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Light bulbs have gone on over the heads of many in-house counsel this past year, and InsideCounsel has tapped into the insights of 10 innovative legal teams.
In departments across the country, law department lawyers were faced with varying challenges. From streamlining a contract management system and implementing a more robust e-discovery process to using technology more efficiently to train staff and building a more diverse and inclusive department, these teams rose to the challenges and proved that lawyers do know how to think outside of the box.
On the following pages, InsideCounsel profiles the 10 most innovative legal departments of 2013. Their stories and successes are inspiring, proving what a difference just a little original thinking can make in ensuring legal teams remain a vital business center within their companies.
E-Discovery Excellence: DuPont
In 2009, DuPont was spending nearly half its litigation/outside counsel budget on discovery. An analysis by the legal department concluded litigation teams were not seeking support from internal discovery experts, technology wasn't being consistently implemented, and internal and outside resources were duplicating efforts.
As a result of the analysis, the department created the Discovery Excellence Center (DEC), which DuPont litigation teams now engage at the inception of each matter to collaboratively define the discovery strategy and develop a plan for response.
Since its inception two years ago, the six-member DEC team has conducted more than 100 intake meetings, known as initial discovery assessments, with litigation teams composed of in-house and outside counsel.
"Getting involved from the outset of the litigation is the cornerstone of what we have done," says Vincent Catanzaro, senior counsel and global discovery manager. "It is the clear differential between what we were doing in the past and what we are doing now."
Previously, Catanzaro wasn't called in until a litigation team confronted a complex discovery problem or an issue such as spoliation arose in court.
"Bringing us in at the inception gets the litigation team to think about discovery issues from an earlier stage than they otherwise would have," Catanzaro says. "The litigation team is focused on the issues in the case, and rightly so. But from an in-house perspective, we realize how much discovery costs and how many landmines there are, so you really need to focus on discovery at that early stage as well. Otherwise you may pay the price down the line."
One key facet of the initial discovery assessment is determining how important the case is to the business.
"Is this a matter the business will try to settle in a couple of months? If so, let's stand down on discovery because our obligation is to preserve information, not necessarily to start producing it for the other side, which is where the cost comes in," he says. "One of the big pushes we have is to preserve broadly, produce and review more narrowly."
For example, the team may decide to preserve email accounts of 50 custodians, of which only 15 have information that is relevant to the case. They ask their outside counsel to advocate to the other side and to the judge their position that only the information from the 15 custodians needs to be produced.
That strategy alone saved DuPont $5.27 million in 2011 and $10.8 million in 2013, which Catanzaro calls the tip of the iceberg in savings. Other cost reductions, such as those resulting from strategic decisions not to rush into expensive discovery processes on cases likely to settle, are impossible to quantify.
Recognizing the growing role of technology in improving the efficiency of e-discovery processes, the DEC selected Squire Sanders to be the company's national e-discovery counsel, based on the firm's expertise in e-discovery technology. Currently the DEC is conducting a pilot program testing predictive coding technology for a case involving more than one million documents to measure efficiency improvements over traditional linear review. While the trial was still ongoing at press time, Dorothy Perillo, discovery strategist and tactical coordinator, believes predictive coding is succeeding in its goal of streamlining the review process, reducing both the cycle time and cost of review.
"We hope to promote it throughout the organization for all the right cases going forward," she says.
—Mary Swanton
Evolving Legal Ecosystem: NetApp
NetApp Inc., a California-based computer storage and data management company, first cracked the Fortune 500 in 2012. As NetApp continues to grow, it is competing for market share with much larger companies such as IBM Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc.
"For us to win, we can't win by scale," says NetApp General Counsel Matthew Fawcett. "We have to out- innovate them."
That philosophy of out-innovating the competition extends to every facet of NetApp's business, including the legal department. Every department has a shared objective of creating a competitive advantage for the company.
Fawcett and Connie Brenton, NetApp's director of legal operations and chief of staff, realized that in order to provide flexible, efficient and high-quality legal services to NetApp's growing business, it would have to do away with the traditional model of reliance on outside counsel and outside service providers. Together, Brenton and Fawcett came up with a solution they've dubbed the Legal Ecosystem, an intimate collaboration between NetApp's in-house team and nontraditional outside service providers.
NetApp's key partners are Sky Analytics, a data analysis provider, and Elevate Services, a legal consulting firm. Sky Analytics provides NetApp with a customized platform for analyzing its legal spend. The data Sky Analytics compiles for NetApp allows the legal team to approach outside law firms with a detailed picture of what the rates and staffing should be for any given matter, allowing NetApp to negotiate better rates and more efficient service.
"Capturing and measuring behavior changes behavior," Brenton says. "You can't attain sustained improvement without measuring." Brenton cites an example of a law firm that had 52 different timekeepers billing NetApp on a single matter. When NetApp showed the firm this data, the firm immediately began streamlining its services. Ultimately, the firm cut the number of timekeepers in half during the course of only two months.
Elevate provides on-call legal support services for a variety of functions, including contract management, document review and due diligence. Partnering with Elevate allows NetApp's lean in-house team of 46 lawyers to scale up its legal support operations at a moment's notice to respond to immediate business needs without having to hire more in-house staff or outsource to a law firm at a high rate.
"The larger your fixed staff, the larger your carrying costs," Fawcett says. "Elevate provides on-call staff, so we can efficiently respond to the needs of the business without increasing our fixed overhead."
The key to making the collaboration work was bringing the service providers behind NetApp's firewall so they can operate as a part of NetApp's core team. Because Elevate has an ongoing partnership with NetApp, NetApp's in-house team doesn't waste time managing multiple outside service providers. NetApp also avoids the time-consuming step of bringing outside providers up to speed on new matters, transferring necessary documents and information, and giving instructions on how NetApp does business. Elevate is already integrated into NetApp's team. It not only provides support and staffing for NetApp, but also communicates with NetApp's law firms and other providers. The outcome is that the legal department provides fast, efficient and predictable service to its clients while maintaining a small inside staff.
"Elevate operates as if they are NetApp," Fawcett says. "Any business person within the company would not know that we're operating behind the scenes this way."
—Adele Nicholas
Optimizing for Excellence: Cisco
Cisco Systems Inc. partners with tens of thousands of companies that resell and distribute Cisco products worldwide. And each of those distributors has a contract with Cisco that needs to be reviewed and renewed on a periodic basis. In 2010, Cisco Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary Mark Chandler realized that a lot of his most senior lawyers' time was being consumed with the minutia of moving these contracts through the system—tasks such as chasing after signatures and entering contract details into databases—rather than focusing on the high-level tasks that are the core functions of lawyers. The ever-growing volume of routine work was causing a dip in the legal department's morale.
"We needed a way to better align our resources to increase the volume of work being done without increasing costs," Chandler says.
Cisco attorneys met with legal outsourcing firms to discuss ways the department could move low-complexity tasks downstream to people better suited to address them while freeing up attorneys to handle more complex tasks. But ultimately, Cisco decided on a homegrown solution. The company established the Legal Global Center of Excellence (GCOE), a team of 18 professionals, including paralegals and attorneys, who handle the department's routine tasks in a highly mechanized and process-oriented way.
Now, rather than directly contacting an attorney to handle a routine task or answer a question, businesspeople within Cisco contact the GCOE through a customized computer interface. The GCOE then handles the task and gets a response to the requestor within a pre-determined turnaround time defined by the type of task. This model enables Cisco's legal department to serve clients 24 hours a day around the world.
"We are process experts," says Cisco's Managing Counsel Tanya Vasilev, who heads the GCOE. "Within our centralized group, we know where to go within the company to get the answer."
Today, the GCOE handles a number of tasks that used to take up too much attorney time—for instance, obtaining signatures on contracts, collecting data about the company's contracts, and moving contracts through the company's internal review and approval process. As a result of moving these tasks to the GCOE, Cisco saw a 62 percent year-over-year increase in transactional volume without adding any additional staff. Cisco's internal customers who dealt with the GCOE reported an average satisfaction rating of 4.97 on a 5-point scale. Cisco estimates that implementing the system saved the company approximately $3.4 million in the past fiscal year.
"The result has been faster turnaround time, lower error rate and freeing up senior people to do the more complex work," says Lynn Easterling, Cisco's vice president and deputy general counsel.
In addition to the undeniable benefits of the GCOE shown by these hard metrics, there have also been intangible benefits—greater career satisfaction for Cisco's lawyers and improved career paths for professionals throughout the legal department.
The company also sees future opportunities to expand on the work handled by the GCOE to increase its impact on Cisco's bottom line.
"We have established a repeatable foundation of processes and capabilities," says Steve Harmon, senior director of legal services. "We can build on this infrastructure to support many new functions within the GCOE."
—Adele Nicholas
Growing Strong: Adknowledge
Email marketing company Adknowledge has seen impressive growth since its inception in 2004. Just months after its founding it was profitable, according to CEO Ben Legg, and it has since branched out from just email into other forms of digital marketing—pretty much everything except search. It has expanded across the globe, opening offices in Canada, China, Brazil and elsewhere, hiring more and more people to reach its current size—about 300 employees and four lawyers.
But what is great for a company can often be difficult for a legal department, as Adknowledge Chief Legal Officer John Herbst well knows. When he joined the company about a year ago, its lawyers were largely reactive, solving problems as they arrived. That wasn't going to cut it anymore.
So Herbst set out to overhaul the legal department through various initiatives that, together, were meant to raise the department's profile, make it a proactive asset to the business and turn its lawyers into leaders.
In order to effectively measure what was already going on, the team needed a way to gather metrics. Many matter management systems are expensive though.
"Walking in the door, I didn't want to go to Ben and say 'I need $30,000,'" Herbst says.
Instead, Adknowledge partnered with emerging company Advologix, which built a cheaper custom matter management system on the platform the rest of the company was already using. The department started using the system in March. Now Herbst can see what his legal team's workload is like, and metrics gathered from the system even helped influence the company's decision to hire more lawyers in the near future.
Adknowledge also overhauled its contracting process, establishing guidelines so employees understand who has the authority to do what, and standardizing contract language to encourage cross-selling. If a customer purchasing email marketing services suddenly wants help with Facebook as well, all they have to do is add a small addendum to the contract, rather than negotiating a whole new one. Herbst estimates that the turnaround time for commercial contracts has been reduced by one-third.
On the IP side, it's all about strategy. Where once there was no organized approach to the company's portfolio of nearly 40 patents and applications, now each patent is assigned a value. The legal department has created patenting guidelines and educated the company's senior leadership about patents' importance to the success of the business. And they're able to focus on this strategy because the day-to-day management of the patent portfolio is now handled by an outside firm. Adknowledge has a fixed fee arrangement with the firm that saves it 20 percent to 25 percent a year in IP costs.
But perhaps the biggest change in Adknowledge's legal department is in its attitude. Herbst wants his fellow lawyers to see themselves as leaders and encourages them to take ownership of projects. Legg cites the opening of a new office in Brazil as an example: Many different parties were involved in the project and Herbst stepped up and suggested legal take the lead.
"It's actually a nightmare opening a company in Brazil," Legg says. "John said, 'How about I take ownership … we'll make sure it happens,' and he did and it is," Legg says.
A simple change in seating best demonstrates this paradigm shift. The legal department used to sit back in a corner, Herbst says, but he moved them to be more centrally located.
"I don't want people to be like, 'Oh no, it's the lawyers,'" he says. "[We're] not sitting in an ivory tower."
—Julie Beck
Curbing Contract Claims: Energy Transfer Partners
Two years ago, Energy Transfer Partners had growing litigation expenses resulting from post-project claims, aggravated by an inefficient and inconsistent contracting process. At the same time, the legal department faced a mounting workload as the company doubled in size with the acquisitions of Southern Union Co. and Sunoco Inc.
The EOP (Engineering, Operations and Procurement) Law Group, under the leadership of Assistant General Counsel Keegan Pieper, developed and implemented a multipronged solution that included a contract management system and project close-out meetings. The result was a reduction in claims that reduced litigation expenses 580 percent from 2011 to 2012.
"If a company wants to reduce litigation expenses, it should reduce the things it is doing that lead to litigation," Pieper says, rather than focusing on lowering outside counsel fees. "We reviewed how we do contracting, the technology we use to facilitate it and how we are communicating with our contractors."
A first step was improving compliance with the company's contracting policy.
"We had a lot of people in the business units who were not complying with the contracting policy," Pieper says. Rather than use an approved contract, they would use an outdated or counterparty contract. Additionally, they hired service providers without a standardized background check to uncover financial or litigation issues. Pieper directed a project team headed by George Krapfel, senior contract analyst, and Tyler Fedun, senior software engineer, to address the issues.
Rather than buying an off-the-shelf product, the team developed its own contract management system.
"We wrote a database that was interactive and easy to use," Krapfel says. "Keegan said, 'Make it easy,' and I said, 'OK, will do.'"
The new system virtually ended the use of unapproved or outdated contracts.
"There is no faster, easier system," Pieper adds. "It completely eliminated the mentality that 'My way (to prepare a contract) is easier.'"
The system is so intuitive that no training is necessary. "Anyone in the field can log on and use it without training, versus off-the-shelf systems that are cumbersome and you need a degree-and-a-half to use them," Fedun says.
Among other features, the system automatically feeds in information from an outside vendor on problems contractors experience anywhere in the country, such as employee deaths or other safety issues, Krapfel says.
Fedun is now developing mobile apps for Android and iPhones so employees can access the contract system anywhere with cell phone service. When they have no cell service, they can enter data that automatically uploads once they are in cell tower range.
With the use of the system, in 2013 the EOP Law Group has processed more than 600 contracts a month.
Project close-out meetings, where the EOP Law Group and contractor lawyers and management get together to discuss issues with performance, pay or workmanship, are another key to reduced litigation costs.
"When the project is over, all parties get together to talk about the project, discuss their frustrations and talk about what they liked and didn't like," Pieper says. "It's a time for both parties to say, 'I'm sorry,' or 'How dare you.' Communication is paramount in reducing claims."
Good communication is also key to establishing strong working relationships with the business, he adds.
"I truly believe our business units see us as bringing value and a safety net to their operations." Pieper says. "Communication has enabled us to position ourselves in a way that allows us to add value."
—Mary Swanton
Mobile Marvel: Motorola Mobility
Motorola hasn't had much time to settle down in one place, but in the mobile arena, that comes with the territory. Keeping the company's law department as flexible and technologically savvy as its phones and accessories has helped the Motorola team become an industry leader.
Originally a part of the Motorola Inc. family, Motorola Mobility separated as a public company in January 2011. Google Inc. then bought the company just over a year later. Throughout the shifting landscape, Scott Offer, Motorola's Senior Vice President and General Counsel and his team have played a crucial role in reshaping and resizing the ever-changing company.
"In the past 12 months alone," Offer says, "Motorola's law department was a key driver in strategizing and executing multiple highly complex deals that transformed the company into a more nimble and focused entity."
The department has had a direct hand in outsourcing manufacturing operations worldwide, negotiating sales of both the company's cable set-top box business and multiple factories, and divesting the company's chipset business. At the same time, the constant task of defending the company's intellectual property rights and critical patents has remained a concern.
With so many balls to juggle, Offer knew the law department needed to become "uber efficient in record time" and think more creatively to succeed. And to get there, the department turned to Motorola Mobility's company forte.
David Kenzer, Vice President of Commercial Law leads the team that has driven many of the changes. "The team turned to technology," he says. "[We] created IT solutions that changed the game and leveraged the Google tools available to everyone."
Realizing the limited amount of time they had to sign contracts with customers worldwide, Motorola Mobility's department set out to streamline the process. The result is Motorola's Agreement eXpress (MAX), an online tool that allows the business teams to automatically generate contracts with field customization, auto-route contracts for internal approvals, and sign documents electronically. MAX can also gather real-time information about contract statuses, deviations and valuations; provide personal and team dashboards; and more.
"This innovative solution is now the new model for other areas of business," Kenzer explains, "and is a compelling demonstration of partnering with business teams to provide enhanced value as a legal organization."
The law department then turned its attention inwards to integrating technology within the Motorola Mobility company itself. The team focused on two key areas: offering more relevant and contextual training, and encouraging timely compliance with ethics training. They accomplished the first goal through the Flash Class program—shorter informal, interactive classes aimed specifically at the company's top training needs. Interactive online training accomplished goal number two, using a game-playing format to make learning about ethics fun and accessible.
The results were instantaneous. According to Kenzer, "[Flash Class] is getting more people in the company excited about learning and teaching, is an excellent complement to more formal training programs and can be leveraged throughout the entire company." The interactive online training has seen similar results and positive feedback.
With the winds of change swirling around them, the Motorola Mobility team has not only succeeded, but thrived. Normally law departments aren't in the forefront of change, but Offer strives for his squad to be different. "The team has been, and continues to be, instrumental in transforming the company," Offer says, "driving a new culture throughout the company, improving morale and responding to the business with innovative solutions that extend beyond the law department."
—InsideCounsel Staff
Tech Training: 3M
As 3M Co.'s international operations grew throughout the past five years its legal department also began to expand globally. It hired new lawyers abroad—one in this country, two in that—but wanted to maintain a feeling of being one cohesive team. The initial solution was hosting what 3M calls Global Legal Academies, gatherings held every two years at the company's headquarters in St. Paul, Minn., at which new lawyers learned about the company's way of doing business and were exposed to the basics of many areas of law.
But when the class sizes at the Global Legal Academies grew to 16, then 25, then more, it became impractical and unwieldy to organize their logistics. Associate General Counsel Jim Zappa and Assistant General Counsel David Overstreet found an elegant solution in technology.
Starting in December 2012, 3M's legal department began putting on a series of webinars led by subject matter experts within the company that would serve as mandatory training for new lawyers, both in the U.S. and abroad.
"By developing and launching a series of training webinars covering significant legal and compliance topics, the legal department was able to provide the crucial training while minimizing the costs of travel and promoting a unified global legal culture," says 3M General Counsel Ivan Fong.
Each webinar, held monthly, focuses on a different topic. So far they've run the gamut from global competition law to internal investigation management to environmental marketing claims.
"The intent is that we'll develop this library of webinars over the course of a year, year and a half, and then in the future, new attorneys will go out and they can watch those webinars," Overstreet says. "[Then] the goal is to update them from time to time."
Every webinar is recorded and linked to on the company's website, along with related resources like handouts and PowerPoint slides, meaning that attorneys who join the company later can go back and watch old webinars to catch up. After getting feedback from attendees that they wanted more concrete resources to help them work through issues, like checklists or templates, Zappa and Overstreet plan to include those as well.
"It's one of those typical innovation stories," Zappa says. "When you do something for the first time, the goal is to get as close as you can to a product that really works, but you know you're going to get 80 percent or 90 percent of the way there. The rest of it is inevitably taking the feedback and restructuring."
While the team works to perfect the system, they've already gotten a lot of positive feedback. Some of 3M's more experienced lawyers have started listening in on the webinars, even though they don't have to, just to brush up on a topic. Some lawyers are also using the materials from the webinars to help train clients.
3M isn't getting rid of the Global Legal Academies, though. Having the webinars as a base allows presenters at the Global Legal Academies to go more in-depth into topics and build on the information everyone's already received through the webinars.
Aside from consistency in training, Zappa says he thinks the value of the webinars comes from creating a feeling of community among lawyers spread out across the globe.
"We've got a positive feeling about the development and commitment of the function," he says. "That's really important to us because we want to bring people in, have them stay and have them grow their careers."
—Julie Beck
Implementing inclusion: TIAA-CREF
As the general counsel of financial services organization TIAA-CREF, Jonathan Feigelson was proud of his legal department, which was made up of a talented team of 84 hardworking lawyers. But early last year, he felt like something was missing.
"I realized that there was a need to strengthen diversity and inclusion efforts across our law department and to promote our values to our outside service providers," Feigelson says. With the help of Samantha Frasso, TIAA's legal communications and practice manager, he got immediately to work building a more diverse and inclusive team.
The first step in initiating the TIAA Law Department Diversity & Inclusion Program, which launched in March 2012, was to set goals and put in place a committee to work toward achieving those goals. The 14-person Diversity & Inclusion Committee set up four "workstreams" within the program: collect data on diversity, create a mission statement and communications plan, conduct outside counsel firm analysis and diversity outreach, and begin engaging with diverse and women-owned law firms for recruitment and retention of legal staff. "Samantha put together a spreadsheet of tasks for the committee members, which held people accountable for various responsibilities," Feigelson explains. "This really got the ball rolling and set the momentum."
Within the workstreams, the committee set in place several specific initiatives. First, they developed a strategy for selecting outside counsel. "We now request that all external counsel report annually with demographic information for attorneys working on TIAA's matters," Feigelson says. "This outreach also includes an obligation to engage in annual conferences with a member of our law department to discuss other ways in which those firms promote diversity and inclusion within the bar and to confirm that the staffing of our transactions promotes our diversity and inclusion objectives."
Secondly, they began sponsoring diverse interns within the legal department, working with the New York City Bar Association's Diversity Fellowship Program and Charlotte, N.C.'s Legal Diversity Clerkship Program. "The goal is to provide first-year law students from underrepresented populations the chance to spend a summer in one of New York's most exciting legal environments," Feigelson explains.
Thirdly, the department brought in a guest speaker to discuss the importance of diversity within an organization, building internal awareness and adoption of the need for the program. And finally, they implemented a "diverse slate effort," which requires that diverse candidates be considered for 100 percent of all job openings within the legal department.
Not surprisingly, a program of such magnitude does not come without its challenges. Feigelson says early on he had to work through his busy committee members getting distracted from the project, and he also struggled to find ways to keep the program fresh and innovative. "I'm also anticipating another challenge to be how responsive law firms will be over time," he says, "and their attempts to demonstrate in a meaningful way that they are taking diversity seriously within their firms."
But so far, the program is well on its way to success, serving as a model for other TIAA departments interested in moving the diversity needle.
"Our diversity and inclusion efforts reflect the core values of TIAA-CREF," says Brandon Becker, TIAA's chief legal officer. "The law group should be commended for turning those values into concrete actions. Effective D&I initiatives not only are the right thing to do, but they're essential for us to compete in a global marketplace."
—Cathleen Flahardy
Social Standing: The Hartford
It's only 140 characters long, and takes just a second to send, but an errant Tweet can spell disaster for a company. The same goes for an inappropriate Facebook or LinkedIn posting. Given the pervasiveness and speed of social media, how can a company with more than 10,000 employees monitor the content going out on all of these channels?
For The Hartford Financial Services Co., the answer was the Social Media Review Team (SMRT), a specialized group comprising representatives from the company's law department, its enterprise digital commerce group, and its governance, risk and compliance services team. The SMRT's mandate is to review all social media requests coming from the business, identify potential risks inherent in the social media usage and provide suggestions for mitigating those risks.
Created in 2011, the SMRT provides a streamlined solution for The Hartford employees looking to establish a business-related social media channel—be it a Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn account. "The team allows for a one-stop shop where someone can … understand the risks and what they have to do to launch [a social media channel] in the proper way, as opposed to [going] to five different people and getting different answers," says David Cunningham, vice president and assistant general counsel at The Hartford.
Earlier this year, the team boosted its review capabilities with the introduction of an online tool that automatically tracks and collects data on each social media usage request, allowing the SMRT to identify common requests and risks. Once requestors submit their social media plans, often at interactive meetings with the SMRT, the team assesses them for potential risks.
"We have access to such great data about the accounts we have, who are the standard requestors that are coming through … we can really slice and dice our data," says David Smith, corporate counsel at The Hartford, who developed the tool.
Identifying similarities in the requests enables the team to assess each social media proposal more quickly—which is essential when dealing with the fast-paced world of social media. One common social media risk, for instance, is the threat of intellectual property infringement. If one of The Hartford's social media channels includes third-party content, the company must ensure that it complies with the original owner's terms of use.
The SMRT also watches out for potential regulatory requirements. As a financial services company, The Hartford can be required to respond to inquiries that consumers post on social media sites, so requestors have to ensure that someone will always be monitoring the appropriate channels for such questions.
After identifying these potential pitfalls—a process that can take anywhere from a day to two weeks—the SMRT produces an executive summary of its findings and risk mitigation requirements, which it then presents to the original requestors. Once the requestors have satisfied the requirements, they are free to implement their social media strategy, although some requestors return to the SMRT for periodic check-ups.
The team continues to refine the tool and is currently looking for more straightforward ways to present the vast amounts of data it collects to various levels of company employees. Above all, Smith says, the team always keeps content at the forefront of their minds. As he puts it: "We have to ask ourselves, 'Is the content that we're looking to make or build [going] to help educate, to help engage and inform folks that are listening to one of our channels?'"
—Alanna Byrne
Complaint Triage: University Hospitals Health System Inc.
A 420 percent increase in the number of complaints and events reported at a company doesn't seem like it would be a boon to a legal department. But in the case of University Hospitals Health System Inc., (UH) the increase was not only welcomed, it also corresponded with a 50 percent decrease in the number of lawsuits filed annually against the hospital.
The reason behind the two seemingly contradictory statistics is UH's so-called PASS reporting system, which was first implemented in 2007 in an effort to better track events that could result in liability claims against the hospital.
UH already had an event-reporting system, but it was "cumbersome" and difficult to use, according to Vice President and Deputy General Counsel Kim Bixenstine, who helped to launch the new program. The PASS system, by contrast, can be used by employees at any of the hospital's locations—which include an academic medical center, six community medical centers and three ambulatory surgical centers. No password is necessary; anyone with access to UH's intranet can easily submit a report.
Implementing the system wasn't just about easy-to-use technology, though. It also required instituting a "just culture" that destigmatized reporting and instead prioritized openness and process improvement. That shift in focus started with the name of the system itself (PASS stands for Patient Advocacy and Shared Stories) and was emphasized in an ongoing series of educational programs that told employees how and when to enter event reports.
When an employee reports an event that could result in potential harm to a patient, the report goes directly to the law department, as well as the supervisor of the relevant hospital area. Events that the system deems especially significant automatically go to senior hospital officials.
Hospital staff, including residents, paralegals, patient advocates and attending physicians, then have weekly meetings to discuss each event report and the changes that can be made to prevent a similar event from happening again.
"In the old system people used to think, 'I put an event report in, where does it go? It's a black hole,'" says Julia Skarbinski, director for patient safety, risk management and advocacy. "With PASS reporting, because so many more people are involved, there's so much collaboration … and people are also seeing the lessons learned that come out of it. They know that these actions are being taken and they're not just wasting time putting event reports in."
Bixenstine agrees, citing buy-in from executives such as Chief Legal Officer Janet Miller as a key reason for the system's success. "We have a culture now at University Hospitals of transparency," she says. "That results in greater employee satisfaction and engagement … and it really results in greater patient confidence in having that transparency."
Patient complaints also go through PASS, allowing hospital staff to begin mediation as soon as potential problems arise. This proactive approach has cut litigation costs by $2 million for each of the past four years, even as the number of patients at UH has risen by 24 percent.
The system has had other benefits as well. Last year the American Hospital Association recognized UH's primary hospital with the AHA-McKesson Quest for Quality Prize, awarded annually to one hospital in the country that demonstrates exceptional patient care.
"It's caused a cascade of things—more people involved, more process improvement, more notifications to our legal department, and decrease in claims," says Skarbinski.
—Alanna Byrne
E-Discovery Excellence: DuPont


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Local food seminars being held across state
MADISON – The Local Food Business Seminar in December will include discussion and small group activities to build understanding about the legalities of doing business. �The seminar will be held in four locations across the state and available via webinar.
The seminar will be led by Rachel Armstrong of Farm Commons and Courtney Berner from the UW Center for Cooperatives. Attendees will compare different business structures and draft provisions for an operating agreement. The seminar will also cover insurance needs and employment law.
There will be ample time for questions and interaction with every topic. The seminar is for those starting or already running a food or farm business.
Seminar dates and locations include:
• Tuesday, December 3 at the Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center in Ashland.
•� Wednesday, December 4 at the Jackson County UW-Extension Office in Black River Falls.
•� Thursday, December 5 at the Brown County Culinary Kitchen in Green Bay.
•� Friday, December 6 at the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection in Madison.
The seminars in Ashland, Green Bay and Madison will be held from 8:15 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The seminar in Black River Falls will be held from 8:45 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Lunch is included at all sites with the $15 registration fee. If more than one person is attending from a business, additional registrations are only $10 per person.
The Madison seminar will also be offered live via webinar. There is no cost for the webinar but registration is still required.
To register, visit http://datcp.wi.gov/Business/Buy_Local_Buy_Wisconsin/BLBW_Workshops. For additional information, contact DATCP's Callie LaPoint, Agriculture Marketing Specialist, at 608-224-5112 or firstname.lastname@example.com.
Understanding the legalities of your business is the second topic in a series of six Local Food Business Seminars presented by the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection and the University of Wisconsin-Extension. The next seminar in February will cover food safety requirements and the available resources.

subset: commoncrawl


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Junk bonds of companies in emerging markets are the most expensive in seven years relative to the U.S., underscoring concerns by policy makers from Mexico to the Philippines who say the threat of asset bubbles is increasing.
Speculative-grade securities from nations including China and Brazil returned 14.8 percent since end-June, versus 9.4 percent in the U.S., according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch indexes. Emerging-market yields fell to 7.3 percent from 9.3 percent a year ago even as net debt rose to a record 3.02 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The median yield-to-leverage ratio of 2.4 compares with 2.1 in the U.S., the smallest premium since 2005, the year before developing-nation returns lagged behind.
"If global economic conditions remain sluggish, high-yield companies will be at risk given their high leverage," said Brigitte Posch, an executive vice president at Newport Beach, California-based Pacific Investment Management Co., manager of the world's largest bond fund. "Going forward being selective is extremely important."
Investors repressed by near-zero benchmark interest rates in the U.S., the euro region and Japan are paying up for debt in developing nations at the same time the International Monetary Fund says the economies will expand less than the decade average. Junk-rated companies, including Chinese property developer Hopson Development Holdings Ltd., raised $18 billion last month, or 44 percent above the previous record in May 2011.
Posch, whose firm manages the $285.6 billion Total Return Fund, said in a Feb. 12 e-mail that she has pared holdings of some emerging-market corporate debt with "tight valuations" the past few months, while looking to add "good credits."
When the yield-to-leverage ratio for junk borrowers in emerging markets fell this low versus American peers in 2005, the developing-nation index returned 9.3 percent the following year, trailing the 11.8 percent gain in the U.S., Bank of America Merrill Lynch indexes show.
The ratios measure how well investors are compensated relative to the company's debt level. A higher reading indicates better risk-adjusted returns.
Emerging market businesses have been adding debt even as profit growth slows and borrowing costs stop tumbling. Ebitda at companies in Bank of America Merrill Lynch's high-yield index increased 9.5 percent in the past 12 months, less than half the 23 percent pace a year earlier, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
"The quality of bonds issued now is lower than it was six months ago," Guillermo Osses, who oversees $15 billion as the head of emerging-market debt at HSBC Asset Management in New York, said in a telephone interview on Jan. 18. "This is difficult to sustain," said Osses, who has reduced holdings of high-yield corporate bonds.
J&F Participacoes SA, the Sao Paulo-based parent of the world's biggest beef producer, and Schahin Oil & Gas Ltd., a Brazilian rig operator, both postponed debt sales this month as borrowing costs rose.
A growing number of policy makers have expressed concern that credit markets are overheating after Bank of America's gauge of global junk debt jumped 115 percent in the past four years, outpacing the 91 percent total return from the MSCI All-Country World Index of shares.
Funds investing in developing-nation bonds attracted $13.5 billion this year, after drawing a record $97 billion in 2012, JPMorgan said in a Feb. 15 note.
The "credit booms" in emerging markets may leave them vulnerable to a reversal in capital flows once advanced-country policy makers pare back monetary stimulus, Mexican central bank Governor Agustin Carstens said in a Feb. 5 speech in Singapore.
Philippine central bank Governor Amando Tetangco said on Jan. 15 in Manila that he's focused on containing speculative inflows that may spur asset-price bubbles. Thai central bank Governor Prasarn Trairatvorakul echoed that concern in a policy address in Bangkok on Jan. 22.
U.S. Federal Reserve Governor Jeremy Stein said Feb. 7 that investors' "fairly significant pattern of reaching-for-yield" doesn't "bode well" for speculative-grade debt.
Average emerging-market corporate yields have climbed 21 basis points, or 0.21 percentage point, from a more than seven-year low of 7.04 percent on Jan. 23. Yields for American junk bonds rose 12 basis points to 6.56 percent.
Investors submitted bids for new emerging-market corporate bonds last month that were on average 10 times the amount being offered, up from four times a year earlier, Bank of America said in a Jan. 31 report. High-yield sales accounted for 43 percent of the total, above the three-year average of 27 percent.
Investors have begun "to care less about whether or not a bond compensates them appropriately and more about whether the bond compensates them at all," Chris Hays and Oleg Melentyev, New York-based strategists at Bank of America, wrote in the report.
The Washington-based IMF cut its 2013 growth forecast for developing nations to 5.5 percent on Jan. 23 from a previous estimate of 5.6 percent. While that's slower than their average growth rate of 6.6 percent during the past decade, it's still faster than the 1.4 percent pace projected for advanced nations.
Emerging market companies are borrowing to finance expansion opportunities and yields are high enough to compensate investors for the risk of a selloff in global debt markets, said Philip Meier, an emerging-market money manager at DWS Investments, which oversees 283 billion euros ($378 billion).
"Investors are still keen on adding emerging markets corporates exposure," said Meier. "We expect the emerging markets discount to narrow further in a positive market environment in 2013."
Hopson Development, a Beijing-based property developer that increased net debt to 14 times Ebitda as of June from 4.1 times a year earlier, sold $300 million of five-year notes on Jan. 9.
The securities, rated CCC+ by S&P, or seven steps below investment grade, were priced to yield 9.875 percent. That compared with 10.2 percent for similar-rated bonds globally and an average 15.5 percent for emerging markets, data compiled by Bloomberg and Bank of America show. The bonds have lost about 2.1 percent.
Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA, Brazil's second-largest carrier, sold $200 million of 10-year bonds on Feb. 7 with an 11 percent yield. The debt, rated B- by S&P, has slipped to 98.5 cents on the dollar from an issue price of 98.51.
The airline is cutting flights, firing workers and seeking to renegotiate covenants on local securities after losses in five of the past six quarters. Adjusted net debt climbed to 14.3 times trailing 12-month earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization and rent in the third quarter from 6.7 times a year earlier, the company said on Nov. 13.
"When you see massive credit issuance, it comes hand in hand with the slippage of underwriting standards," said Michael Shaoul, the chairman of New York-based Marketfield Asset Management, whose $6.1 billion MainStay Marketfield Fund has outperformed 96 percent of peers the past five years. "The class of 2013, 2012, 2011 will have much worse credit conditions than we are used to."
Bloomberg News


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Army Aviation Hall of Fame 2013 Induction - Ft. Worth, TX
Command Sergeant Major Donnie D. Calvery, Jr., Retired
CSM Donnie Calvery entered the Army on July 31, 1973 becoming an aircraft armament repairman and volunteered for service in Task Force 160 10 years later.
His exceptional leadership skills and dedication to the special operations aviation mission allowed him to rise through the ranks serving 19 of his 30 year career in the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne), culminating as the regimental command sergeant major.
He was there for the unit's baptism of fire in Operation Urgent Fury, the first of many combat operations as a Night Stalker, and was the epitome of the unit's motto "Night Stalkers Don't Quit."
Of particular significance was his participation in the first combat airborne operation since Vietnam; the first jumper out the door, during Operation Just Cause.
He was instrumental in the development of programs for the selection and training of enlisted members volunteering to serve in the 160th SOAR (A).
His personal attention to the needs of families led to formation of family readiness groups to support the needs of Night Stalker families separated by the constant deployment of service members.
He is an exceptional Soldier whose outstanding accomplishments and selfless service contributed significantly to the success of the 160th SOAR (A) and the Army Aviation Branch.
His career embodies what Aviation Branch envisioned as the model for young enlisted aviator maintainers to emulate.
CSM Calvery retired in 2003 and continues serving as a force modernization analyst providing his experience, technical expertise and special operations forces knowledge to the future transformation of SOF aviation.


text:
Ask the Expert: Fertilization Strategies for Success: Dec. 12, 2017
Learn how to do more with less when it comes to your fertilization services. Join the live Ask the Expert event hosted by Koch Turf & Ornamental: Dec. 12, 12-2 p.m. ET in the Fertilizer Application forum .
Kansas City!!!!
Discussion in 'Network: Central' started by Hamons, Mar 7, 2003.
Page 414 of 444
Page 414 of 444


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Is technology helping or hindering our focus on driving?
If you're driving a car that's 6 or 8 years old, chances are you're not familiar with the latest in automotive technology.
Test drive a new vehicle, and you'll be impressed with the computerized innovations. Among them are Bluetooth capabilities. Many car models let you quickly upload your cellphone's contact list and plug in voice-activated speed dialing for frequently used numbers. Now, with the click of a button and the command to "phone home," you can let your spouse know you're on the way home or running late. You can quickly check in with Mom or phone a friend without taking your eyes off the road. Instead of holding a phone, you might talk, answer and hang up while keeping both hands on the wheel. Chatting on the phone while driving is no more distracting than visiting with a passenger sitting next to you.
That would have helped the woman who was so busy talking on her hand-held phone Thursday that she cut the corner too sharp while I was approaching a stop sign. Had I not been an observant, defensive driver, I might have smacked the side of her turning car.
That's not to say all technological advances will keep drivers from distractions and make roads safer. As syndicated columnist Peter Funt explained, innovations keep coming, and several states are crafting legislation to ban drivers from wearing Google Glass. Not surprisingly, Google has hired lobbyists to fight the legislation and argues that its hands-free device will combat rather than contribute to distracted driving.
But here's how Google Glass works: The device, which Funt says will be interfaced with Hyundai models next year, will allow motorists to access data such as text messages and directions in visual form that appears before their eyes. Google Glass also lets wearers watch videos, even while driving cars.
Think you could do that while driving without being distracted? Think you want to be on the road—or want your loved ones on the highway—with drivers buzzing around while watching some video?
I know I don't. And I also wouldn't want the woman who turned in front of me yesterday to be watching a video through her glasses the next time I meet her on the road.
Greg Peck can be reached at (608) 755-8278 or email@example.com. Or follow him on Twitter or Facebook.
Greg Peck can be reached at (608) 755-8278 or email@example.com. Or follow him on Twitter or Facebook.


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Milton mother speaks out about son's heroin death
MILTON--Maybe a mother can sound the alarm in a way that makes a difference.
Barbara VanGalder found her son Clayton Smith on the bathroom floor Jan. 25 with a needle still in his arm.
He died from a heroin overdose.
Clayton's death is part of a tragic health problem leaving a trail of heartbroken families.
The 23-year-old is one of at least 251 deaths in Rock County since 2006 from overdoses of opiates, including heroin. Some were heroin-alone overdoses. Some were from heroin in combination with other opiate drugs. Some were from opiates other than heroin.
The number comes from Louis Smit, Rock County chief deputy/acting coroner.
Opiates are a group of drugs derived both naturally and synthetically that can numb the nervous system. Among the most dangerous is heroin, which is highly addictive and illegal. Some commonly prescribed opiates are morphine, Vicodin, Fentanyl, Codeine and Oxycontin, which are used for pain. They also are abused by people seeking highs.
"Rarely a day goes by where there is not a drug-related rescue call that goes out, most often within the cities of Janesville and Beloit and usually involving an opiate and/or one or more other drugs," Smit said. "They seldom die from heroin alone."
Most victims range in age from 20 to 45.
In 2012, Rock County had 64 opiate-related deaths. In 2013, the number dropped to 20, although 13 more cases still are pending final toxicology results. The cases most likely will be opiate-related, Smit said.
He believes the decline in deaths is due to the efforts of emergency medical personnel who use medicine to block the effects of heroin and other opiates on the central nervous system. Naloxone, commonly known by its brand name Narcan, can stop a heroin overdose and potentially save a life.
So far this year, Smit reports 26 opiate-related deaths, with 10 additional cases pending final toxicology results.
"There is no indication the trend is going to change," he said.
If Clayton were still alive, he would be 24 today.
Some family members are going fishing, one of Clayton's favorite pastimes, to honor him. Barbara plans a cookout at her home, which she hopes to repeat annually to celebrate her son's birthday.
She shares his story to raise awareness about the rising use of heroin and other opiates and the profound sorrow they wreak on families. She hopes to ignite a community conversation to prevent more deaths.
"I was so wrapped up in saving my own son that I did not know others were having problems," she said. "We all tried to get Clayton help. We talked with him. We cried with him. We begged him."
Barbara, who lives in rural Milton, called her son every day during breaks at work to offer support.
But she could not force Clayton to check into a residential treatment program in Madison or Oshkosh. None exists locally.
Pleading for help, she talked to law enforcement, her family doctor and counselors, who said her adult son had to walk through the doors by choice.
But Clayton was fearful of withdrawal. His judgment was impaired by addiction, which prevented him from choosing the help he desperately needed, Barbara said.
Her son had at least two car accidents while he was high on heroin. He was arrested on a number of drug charges, including possession of drug paraphernalia. At the time of his death, Clayton had four pending court dates in four counties, including Rock.
Clayton's descent into drug abuse began with an accident at age 16. He fell out of the back of a moving pickup truck while helping friends move near Orfordville. Clayton shattered his skull, and a helicopter took him to University Hospital in Madison, where he remained in an induced coma for several days.
After the head trauma, the mild-mannered and happy Clayton became quick-tempered, depressed and moody. Because of the severity of his injuries, he could not go back to high school, and he never got a diploma.
The doctor sent Clayton home with a prescription of oxycodone painkillers.� Eventually, his doctor took him off the medicine cold turkey after he tested positive for marijuana. Clayton began buying illegal painkillers.
Eventually, he discovered heroin, which was cheaper than pills and easier to get.
"I don't know exactly when he started using it," Barbara said. "I had never known anyone who did heroin."
Like so many parents, Barbara thought of heroin as a problem of the big cities, confined to desperate people in dark allies. She had no idea the deadly drug had a foothold in Wisconsin's small towns and suburbs. She was surprised when she learned her son was using it.
Clayton lived off and on with his parents, who are divorced. For several months, he lived with his older brother Ricky Carlson in his rural home.
"I watched him go through withdrawal from heroin," Ricky said. "He was doing really well for a while. He didn't have a car and couldn't go anywhere."
Ricky, who travels internationally as part of his job, often called Clayton long distance to offer encouragement. When Clayton started using again, he stole from his family to pay for his all-consuming addiction.
"He got good at manipulating people," Ricky said. "He stole a significant amount of money from me, and he somehow made me feel guilty about it."
At Clayton's funeral, Barbara chose to be honest about what happened to her son.
"The pastor was kind and compassionate," she said. "But he told it like it was. He explained why Clayton was in a casket."
If Clayton could have seen the aftermath of his death, Ricky believes his brother never would have touched heroin again.
"It wasn't in his heart to hurt people," he said.
Clayton's aunt Kathy Starostka of Janesville wants her nephew's story to heighten public awareness and to alert parents to the dangers of heroin use.
"Parents have no idea that their kids are getting involved with heroin," she said. "They have no idea how widespread it is or how dangerous it is. They think it is for hard-core drug users."
She added: "Kids need to know that heroin is not an innocent, feel-good drug. They say heroin is now more potent. If you get the super powerful stuff, it only takes seconds, and you are dead."
She and Barbara want a better way for people who are addicted to get connected to help right away. They're concerned there's no residential treatment center in Rock County, where the problem of addiction touches and threatens so many lives.
"There needs to be more treatment facilities," Kathy said. "Even trying to get an appointment for Clayton to have an assessment—which isn't even treatment—seemed to take forever."
"I can't change what happened to my son," Barbara said. "But, if I can save one life by telling my story, then maybe some good can come out of this."
Need help with an addiction or know someone who does? Find a local treatment center at substanceabuseusa.org.


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Elsberry plans restaurant in downtown Janesville
JANESVILLE—Jim Elsberry says he has the experience, the menu and the location for a fine dining supper club in downtown Janesville.
Now all he needs is a name for the restaurant he plans to open in June at 12 S. Main St., the former home of Aglio Ristorante.
"It will have a little bit of a darker feel, like the 1970s-era supper club that we used to have in the good ol' days," Elsberry said. "I'm still throwing a couple of names around. It's going to have a 'Rat Pack' theme."
Elsberry is well known on the local restaurant scene. Until earlier this year, he owned Pit Stop BBQ & Deli at One Parker Place in Janesville. He also owns Elsberry Edibles, a catering company he said is busier than ever.
Elsberry said he would lease the Main Street location, which seats 65 diners.
Earlier this month, Aglio moved into a much larger location at 19 N. High St., the former home of the Speakeasy.
"I'm in love with the downtown, and I really think it can work," Elsberry said, adding his menu will feature steaks, seafood and chicken, plus a variety of supper club-style cocktails and appetizers.
"I think Janesville has changed, and people are looking for higher-end types of dining experiences," he said, noting many local residents often travel out of town for just that type of meal.
"This is going to work because I'll have a fantastic menu and me doing the food with all my own recipes," he said. "Everything will be fresh, homemade … food that you can't get anyplace else.
"In Janesville, there really isn't any place that does a decent fish fry, has prime rib on Saturday night and a Sunday brunch. There's a need for that, and we're going to do it out of the gate."
Elsberry has more than 30 years in the food service industry. He has been the executive chef for five-star hotels in the region and has catered for events such as the Governor's Inaugural Ball, Jeff Smith of the Frugal Gourmet and the rock band Kansas.
He said he is in the process of hiring a staff for the new restaurant.


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One dead in Town of Delavan crash
TOWN OF DELAVAN--One person is dead after a Tuesday-morning crash at the intersection of Highway 50 and Town Hall Road in the town of Delavan.
Shortly before 4:30 a.m. Tuesday, a town of Delavan police officer reported a speeding vehicle traveling west on Highway 50 near Highway 12, according police officials.
The officer was traveling in the opposite direction and was unable to switch direction in time to stop it.
The vehicle ran off the road, hitting a utility pole and trees before stopping in the Walworth State Bank parking lot in the town of Delavan.
The driver was pronounced dead at the scene.
No other vehicles were damaged in the crash, according to town of Delavan police Lt. Scot Stefanczyk.
Stefanczyk said the deceased's vehicle was "extensively damaged."
The crash remained under investigation Tuesday, but speed was considered a factor.
The name of the deceased will be released after the family is notified, Stefanczyk said.


text:
Most money managers that use swaps didn't trade on new government-mandated platforms yesterday because use of the systems remains voluntary, according to a poll conducted by Tabb Group LLC.
The Boston-based researcher and consultant asked 36 investment firms that collectively manage more than $6 trillion if they used swap-execution facilities yesterday, when the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission required the venues to open, according to a report. Seventy-seven percent said they didn't use a SEF, 14 percent said they did, and 9 percent said they only sent test trades, Tabb said.
"The swaps market was largely unaffected, with volumes steady, despite the mad scramble to fix technology glitches and smooth the process," according to the Tabb report. "Firms are still trading swaps, and there will be only a limited migration to swap futures in this uncertain transition."
While the CFTC required all SEFs to be compliant with its rules by yesterday, investors aren't yet required to use them. Mandatory trading will begin for certain swaps once the CFTC approves the list of contracts -- known as made-available-to-trade requests -- each SEF wants to offer. That's keeping most of the industry away, according to Tabb.
"More than three-quarters of the firms polled said they plan to start SEF trading in the four months from November 2013 to February 2014, as both the Made Available to Trade Rule and the mandatory trading requirement kick in across the last two months of 2013," Tabb said in the report.
The Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 has provisions designed to move swaps, which helped fuel the 2008 credit crisis, from largely unregulated trading negotiated off exchanges to more transparent systems including SEFs, which are overseen by the CFTC and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The CFTC completed rules governing the transactions in May, opening up competition in a market with $633 trillion of over-the-counter derivatives contracts outstanding.
"We're basically voice trading today, we're not trading on SEFs," Supurna VedBrat, co-head of market structure and electronic trading at BlackRock Inc., said in an interview yesterday. She said the firm would begin using the venues once it was mandatory.
There are still some kinks to work out, she said. The ability for all SEFs to perform pre-trade credit checks and for clearinghouses to split one cleared trade into smaller chunks that are then allocated to the many accounts under management by a firm such as BlackRock aren't in place, she said.
"Those pieces of the infrastructure aren't ready, so it becomes problematic to trade on a SEF if you are trading for a real-money account," she said.
Lobbyists representing swaps users asked the CFTC last week for a broad postponement of yesterday's deadline for when SEFs had to be ready for trading, according to letters they sent the regulator. The CFTC granted several temporary delays related to the data reporting and enforcement responsibilities of the SEFs while denying the broad request.
Seventeen SEFs have won temporary requests to operate, including venues from Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP, IntercontinentalExchange Inc., Thomson Reuters Corp., MarketAxess Holdings Inc., GFI Group Inc., ICAP Plc, Tradeweb Markets LLC, and Javelin Capital Markets LLC.
ICAP is accepting trades put together by brokers that are then executed on the company's SEF, said Chris Ferreri, a managing director. "It's a good transition step," he said. "If you walked onto our brokering floor, you'd think it was a pretty normal day."
Bloomberg News


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- Middleton and Kardashian pregnancies. I'm very happy for them and wish them both the best - but I have been pregnant - in total - for 3.5 years of my life. I don't need/want their look.
- Sudocrem on spots. Arse. Literally.
- Argan Oil - Yes it's wonderful but it doesn't have to be in everything - and please stop calling it groundbreaking.
- Painting your ring finger differently from the others. A trend not started by someone with OCD. Clearly.
- The word 'trend'. Forever.
- Aapri Face Scrubs. I am still asked if they are 'ok to use'. Yes, on the sole of an elephant's foot.
- The term 'squeaky clean'. Nothing on your body should squeak. You are not a rodent.
Tuesday, 8 January 2013
Thought for the Day. Things I wish we could all move on from. Part One.
120 comments:
I love you Caroline.ReplyDeleteReplies
I love YOU Jayne. :)Delete
What about Vaseline?! (eurgh) xReplyDelete
I love you. THE END.ReplyDeleteReplies
Ah shucks you sweet talker you.Delete
I wish the entire Kardashian family would just move on full stop. I wish my acne would shove off. I also wish my excess weight would magically move on all of its own accord whilst I still continue to trough my way through Waitroses cake selection. I'm not sure I've got the hang of this...ReplyDeleteReplies
I hear you. It's ok. Vent away..Delete
Made me laugh...esp re the pregnancies and Argan oil. I love it too but it seems to be overkill.ReplyDeleteReplies
I know. Everywhere!Delete
Hilarious. I too hate the signature finger nail paint. Just wrong. Oh and the metallic/magnet/caviar etc nail varnishes. Hideous. And onesies but ill probably be shot for saying that one.ReplyDelete
I like the velvet nails. But leaving one different? No.Delete
Hahaha brilliant. xxReplyDelete
This actually made me laugh out loud! Thank you!ReplyDelete
Emu oil- not a fan! Oilatum (hate) steroid cream on already thin *damaged* skin the new *fur* manicure F-ur-k off! Ok, that will doodle do :) Love your rants in a list-the best x Oh Bio oil- VILE!ReplyDeleteReplies
Furk off. Genius.Delete
I love this. Love, love, love.ReplyDelete
"Guys" - all of the time. No, no , no.ReplyDelete
"Like" - it is or it isn't - it's, like, very annoying.
"Picked up" - you purchased something. "Picked up" implies theft.Replies
I like totally hear you.Delete
- Taking pictures for one's blog with one's hand stuck into one side of one's ombre'd hair whilst pouting and gazing slightly off camera or at one's turned-in feet.ReplyDelete
- Ombre hair.
- Mac Snob lipstick (not necessarily an everyday occurrence but one which should be banished to Room 101 nevertheless).
- Piers Morgan. Just because...well. Because.Replies
Effing "top-knots" .... please.ReplyDelete
LOVE this, yet another gem from Mrs Hirons
This comment has been removed by the author.ReplyDelete
No 1) Christmas chocolates. Still got a houseful and now getting fatReplyDelete
No 2) the word yay
No 3) sticking `tastic` on the end of words. I did this myself today and died a little inside
No 4) people trying to buy me skincare as a gift. Done with good intentions but nooooooo. If you've heard of it I don't want it! (My family don't read your blog Caroline)
There maybe more...Replies
How can I explain to my friend how much she needs to stop putting Sudocrem on her face. It makes me want to punch her every time her stupid white face appears at my door!! xReplyDeleteReplies
Wait: she wears it out of the house?Delete
Ditto to all of the above.ReplyDelete
I find sudocrem really soothing after using my aapri scrub... *ahem*ReplyDelete
1) Top Knots (agreed)
2) People saying 'sneaky peak'. it's sneaky PEEK!!!!!!!!!
3) Rodial and everything associated thereofReplies
This Sneaky Peak into your psyche has been revealing :)Delete
What, no Sudocrem on spots? I hadn't even had the time to try this one? And I'll keep painting my nails different colors, sorry :))ReplyDelete
I'm a bit scared by onesies for grown-ups, but well, to each their own thing. As long as you don't offer me one as a gift.Replies
*buys you onesie, paints nails all one colour* :)Delete
Absolutely Brill, That has made my day!! xReplyDelete
something should squeak though halloumi in your mouth - yum squeaky cheese rules! I can believe anybody would even dream of putting Aapri on their face I use smoother scrubs than that on my body :) great post as always thanks for raising a smile xReplyDeleteReplies
This gave me a laugh! I totally agree about squeaky clean - you shouldn't squeak!ReplyDelete
Things that we need to move on from/things that are totally out for me:
1) Unnatural eyebrows a la filled in so much, they look like a geometric shape. Ew.
2) The use of highlighter all over the cheeks. It's supposed to go on the TOP of your cheekbones.
3) Pouts. Just, no.Replies
Ahhhh, the brow that is square at the bridge of the nose, god I hate that!Delete
Totally agree on pouts! Having said that I look like a bufoon when I smile in blog pics and for some reason my face seems to want to pout!
- Anonymous8 January 2013 at 19:56
Love, love, love. I have NEVER been into the whole different polish for the ring finger thing, it just looks unbalanced. I am OCD. Proud of it. Bring an end to this "trend", Caroline.ReplyDeleteReplies
I just love your sense of humor! Brilliant! :)ReplyDelete
I just love your sense of humor! Brilliant and you're so right!ReplyDelete
Gosh couldn't agree more to all the points you just mentioned. Where would the world be without you Caroline :-). xReplyDelete
Raves 'nd Ramblings
wow, you're angryReplyDeleteReplies
This? Meh. Just a mini rant.Delete
here's what annoys me: people bragging about pregnancyReplyDeleteReplies
Best you don't read any of that then eh?Delete
I'm slightly scared of you Caroline but enjoyed your rant. When is part 2 to be vented? :)ReplyDeleteReplies
I'm lovely! The only people that need to be scared of me are people who take advantage of other people and prople who do nothing to help others.Delete
So most politicians.
:) x
TOWIE, Made In Chelsea and any other very dodgy reality TV 'programmes' and any celeb TV 'programmes'. So over that rubbish!ReplyDelete
I have and always will hate the word 'nice' its non decriptive, it's like they can't be bothered to think of anything constructive to say but don't want to be mean.ReplyDelete
pure genius!!! almost had a twitter arguement the other night about sudocrem, I was defending your school of thought, obv!ReplyDelete
Jade | Beauty Butterfly Blog
I wouldn't use it on my baby's bum let alone my face!Delete
Hey Caroline!ReplyDelete
The apricot scrub on the elephants foot made my day! Thank you for sharing. You inspire me to keep being me!
karen in oz
oh and by the way, i'm over the use of the word 'super' before any word & TOWIE!!! No need for either in this world!ReplyDeleteReplies
don't you ever get like, super excited about a super product that made you super beautiful!Delete
Hey Caroline,ReplyDelete
Just discovered your blog and me and mum are already hooked, keep up the good work :) Anyways im after a face scrub if you could recommend me one that would be super, in the pass ive used the st ives scrub "/ is that a bad scrub to be using oh i have rather oily..ish skin xx
Hey Caroline!ReplyDelete
The apricot scrub on the elephants foot made my day! Thank you for sharing. You inspire me to keep being me!
karen in oz
Oh gosh I remember using the aapri scrub years ago and it broke me out horribly, lots of little under the skin red spots all over my face. It was awful! I don't really like it when bloggers adress their readers as 'sweeties' or 'honeys' etc I find it a wee bit sickly and contrived, or maybe I'm just a miserable cow :)ReplyDelete
Claps lots, me too! I just say readers, if I say anything nice at all hahaDelete
Oh thank god, I just read this to Ian, hopefully he'll stop coming to bed looking like Casper the friendly ghost every night xxReplyDelete
This was wonderful. I'd like to add some too:ReplyDelete
* 24hr wear foundations- really!!! Why would anyone want foundation on their face for 24 hrs???
* ad campaigns with words like "millionize your lashes"- huh? Millionize???
* get four shades fairer in just a week!!! - what do I say about this? These creams are so popular in India. I just feel like shaking the person buying it and saying, hello, if this really worked, no one would be dark. And we'd have women walking around with faces four shades fairer than their bodies *shudder*!Replies
1. People who have amazing lives where they are partying forever (ie, hardly anyone)Delete
2. agree!
3. Why the obsession with white? What is so amazing about a Caucasian that people would use bleach or heaven knows what else to get that skin colour. I think every ethnicity has lovely skin and its the skin you inherited through years of blood and genes.
You are brilliant. One that is annoying me is all these crazy nail trends. Enough already, I will not wear fur on my nails. xReplyDeleteReplies
yeah, what must it look like after washing your hands?!Delete
Every woman should have a trench coat in their wardrobe. FFS I am 5ft 4, size 12 with big t**s, and I look like a sack of spuds tied in the middle if I wear one (not that I have done so for many years)!ReplyDelete
This is what gets on my wick- huge corporate companies a la Estee Lauder donating a percentage of their profits to charites such as breast cancer yet they are the one that have been known to include some of the 'questinable ingredients' that cause this type of cancer in the first place. GeetaReplyDelete
I read this and thought about the sudocream I put on the spot that wont go away last night and the Argen oil that is currently in my hair yet totally agreed with everything you said hahaReplyDelete
We all have our bug bearers, mine has to be bloggers on twitter who want followers yet all they do is moan! I've unfollowed two this week alone! haha
Argan oil started for hair products (I have a few) and now its insane and in everything!Delete
ha ha this made me giggle xReplyDelete
Love your post. I know how you feel.ReplyDelete
The phrase 'gifted' mostly used by fashion bloggers sets my teeth on edge. Your shoes have a talent, no they were either free or a gift, not gifted.ReplyDelete
I'm with you on painting one of your nails a different colour to the rest and the word trend. The term 'on trend' in particular makes me wince. Using the word 'statement' to describe a bright lipstick or a bit of jewellery from Topshop or painting one of your nails a different colour to the rest bothers me too. You're not really making that much of a statement in society with any of those things - except that you bought them or have the time to paint one of your nails a different colour to the rest.ReplyDeleteReplies
you know what's worse? BANG on trendDelete
I can't stand using the word gift as a verb either. Why would you?ReplyDelete
Totally agree with the ring finger thing. I am so fed up with this 'trend'......copy cats!ReplyDelete
Amen sistah.ReplyDelete
"natural" skincare - whatever that means - so is poison ivy.
creme de la mer addicts which smears worse than expensive smooth peanut butter
Parisian women who think they can get away with orange-red lipstick and disheveled hair and no foundation - no one can.Replies
I can't be doing with the word 'natural' anymore.Delete
Hahaha! You can probably hear me laughing all the way from America. I love how honest and no frills you are.ReplyDelete
SO much love for your blog,
Hahaha!. Love this post. Said the same thing to my hubby about the celebrity pregnancies. Expect glossies to go wild for maternity fashion the year.ReplyDeleteReplies
Maternity fashion? Oh GOD.Delete
- Alexandra10 January 2013 at 13:33
Hahaha, love this. Love your straight forward style.I am sick of not having sun, I need some sun for crying out loud. And the Kardashians.ReplyDelete
Sorry to be so off topic, but I have a question. Do you have any idea why I feel my cheeks burning after applying LA Roche-Posay moisturizer for sensitive dehydrated skin? Afterwards I can see these redness coming up on my cheeks and I have no idea why, I mean the reason I bought it was because it was for sensitive skin. Anyway, I would appreciate a good (not so expensive) moisturizer that doesn't burn. It's the first time it's happening to me and to be honest I never paid 16 pounds for a moisturizer before.Replies
It clearly doesn't agree with you. Switch it out to something else. Do you have anything really bland and plain?Delete
- Alexandra12 January 2013 at 08:59
I had previously used Naked 12h skin aid so I still had some left and I started using that one again, my skin seems to like it. La Roche-Posay-obvious dissapointment.Delete
Scouse brows, don't forget that one! Briliant post xReplyDeleteReplies
Hahah! This Bioderma phase that never seems to end is what's getting on my nerves! There will be a point where you need to put something on your face that has a little bit more to it than just that, yes its good, please move on. I still love Sudocrem though :p haha.ReplyDeleteReplies
Seriously enjoyed this - TOTALLY agree RE apricot face scrub. I used it ONCE when a friend recommended it to me when I was about 13 and found it horrible for my poor skin.ReplyDelete
Ambi xx
Love you SO much xxReplyDelete
I want "text speak" to move on. "Txt spk" should be a criminal offence because it's criminal what they've done with the English Language.ReplyDelete
Well, I must say, i had absolutely no idea about the one finger nail varnish trend as i generally live under a rock. But I did get served by a man in a shop last year who had said nail painted blue and it actually disturbed me for the rest of the weekend! As it was in an art shop, I hoped it was paint, but I went back again to collect my order the following week and...STILL BLUE! Can't believe it's "a thing." Bad.ReplyDelete
Uggs. I wish we could all move on from Uggs.ReplyDelete
When is the next Clinic? I have quite a few clinic-y questions I am dying to ask you.
- Anonymous13 January 2013 at 23:28
funny post. Talking about annoying phrases can I just add that it makes me cringe when people say I got in "on sale". If you were brought up in UK we say "in the sale". It's one of the Americanisms that set my teeth on edge when said by non Americans. Just remembered also someone I know who, instead of saying "from the start" has started saying "from the get-go". Hmmm.ReplyDelete
Micellar water. It stings my eyes and it isn't fun.ReplyDelete
"Long lasting" lipstick that doesn't last through a cup of tea
(putting through twice as i'm not sure it went through the first time)
Girls who consistently cock their head to one side, and do Duck Face into the camera should be banished from Instagram forever.ReplyDeleteReplies
duck face is evil, that Flannagan girl from Corrie and I'm a Celeb will be shown as an example to my daughter of how to NEVER look when she is a teenagerDelete
- Anonymous22 January 2013 at 13:42
Banish these two words please:ReplyDelete
1. Nomnomnom. ( even writing it down makes me sick)
2. ' ha!' Please stop saying/writing that: so childlike.
Love you! You re a scrooge, like me :)
Big mouth, big heart!
Amen to the first one- women are pregnant all the time? That's why we're all here. Congrats - but yes- move on people! Great list! I had a friend send me Sudocrem (as we dont have it in the US) thought it would work- I have the worst chest acne (sorry for the TMI) Now trying mario badescu drying lotion.ReplyDelete


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Price gains of stocks in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index are outpacing profits by the fastest rate in 14 years as the bull market extends beyond the average length of rallies since Harry S. Truman was president.
The benchmark gauge for U.S. equities has risen 14 percent relative to income over the past 12 months—to 16 times earnings—according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Valuations last climbed this fast in the final year of the 1990s technology bubble, just before the index began a 49 percent tumble. The rally that started in March 2009 has now outlasted the average gain since 1946, the data show.
Bears say the failure of earnings to keep up with prices signals the bull market is in its last stages, as companies from Caterpillar Inc. and Danaher Corp. forecast slower profit growth and the Federal Reserve prepares to reduce stimulus. Optimists point to expanding multiples as proof individual investors are growing confident enough in the economy to return to stocks. History shows the final phases of rallies have provided some of the biggest gains.
"Markets have been running away," Robert Royle, who helps oversee $21 billion as manager of the North American Trust at Smith & Williamson Investment Management LLP in London, said by telephone on Aug. 20. "Everyone is hoping for a second-half recovery in fundamentals," he said. "I am just not sure what will drive the recovery."
The S&P 500 advanced 0.5 percent to 1,663.5 last week, as global manufacturing and the American labor market showed signs the economy is improving. The index is up 17 percent this year, the largest advance over a comparable period since 1997, and climbed to an all-time high of 1,709.67 on Aug. 2.
The S&P 500 has risen 146 percent since bottoming in 2009. The 53-month gain has surpassed the average length of bull markets since 1946 by about four months, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The index gained 0.3 percent at 11:04 a.m. in New York today.
Combined profit at S&P 500 companies surged 37 percent in 2010, 19 percent in 2011, and slowed to 2.3 percent last year, Bloomberg data show. Earnings increased 3.6 percent and 3.7 percent in the first and second quarters. Analysts have cut projections for 2013 profit by 0.7 percent this year to $110.22, a 9 percent increase from last year, based on more than 11,000 estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Dot-Com Crash
The last time gains in stocks outpaced profit expansion by this much was in 1999, when equity valuations surged 19 percent in a year, to 30 times reported profit, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That bull market ended the following year, with the S&P 500 tumbling 49 percent from March 2000 through October 2002 as the dot-com bubble burst.
In 1987, prices rose so fast, valuations increased 43 percent through August, about twice the pace of the year before. That month marked the peak in a five-year rally, followed by a 34 percent loss through December 1987.
U.S. equities have been whipsawed since May, when Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke first indicated that the central bank may start to reduce its quantitative easing bond buying this year. The S&P 500 fell 5.8 percent from a high on May 21 through June 24 and rallied 8.7 percent through Aug. 2, before declining 2.7 percent.
Corporate earnings need to accelerate to justify the surge in equities as the central bank begins to scale back its unprecedented monetary stimulus, according to Joost van Leenders of BNP Paribas Investment Partners in Amsterdam.
"There's been a lot of hope and expectations that things will improve in the second half," Van Leenders, who helps oversee $660 billion as a strategist at BNP Paribas, said by phone on Aug. 22. "The improvement in earnings growth has been delayed from the third quarter to the fourth quarter. Not many companies are giving forward guidance, and those that are, are giving negative outlooks."
While U.S. stocks may be in the final leg of a bull market, that's often the stage with the biggest gains as bears capitulate, according to Laszlo Birinyi, president of Birinyi Associates Inc. In this last phase, which Birinyi calls exuberance, equity markets have surged 39 percent on average.
Birinyi, one of the first money managers to advise clients to buy in 2009, wrote in a Aug. 7 report that the rally in U.S. equities was poised to slow after the 17 percent surge this year. He predicted that the S&P 500 may climb to a new high of 1,740 by December, 4.6 percent above the current level. The S&P 500 exceeded Birinyi's forecast of 1,600 in May.
Previous Peaks
Even as the S&P 500 valuation expanded this year, it remains below the level at which previous rallies peaked. The average multiple during bull runs since 1957 has been 17.4 times reported profits, about 10 percent higher than today's ratio, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Advances ended at 20.2 times earnings on average, 26 percent higher than the present level.
"It's more important how high the valuation is than how long it took to get there," Russ Koesterich, the chief investment strategist at New York-based BlackRock Inc., said by phone on Aug. 22. BlackRock is the world's largest money manager, with $3.8 trillion in assets. "Valuations today are below where they were in 2007 and much, much below their levels in 2000."
The S&P 500 traded at 17.5 times earnings when the index hit a high of 1,565.15 on Oct. 9, 2007, Bloomberg data show. The valuation reached 31 times income in March 2000 as it peaked at 1,527.46.
Consumer-discretionary companies posted the biggest multiple expansion out of 10 S&P 500 industries in the last 12 months, with the valuation for the group surging 39 percent, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Investors have paid up for stocks in anticipation that earnings growth will rebound, and companies must now deliver for the equities rally to continue, according to Franz Wenzel, who helps oversee $759 billion as a strategist at Axa Investment Managers in Paris.
"Over the last two years we saw equity markets jump through liquidity and re-rating; this story is behind us," Wenzel said by phone on Aug. 21. "We don't think further multiple expansion is feasible. We need the economic underpinning."


text:
The Himalayan Snowcock in Nevada
Discussion of the distribution and abundance of living organisms and how these properties are affected by interactions between the organisms and their environment
Moderator: BioTeam
4 posts • Page 1 of 1
The Himalayan Snowcock in Nevada
OK, I've not posted before, but I'd run across something which I felt might be interesting and/or provocative for those on the Ecology forum. This link:
http://leafwarbler.posterous.com/the-re ... an-snow-pa
contains an old (and kind of hokey: I'm old enough to remember films with background music like this, but probably not many here are) video program describing the Nevada Fish and Game Department's successful effort to introduce the Himalayan Snowcock (Tetraogallus himalayensis) into the Ruby Mountains back in the 1950s and 60s.
Now, I would argue that this successful introduction of an exotic species supports the point of view that some introduced species can enhance the human experience in those areas into which they are introduced: think also of the cases of the brown trout, the common pheasant, the Hungarian Partridge. This is not to argue that the more numerous instances of destructive introductions (Common Starlings, the Cane Toad, Zebra Mussel, etc.) are any less catastrophic--nor is it a dimension of the argument for introducing species which are endangered in their indigenous ranges in order to conserve them. It is, however, an assertion that sometimes the introduction of an exotic species can be a good thing for the people in its area of introduction. This argument gains more prominence because of the growing attention being given to biological controls of nuisance species (themselves often introduced). I live in Virginia, and our area is beset with Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs. USDA is testing certain species of exotic parasitoid wasp which control the BMSBs in their native Asian environments. These little wasps would be heartily welcomed by those of us with a BMSB problem, and we also enjoy seeing the occasional pheasant. So, what do you folks think about the issue?
Re: The Himalayan Snowcock in Nevada
Good point - and not all current residents of an ecosystem can be interpreted to have been here forever.
I'll add that zebra mussel is not necssarily a problem. In the Great Lakes, it's been credited with reduction of particulate pollution and subsequent increase in fish populations. On the otherside they've reduced populations of "native" mussels and been the source of avian botulism. That it blocks cooling vents for power plants is not an environmental problem per se. You can even see fishing shows targeting the hated snakeheads.
Exotic species should never be introduced. Period! The examples that each of you gave as being benign are not benign. Brown trout outcompete native trouts and eat native species. They are a huge problem in places like the Grand Canyon, where they devour the endangered native fishes. Pheasants outcompete native grouse, such as sage grouse and prairie chickens, which are now threatened species. I see no reason why hunters couldn't hunt them instead of pheasants. Chukars and Hungarian partridge compete with California and Gambel's quail. While zebra and quagga mussels do clean up water, I questions JorgeLobo's contention that they've "been credited with...subsequent increase in fish populations." Juvenile fishes need the phyto- and zooplankton that the mussels consume. If I am not mistaken, I believe that these mussles have been "credited" with reducing the walleye populations in the Great Lakes.
While exotic introductions may benefit the narrow interests of some humans, the vast majority of them are detrimental to the ecosystems into which they are unleashed. The risk is far too great!
"Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution."
Theodosius Dobzhansky
"Most people who hate the idea of evolution do so because if it was working properly, they'd be dead."
I think we should put a sensible ruling on the introduction of non native species.
I.E. IF it's big enough to shoot, and has never reached pest proportions in its place of origin it's OK. I would certainly be against the introduction of a parasitic wasp. It might decide to prey on loads of rare and beneficial insects in its new habitat, and once thriving would be impossible to eradicate, worse even than the cane toad.
I would however love to see some of our iconic rare species like pandas lemurs gorillas or orangutans placed in the wild, in similar latitudes across the globe, and allowed to thrive. It would surely be worth putting in some plantations of their native food plants to get them going wouldn't it? They would probably soon learn to switch to the food plants of their new environment
After all in our modern world where so much organic material is moving backwards and forwards between continents, containment of pest species isn't really an option anyway.
4 posts • Page 1 of 1
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Cowboys' Brent to attend memorial service
The Dallas Cowboys invited Josh Brent to Tuesday's private memorial service for linebacker Jerry Brown.
Brown was killed while riding in Brent's car early Saturday morning after a crash. Brent has since been released on $500,000 bail after being charged with intoxication manslaughter. The two roomed together at the University of Illinois and were best friends on the Cowboys.
"We want to embrace Josh and let him know that this is a good place for him," Cowboys coach Jason Garrett told reporters Monday. "Being around Valley Ranch, being around his teammates (and) coaches is a good thing for him. We certainly anticipate him being there tomorrow. I haven't spoken to him specifically about that, but we anticipate it and he's certainly welcome to be there."
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said Tuesday morning on his weekly radio show on KRLD-FM that Brown's mother, Stacey Jackson, requested that Brent meet her at the airport and sit with the Brown family at the service.
"We're going to support Josh 100 percent in every way that we can," Garrett said. "The players will do that, the coaches will do that and everyone in our organization will do that. ... We all love him and we're going to be there for him."


text:
You can expect an exciting and rewarding career at Kohl's.
At Kohl's, your success is determined by your efforts and your passion for what you want in a career. Here, you can build your own path whether you work in the stores, distribution centers or our corporate office. Opportunities exist for you to learn and grow in the fast-paced and exciting world of retail!
We are a company that values innovation, collaboration, diversity, hard work and commitment. We empower our Associates to take on responsibility, make intelligent decisions and, most importantly, bring great brands, value and convenience to our customers every day.
Our story is one of excitement, profitable expansion and success. As a leading national retailer, we are seeking talented Associates like you, to continue to bring the Kohl's brand to life. Whether you are a recent college graduate anxious to begin your career in retail, or an experienced professional ready to embrace your next challenge you can start your story here!
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My name is Sid, I live in the northern most part of New York State. I love photography and am glad for the opportunity to be able to share some of my photos with such a talented community. So many of the photos on this site are outstanding and inspiring. I love experimenting, looking for the unusual,which makes for more deleted photos than keepers, but it's all fun!
Tibbetts Point Lighthouse
Uploaded by: 81Gibson
Saturday January 26, 2013
Gouverneur, NY (Current Weather Conditions)
Caption: Where Lake Ontario and the St Lawrence River meet.
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