gas backup," Miehlke said. "It's as quiet as can be."
She added that the distance can reach up to 80-miles, depending on factors such as load weight and how the car is driven.
It also has a regenerative breaking system, where upon release of the accelerator, energy is put back in to the system, prolonging distance use. The ActiveE also has 170 horse power to it.
"Yes, it's a 100-percent joy to drive," Miehlke said.
Describing the vehicle as, "A prototype of the future," Miehlke did describe a few drawbacks of an electric car.
First, the trunk isn't very spacious.
"The trunk is designed for at least a set of golf clubs," Miehlke said lightly. But, she also points out that the trunk contains a home-charge adapter.
If the car is charged at PJM, during regular business hours at a 240 volts, Miehlke said that the ActiveE can be fully charged in 4 to 5 hours.
She said that charging through a home outlet at 110 volts, however, may take up to 18 to 20 hours.
"You can see there's some growing pains here," Miehlke said.
Just like the roar of the engine, what's immediately noticeable inside the car are the lack of the buttons and electric car comforts typically associated with higher-end vehicles, such as might be expected with a BMW.
Such comforts include automatic seat adjustments and lights on the visor mirror. Miehlke explained that these features are absent in order to provide the most efficient use of the car's battery. There is even an "ecopro" mode that helps regulate the climate in the car, in order to help reserve battery life.
The display monitor, located on the dash, tells the driver how long until the next charge is needed.
Overall, Miehlke shared with the students that the BMW ActiveE, all electric car, could cost over $60,000.
MHS Electric Car Club and "The Lorax"
According to MHS Electric Car Club advisor Steven Savitz, many of the Electric Car Club students' parents work for PJM. He said it was possible for the short visit, due to a small gap of time in the company's BMW ActiveE borrowing program.
Savitz said that that the visit was considered a treat for his Electric Car Club students.
"It's neat, their enthusiasm is contagious," Savitz said.
Savitz, who is also a Biology and AP Environmental Science teacher, said that the club started with eight students in 2001.
"We've started a little ahead of the curve," Savitz said.
Today, over 20 students are members of the Electric Car Club, which, according to its website, is the only such club in Pennsylvania to continually maintain its own electric car.
Savitz said that the club was started when a business man from Ambler started providing lectures to his AP Environmental Science class on his favorite hobby: Building electric cars.
The business man, who is also Savitz's friend, had once retrofitted a Jaguar into a fuel-cell vehicle. This same hobbyist turned philanthropist, when he donated a 1930s British three-wheeled Morgan.
Savitz said that the students meet once a week after school, as well as on the weekends, constantly tweaking their electric car to increase productivity and efficiency. The vehicle is worked on inside a garage, located on MHS property.
After the students were finished touring the BMW ActiveE, Savitz invited Miehlke to tour the MHS electric car, who expressed her own amazement at the achievements made by the high school students.
It was also noted that the MHS electric car is called "The Lorax," after the Morgan model's name, "Lomax," and the fact that there is a plush Dr. Suess environmentally conscious character, strapped into the passenger seat.
Savitz, along with student members of the Electric Car Club, revealed the inner workings of their electric car, included the 14 lead acid batteries fitted throughout the entire vehicle.
According to the MHS Electric Car Club website, at 34 horse power, their Lorax car can reach top 75-miles-per-hour, and travel at 70 miles per charge. It takes about eight hours to fully charge. It also features regenerative braking, as well as a solar panel to extend the distance.
And, like the ActiveE, it also has a small trunk space.
"We can't fit golf clubs, but we can fit two grocery bags," Savitz said with a smile.
The MHS electric vehicle has also won several state-level competitions.
Food for Thought
In addition to having an electric car, the MHS Electric Car Club also has a snack delivery vehicle.
According to Savitz, their 1982 box truck has is slowly becoming a mobile environmental classroom. He said that he the club members have been working on the truck for the last two years, and expects that it will be completed by the end of this school year.
Savitz said that the truck will feature six educational stations, mostly exploring alternative engineering and environmental conservation. Most of all, the truck itself will be a valuable teaching tool, as it is being built with a bio-diesel engine.
"Bio-diesel will be the wave of the future," Brian Flanagan, MHS Electric Car Club's mechanical consultant, said. "It has everything a normal car has."
Flanagan, a mechanic at Trooper Automotive, is a volunteer consultant for the club, which also has an electrical engineer consultant from Collegeville. He is also a 2010 MHS graduate and electric car member, who was active in acquiring the box truck.
He said that he got into the club because it gave him the opportunity to follow his passion of working on automobiles, while being able to a have hands-on education about alternative engineering.
Comparing an electric car with a bio-diesel one, Flanagan said that he acknowledged the marvel of modern engineering of the former, but agreed that its limited charging to distance ratio means that the electric car still has a long way to go before satisfying American driving needs.
"I think it's pretty cool," Flanagan said. "But for Americans, we go where we want, when we want across the country."


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March 14, 2012 — A drastically-revised House Bill 260 cleared the Kentucky House late Tuesday on a vote of 89-7.
Instead of converting the University of Pikeville (UPike) into a state institution, the bill creates a scholarship program financed with multi-county coal severance tax funds.
The grants would go to students from 16 coal-producing counties who are completing bachelor's degrees at colleges and universities in the coalfields region.
An amendment sponsored by House Majority Floor Leader Rocky Adkins also allows those students to accept smaller grants for special degree programs at other institutions which are not available in the 16 counties.
HB 260 now moves to the Senate where its fate is uncertain.


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Traverse City Record-Eagle
---- — BARBARA ANNE ASCHIM, 59, of Cedar, died Friday, Aug. 30, 2013.
Cremation has taken place.
Memorials may be made to the Munson Regional Healthcare Foundation, 201 Beaumont Place, Traverse City, MI 49686, designated to the Leelanau Cancer Fund.
The family chose Life Story Funeral Home, Traverse City, to handle the arrangements.


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Air Conditioning Services in Orlando, Tampa, Jacksonville & Melbourne
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Hot weather demands the best in air conditioning comfort. That's why you should demand Del-Air. (Browse through our new air conditioners here.)


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The Illinois House of Representatives has voted to dismantle the scandal-ridden legislative college scholarship program, and the program's most ardent supporter, Senate President John Cullerton, says he will not stand in the way of a vote on the tuition waiver ban.
"Like any other bill, it will go through the normal committee process and there will be an opportunity for a vote," Cullerton spokeswoman Rikeesha Phelon told Progress Illinois. Phelon's comments follow Chicago Tribune reports that the Senate President may work to prevent the bill from getting a vote.
The Illinois House passed legislation 79-25 March 21 to ban legislative scholarships. Gov. Pat Quinn has spoken against the scholarships. And, The State journal-Register in Springfield is reporting that Gov. Pat Quinn has a relatively new name for the embattled program: political scholarships.
Legislative scholarships let each state lawmaker award either two four-year full tuition waivers or eight one-year tuition waivers to any student who lives in their district to attend an Illinois public university.
But state lawmakers sometimes abuse the program. The latest examples: The Better Government Association found that State Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago) has awarded legislative scholarships to ten students outside of her district since 1999. And State Sen. Annazette Collins (D-Chicago) lost her General Assembly seat in the March 20 primary possibly thanks to allegations that she gave scholarships to people outside her district.
Legislative scholarships cost Illinois universities $13.5 million annually, according to Illinois Issues. Twenty-six out of 59 Senators and 51 out of 118 Representatives did not participate in the program last year, Progress Illinois reported, citing data provided by the Illinois Board of Education.
'Viagra Amendment' added to abortion-related bill
One of two abortion-related bills that flew through the Illinois House's Agriculture Committee last month picked up a slew of amendments before passing out of committee March 22, according to the Illinois Policy Institute. HB 4085, the Ultrasound Opportunity Act, would require abortion facilities to take an ultrasound image before providing an abortion. Amendments introduced by Democratic representatives seek to undermine the bill's effectiveness or extend its restrictions to men's sexual healthcare.
The five amendments include the "Viagra Amendment," which would require men seeking prescriptions to treat erectile dysfunction to receive written warnings about possible side effects and offer the option of viewing a graphic video about risks. Rep. Kelly Cassidy of Chicago painted the amendment as a counter-attack to male legislators she believes are attempting to legislate women's health too restrictively.
Durbin's call for NFL bounty hearings is 'political grandstanding:' Walsh
U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh is calling U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin's plan to look into National Football League bounties "political grandstanding at its finest," the Daily Herald reported.
The debate comes in the wake of news that the New Orleans Saints took part in an illegal bounty program that allegedly paid players to injure their competitors. Democrat Durbin, the Senate's assistant majority leader, announced plans to set up judiciary committee hearings to look into the legality of placing "bounties" in professional football and other sports.
Payton has been suspended for all of next season.
Walsh, a McHenry Republican running for re-election in the 8th District, said he's "not at all weighing in on bounty hunting and the NFL"—but thinks that lawmakers' attempt to get involved in the issue points to "why Congress' approval rating is so low." In a statement, he also called it a waste of taxpayers' dollars.
Durbin's office declined to comment, the Herald reported.
Walsh faces Democrat Tammy Duckworth in the November general election. Durbin was one of Duckworth's earliest supporters in her congressional bid.
Tax on ammunition sales would fund trauma centers
The Illinois House of Representatives is considering a bill that would put a 2 percent tax on firearm ammunition sales, and directs the revenue generated by the tax to establish a High Crime Trauma Center Grant Fund. The proposed legislation authorizes the Illinois Department of Public Health to issue grants from the fund to trauma centers serving high crime areas.
The Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence supports HB 5167 because of reports saying that high crime/high poverty communities that are disproportionately impacted by gun violence have a shortage of trauma centers. Trauma centers that are forced to shoulder the burden of high numbers of shooting victims being transported from those communities are often not funded appropriately to handle the volume.


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Pear Almond Cake
09" Pear Almond Cake
Pear and almond...a classic flavor combination. Our unique rendition is rich and creamy.
Three thin layers of almond cake filled with poached pears and bavarian cream, finished with white buttercream and honey toasted almonds, and decorated on top with dried pear slices.Learn More


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Foxfire's Maker's Mark*** Smooth had 6 derby points and is Qualified All Age with 2 Qualifying Wins and 2 All Age JAMs. Smooth is out of a successful litter of FC AFC Wood River's Franchise (Shaq) x Bigwood's Precious Gem MH. This litter produced at least 3 Qualified All Age Dogs and FC Yankee Fork Yancy. Smooth will continue his career with Master Hunt tests in the spring of 2013 and possibly additional All Age field trials. Smooth is a compact and handsome stud. He is approx. 68lbs and very athletic. He is great around the house and is quiet both online and in his kennel.
Health Clearances
Hips: OFA Excellent
Elbows: Normal
Eyes: CERF
Exercise Induced Collapse (EIC): Clear
CNM: Clear
Smooth is available at stud to approved Bitches. PennHip, or OFA Hips, CERF eyes required in order to breed to Smooth. Natural breeding available with Negative Brucellosis test required within 2 weeks. Side by Side Artificial insemination also available. Stud Fee: $600
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