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INTAF - International Task Force for the Rural Poor
the poorest villagers still live in houses made of mud, straw and dung and sleep on handmade rope beds
a street in an Indian village
getting water from a village pump
the conical-shaped stores of buffalo dung cakes, used for fuel
villagers take the harvest home by bullock cart
About INTAF
International Task Force For The Rural Poor, known as INTAF, was set up following the recommendation of an international seminar on "working with The Rural Poor'', held in a village in India, in Dec. 1988.
INTAF was born out of the realisation that the number of rural poor and the extent of rural poverty are both on the increase.
Even the most well-intentioned policies of various governments to uplift the rural poor have either failed or proved ineffective.
INTAF is an international organisation which seeks to achieve recognition among the world community, for the plight of the rural poor which include the most exploited, oppressed and ignored people of the world. They include tribals, untouchables, the landless, marginal and small farmers.
The aims of INTAF are :
- To identify policies, programmes and projects that are contributing most to the all-round development of the rural poor.
- To publicise these policies, programmes and projects and to help make them as effective as possible.
- To monitor and evaluate the progress of these policies, programmes and projects.
INTAF's partners
International Journal of Rural Studies published twice a year in cooperation with VRI
Recent articles include:
- Human trafficking in Nigeria and its implications for food security - A.U. Ofuoku, Delta State University, Nigeria
- A voice for the voiceless: The role of community radio in the development of the rural poor - Dr.Dhanraj A Patil, Walchand Institute of Arts and Science, Solapur, Maharashtra, India
- Farmers' technological knowledge of Bt Cotton in Rajsamand, Rajasthan, India - Laad Kumari Sharma, F.L. Sharma and B. Upadhyay, Dept. of Agri. Stats and Computer Application, RCA, Udaipur, India
Forthcoming events
INTAFS Eighth International Conference will be held in London on Saturday 18th June 2011 from 11.00 am to 5.00 pm. The conference will be open to all interested persons.The topic of the conference is "Experiences of Working with the Rural Poor". click here for details. On Sunday, 19th June 2011, INTAF will hold its Annual General Meeting for members only.
Past events: previous INTAF world assemblies
The following World Assemblies have taken place:-
- Amarpurkashi, India in 1988 - "Working with the Rural Poor"
- Amarpurkashi, India in 1992 - "INTAF Mini Earth Summit"
- London, U.K. in 1995 - "Empowering the Rural Poor"
- Chachikpur, India in 1999 - "The Decline of Rural Poverty"
- Konch, India in 2002 - "Sustainable Livelihoods"
- London, U.K. in 2005 - "Investing in the Rural Poor"
- Amarpurkashi, India in 2008 - "Poverty, Politics and Power"
Contact INTAF
Conact INTAF in India:International Task Force for the Rural Poor
Amarpurkashi, via Bilari
District Moradabad 202411, U.P., India
E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com
Mobile: 09411809030
Contact the international convenor:Jyoti Singh,
12, Eastleigh Avenue, Harrow, Middlesex HA2 0UF.
Tel:- 0208 864 4740


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Forrest Porter Grigg Jr.
Position: DT-T
Height: 6-2 Weight: 294 lbs.
Born: January 10, 1926 in El Dorado, AR
Died: October 10, 1983 in Ore City, TX
High School: Longview
College: Tulsa (school history)
Weighted Career AV (100-95-...): 0 (15060th overall since 1950)
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subset: commoncrawl


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District Courts of Punjab
The building for court house of the of District and Sessions Judge, Jalandhar was constructed in the year 1866. The building was consisting of one main Court room alongwith Suitor Shed, Cowkidar's Quarters, Servants Quarters, Godowns, Sweeper Quarter, Latrine, Bar Room, Cook House and Well. Sh. A.H. Pakar was appointed as Sessions Judge on 3.3.1909 vide notification No. 344 C.
Originally the Civil Courts of Jalandhar were located in abadi, settled between Hoshiarpur Adda Crossing and Tanda Road Crossing. The area is called Mohalla Kacherian. In the second stage of construction the courts were shifted in a building near hotel Plaza.


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I think I may have mentioned before that I spent over a decade of my somewhat winding career path working for a nonprofit. And as many of you out there in the nonprofit world know, a Board of Directors largely rules your world when you run one. Well-meaning (mostly), very busy people with important day jobs, these generous folk give their time and wisdom to your worthy cause without pay, save for the occasional bagel or danish and bad coffee. These days as I continue my quest for a real job, I find that boards are still having a profound effect on my life. At least the ones who function in the thankless job of search committees. Like the unseen omnipotent gods on Mount Olympus, they "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" we job seekers at will. Sure, I'd prefer they take one look at my credentials and say "Hell Yes," but I don't get too bent out of shape when the vote is a resounding "meh, next." I've been around this block way too many times for that. They are only doing their job, and as one who's sat on a search committee myself, fun it's not.
When I think about it, "boards" of one sort or another have always had a profound effect on my life. The only difference between these boards and the ones above are that they often sit around a dining room table. MY dining room table, and they require payment in exchange for their insight. Luckily their preferred currency is food, cocktails or mani-pedis. I can handle that. And they know that whenever I have something important to share, something gnawing on me that requires input, or some much-needed venting that requires amplification from my well-fed and liquored-up friends, I call a "board meeting." The directors can vary, the topics on the agenda too, but when I call, they come. It could be the usual group of well-loved and well-fed friends around my table, a "minyan of women" at a girlfriend's monthly brunch, the family around diner linoleum with omelets and French toast mid-bite, pals perched in massage chairs with feet mid-buff and polish, or bartenders, a doorman, random strangers within earshot and a best buddy, accompanied by vodka and bar nuts.
Lest you think this is all just an excuse to get together over great food or a little pampering, I assure you it's not. Great intellectual and philosophical questions are posed during our meetings, and like the G8 we give great thought to our answers. Here's just a sampling of the issues and questions we've tackled:
- Economics:The costs of relationships — with men, with women, and more importantly, with shoes.
- Healthcare:"My sister-in-law, who I really don't like, asked me to carry my brother's baby in my womb. Should I do it?" (I believe the response from the minivan was: "Are You F---ing Nuts?!")
- Ethics and Religion: Bad karma or not — wishing bad hair dye jobs, nasty paper cuts, weight gain and pimples on ex-boyfriends who have done evil to you? (See my post on "The S.O.A.B.R.B. Dinner Party" for a transcript of the board minutes.)
- Public Safety:How dangerous is it for a guy to iron while buck-naked?
- Cultural Anthropology:(In the context of discussing the definitions of descriptions used in personal ads in the newspaper.) Outdoorsy = doesn't bathe; ruggedly handsome = very hairy back; well-mannered and old-fashioned = lives with his mother.
As you can see, my boards tackle quite weighty issues, and have never failed to offer sage wisdom (when they aren't laughing too hard or eating.) I'm quite certain I'd be lost without them.
A recent "board meeting" featured a lengthy discussion of the value of looking at price tags before you plunk down your American Express, (regardless of the hotness of sales clerk), and this wonderful cheesecake from my friend Martha. Light and lemony, it's a terrific end to a great meal, and is definitely going on the agenda of my next board meeting.
Martha's Lemon Ricotta Cheesecake


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With his controversial "Control" verse, Kendrick Lamar challenged his rap peers to get better. So it's ironic that after the fallout from his fiery bars on the Big Sean track, K-Dot now feels like he may have to tone down his complex lyrics.
"It made me go back here and made me feel that I probably need to dumb down my lyrics nowadays, for people to take it way out of context the way they did," the Top Dawg MC said during an interview with Hot 97 radio personality Peter Rosenberg, which aired on Thursday morning (August 29).
Sean first released the song on August 12, and Lamar finally broke his silence surrounding the verse this week. He not only spoke on calling out his friends J. Cole, Big K.R.I.T., Wale, Pusha T, Meek Mill, A$AP Rocky, Drake, Big Sean, Jay Electronica, Tyler, the Creator and Mac Miller, Dot also addressed his fiery "king of New York" line, which a number of Big Apple MCs took exception to.
"I'm Makaveli's offspring, I'm the king of New York/ King of the coast, one hand, I juggle them both," Dot spits in his gravelly voice, putting his own spin on a Kurupt lyric from Terrace Martin's Internet single "Get Bizy."
"It's not about the [East and West] coasts, it's not about what side we're on," Lamar clarified, "it's about being great as Biggie, as 'Pac — the two cats that I referenced from jump." The Compton MC made a point to explain that he was referring to Tupac Shakur, who once recorded under the alias Makaveli, and the Notorious B.I.G., who was widely recognized as the king of New York before he died in 1997.
"The irony of it all was the main heads who really understood the context of the line was the actual kings of New York — the cats that I sat down with this past week," Kendrick said, confirming he had spoken to Jay Z and Diddy about the verse. "I think the ones that really took it out of context are the ones that really wanted to grab an opportunity just off the fact of the hype of the record rather than tuning in an actually listening."
Lamar said he heard a number of the "Control" responses . Bad Boy MC Los had the best one in his opinion, but he felt no one should take any real offense to his lyrics.
"I really wanted to get on there and just rap and put my best foot forward and really just challenge myself to write some bars. I ain't think it'd be whatever people think it's supposed to be," he said.
He went on to address the rapper friends that he specifically names in the verse: "At the end of the day, when you listen to the line, these are cats that I feel can inspire the game and they aspire to be the best just like I feel. I aspire to be the best. If they're competitive and they respect the culture of hip-hop, I don't feel like it should be any type of ill feeling they should have towards it."


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How Ellen Malloy Cornered Her Niche & Built Restaurant Intelligence Agency
by Tim Jahn on February 11, 2011
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Ellen Malloy was a restaurant publicist for 14 years. The restaurant industry is all she knew. After a while, she realized chefs had no tools for themselves to share their stories and make their own voices heard.
Ellen saw an opportunity in this niche and jumped on it. She built the highly successful Restaurant Intelligence Agency to give chefs the tools they need. In this interview, Ellen shares how she cornered this niche, how she continues to maintain focus, and why that's so important.
Tim Jahn: For those that don't know, can you just explain to me the quick pitch what is Restaurant Intelligence Agency?
Ellen Malloy: Restaurant Intelligence Agency is an online community that helps chefs speak for themselves.
Tim Jahn: I love that. Speak for themselves. Now why do you have to let chefs speak for themselves?
Ellen Malloy: Well, there's a couple reasons for that. For one, I was a restaurant publicist for 14 years and so I basically was in the business of speaking for chefs to media who then translated basically for chefs to the public. And one of the things that I noticed was that the great voices, the unique perspectives and anecdotes for the chefs often didn't get communicated. And — but there's really a lot more stories behind chefs that ever sort of get out there into the public.
And I really believe that if we can create a community that allows chefs to share their inspirations and philosophies, that diners will embrace them and become fans and you know want to know more and want to become evangelists for them. And that media will also find more reasons to write about them. So what my idea was, was to create a community that encourages chefs and prompts chefs to share so that their unique voices could come out into the marketplace.
Tim Jahn: That's a cool idea because chefs are traditionally in my eyes, there, you never really see them, you never really interact with them. They're just always at the restaurant making your delicious food but I don't know, in my experience I've never been able to just kind of go back there and say, "Hey, you know let me shake your hand. This is a great meal."
Ellen Malloy: Yeah and as, and in my position spending 14 years in the kitchens with the chefs listening to them and chatting with them, I sort of had that perspective. One of the things that's happened sort of in our society is that chefs are either very silent in the back of the house toiling away or they're sort of outside celebrities almost to the point where they're getting to be kind of gladiator style entertainers where they're on TV as cheftestants battling it out and you know if you think about history gladiators are really expendable. And I don't think chefs are expendable like gladiators are. So I really wanted to give them an opportunity to be able to create a more positive role and view of who they are.
Tim Jahn: At what point in your journey did you realize that there was a need for this kind of company and that you needed to give them a voice?
Ellen Malloy: Well, July 5th of 2007. There were a couple of things going on, that was sort of a real kind of rise of this cheftestant TV. The internet was kind of exploding in terms of Twitter and Facebook and social media and opportunities for people to be their own publisher of their own content. And journalism was really shifting into a downward spiral so there were going to be less opportunities, fewer opportunities for chefs to be written about.
And my job as a publicist had really turned into something where most of what I did all day was forward emails back and forth between chefs and journalists. And it was just a day that I decided that you know I had three college degrees and I'm forwarding emails for a living? There's got to be a better way. So it really — what I've really been trying to do for the last three, three and a half years is hone in on a business model that was going to work. Because of course when I started that July 5th, 2007, chefs were still starting to use email for the first time. They were still you know still learn not to always do everything on the phone or in person.
So we had to create a community and also find a way that were going to deliver to journalists and diners what they were really seeking — something that was really unique. I mean, there's a lot of food publications out there. And I wanted to do something that was going to stand out from that and also be profitable.
Tim Jahn: You — on July 5th 2007 and you've been a publicist in the restaurant industry for over a decade. You're engrained in this industry, you know it real well, you find this need, you find this niche, you're ready to help this niche. But you're not sure what the business model is. Then, what do you do? I mean, what's that first step? On July 6th, what did you wake up and do?
Ellen Malloy: Well I have a magic wand. No, it's actually helped every once in a while when I get to the brink. I pretty much just started putting stuff — I just jumped, I jumped off a cliff. I started putting stuff on the internet just to see what would happen. I saw that it was working. We were coding the website, hard coding, HTML. We had 80, 100 pages of website that had to change on a regular basis. Because as the menus changed, we had to go into the code and fix it. I'm a restaurant publicist, I do not know HTML code. And so I was you know carefully trying to figure that out.
Tim Jahn: So you were doing the coding yourself or did you gather a team?
Ellen Malloy: We had a team that developed the site and then we just would copy pages and you know plug them in. So it was really, it was probably from a tech perspective, a scary nightmare of spaghetti. But we just muscled through. I mean, you muscle through, you know. As soon as we start to saw, see, excuse me, that journalists were engaged and that diners were engaged, I decided to just get rid of PR completely and move completely into the online thing. We created a CMS.
We had a great guy work on a CMS for us and that was the original sort of, well it was the second version of Restaurant Intelligence Agency that people can still see today that — and it was actually one week after we launched that online press kits that you see today with Restaurant Intelligence Agency that I started building the new products that we have on the market now. Because I — within a week I saw that my business wasn't going to be scalable because it still relied on human powered content. We had to input the information. And my dream was that the chefs would do it because that's obviously system scale people don't. So — oops, I can't hear you. I've actually lost —
Tim Jahn: I'm sorry that's the second time I've done that with the mute button. I did that last week and that's embarrassing. Oh, that's funny. So what I like is I see so many companies these days that they're trying to be I like to say everything to everyone. I think that was an Everclear song back in the day if you remember Everclear. That shows how young I am. But they try and be everything to everyone. And I say, you end up being nothing to no one. You're just — you're so spread thin, you're not being anything of value to anyone. But you guys have really focused on your core, I think it's four products to help restaurants and help chefs and you're very focused. How did you achieve that kind of focus and really, I don't want to call it tunnel vision but how did you make sure you're on track all the time?
Ellen Malloy: Well, all I know is restaurants. And I mean, I was a cook before I was a restaurant publicist. So this is the world that I live in which makes it ways to focus on it because you know people call me up to do PR for other things and I don't, you know I don't know how. I am lucky enough to have had — I live in the same city as Jason Freed and I've had a few meetings with him and follow him very carefully, follow what he does.
And I struggle along because Jason of course is Mr. Lean guy and very, doesn't, wants as few features in his code as possible and things like that. And I struggle because my clients, my members, the chefs they don't know how to use twitter. I mean, if you're a tech person it's sort of like what, you just type in 140 characters and hit send. They don't — what happens is they sort of look and it's so overwhelming because they don't sit behind computers all day.
If you put a computer on a chef workstation, it melts because it's a stove. So we have to appeal to our chef members. So I sort of struggle with this idea of being a lean startup and not having too many features, and not have bloated software and all that because I pray at the church of Jason Freed. But on the other hand, I also know that in order to achieve what I need which is chef participation, I have to build a site that's engaging to them, that gives them things that is unique and needed and necessarily but also fun. And so we've had to build extra things in.
So there's a been a lot of balance. I mean, I struggle a lot with first of all wanting to put in more features and then wondering if it would just bloat my software. Also struggling with the fact that we don't, we're a startup, we're lean, I bootstrapped this whole thing so it's not like there's unlimited funds to tweak and AB test and all this kind of stuff. But I think also one of the frustrations that I have with a lot of the software out there like Facebook. A lot of chefs use Facebook to promote themselves but they kind of cant because it's really a site that was developed for college kids to connect with one another, not for chefs to promote themselves or whatever your business is. And so what I'm trying to do is kind of help build a platform that is just for my people to promote themselves because I feel that if I can be unique in that way, I'm not just going to be another you know Facebook knockoff or something like that.
But that I'm also going to give people something of huge value. I mean, I get frustrated with the fact that I can't use twitter and Facebook to really promote my own business. You know my friends get kind of grumpy if I post about my business too much because they want to keep it as their own private space and so what do you do? So I really wanted to solve that problem. And I think it's, I think it's — all those social networks are fantastic but I also think that they're somewhat limited. I mean, LinkedIn is great for my sister who's in executive recruiting for the retail industry but it's really bad for my industry. So I really wanted to create something that was uniquely interesting and valuable to the chefs.
Tim Jahn: You mentioned a bit back about having that struggle between being a lean startup mindset and keeping things to a minimum but at the same time giving your clients enough features that they can really find value. How do you balance that? Do you have techniques for getting feedback from the chefs or do you just kind of decide what's good for them? How do you balance that and decide what to keep and what not to?
Ellen Malloy: I mean, well ultimately yeah, I'm deciding for them. In many ways they don't know what — I mean, these are people that who I cant even walk them through — I'm saying it costs more but just to give you a bad example, I cant walk someone through how to upload a picture onto twitter over the phone because I've got to go down there and like physically show them how to do it. So I've spent 14 years working with people like that.
And so I sort of know how they sort of think and feel. I probably know more about chefs than I do the tech world; in fact I'm sure I do. I mean, no, we don't do a lot of feedback because they you know customers are always great about feedback. They cut — well especially these days on the internet with everything being online that a lot of people just accept stuff, you know they and move on and you then you sort — and I call them up and ask them, "Hey what's going on?" "Well, oh I can't click that button." "Oh hey you should always let me know, please I can help you."
So a lot of it is just kind of watching the analytics, watching who's doing what and reaching out to people who are not doing certain behaviors and finding out why. I do contact my chefs on a daily basis and talk to them on a daily basis via email. So, we do get that kind of feedback. But yeah, I have to, ultimately I decide and ultimately to be honest with you I'd love to say that I have some big you know process in place for that. But it's intuition and gut.
Tim Jahn: Intuition and gut. Some of the most important qualities of a creative entrepreneur, right?
Ellen Malloy: I'm finding that yes. And the ability to kind of, the ability to say, I'm, you know this isn't working. We need to move on.
Tim Jahn: Well what do you do when —
Ellen Malloy: Here comes my assistant so the dogs are going to go crazy. Sorry.
Tim Jahn: Oh I don't mind. I'm actually a dog person, not a cat person. So I'm excited that you have dogs, and not cats.
Ellen Malloy: I actually also have cats.
Tim Jahn: Okay, I'm not excited.
Ellen Malloy: I'm not a big cat person. They simply perform some tabs and I have chickens in my backyard.
Tim Jahn: That's awesome. How — you know when things don't go right, I mean, especially when you're trying to help this one segment of the greater consumer industry or of all the clients you could pick you have the restaurant industry so you have this one group you're working with. what do you do when things — like you said, you come up with an idea for them, they cant really give you feedback because they're not really well educated in that field. What do you when something — you spend all the time working on it, you realize, oh this tool might not actually be useful for them? How do you deal with that?
Ellen Malloy: Move on. I mean, you just do. This is what — that's been sort of the — a string running through everything I've done. I mean, this is — it took me three iterations, complete iterations to happen upon a business model of a minimum buy of the products. So we built two complete websites. And I feel that they were what we built at the time was excellent with the information that we had. I mean, I don't look back on either one of those projects and say that was a failure but I also don't accept what I then find out to be not a perfect solution or a great solution and I immediately move on.
It was one week after the launch of our press kit model which was this big CMS that was built that I was like, whoa, this is not right. You know a lot of the people around me, friends, my support network kind of you know if I was just being too persnickety and too much of a perfectionalist and wasn't being realistic. And you have to — if you have a dream and you have a vision and it's a solid idea, in my view you have to persevere until you get there. I feel that a lot of the people that have been around me who are not in a startup world are incredibly supportive but often just don't get it.
I mean they just — they sort of you know look at what I'm doing and wonder why is it that I keep on pushing this rock up the hill and then you know it comes rolling down a little bit and I push it again and, and why you know a lot of people really love our Restaurant Intelligence Agency press kits. They still use it, they still love it. Our clients love it but it wasn't my vision.
My vision was a couple years down the road, it was ahead of where everybody else was and I wasn't going to compromise until I got there. I mean, what's the point of living through the hell of being a startup founder if you don't get to at least see your dream come to fruition? I mean, that's, that's why you do it. If not, just go work in a cubicle and be able to go out and have beers after work will be a lot better, you know.
Tim Jahn: I love the analogy of pushing the rock up the hill because it's so true. You know you fall back a little bit and then you just got to push it right back to where you were. What would be you one piece of advice for a creative entrepreneur who you know maybe is having trouble focusing, maybe having trouble finding their niche. What's your one piece of advice for them?
Ellen Malloy: Don't stop. Really. I mean, I — you could say that in three and a half years I had trouble finding you know my focus, my business. There was a lot of times when people were very sort of frustrated that I couldn't articulate what my vision was. But I was also sort of reading the tide and getting there. And I just — I knew what it was in my head, I knew we were going to get there and I knew that I was going to create something that was valuable. And so I just refused to stop.
And there, you know there's money obstacles, there's family obstacles, there's fear obstacles and everything else; technology obstacles. But if you really, you know if you really believe in what you're doing, keep on working at it and don't consider the process a failure. I mean my — it's like yoga almost. It's — you know you just keep on getting there until you get there. And I never consider the hiccups and bumps and mountains and things like that to be failures. I just consider them to be part of the process and I learn along the way and we just keep on moving forward.
Check out all our interviews with entrepreneurs!


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Posts Tagged 'Economic Development'
Tucson was once a mecca for films and television productions. Over the past few years our neighbor's over in New Mexico have done a great job of recruiting and retaining movie/TV production companies. New Mexico under Gov. Richardson's questionable leadership, put on the full court press to get the cameras rolling. The state of NM offered lucrative tax incentives to directly rebate production companies to do business in their state. Other states have followed but NM seems to have got it right.
Arizona enacted their own $50m incentive but with a cumbersome process and some strings attached the production companies haven't jumped on. Maybe our state legislators can look at the structure and try to make it more attractive. The problem is an entire creative class of technical movie makers have watched prospects dry up here and moved elsewhere. It may be too late to get them back. The entertainment industry is one of those business that pays labor well and thrives in good economies and bad.
From the Tucson Weekly – April 19, 2001 – Read article HERE.
While the Tucson Film Office attempts to bring film production dollars back to the region–a task that is more difficult now than ever before–the media with their ebullience seem star-struck and provincial, an image that belies Tucson's status as an almost-major footnote in the history of the motion picture industry.
That being said, it is hard to blame the media for such zealousness, as Arizona in general and Tucson in particular have always had a contradictory, if not ironic, relationship with the movie industry.
With the sun incessantly shining and the scenery transformed with every step-up in elevation, Arizona–especially Southern Arizona–is an ideal place to make movies…
Canada had already created the production service tax credit, a stroke of genius that offered foreign film and television production companies tax breaks on production labor expenses. The PSTC, coupled with further tax incentives offered in individual Canadian provinces, created a production-crew employment boom, and left a lot of film industry workers in California–not to mention workers in smaller, ancillary markets like Tucson–out of work.
Though the Tucson Film Office has been working hard to overcome runaway production, it may be a hopeless cause. A recent Director's Guild of America study reported that in 1998 alone, the nationwide economic impact of runaway production had reached $10.3 billion, a five-fold increase since 1990.
With no studio, no sound stages, no government incentives, and a dwindling, disheartened crew base, it is hard to imagine how sunshine and scenery alone will bring the productions back to Tucson.
"Up until the fire (Old Tucson Studios) this community maintained a level of film production higher than most places," Shelton said. "But when they rebuilt (Old Tucson) they didn't rebuild the qualities and the things in the town that the film companies came here to film. They have made it pretty clear that their interest is primarily in tourism."
And now our competitors over in Albquerque click HERE:
MovieMaker magazine, a major trade publication in the film industry, cited Albuquerque as a "hot spot" in the United States for movie production. Here's proof.
Did someone say snakes? It was announced that the fourth "Indiana Jones" film, tentatively called "Indiana Jones and the City of the Gods," is to be filmed in the Deming area. Like the other movies in the series, it features Harrison Ford. Since 2003, the film industry has generated $1.4 billion in economic activity in New Mexico, according to the New Mexico Film Office. Seeing stars: Albuquerque Studios opened its $74 million motion picture and TV production studio at the city's Mesa del Sol development. Set on 28 acres, it includes eight sound stages. Several films, including "The Spirit," starring Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlett Johansson, and several TV shows, such as "Breaking Bad" and "In Plain Sight," have used the studio. And Sony announced it would bring part of its Sony Pictures Imageworks from California to Mesa del Sol in 2008. This means an initial 150 to 250 new jobs for the Duke City, likely with a few hundred more later.
Hollywood moves in at Budaghers: ÁTraditions!, the former outlet mall and marketplace on Interstate 25 between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, plans to become a movie studio. It will accommodate feature films, music videos and TV sitcoms and commercials.
From Inside Tucson Business (HERE) this summer, Shellie Hall the director of Tucson Film Office has been trying to sell our community to the film industry.
In the 2006-2007 fiscal year, Tucson had more than 400 days worth of film production, booked more than 11,000 nights of hotel rooms, and the equivalent of 7,650 days of work by local talent, according to Film Office Newsletter.
"All without a single big budget, mega-watt, studio motion picture," Hall said.
While net numbers may be down a bit over previous efforts, Hall says her five-year comparison average still rings an impressive cash register.
The average production this year was about $7 million.
The Arizona Motion Picture Tax Incentive, approved by the Legislature and instituted three years ago, is a marketing tool intended to make filming in Arizona less taxing by returning 30 percent of expenditures to producers. The incentive started at 20 percent and was raised to 30 percent on expenditures in excess of $1 million. It has a cap of $50 million.
"While we have tax credits and incentives, states like New Mexico (and Louisiana and Connecticut) have no cap at all on how much they will give as an inducement to film in their state, so they're winning in the race to get the plum contracts," Hall says. "We're going back to our legislature to see if we can improve on our incentive package to be more competitive with New Mexico. We already have some competitive advantages with our neighboring state, particularly our close proximity to the Los Angeles film industry. We're not asking for more money, just trying to make access to what we have easier. We can work within the mandated cap, we just need to change the way the current clunky and bureaucratic procedures are administered."
Despite costs continuing to increase and discretionary budgets continuing to shrink, Hall remains optimistic about the future of the film industry and the part the Tucson Film Office will play.
"Even in the Depression, movies did well because people like the big screen and they need to escape," she said.
Lee Allen is a Tucson-based freelance writer.
It's encouraging that we do in fact have an office and an effort. It's encouraging that the state legislature has given us some tools to be competitive. It boils down to results and measuable increases in our regions film related revenues. Getting the ball rolling may take some public and private sector support. Production companies will go to areas that are receptive, areas that are economically beneficial to their business models and where the support crews are in place and ready to work. Like most of our economic issues in the region we have some ground work to lay before we see rusults.
From Tucson Films latest newsletter:
Some of the lows, well, those mostly have to do with the projects that got away…like a 3:10 to Yuma (the original shot here) or HAMLET 2 which claims to be Tucson in the film but was actually shot in Albuquerque (and we so wish it were the other way around).
One loss, especially sad for the Tucson production community, is that the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP) decided, after 5 years of holding their 10-day Producers Academy here, to move it to Santa Fe. The city of Tucson, the MTCVB, UA Media Arts & Hanson Film Institute, TFO and others did everything we could to keep them here, but New Mexico did more.
From the Tucson Citizen regarding 'Hamlet 2′ a low budget film that pokes fun at Tucson HERE :
"I guess they thought about filming in Tucson, but it all came down to money, as it always does," Kreinbrink says. "With all the incentives New Mexico offers compared to Arizona, it was a no-brainer."I don't think they even looked here for locations.""'Hamlet 2′ is a low-budget film that came in under the radar," says Hall. "I didn't hear anything about the project until it got to Sundance."Arizona does have a tax incentive program, too, but it is more awkward to use, not as film-friendly as the one in New Mexico," Hall says. "We are trying to get the state Legislature to make Arizona's incentives more film-friendly. We've been working on it for three years. We're preparing now to make another push in January."While the wheels of government turn much slower than the reels in Hollywood, Tucson's film industry is shrinking just as Albuquerque is turning into the Movieland of Enchantment."If I was able to relocate, I would probably give moving to New Mexico some serious thought," Ginn says. "There simply isn't enough work here, and it does affect the quality of one's life."Hall confirms the brain and talent drain. "A lot of our Arizona work force is over there right now . . . working," she says. "Their families are here, but they are over there."
The camera pans right to a weathered city limits sign reading "Tucson" as a voice-over narrator solemnly pronounces this is the city "where dreams go to die."Granted, Coogan's schoolteacher character gets no respect from anybody. Because most of the cast members play his disgruntled students, maybe it is appropriate to keep taking pot shots at the city.But at the movie's end, one of the so-called responsible adults in the cast tells the students to cheer up: "No matter where you go in life after this, it will always be better than Tucson."
Hall said a soundstage might be "overstepping" the demand for movies right now, but she supports it in the long run. The community media center is needed, though, she said, especially given Tucson's large "indigenous" independent movie community.Moviemaking has been a boon for Albuquerque's economy, said Ann Lerner, director of the Albuquerque Film Office.Lerner said the direct spending from the film business has exploded since 2004, jumping from $11 million in 2004 to $83 million last year.In contrast, spring-training baseball in Tucson generates an estimated $30 million in direct investment — an amount that a group of Tucson business leaders says justifies $9 million in new taxes a year to save.In Albuquerque, the movie industry also has boosted Downtown, said Brian Morris of Albuquerque's Downtown Action Team, allowing the city to keep its young talent with high-paying jobs while also recruiting young professionals around the county who are looking for an urban living environment.Hein: A leader is neededCity Manager Mike Hein said the idea of collaborating in tough fiscal times is always worth exploring. But he said the project needs a leader who can bring together Tucson's fractious interests. The idea that there are multiple potential revenue sources makes it more feasible, Hein said."If there are multiple parties with multiple pockets, it's certainly easier to put together deals," Hein said. "It all comes down to a business plan."
The state's Film Office frequently touts its achievements, which include helping attract more than 85 films and television projects to the state since 2003. Officials say the activity has added over $1.2 billion to New Mexico's economy.
Incentive programs include a 25 percent tax rebate on all film expenditures subject to taxation by the state, loans of up to $15 million per project, with back-end participation instead of interest, and no state sales tax (an option that can't be used with the tax rebate).
New Mexico's programs are "clean, simple and directly accessible by productions themselves," Witt said. "I think that's key to going forward."
Join us tomorrow for an interview with Clay Frey, a local financial planner turned movie producer. Clay is talking about his B horror movie Dead On Site. We're going to talk about the process, ups and downs and Tucson's film industry.
At one time Tucson had vibrant film industry. It started during the popularity of the classic westerns and carried over to films into the 80's, that I grew up with, like Can't Buy Me Love. For a full listing HERE.
Southern Arizona had an entire industry of film trades people that movie and television production crews could tap into for the next TV miniseries or feature film. Within an hour of Tucson a production could be in saguaro forests or tall pined mountain tops. The scenic back drops are incredible.
With the arrival of film production companies came a lot of money. They hire local actors and behind the scene support personnel. They stay in area hotels and eat at local restaurants.
Even with great scenic locations, close proximity to L.A. and the creative talent needed, the film industry migrated away. New Mexico is where most of the productions and talent is now. NM went on a major buying spree for all types industries. Their plan to attract business came at a price. We are seeing now how New Mexico may have overstepped things a bit, which eventually lead to improprieties and scandals big enough to keep Gov. Richardson out of the Obama cabinet. Whether or not New Mexico's investment will pay off remains to be seen.
We did a complete story on our local film history HERE a few months back.
The biggest hurdle facing Arizona's film industry revolves around the structure of tax credits given to production companies to entice them to choose Arizona.
Just like spring training baseball stadiums that used to cost $28m and have now escalated to $125m, the stakes in the film industry have risen dramatically. Like many other economic incentives the community that offers the most money gets the business. Arizona has tried to implement a tax credit program but New Mexico issued a better one. Last year only $8m out of the total possible of $50m was claimed. The issue has to do with the amounts and levels of payouts as compared to competing states. It may not be the right year to sweeten the offering given our states financial mess but it's going to take some work.
CEO Magazineis one of my monthly reads. There are great insights and inside stories from top leaders in American and around the world. This months edition has a survey on CEO's Confidence Index. They asked what the best and worst states to do business with in 2009. The best, Texas, North Carolina, Florida, Georgia and Tennessee. The worst, California, New York, Michigan, New Jersey and Massachusetts.
A couple commnets from the article that are important:
Unfortunately, those states with the worst records continue to practice the same policies, that alienate businesses. As the economic downturn worsens and unemployment rises one would think some states would rethink their punitive tax and regulatory structure, not to mention their unionization policies if they want to turn the page and attract new businesses and capital to their area.
..one CEO said, "Michigan and California literally need to do a 180 if they are ever to become competitive again. California has huge advantages with its size, quality of work force, particularly in high tech, as well as quality of life and climate advantages of the state. However, it is an absolute regulatory and tax disaster, as is Michigan."
Forbes magazine ran their annual top 200 metro regions to do business in and Tucson didn't do so well. The big numbers that jump out to me are the job creation and crime ratings. Interesting how these two numbers, arguably our regions two biggest pressing problems are skewing down the entire rating.
We know the job creation number is directly related to the fact that Tucson relies too heavily on the growth and construction industry. During boom and bust cycles our collective fortunes rise and fall. We've talked about diversifying our economic base for ages and yet nothing really ends up happening. GTEC, predecessor to TREO, focused on call centers which may not be too far off base given our available labor pool.
The stat that leaped off the page for me was the crime statistics. No matter how you slice it if the people aren't safe they don't buy houses, shop in business and come to our community. We are in the process of hiring a new police chief so I hope our elected officials don't mess it up. Public Safety funding is another important aspect of a safe community. We are well under national levels for police per population and it's starting to strain the community. Our government must start focusing on the basics before we tackle all the council pet projects.
Best Places For Business And Careers
#133 Tucson AZ
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|Colleges 1
|Cost of Doing Business 2
|Cost of Living 3
|Crime Rate 4
|Culture and Leisure 5
|Educational Attainment 6
|Income Growth*
|Job Growth*
|Job Growth Projected 7
|Net Migration*
|Subprime Mortgages 8
|College Attainment 6
|High School Attainment
|Median Household Income
|Income Growth*
|Job Growth*
|Job Growth Projected 7
|Unemployment (2008)
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|Median Home Price
Metro Area Population: 988,000
Billionaires: None
Best Big Companies: None
Best Small Companies: Providence Service
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What's the deal with these baseball teams. It's like each time one gets a shiny new stadium the rest of them want their multi-million dollar piece of the pie. Catch the first line of the below post….opt out of a 20 year deal! How about we all stop poaching each others teams and focus on Florida.
The Cubs could opt out of their 20-year lease with Mesa for $4.2 million and leave in 2012. The Cubs would be required to notify Mesa before spring training 2010.
The Chicago White Sox opted out of a similar agreement this year and moved from Tucson to the new Camelback Ranch Glendale complex in northwest Phoenix.
With the opt out clause looming and a change in team ownership pending, Smith said it was anticipated that the Cubs would ask for improvements. He expects to have a list in hand shortly.
Oro Valley made a deal with a developer to put in the Oro Valley Marketplace. It's been a hotly contested deal and cost a few council people their seat. The development agreement involved a $23 million sales tax rebate back to the developer.
Goldwater Institute has taken a case to the Arizona Supreme Court arguing that the use of sales tax rebates are allowing local governments to selectively favor one private firm over another.
OV put the payments they agreed to into an escrow account until the court issues a ruling. From teh AZ Republic today:
At issue is a 2007 agreement between the city and the development under which the developer, after constructing and opening 1.2 million square feet of retail space and parking garages with 3,180 free spaces, would receive 50 percent of sales taxes collected by the city from the development during the previous year. The agreement would go for 11 years, 3 months or until the total reached $97.4 million, whichever comes first.
More broadly, the case is about the circumstances under which cities may enter economic development agreements with private organizations – whether it is sales-tax breaks to major retailers or property-tax breaks to proposed resorts or offices……
The Goldwater Institute has until March 23 to respond. Then the other side is permitted a response. After that, the court will schedule the case for review. On that day, the court will decide whether or not to hear the case. If it rejects the case, the Appeals Court ruling banning the agreement stands. If it accepts the case, a briefing schedule will be drafted and a date will be set for oral argument. The court then would rule, but is not required to follow a particular schedule.
The outcome on this has ramifications for a number of deals already done, not to mention future projects.
From Arizona Republic – Looks like Gaylord is trying to get their resort/convention center project on the ballot for the voters of Mesa to decide. Read the full article – HERE.
Gaylord, if you remember was eliminated as a finalist in the Rio Nuevo project back in 2007 – HERE. Intersting point from the article included an explaination of a unionization requirement at the new hotel and convetion center;
The union language is just a paragraph slipped into the hotel request for proposals requiring a "labor peace agreement" between the hotel operator and any labor organization that seeks to represent employees there. In turn, the peace agreement requires the union to promise not to go on strike against the hotel.
The union agreement will also be popular with the city's five-member Democratic majority, which includes several pro-union council members.
Councilwoman Karin Uhlich said the agreement is obviously pro-union, but she said it is also pro-business because the union gives guarantees it won't strike against the hotel.
Some of the highlights of the Mesa deal;
On Tuesday, Mesa voters will decide whether to buy into the vision, approving tax incentives to help finance the project, whose centerpiece would be a Gaylord hotel and convention center. Along with the second resort and other amenities, the initial private investment is estimated at about $1 billion.
If voters say yes, and the vision pans out, proponents say it will transform Arizona's third-largest city into an international business and tourism destination….
Voters in 1999 turned down a $1.8 billion plan to build a stadium for the Arizona Cardinals in west Mesa. Several years later they approved a big tax subsidy for a retail development on the same piece of land, now known as Mesa Riverview, but critics say Riverview has failed to live up to its promise.
A downtown water-themed project failed to materialize after the city spent millions to acquire land for it about a decade ago, and a more recent proposal for the Waveyard resort not far from Riverview has been stalled by the economy.
So with a history of grandiose proposals in Mesa, what makes anyone think this is the one that will work?
Critics, meanwhile, question whether tax incentives should be used to fuel a private enterprise, no matter how grand….
Mesa will actually own the Gaylord convention center, and that is what triggered the election.
Voters would need to approve rebates on hotel-bed taxes for the two resorts totaling $51 million over 30 years.
Gaylord, DMB and Mesa marshaled an impressive list of business, political and civic leaders to provide ballot arguments for the election, and not one of them urged a "no" vote….
"I guarantee that the businesses that move next to that hotel won't be getting a tax break," Gray said.
His concerns are echoed by Clint Bolick, a lawyer for the libertarian Goldwater Institute.
Bolick is fresh off a December court victory involving Phoenix and its CityNorth mixed-use development. Bolick argued that Phoenix's $97.4 million subsidy to CityNorth violated the Arizona Constitution, which prohibits giving public money to private enterprise. The state Court of Appeals agreed.
Bolick thinks Mesa's Gaylord deal is similarly questionable, but he will not challenge it until the state Supreme Court rules on an appeal of the CityNorth ruling.
Smith said the two cases are not comparable because bed taxes are used only to promote tourism, and the rebate arrangement requires the two resorts to continue to use the rebates for that purpose.
Mesa officials have stressed that unlike CityNorth, no general-fund tax revenues will be rebated.
But Arizonans are learning that it takes more than blazing rays to make Phoenix the "solar capital of the world."
The Sonoran Desert is among the most efficient spots on Earth for solar power plants and rooftop solar arrays. State requirements for utilities to get 15 percent of their energy from clean sources by 2025 also would seem an opportunity for solar manufacturing.
But most solar panels, mirrors, frames and other equipment are made elsewhere. In case after case, the state has fallen short of the competition. At least 10 companies have looked at Arizona in the past two years but decided to move their factories and about 4,500 workers to other Western states.
Business experts say the state needs to use some of the tax credits and other tools used by those other states to diversify its housing-dependent economy and deliver the state high-paying manufacturing jobs.
Some business leaders and politicians have made it a mission to grow Arizona's solar industry, saying it could anchor a strong economy.
"Just because it's sunny doesn't mean we are going to get solar companies here," said Rep. Michele Reagan, a Scottsdale Republican who is co-sponsoring a renewable-energy manufacturing-incentive bill with Sen. Barbara Leff, R-Paradise Valley.
"We have not capitalized on any industry in the solar arena or renewable energy at all.
"If you're a company and you are trying to decide what state to move to, and some states are embracing you with open arms and you've got Arizona saying, 'We are not doing anything,' which one are you going to pick?"
Tough competition
In recent years, several states have offered financial incentives to the fledgling renewable-energy industry, helping to establish factories.
With the industry getting much more attention under President Barack Obama, and with nationwide calls to produce more clean power, the future of those factories is looking brighter.
The federal government's economic-stimulus package includes $50 billion in spending and $20 billion in tax provisions for alternative energy that should spur the industry even further.
With other manufacturing operations shedding their U.S. workforces, renewable-energy jobs are increasingly attractive.
Nevada, California, Colorado, Texas, Oregon, New Mexico and Tennessee all have successfully courted solar manufacturers to their states.
Oregon, for instance, offers a 50 percent tax credit to pay construction costs for renewable-energy equipment manufacturers. Development officials say it has helped them land seven international solar manufacturers in two years. Most of those companies had considered coming to Arizona.
In the Midwest, Ohio is offering low taxes and incentives such as job-creation tax credits.
And just next door to Arizona, New Mexico is looking to set itself apart.
When Gov. Bill Richardson formed the state's economic recruitment team in 2003, renewable energy was one of its primary targets.
The state landed Advent Solar Inc. after that company licensed technology from New Mexico's Sandia National Laboratories in 2003.
Advent opened a small manufacturing and research facility in Albuquerque that began production in 2005.
Then the state's economic development team successfully used $130 million in a variety of tax incentives to recruit Schott Solar from Germany to build a plant near Advent.
In December, the state announced that Signet Solar of California would build a manufacturing plant south of Albuquerque that could qualify for as much as $185 million in tax incentives.
Both Schott and Signet also had considered sites in Arizona.
New Mexico doesn't just sweeten the pot with tax benefits. It also provides reimbursement to companies for job training and helps foot the bill for infrastructure needs.
When Schott Solar announced last year it would build a plant in Albuquerque, it not only qualified for all the state's tax breaks, but the governor said he would ask the Legislature for an additional $12 million to pay for infrastructure. The city itself kicked in $1 million.
"When I was in Phoenix, we didn't consider New Mexico competition," said Jim Colson, a former economic-development official for New Mexico, Glendale and the Greater Phoenix Economic Council. "That has shifted. Now, New Mexico doesn't consider Phoenix competition."
How Arizona rates
That sun-soaked Arizona isn't leading the solar-manufacturing frontier perplexes some experts in the field.
The state is often one of the first places looked at by executives shopping for factory sites. But financial analyses usually keep Arizona off the short list when companies make their final decisions because the cost of doing business in other states is lower once incentives are factored in.
Arizona traditionally has shunned tax incentives and relied on its climate and population growth to drive industry.
Some oppose tax benefits for a few when they believe an overhaul of the tax code is needed to lower taxes on all businesses. When similar incentives were proposed last year during the final weeks of the legislative session, they didn't pass.
"Arizona should be more competitive than it is," said Colson, now president of site selection for Austin-based Angelou- Economics Inc.
With AngelouEconomics, he helps companies decide where to open new facilities, including solar companies trying to decide on U.S. locations.
"I've had several projects where Arizona was included in the mix, and it didn't stay there very long," he said. "It wasn't all because of the lack of incentives. The property-tax impacts were significant when comparing it to its neighbors."
The business property tax rate on a factory not in an enterprise zone is 2.95 percent in Arizona. Oregon has the next-highest rate in the West, at 1.52 percent. Rates are 1.13 percent in Nevada, 1.03 percent in New Mexico, 0.5 percent in California and 0.6 percent in Colorado, according to Scottsdale-based Incentives Advisors, which analyzed the effect incentives would have in Arizona.
However, some of those states have higher levies than Arizona for corporate income, unemployment or other taxes. Incentives Advisors concluded that the tax incentives proposed at the Legislature would make Arizona more competitive for solar-manufacturing factories.
Such incentives can help level the playing field.
When a state has a particular weakness, such as a high commercial property tax, tax credits and other incentives can be the final factor that drives a factory to that location, said Andy Mace, a principal with Cushman and Wakefield Consulting in Pennsylvania.
"It's not always the place with the most incentives that wins, it's the place with the total lowest cost of operating," Mace said. "Over 10 years, where will I spend the least on labor, land, energy and transportation?"
Arizona has strong selling points, such as its weather and a workforce with manufacturing skills. But factories require expensive buildings, lots of energy and hundreds of employees, making the economics much more important than, say, a corporate headquarters that simply needs office space for a few dozen employees.
"If you're comparing Portland, Albuquerque and Phoenix, I know I can get real estate, labor, transportation, they're all within one or two points of each other," Colson said. "Then I overlay the incentives on top of that. Albuquerque jumps up, Portland jumps up and Phoenix actually goes down.
"That's why the Greater Phoenix region is not winning these projects."
Arizona's odds
Economic development officials say the solar industry isn't likely to spread evenly over the country but grow around those cities established as hubs.
They say Arizona still has a narrowing chance at being one of those hubs.
"Right now, there are 11 companies looking to decide (on factory sites) this year," said Barry Broome, president of the Greater Phoenix Economic Council, a proponent of the incentive bill. "We may be in or out (of the industry) after two quarters."
Arizona has an available workforce, mostly because of continuing job losses in the semiconductor and construction industries.
The state not only represents a large market for solar devices but is next door to California and its large population. Transportation is on par or better than some of its competition.
The research taking place at Arizona State University, along with the recently upgraded solar-testing lab there that international companies use to certify their products, also are among its strengths.
But those pluses haven't added up to much yet.
Arizona hasn't had any major solar manufacturers move to the state. It boasts a few, small, homegrown companies and some German manufacturing companies that have opened small factories near Tucson.
Even the companies that have so far passed up Arizona for factories say the state is a potential home of solar manufacturing.
"I can't fathom why this isn't a hotbed of solar activity," said Peter Green, president and chief executive of Advent Solar in Albuquerque and a former executive with ON Semiconductor in Phoenix.
But Green said that building a solar-manufacturing industry in Arizona will be challenging.
He agreed, when asked, that even if the tax-incentives bill passes, the state lacks the strong political backing, the money for sweeteners such as infrastructure improvements, and the word-of-mouth industry buzz that help foster a solar industry.
"I think it is going to be a struggle," he said.
Reach the reporter at ryan .email@example.com.
Other states eclipse Arizona's efforts to lure solar industry
What can the Valley do to better position itself to succeed once the recession is over?
Diversify our economy and work with public sector leaders to create sensible, new programs that bring high-wage industries to Arizona. During the last decade of the real estate explosion, Arizona was one of the leading job-producing states. Over the last two years, we have fallen to 49th in terms of new job creation. Business as usual will not work. Now is the time to change our metrics and compete for other industries to migrate to Arizona.
You've seen first hand how important professional sports are to the local and regional economy. How can the Valley capitalize more on that in the future?
Sports are important to Arizona and we need to support what we have now. But, again, we need to focus on diversifying our economy. Like a personal stock portfolio, we cannot become "over-weighted" in any single sector. We have all the teams we need, but it will be important to attract events with significant economic impacts and exposure like the Super Bowl in the future. Our regional success will depend largely on creating a diverse and vibrant economy around many new industries and we can't look to real estate or sports to take us out of this downturn.
Teams boost Valley's status as spring training hub
Cactus League hits grand slam with Dodgers, White Sox, Indians and Reds
Not long ago, spring training in Arizona had two strikes against it.
In 2000, the state had 10 teams to Florida's 20, and franchises talked about leaving the Arizona desert for locales such as Las Vegas.
A bid for money to prop up the league stalled in the Legislature. After some intense arm-twisting, a proposal got enough votes at the Capitol to be placed on the fall ballot for voters.Even then, prospects didn't look good. Spring-training money was lumped together with a new stadium for the then-woeful Arizona Cardinals. Then a funny thing happened.
The frugal Cardinals opened their wallets for a sophisticated advertising blitz, which emphasized the proposal's benefits to youth sports. Cardinals players went door to door asking for votes, and two days before the November election, the team pulled off an upset of the Washington Redskins.
Maricopa County said yes to Proposition 302 with 51 percent of voters' support, creating a sports and tourism authority that would levy taxes to build youth fields, a football facility and baseball stadiums.
In an economic sense, Arizona had gotten something right.
This year, as the recession hammers the economy, 1.5 million fans are expected to attend Cactus League games, the numbers to be swelled by the addition of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Cleveland Indians. The Chicago White Sox moving from Tucson to join the Dodgers is also expected to boost attendance.
Games start Wednesday and run through April 2, and they are projected to pump more than $300 million into Arizona's economy.
The league is a far cry from what it was in 2000. By next year, when the Cincinnati Reds move in from Florida, the Cactus League will be up to 15 spring-training teams, the same as the Grapefruit League. In addition to five Florida teams lured to the Valley, the White Sox this year moved from Tucson, where two teams – the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies – still play but are considering moving to metro Phoenix.
Cactus League President Robert Brinton said Prop. 302, which helped facilities only in Maricopa County, gave a vision not just for saving the league but expanding.
"It allowed us to move from defense to offense," he said.
Brinton expects this year's additional teams, along with a longer season because of the World Baseball Classic, to boost attendance more than 15 percent from last year's record-setting total of 1.3 million visitors.
Not fully recession-proof, Brinton said the average per-game attendance may drop to about 6,900 from last year's record 7,436.
One lawmaker's impact
The recent West Valley boom can be credited to a former state lawmaker, ambitious leaders in Glendale and Goodyear, and some good old-fashioned networking on a golf course.
The architect of the sports funding measure was ex-state Sen. Scott Bundgaard, a fiscal conservative who shepherded the bill through the Legislature in spring 2000. Bundgaard was forced to use a procedural move to keep the bill alive after it initially failed in the Senate. It eventually passed that chamber and was approved in the 60-member House after six representatives changed their votes to "yes" after intense lobbying. The deciding 31st "yes" vote came when former Rep. Dan Schottel, R-Tucson, changed his vote.
"I was studying it and getting notes from everyone on the (House) floor," said Schottel, who also was encouraged to change his vote by former Gov. Fife Symington. "I think it has been good for the state, and that is what we were concerned about."
Bundgaard, who now lives in Peoria and works for an Internet startup, said he took plenty of heat in getting the measure passed.
"It was an election year, these were tax increases, and there was uncertainty to the economic impact," Bundgaard said. "In hindsight, it's wonderful to see how our community came together with a long-term vision to push something through that has been very positive."
The public vote established the Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority, which uses hotel and car-rental taxes and taxes generated at University of Phoenix Stadium to fund the construction of Cactus League facilities in Maricopa County, the Cardinals' new home and youth sports.
Through 2031, the authority has roughly $400 million allocated for the construction and renovation of Maricopa County spring-training stadiums. While new stadiums have lured five teams from Florida, renovations are equally as important. Upgrades are done to existing stadiums in return for teams signing long-term leases to stay in Arizona. Authority money is not used for maintenance.
Slightly more than half of the money comes from Prop 302 funds. The rest comes from the Maricopa County Stadium District, which the board of supervisors created in 1991 to help fund the Cactus League with a $2.50 surcharge on rental cars. With those funds, the county's ballparks got upgrades, and facilities were built in Peoria and the Maryvale area of Phoenix.
Some of the surcharge has been folded into the sports and tourism authority, after the two entities agreed in 2003 to have the stadium district transfer money that wasn't needed. Cities also contribute to the construction and renovation of stadiums.
Shortly after voters created the sports and tourism authority, work began on a new two-team stadium in Surprise. The ballpark opened in 2003 with two Grapefruit League refugees, the Texas Rangers and Kansas City Royals.
Two years later, then-Gov. Janet Napolitano formed the Arizona Baseball and Softball Commission to build on the momentum and expand the then-dozen-team Cactus League.
Glendale's expertise
Glendale got into the spring-training business after turning an alfalfa field off Loop 101 into Jobing.com Arena, a hockey facility for the Phoenix Coyotes, in 2003, and University of Phoenix Stadium in 2006.
For years, the city had wanted to add spring training to its sports portfolio, but City Manager Ed Beasley said officials waited until they saw the right teams. With the White Sox and Dodgers, he said, Glendale assured itself of drawing big crowds.
Dealings began in 2005, when the Dodgers, who had held spring training in Vero Beach, Fla., since 1948, authorized the White Sox to shop around for an Arizona city interested in building a ballpark for the teams to share.
The White Sox had moved from Florida to Tucson in 1998 to share a facility with the then- expansion Diamondbacks. But White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf lives part time in Paradise Valley and made it known he found metro Phoenix more appealing.
Glendale, riding its other sporting successes, entered negotiations, which remained under wraps until 2006. White Sox representative John Kaites said the team considered other cities but believed Glendale had the expertise to craft a deal. Representatives also liked the proximity of the football and hockey venues about three miles north.
"They had gotten it done with the Cardinals stadium. They had gotten it done with the Coyotes arena," Kaites said.
But by the time Glendale and the teams announced in November 2006 they had a deal, Goodyear was ahead of the curve. The fast-growing southwest Valley city already had submitted a proposal for funding from the sports and tourism authority.
Both proposals hinged on getting money from a limited pot, and it appeared the battle might pit the two West Valley communities against each other.
The authority, however, decided to dip into money from the county stadium district, and both projects were funded.
Goodyear's ambition
The emerging community of Goodyear had tried to host spring training since the 1990s but couldn't finance a stadium.
In 2003, it appeared the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, owned by Valley millionaire Arte Moreno, would move spring-training operations from Tempe. But the plan fell through a year later.
The possibilities of spring training had city officials hooked, and they held on to voter-approved bonding authority in hopes of enticing another team.
With that funding and money from the sports authority, Goodyear attracted two Ohio teams. But the ball only got rolling thanks to a fortuitous encounter.
On May 5, 2006, Mayor Jim Cavanaugh, who was in a charity golf tournament, started talking about baseball with an attorney in his foursome. The lawyer had previously represented Goodyear and offered to put in a call to an Ohio-based colleague who had worked for the Indians.
Within weeks, Goodyear was making a presentation to the Indians, and in September the city signed a deal with the team. The Reds followed after a connection with the Indians got Goodyear a chance to make a presentation, Cavanaugh said.
"Both teams wanted to stay in Florida. They made that clear to me," he said. "If their cities (in Florida) had treated them differently, they wouldn't be here."
At a ballpark groundbreaking for the Reds in November, Chief Executive Bob Castellini said Goodyear had gone above and beyond in attracting baseball's oldest professional team.
"Nobody cares about being treated like a big shot, but everybody wants to feel like they're wanted," Castellini said. "And we truly feel like we're wanted out here."
Future catches?
Arizona communities continue to seek ways to land spring-training tenants, although future growth remains uncertain.
The only team in Florida on a year-to-year lease is Baltimore, and Florida has invested $150 million in matching funds since 2001 to keep teams from leaving.
If other Grapefruit League teams migrate west, they won't be able to rely on the sports authority for a new stadium.
Charles Foley, the authority's chief financial officer, said all but $3.8 million of the roughly $400 million for Cactus League projects in Maricopa County is earmarked through 2031, when the funding ends.
Yet other options remain.
The Gila River Indian Community has considered building a ballpark, as has Casa Grande in Pinal County. Pima County is seeking approval from the Legislature to ask voters to build a new stadium in southern Arizona and to renovate ballparks in Tucson that are home to the Diamondbacks and Rockies.
"In 2000, we risked losing the Cactus League. Now Arizona is the dominant force in spring training," said Joe Yuhas, a political consultant who ran the Prop. 302 campaign. "I don't think the growth of the Cactus League is over. I think we can continue to grow if we have the resources available."
Reach the reporter at email@example.com.
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text:
The first gorilla to be born in a zoo tucked into tomatoes and birthday cake as she turned 56 in Colombus, Ohio.
17:06, UK, Sunday 23 December 2012
The first gorilla born in a zoo has proved you are never too old to party, as she celebrated her 56th birthday.
Colo, a western lowland gorilla, opened a pile of presents at her home in Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, Ohio, where she was born in 1956.
Guests sang Happy Birthday to the primate, as she munched through a cake prepared by zookeepers and a helping of her favourite food - tomatoes.
Colo, named after the city in which she lives, is a mother of three and has more than two dozen descendants living at zoos across the United States.
Western lowland gorillas are listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resource's Red List as a critically endangered species.
Scientists estimate that their population will have decreased by more than 80% between 1980 and 2046, with poaching and loss of habitat partly to blame.
In the wild, the gorillas can be found in Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Nigeria.
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text:
Delete courses (or reset)
After I remove a course, it still shows up as "Continue Learning" if I look it up again, and the plants I planted are still there. How can I completely remove it from my "history"? I want to start over on this one course really badly! :P
I sympathise, but at the moment, you can't.
Memrise believe strongly in rheir model of memory, and so they don't like the idea that you might want to "start again". They think, "but you have already learned these words to some extent, and we have the details, so if we ignore our records, this is not being faithful to the real-world facts". Even though you can do exactly this with a textbook or a CD etc.
I think they are overlooking this very commom human desire to "start over".
A cumbersome solution would be to create a second account. Or just wait for memrise 1.0 and hope for the best.
What's the point of starting it over as if it was a new one? Why not just simply water all the plants there again (and again, if you want)? Maybe I'm missing something?
Difficult to explain. Have you never gone back and started over with a novel, a textbook, a place, even a person? With memrise, watering all the words you half-know seems more tedious than learning them the 'first time'. It's as if memrise is implying - 'come on, you should know this one'. So when you 'start again', there's no element of nagging.
It's maybe not important in the beta, but in the long run, a feature to reset the repetition cycle for single words or complete courses would be nice. If you have completely forgotten a word for whatever reasons, the repetition intervals of memrise seem to be inefficient. Watering the whole course several is obviously not a solution when only few words of the course is concerned.
And even if all the words of a course are concerned, the standard learning procedure of 5-7 repetions of a small amount of words should be much more efficient for difficult words than watering the whole course 5-7 times in a row.
PS: And of course, there's also the psychological factor that restarting with an empty clean sheet is often more motivating than going through the mess of some of your own former notes.
This would be nice for me right now because my wife used my account for the first couple of days that she was "trying out" memrise---racking up 50'000 points---before she made her own account. I'm creating a new account so I can learn the courses she already did :) I know, my problems are insignificant, I count my blessings till I run out of numbers.
@aldebrn How did you find this thread? Google search? It's 3 months old, we were referring to the old version of memrise, but i still received a notification mail anyway.
Well, you don't need a new account, you can "quit" or "restart" courses on the new memrise, under the course leaderboards.
Thank you for the information! Yes, it was Google, and yes, now that I look at a course that I quit in my main account, I see it as brand new. Doh, I will feel sheepish as I continue to use the second account I created to complete this one course!
Maybe I'm just going crazy here, but when I try to quit a course, I get this message: "Quitting will not wipe your learning history, but will remove it from your dashboard. You can return to this course and re-join at any point. Are you sure you would like to quit?" When I click yes and re-enlist in my course, my history is still there. Am I missing something obvious?
Hmm. Maybe memrise changed the function of the button recently or maybe it has always worked liked that and the memrise description of the functionality (which i cited here) was wrong before. I never actually re-entered a course that i had quit, but i am very sure that the button said earlier that all your learning history will be wiped out and there used to be a restart button as well.
It's really hard to keep track of all memrise bugs and daily changes. At least, i remember seeing someone else complaining recently in a thread that was not as old as this one.


text: Oct 3, 2014 18:10 New garden honors Adult Learning Center founder Bahlinger New garden honors Adult Learning Center founder Bahlinger Advocate photo by MARK H. HUNTER -- The St. Paul Adult Learning Center's new Memorial and Educational Garden, dedicated to the late Sister Kathleen Bahlinger, provides students and parishoners a place to pray and pick fruits and vegetables. Advocate photo by MARK H. HUNTER -- The plaque describing the life of Sister Kathleen Bahlinger sits at the foot of the statue of the Virgin Mary in the St. Paul Adult Learning Center's Educational Memorial Garden. Advocate photo by MARK H. HUNTER -- For Brittany Tolliver, 18, and Donald Spain, 56, the St. Paul Adult Learning Center has given them a way to advance their education outside of traditional schools. Tolliver recently graduated and Spain is currently enrolled. Advocate photo by MARK H. HUNTER -- 'The public school was not my cut of tea,' says Brittany Tolliver, 18, who recently graduated from the St. Paul Adult Learning Center. Advocate photo by MARK H. HUNTER -- Donald Spain, 56, a self-employed handy-man, is working on his high school equivalency degree at the St. Paul Adult Learning Center. Brittany Tolliver PRAY St Paul center story, photo by mark h hunter, This sign in the entry of St. Paul Adult Learning Center welcomes students who want to learn how to read and write and solve math problems. Advocate photo by MARK H. HUNTER -- This statue of Madonna and Child was rescued from Hurricane Katrina floodwaters at the Sisters of St. Joseph Convent in New Orleans, and now sits in the garden dedicated to Sister Kathleen Bahlinger, a co-founder of St. Paul Adult Learning Center. A portrait of Sisters Lory Schaff and Kathleen Bahlinger, co-founders of St. Paul Adult Learning Center, hangs in the office. Photo provided by St. Paul Adult Learning Center -- Harold Bahlinger talks about his sister, the late Sister Kathleen Bahlinger, at the ribbon cutting for the garden built in her honor at the St. Paul Adult Learning Center. Education oasis adds spot of peace by mark h. hunter| Special to The Advocate July 18, 2014; 5:56 p.m. Comments The St. Paul Adult Learning Center has for 30 years billed itself as "an oasis in the midst of poverty, crime and hopelessness" in a high-crime area of the city. Now, thanks to the hard work of a team of volunteers and donors, the school, which has helped more than 5,000 area residents earn their high school equivalency diplomas, has an actual oasis. Across the parking lot from the main sanctuary of St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church, just off Gus Young Avenue and tucked between the school's several modular buildings, is a small Educational Memorial Garden, complete with flowers, fruit trees, vegetables and a bubbling fountain. Near the fountain stands a statue of the Madonna and Child rescued from the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina from the St. Joseph Convent in New Orleans. The garden was dedicated in the memory of Sister Kathleen Bahlinger during a recent, well-attended Sunday afternoon service. Bahlinger, one of the school's founders, passed away just over a year ago. "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me," is engraved on a bronze plaque memorializing Bahlinger at the foot of the statue. That Scripture verse, quoting Jesus in Matthew 25:40, is how Bahlinger lived her life, the plaque says. "She touched the lives of many here in Baton Rouge, where she and co-founder Sister Lory Schaff, established the St. Paul Adult Learning Center in 1983," it says on the plaque. "Sr. Kathleen's commitment to social justice led to her life-long involvement in spearheading and standing tall for equal rights for all." Bahlinger was born on Oct. 31, 1937, and grew up in the Hundred Oaks neighborhood in a large family. She died of a heart attack at the age of 76, doing what she loved — working in her garden at a New Orleans convent — on July 6, 2013, according to the plaque and her brother, Harold Bahlinger. "She really walked the walk and talked the talk," Bahlinger, 80, reminisced about his younger sister. "She lived in that area with the people she worked with. My mother and father were scared to death, but she said she felt safer there than any place in Baton Rouge. They (neighborhood residents) really appreciated those nuns and looked after them." As the youngest of nine children, including seven brothers, Bahlinger said, "she could only be a tomboy. She never played with a doll in her life. She was always out there playing football and kick the can with the boys." His sister loved gardening, Bahlinger said. "She loved to plant sunflowers and sweet peas in the fall, and she always had a fig tree wherever she went," he said. "She always had some kind of a citrus tree, she loved to raise tomatoes and lettuce and eggplant and okra." A spindly satsuma tree and even spindlier fig tree are part of the garden, which also includes tomatoes, okra and several other vegetables, along with flowers and flowering bushes. Sister Bahlinger was preceded in death by Sister Lory Schaff, who died on Jan. 21, 2013, at the age of 97. Later this year the center will dedicate one of the center's several buildings to Sister Lory. Bahlinger said his sister really grieved Schaff's death. "They were like Ike and Mike," Bahlinger said. "They could really make things happen the two of them together." David Jones, director of the St. Paul Adult Learning Center, said the garden will be a learning place for students in cooperation with the Baton Rouge Master Gardeners program. Although the school is on church property and pays no rent, it is its own unique nonprofit organization that depends on donations for financial survival, Jones said. Over the decades it has helped thousands of area teens and adults learn to read and write and do math. The educational programs are divided between teens, ages 16-19, and adults. A paid staff of six teaches the teens and a half-dozen volunteers teach the adults, Jones said. "A lot of them come in with huge academic gaps. I'm talking about someone who is 18 years old reading at a second- or third-grade level," Jones said. "What we're accomplishing is really tremendous. A lot of them were still in middle school (level) because they couldn't pass the LEAP test. A lot of people think they are in adult ed because they couldn't learn, but they all can learn." The key to students' success, Jones said, is a combination of holding them responsible for working hard at learning and the infusion of daily prayer and brief Bible studies. "A lot of students have convinced themselves they can't do math or read. But they get in here and become committed and buy into the philosophy and pretty soon they're successful and graduating and getting jobs in the workplace because they're learning discipline," Jones said. "We're shaping their character that nobody has developed." Everyday begins with a devotion time of five to ten minutes, Jones said, where the staff shares a Scripture and prays over the campus and the students. "People ask how can these young people be committing these horrendous crimes and be living with no self-control the way they do? It's because nobody has imparted any of that into them," Jones said. "We create a culture of spiritual consciousness. Most of them have not had that element in their life." Brittany Tolliver, 18, recently earned her GED, has a job and is planning to attend Baton Rouge Community College in the fall. "The public school system was not my cup of tea," Tolliver said. "St. Paul is more supporting, more caring, more religious, more everything, to be honest. They give parenting advice, life skills — everything. "We pray every morning," Tolliver said. "Anytime I needed to talk to someone about a situation I call Miss (Stephanie) Jones because she will always pray for me and help me. I actually learned a lot from her." Donald Spain, 56, a self-employed handyman proficient in most construction trades, is enrolled in the adult track and did much of the work building the garden, which was designed by landscape architect Hampton Landry. "Growing up in this neighborhood, I took a wrong turn in life and it cost me my freedom and it cost me my schooling," Spain said. "All my life I've been working different jobs, different areas, different places. Just about any type of work I can do. I'm very good at it, but, without an education, it doesn't mean anything." He said he hopes to finish his education in the next few years and perhaps someday own his own company. "Never give up if education is what you need. Try St. Paul," Spain advised. "You are never too old. Keep striving and the Lord will reward you." St. Paul's pastor, the Rev. Richard Andrus, said the school and the garden are "a lasting tribute to the creative vision and mission of Sister Kathleen Bahlinger and Sister Lory Schaff." "The lives of over 5,000 people have been directly affected and the lives of all their family members have been lifted up because of this," Andrus said. "It is a powerful ministry and outreach to the community." To learn more about the St. Paul Adult Learning Center, visit spalc.org. Get The Advocate in your inbox Subscribe


text:
One hell of a big worm
How is this for backyard composting? Photo from Age.
A month-old news item from the Australian newspaper Age (via Worms of Endearment) is about the relocation of a colony of the Giant Gippsland Earthworm (Megascolides australis), living in the path of a planned road. These evolutionary marvels, endemic to Australia, are unfortunately threatened because of degradation and loss of their habitats.
Megascolides australis (phylum Annelida) is truly a giant among terrestrial invertebrates; according to this document lengths of adults average under 1 m. Reading about this earthworm reminded me of another month-old item, the 330 million-year old fossil trackway of a huge water scorpion that had been discovered in Scotland1. The author estimated that the water scorpion that had laid the tracks was about 1.6 m long and 1 m wide. What is more interesting is that the animal was apparently walking on land. Assuming that the identification of the animal and the estimate of its size are correct, this finding implies that arthropods much larger than the extant terrestrial species can survive on land at least temporarily. But as opposed to giant annelids, giant permanently terrestrial arthropods never seem to have evolved.
This may be because of difficulties associated with water conservation. The body shapes worms, giant or not, allow them to easily burrow into damp soil where they are protected from desiccation. Large arthropods, on the other hand, would have difficulty burrowing deep unless they evolved more worm-like bodies.
1. Whyte, M.A. 2005. A gigantic fossil arthropod trackway. Nature 438:576.


text: I found this at the street.com ratings update. Hope this helps. Kinda disappointing. I am NOT a fan of Cramer so that it for what its worth.We've downgraded Capital City Bank Group(CCBG Quote - Cramer on CCBG - Stock Picks), which operates as the holding company for Capital City Bank, offering commercial and retail banking services in Florida, Georgia and Alabama, from hold to sell. This rating is driven by the company's generally disappointing historical performance in the stock itself, feeble growth in its earnings per share, disappointing return on equity and weak operating cash flow. Capital City experienced a decline in earnings per share in the most recent quarter compared with the same quarter last year, and we anticipate its two-year trend of declining EPS to continue in the coming year. The company's return on equity also decreased. Net operating cash flow fell to -$3.6 million in the most recent quarter. Net income decreased from $7.7 million to -$1.7 million. Shares have tumbled by 57.1% over the past year, underperforming the S&P 500, but based on its current price in relation to its earnings, Capital City is still more expensive than most of the other companies in its industry.


text:
My son has cerebral palsy and is taking high school algebra 2/trig.
I am looking for the best way for him to efficiently complete homework problems which include both equations and drawings that his teacher requires to accompany the problems to show his work. He has a school mac that dual boots mac and windows.
I am trying to offer a solution with my newly acquired Ubuntu laptop. Is there a software solution - for example - with libreoffice, that has a math editor?


text:
Au Bretzel Map
1, rue Léopold Robert
01 40 47 82 37 | Make Restaurant Reservations
Métro: Raspail
Use this map to Au Bretzel to get there and back safely. If the "Get directions" pop-up does not appear, click the green arrow to get driving directions to and from this restaurant.
Sign up to receive the 2016 edition of GAYOT's Annual Restaurant Issue, which will feature the Top 40 Restaurants in the U.S. and more.


text:
BUILDING BLOCKS - A Relationship Conference
February 11-13, 2010
Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist Church, 1011 Roc Ford Rd., Greenville , SC 29617 presents a relationship conference for singles as well as married couples taking a look at the bible for relationship guidance.
The Facilitators for this event are: Dr. Toney C. Parks and Lady Brenda L. Parks
Thursday, February 11,2010 "Marriage a Holy Call" (7pm- 9:45pm)
Friday, February 12, 2010 "The Marriage Essentials" (7pm-9:45pm)
Saturday, February 13, 2010 "The Art of Intimacy- Rated R"-The psychology of sex (8am-1pm)
Sunday, February 14, 2010 "Marriage Vow Recommittment" Morning Worship Service (10:45am)
A conference donation of $15.00 per person is requested.
This is a wonderful community event to help to apply Christian values to build or re-establish your family. For more information, please click the link: www.mtsinaigreenville.org or call (864)246-8804.
information/photos courtesy Sonji Mims Adams
Selena Winston
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