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It's great to see more people taking up an interest in vintage If I run across any extras then I'll post them in the trades section. Right now I only have a few ship parts on hand.......but I may have a duplicate Warok or Lumat around here somewhere.....
Will there be certain figures though, where repro weapons are the only (economic) option?
Only thing I've really noted so far is I like auctions better that end during the week, not on weekends.
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Vargas/Morales Trade Fills Needs For Both Teams
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Friday, January.04, 2013
Nicholas Rossoletti (MLB Trade Correspondent): Follow @NRoss56
It is rare in baseball that division rivals complete trades. Most of the time when it does happen, it is a lower end deal involving pieces that neither team is particularly worried will come back to haunt them. This is what makes the Jason Vargas for Kendrys Morales trade so interesting. It is a trade that makes incredible sense for all parties involved, but there is at least some likelihood that either or both players could make their former club regret the move in the short term. Let's take a closer look at the players involved in the deal and why each club wanted to make this move.
On the Angels side, the team was in dire need of innings they could count on. After acquiring Tommy Hanson and his questionable shoulder as well as losing Zack Greinke to their cross-town rivals, the Dodgers, the Angels needed to find a starter who could give them guaranteed innings. Enter Jason Vargas. Vargas has been good for 190 plus innings over the last three season including over 200 Innings Pitched in 2011 and 2012. Vargas is a back-end of the rotation starter who has one terrific pitch in his arsenal, which is his change-up. Vargas' change-up is an elite pitch. To help characterize how elite a pitch it can be, we can look to some statistical measures. Per 100 pitches, Vargas saved 2.25 runs over the course of 2012 with his change-up. To understand in comparison, Justin Verlander's curveball, what many would consider his "put-away" pitch saved 2.04 runs per 100 pitches in 2012. Now clearly, no one in their right mind is going to positively compare Vargas to Verlander, but in terms of Vargas' change-up, I think it is important for everyone to understand that he does do something as well if not better than any other pitcher in the Major Leagues.
The Brutal Kendrys Morales injury after a Grand Slam Walk-Off HR:
Jason Vargas will be one of the best end of the rotation pitchers in the AL this year. He made 4.85 Million Dollars in 2012 and will receive a considerable raise based on his 14 win campaign in 2012.
As I have discussed with friends, I happen to believe over the long-term that Vargas' elite pitch makes him a better candidate for a bullpen role (traditionally, pitchers with one unbelievable pitch and a very questionable secondary arsenal have been successful in high leverage bullpen roles). That being said, there is absolutely no way that Vargas ends up in the bullpen this season unless there are some very strange developments for the Angels. The Angels have acquired back-end bullpen help for 2013 in Ryan Madson and Sean Burnett so even though I believe Vargas to be a better fit in the pen long-term that's not where he fits on the 2013 Angels roster. We can expect to see him participate in perhaps the less effective but probably more valuable role that he has filled the last three seasons of inning-eating starting pitcher.
The reason I say less effective role is that after that elite change-up, Vargas lives on very middling secondary stuff including a
fastball that sits at 87-89 Miles Per Hour. His peripheral statistics show a K/9 of 5.87 and 5.84 over the last two seasons (well below league average), and in 2012, Vargas gave up 1.45 HR/9 IP, which was above the league average for Home Runs allowed and an increase from his previous season. This trait of the increasing Home Run ball is a bit disturbing especially considering that Vargas played his home games in one of the more pitcher friendly environments in the Major Leagues during the 2012 season. Last season, Vargas was worth .8 wins above replacement, and clearly, the Angels are hoping for a slight improvement on that. If they could get the 200 plus innings of 2 wins above replacement ball that Vargas carried in 2011, I believe the Angels would be fairly excited with the short-term results of their end of this deal.
On the other end of the deal, the Mariners were willing to deal Vargas as they have several talented high-end pitching prospects who could be big time contributors to the M's in 2013. Taijuan Walker, the Mariners 2010 first round draft pick, is ranked the number two prospect in their system by Baseball America after catcher Mike Zunino. Walker is a potential front of the rotation pitcher, whose stuff is electric. Walker has put up elite level K/9 numbers, but his ERA did not translate during the 2012 season as his walk rate was a little high.
I would tell Seattle fans to ignore that ERA for now and concentrate on the unbelievable upside. This is a guy that scouting services were considering a top-10 to 15 type prospect in the middle of last season and has been compared to other top Right-Handed pitching prospects. Walker is only 20 Years Old, and we should expect him to start in Double-A this season, but he could be with the major league team as early as June or July if he can continue to progress at the level expected. additionally, the M's have Left-Hander Danny Hultzen at their disposal. Hultzen is another top pitching prospect, whose ceiling is probably lower than Walker's ceiling. The good news about Hultzen is he is closer to the majors after completing the 2012 season at the Triple-A Level and he is a Lefty.
The bad news is that his control at Triple-A was disturbingly bad. He pitched to a 7.95 BB/Per 9 IP during his stint in Triple-A, which is insanely high for someone who may need to be relied on as a 2013 starter. The M's will expect to see him get those numbers back down to reasonable levels, and I believe he will be able do just that. Along with Walker and Hultzen, the Mariners also have another Left-Hander, James Paxton down on the farm. Our own Sam Evans wrote a very in-depth look at Paxton, which can be found here. I won't waste time re-inventing the wheel on Paxton when Sam did such a good job, and I highly recommend those interested in the young lefty to make the jump and read Sam's piece. These three pitchers are the Baseball America ranked No. 2 through 4 prospects in the Mariners system and provide the depth that allowed for the M's to trade Vargas even to a division rival.
So Seattle dealt from a position of depth and acquired Kendry Morales. Morales may be best known for his gruesome ankle injuries, which have become a cautionary tale for walk-off celebrations everywhere. Morales is a 29, soon to be 30-Year-Old First Basemen/Designated hitter, who was worth 1.8 WAR for the Angels last year. Morales completed the 2012 season with a slash line of .273/.320/.467. He is an interesting fifth or sixth hitter for the Mariners, who comes with his own fair share of question marks. His peripheral statistics are a little off-putting upon first review. His BB rate of 5.9% is below league average and his K rate of 22.2% is above league average, which explain the .320 OBP. This On-Base is significantly lower than his 2009 or 2010 numbers (NOTE: Morales did not play in 2011). His ISO (isolated power) of .194 is similar to his 2010 ISO of .197. Both of these numbers is about 65-70 points lower than his 2009 ISO of .263. Essentially, Morales has not been able to regain the elite form that he showed in 2009 when he was a 3.4 WAR player who hit 34 Home Runs with a .924 OPS.
One of the greatest concerns we see from Morales right now is his Strike Zone recognition and control. Morales' swinging strike rate is up more than three percentage points from 8.9 to 12.1 and he is swinging on more than 5 percent more pitches outside of the Strike Zone (30.8 to 35.9) than he did in 2010. When we see these kind of trends in a hitter, we have to question how he is seeing the baseball and whether or not age/injury has effected his bat speed. The bat speed questions also arise when we consider that Morales contact rate on all pitches is down about 4 percent from his 2010 numbers. There is legitimate concern whether Morales will ever regain his prior form as he ages or whether we must reclassify Morales based on these new peripherals. Clearly, we need to see an up-tick in trends regarding patience as it will be tougher for Morales to take advantage of mistake pitches in Seattle's cavernous home park of Safeco Field (Yes, even with them moving in the fences slightly).
It will be a make or break season for Justin Smoak with Morales Mike Carp all John Jaso all looking for DH time. nwssportsbeat.com
With all these potential negatives, I still think the Mariners made the right move by acquiring an extra bat. Morales suffered from a devastating injury and 2012 was his first year back. It may very well be that the rust from his injury lay-off can be blamed for the erosion of his plate patience as he attempted to get back into the swing of things at the big league level this season. There was a jump in power post-All-Star Break last year, which may support an argument that Morales was began to feel more comfortable at the plate later in the season (although he struck out the exact same number of times as the first half of the season in fewer plate appearances and his OBP actually decreased so I'm not sure that argument will hold water for very long). Our one positive peripheral stat is his weighted on-base percentage or wOBA which was .339 in 2012. As a rule of thumb, this is a decent number for a hitter although again even that number is in sharp decline from 2009 to 2012. More than anything, I think the Mariners clearly needed any positive offensive force and are willing to roll the dice on Morales in hopes that his second season back from injury will provide better results. However, by adding Morales, Seattle may have indirectly admitted failure on the development of Justin Smoak, and if so, then the entire Cliff Lee debacle of 2010 has to be considered a monumental waste of time and money for the organization.
The acquisition of Morales provides the Mariners an average to above average power bat for the heart of their lineup but also calls into question the future of Justin Smoak, who at 26 years old should be entering the prime of his career. Morales' primary positions, first base and designated hitter, are the positions that should be manned by Smoak and Jesus Montero, the uber-prospect turned ordinary regular acquired by the Mariners in the Michael Pineda deal last season. When Seattle acquired Smoak in the Cliff Lee trade during the 2010 season, they thought they were acquiring a middle of the lineup monster. All his statistics in the Minor Leagues pointed to him being a can't miss run producer. Instead, he has been a massive
disappointment. However, Smoak finished 2012 with perhaps the best month of his major league career, but the Morales trade does not bode well for the club's long-term hopes for Smoak. With John Jaso requiring At-Bats at Catcher, Montero requiring at-bats at catcher anddesignated hitter, Morales requiring at-bats at first base and Designated Hitter, Smoak will have limited opportunities to build upon that fantastic finish.
This could be the biggest effect of the Morales trade. As a side note: If I were running a team in a hitter friendly ball park in need of a first baseman, I would certainly be calling the Mariners to inquire about the cost associated with Smoak. He could be a low-cost, potentially high reward player if Seattle really is cutting his at-bats, and I can't see how they aren't with the Morales acquisition. Again, as with the Vargas end of the deal, the Angels were willing to trade Morales as they had created depth in the middle of their order with the monumental signing of superstar outfielder, Josh Hamilton.
After signing Hamilton, there was speculation that the Angels would attempt to trade center fielder Peter Bourjos. The Angels decided to keep Bourjos and Mike Trout together to man one of the best defensive outfields in the major leagues. Instead, the Angels looked to the depth created at the first base/designated hitter spot with Albert Pujols, Mark Trumbo and Morales as the place to trade. I believe this is exactly where they should have looked. Bourjos and Trout provide the Angels a defensive advantage and help protect the Angels at times suspect starting rotation with their spectacular glove work. Meanwhile, Morales is easily replaced by Mark Trumbo. Trumbo's Strike Out and walk rates are incredibly similar to Morales, however his plate discipline is probably worse than Morales, and Morales is assuredly the better defender. With all that being said, Trumbo is two and a half years younger than Morales and has one big advantage right now on the field. For two years straight, Trumbo's ISO has sat at .223 and.222 respectively. Trumbo offers consistent power that has translated to 29 and 32 Home Runs during the last 2 seasons.
Additionally, Trumbo offers advantages off the field as well. Trumbo is still on his entry-level MLB contract making $50o K this year with three more years of team control as he is Arbitration Eligible from 2014-2016. Morales made $2.975 Million last season, should probably receive an arbitration raise and will be an unrestricted free agent going into 2014. In the end, by trading Morales, the Angels kept together perhaps the premier defensive outfield in the game, created more at-bats for a power hitting asset and made a solid financial move (which for a team that is spending at the rate the Angels have been is very important).
In the end, both the Mariners and the Angels got what they wanted in this trade. There may be unintended consequences for both sides and certainly different stories will spin-off the ramifications of this trade, but that could be said for just about any trade in baseball. In my mind this is probably a win/win, but if forced to pick a winner, I would have to go with the Angels. They obtained valuable innings and added a piece that they didn't have before the trade. The Mariners added a useful bat, but as discussed that bat has some early warning signs of age/injury and has created a log-jam for at-bats. Perhaps Morales will provide more quality at-bats than Smoak this season, but if he does, the Mariners are left asking is Blake Beavan really the best piece we got for Cliff Lee?
*** The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of mlbreports.com and their partners***
A big thank-you goes out to Our 'Trade Correspondent' Nicholas Rossoletti for preparing today's featured article. Nicholas is a young professional living in downtown Miami. He is a lifelong baseball fan and an avid Yankee supporter. Having grown up during the last two decades, he counts Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera as his favorite ball players of all time. He believes in sabermetrics and that new stats have already changed the way the baseball industry sees players. He was for Trout over Cabrera, he thinks RBIs tell you a lot more about a team than a player and that defense and pitching, ultimately, win championships. Rational thought and introspective analysis over the narrative is how we come to understand the game we love. The narrative is just a way to keep those who don't really love the game watching. Feel free to follow Nicholas on twitter and talk the game of baseball Follow @NRoss56
"There are three things in my life which I really love: God, my family, and baseball. The only problem – once baseball season starts, I change the order around a bit." ~Al Gallagher, 1971
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Posted on January 4, 2013, in MLB Teams: Articles and Analysis, The Rest: Everything Baseball and tagged @Nross56 on twitter, al mvp, AL West, albert pujols, American league, Arbitration eligible players, blake beaven, cliff lee, danny hultzen, james paxton, josh hamilton, justin smoak, justin verlander, la angels, la dodgers, michael pineda, mike zunino, MLB Hot Stove, nicholas rossoletti, peter bourjos, ryan madson, safeco field, sam evans, sean burnett, seattle mariners, tommy hanson, zack greinke. Bookmark the permalink. 5 Comments.

subset: commoncrawl


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Featured News - Current News - Archived News - News Categories
15.61 million viewers watch Robin Williams return to network television
"The Crazy Ones," featuring the return of Robin Williams to network television, premiered to 15.61 million viewers, making it the season's No. 1 new program, according to Nielsen preliminary live plus same day ratings for Thursday.
The series premiere of "The Crazy Ones" was first in viewers (15.61m), adults 25-54 (5.4/13) and adults 18-49 (4.0/11). CBS posted its best adults 25-54 delivery in the 9-9:30 p.m. time slot since March 12, 2009, and its best adults 18-49 delivery since Nov. 12, 2009.
"The Crazy Ones" more than doubled the premiere of "The Michael J. Fox Show" in viewers (vs. 7.23m, up 115 percent), doubled in adults 25-54 (vs. 2.7, up 100 percent) and nearly doubled it in adults 18-49 (vs. 2.1, up 90 percent) from 9-9:30 p.m.
At 8 p.m., the seventh season premiere of "The Big Bang Theory" was first in viewers (18.30m), adults 25-54 (7.0/20) and adults 18-49 (5.3/18). Compared to last year's season premiere, "The Big Bang Theory" was up 11 percent in adults 25-54 (from 6.3/17), 6 percent in adults 18-49 (from 5.0/16) and added 2.64 million viewers (from 15.66m, up 17 percent). "The Big Bang Theory" posted premiere highs in these measures.
At 8:30 p.m., a second episode of "The Big Bang Theory" was first in viewers (19.52m), adults 25-54 (7.6/20) and adults 18-49 (5.8/17). "The Big Bang Theory" was the night's No. 1 program in these measures.
"Two and a Half Men," with its 11th season premiere, was first in viewers (11.54m) and adults 25-54 (4.1/10), and was second in adults 18-49 (2.9/08).
At 10 p.m., "Elementary's" second season premiere was first in viewers (10.14m) and was second behind a two-hour "Grey's Anatomy" in adults 25-54 (2.9/07) and adults 18-49 (2.1/06).
For the night, CBS was first in viewers (14.21m), adults 25-54 (5.0/13) and adults 18-49 (3.7/11). Compared to last year's premiere Thursday, CBS was up 2 percent in viewers, 9 percent in adults 18-49 and 11 percent in adults 25-54. CBS won its fourth consecutive premiere Thursday in viewers and three of the last four in adults 25-54 and adults 18-49.
On CBS.com, "The Crazy Ones" had the highest premiere day traffic for a new comedy series debut to date, the highest premiere day traffic so far this season, and triple-digit growth across all metrics over the same time period last year. "The Big Bang Theory" also hit a new milestone with its best premiere day opener on CBS.com in the show's history.
Editor's note: Television viewing on platforms such as DVR, video-on-demand and online streaming continues to grow at a fast pace. Last season during premiere week, Live+7 CBS audiences grew 20 percent over Live+SD in total viewers, up from 17 percent in 2012. In A18-49, Live+7 levels grew 29 percent from Live+SD, up from 23 percent one year ago. Additionally, many CBS shows experienced as much as a 50 percent increase in total viewers once full 30-day multiplatform audiences were accounted for. In an effort to quantify how much non-linear viewing adds to Live+SD audiences, CBS Research will provide estimates for series that will include DVR playback as well as multiplatform viewership.


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- Justice
- Departments
- Public Defender
- About the Office
- Employment
- Internship Program
Internship Program
The Internship Program is designed to give interns exposure to the work environment of a Public Defender's Office, including opportunities to observe and assist in legal proceedings and contribute to the work of the criminal defense team. The Program integrates interns into our Office and allows them to assume some of the same responsibilities as our full time personnel.
All interns are supervised by the program coordinator and assigned to work with trial attorney teams consisting of:
- Attorneys
- Investigators
- Mitigation specialists
- Paralegals
- Secretaries
Trial & Appellate Opportunities
Internships are available in the trial and appellate divisions of our Office.
Program Projects & Experience
The Internship Program offers interns the opportunity to work with several lawyers on a range of cases, providing an overview of the types of work performed by attorneys in either trial or appellate practice. Interns work on a variety of projects, including:
- Assisting in jury selection
- Assisting in trial preparation
- Attending and participating in witness interviews
- Attending private conferences with judges in chambers
- Drafting and editing pleadings
- Meeting with clients both in and out of jail
- Observing court proceedings
- Researching legal issues
- Reviewing case files
- Writing legal memoranda
Unpaid Internship
The Public Defender's Office does not hire law students for paid internships. However, we are able to accommodate a select number of students who can obtain their own funding. Although this is an unpaid internship, students and recent graduates are offered an excellent opportunity to explore career options, build resumes, network with professionals in their fields of interest, and gain hands-on experience.
Please download and complete the Internship Program Application (PDF).
The application must be completed and returned along with a letter of interest and resume to:
Vanessa Smith - Law Clerk/Extern Supervisor
Maricopa County Public Defender's Office
620 West Jackson Street, Suite 4015
Phoenix, AZ 85003
Alternately the application packet (with resume and letter of interest) can be submitted electronically by email.


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Have you ever faced a situation where your device or software application did not work properly and caused your computer to hang, freeze, or even crash at the most inopportune of moments? Have you wondered why things don't just work, instead of causing you heartburn? Venkatesh-Prasad Ranganath, G. Ramalingam, and Kapil Vaswani, researchers in the Rigorous Software Engineering group at Microsoft Research India, are trying to solve the problem of applications and devices interacting undesirably with the operating system.
"Today, building software and applications is akin to building a car. There are many parts built by different companies that go into the car, and all of these have to work together properly for the car to run," says Ranganath while explaining Tark, a project focusing on software-incompatibility issues. "Specifically, the car manufacturer and various part vendors have to agree on how their parts will interact and affect only these interactions; failing to do so by making unjustified assumptions based on observations can cause unforeseen failures in a car and inconvenience to the end user."
Given the number of devices and software from different vendors used in a computer, software development faces a similar challenge.
"Today's pace of technology evolution makes software compatibility an even more important and challenging problem," says Ramalingam. "Anyone developing a new or updated part must ensure that it works correctly with older systems as well as future systems. It thus becomes critical to have 'contracts' between different parts of the software that govern the behavior of those parts."
Ramalingam draws an analogy with traffic rules to explain what he means by a 'contract': Traffic typically flows smoothly when everyone follows the traffic rules. But if even one person violates a single traffic rule, it can lead to a cascading series of events that result in chaos or serious accidents. Similarly, products built from many parts might stop functioning because one part somewhere in the product violates a rule.
"A large fraction of computer crashes," Ranganath says, "are caused by third-party device drivers that do not adhere to the required protocol, underlining the importance of defining these 'contracts.' "
Current software development suffers from two related problems.
- First, contracts and rules tend to be stated informally in documentation.
- Second, there is no formal, comprehensive verification that software components satisfy the appropriate rules.
Over the last decade, the research community has made significant advances in software-verification technology. Software-verification tools can check whether a software component follows a given contract and can help identify potential incompatibility issues early on, when developers write code, rather than have these problems manifest themselves at a later stage, when users use the product.
"However, there is a catch to using software-verification tools," Ramalingam says. "The rules must be stated in a formal language that the tools understand. It is not enough to have documentation in English, as is the common practice today."
The team is building a tool to infer rules that govern the interaction of applications with the Windows operating system.
"The goal of Tark," Ramalingam says, "is to find these rules using data-mining techniques."
Tark mines rules that govern an application-programming interface (API). The technology is intended for use with APIs, such as the Windows API, for which many correct or mostly correct clients already exist. It first creates traces of events that occur when client applications access a particular type of resource and creates a database of such traces. It then looks for correlations and patterns among the events and extracts those with high statistical support and confidence as rules.
Tark is not error-free -- hence the name "Tark," which means "conjecture" or "guess" in Sanskrit -- because not all programs may interact in the correct manner.
"What we are doing may boil down to speculation, because it is statistical," Ranganath says. "We are trying to come up with what are likely rules, but there is no guarantee they will be true because they are based on observations. We expect human experts to look at the candidate rules inferred by our tool to validate or correct them.
"But we can assume that, by and large, most programs use any particular resource in a correct manner. There may be variations in how the programs work, but overall, certain patterns will emerge whenever the contract constrains the programs' behavior."
It is possible to mine rules in a static manner, by looking at the structure of the program and using it to approximate the behavior of the program, or in a dynamic manner, by registering events at run time.
Once the rules are expressed formally, they can be incorporated into diagnostic tools such as the Static Driver Verifier, which checks whether a program can violate any of the specified rules.
"Automatic verification tools," Ranganath says, "can identify scenarios where the program may fail to follow a rule."
Earlier, these rules had not been laid down formally, making it difficult to use such verification tools. But now, with the work of Ramalingam, Ranganath, and Vaswani, life for the programmer could become easier, and there might be fewer crashes and incompatibility issues for computer users.


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The Bible and Confessions no longer have meaning for our denomination. It is as though some monstrous entity is walking through the land aiming at all that is righteous and good.
The Lord said to him "Go through the midst of the city, even through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations which are being committed in its midst." (Ezekiel 9:4)
Have you lately felt a mark on your forehead or heard the glide of a pen as God writes down in his book your conversation with other grieving brothers and sisters? (Ezekiel 9:4; Malachi 3:16-17)
As I read news reports about the onslaught of sexual permissiveness and the final decision coming from the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission (GAPJC)concerning the Lisa Larges' ordination case I am deeply grieved.
The Bible and Confessions no longer have meaning for our denomination. It is as though some monstrous entity is walking through the land aiming at all that is righteous and good.
Several days ago Hans Cornelder of ChurchandWorld linked to an article "Students Walk out on Dan Savage." The article was about the sex columnist who was asked to speak at a conference called Journalism on the Edge. Savage "was invited to give a keynote address last Friday at the JEA/NSPA National High School Journalism Convention." Rather than talk about bullying he made fun of the Bible and then ridiculed the Christian students who walked out. (I will place a video at the end of this.)
Later a friend, Robert Gagnon, linked to an article which truly showed the outrageous positions of Savage who advocates for non-monogamous marriages (among other vices). The article is "Married with Infidelities" and it is written by Mark Oppenheimer who seems to agree with Savage to a certain extent.
Add to this another article linked to on ChurchandWorld, "One of the most outrageous bills ever" [Editor's note: the original URL (link) referenced is no longer valid, so the link has been removed.] about a pending bill, Senate bill 1172, in California which would permit:
lawsuits to be brought against therapists offering "sexual orientation change efforts" if the treatment occurred "without first obtaining informed consent or by means of therapeutic deception, or if the sexual orientation change efforts were conducted on a patient who was under 18 years of age at any point during the use of the sexual orientation change efforts.
And another article about another pending bill in California, "Bill would ask State Contractors: Are You Gay or Lesbian?" The author explains "The measure, Assembly Bill 1960, would enable the owners of businesses that contract with the state to identify themselves as gay, lesbian, transgender or bisexual. It would not require them to do so." The bill is backed by all Democrats plus the "the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce and by the Sacramento Rainbow Chamber of Commerce."
The article also states that, "The Department of General Services currently is required to collect data on contractors by race, ethnicity and gender. AB 1960 would add LGBT-owned businesses to that list."
In California, schools are already required to teach students about LGBTs lifestyle and history.
We are weaving together a multifaceted sexual configuration for our society, which includes progressive denominations. Such a configuration will suck the Christian orthodox underground. But we must not go underground nor be passive in the midst of such awful cultural darkness. (And here it is important to insist that already the pro-choice death culture marches in step with the new sexual arrangement of our culture.) To paraphrase Dylan Thomas' poem, "Do not go gentle into that dark night." But, no, we will not rage against the dying of the light, because we walk in and with the Light.
We must walk within the light, with love and forgiveness, proclaiming the redemptive work of our Lord Jesus Christ. We do not know what trials lay ahead but we do know to whom we belong.
Viola Larson is a freelance writer who has BA's in both philosophy and religious studies, an MA in history, and additional graduate work at Fuller Seminary. She is a ruling Elder at Fremont Presbyterian Church in Sacramento, CA. She is married to Brad Larson, a Steinway piano tuner, and they have six children, eighteen grandchildren and five great granddaughters. She blogs at Naming His Grace where this article first appeared; it is used with permission.


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Posts Tagged 'Hand'
Hand Drawn T-Shirt Design – MUSIC KEEPS ME GOING
This isn't something I'm used to doing at all, but I was reading a few articles that made me interested in trying it out for myself, using "Magic Markers." Yes, Sharpies, that's right, and it hasn't bled yet. (Must Dry First) Here's a photo of my progress and finished work for a test shirt for ROKPAD Entertainment.
I used an old Calvin Cline dress shirt that I've never worn to test it out, but it turned out so much better that I had thought. Although time consuming, (this simple design took me a couple hours from setup to finish) I like the end result. Not something I will be going into business with, but it was a fun art project that was rewarding once finished.
Try it out.
Music to Keep you going:
Pretty Lights – Toxic – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOuS2XtVM2A
Pretty Lights – Still Night – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFlE7_6hKUE


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things were taken out
and dealt with
My Shanty, Lake George: Georgia O'Keeffe, 1922 (The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.)
I've never seen any Georgia O'Keefes like that one. It's very nicely drawn, it looks a lot like a site near where I live (I'll take a photograph to prove it).
...And I love what you wrote and how it's formatted!
Thanks, Arthur. I love this dark, muted early O'Keeffe.
It makes me wonder about what we don't know about what happened when the woodsmen took Snow White off into the woods, or about what happened to the former democratic philosophy of government in these parts (was there ever one?), among other things.
Angelica reminded me that about thirty years ago I painted a similar scene without having seen the O'Keeffe. And then I too actually remembered it, as the painting was literally staring me in the face (from above the stove, as I cooked dinner).
But I now suspect that the true "original" of this archetypal ur-image is that site near where you live, of which I do hope you will take and post a photograph at your earliest convenience.
Meanwhile, in your honour, here is another O'Keeffe from approximately the same period, this one a bit more on the radiant side: I am imagining it to approximate a vision of life privately attained by the widow of Thomas Hardy, upon his passing.
(And many had thought the old coot might well hang on forever...)
I'll do it right now. I'll borrow your whole post for the job, (but if you don't like it, just say & I can take it out). Can't you post a photo of your painting above the stove?
Great photo, Arthur.
That was quick!
(No functional camera around here, alas, we are barely technological...)


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Patriots beat Dolphins, clinch AFC East title
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The Patriots frequently have had their issues when facing the Dolphins in South Florida, and Sunday was no different.
But New England was able to sew up its fourth straight AFC East title and 10th of the Bill Belichick-Tom Brady era with a 23-16 win.
On a day when rushing yards were hard to come by against a Dolphins defense ranked seventh in the league in that category, and Brady not connecting on as many passes as usual for much of the game, New England played another total team game, which enabled the Patriots to collect their championship hats and T-shirts.
The Patriots put the game away with a 16-play, 77 yard drive that lasted 7 minutes 18 seconds and ended with a Stephen Gostkowski field goal to put them ahead by two scores, 23-13, and left Miami with just 70 seconds left in the game.
"That was probably our best drive of the game," Belichick said. "We needed it. We got good contributions from everybody."
On that drive, Brady was 3 for 3, completing passes to Aaron Hernandez, Wes Welker, and Brandon Lloyd (his only reception of the game), but Stevan Ridley played a bigger role. The second-year back got the ball 10 times for 46 yards, picking up three first downs along the way.
"It was good execution, I thought we did a good job making some critical plays when we needed to," Brady said. "The running game was huge. I thought the running backs ran really hard, protected the ball, and got some great blocking up front. It's what we needed at that time."
"They did some good things," first-year Dolphins coach Joe Philbin said of his defense. "But when the game was on the line they [the Patriots] were able to move the ball and make it a two-possession game."
Despite the AFC East title, the mood in the New England locker room was subdued. Belichick gave the reminder that there is still a quarter of the season to go, and some players noted this is just the first check mark on the list of goals for this season.
"We'll enjoy this one today, but the road from here is daunting," special teams captain Matthew Slater said. "There's a lot to be concerned with as far as seeding. It's a good step but it's not the last step."
The Patriots' next two games are against the Texans and 49ers. Both are at home, but those teams possess offenses and defenses that rank near the top of the league, and are better top to bottom than the ones New England has faced during its six-game win streak.
After scoring 17 first-half points, New England had only 6 in the second half on two fourth-quarter field goals. But the Patriots gave up only 6 points in the second half.
Vince Wilfork likes seeing the defense play a big role.
"Especially when the offense struggles, it's a chance for us to showcase how special we are on the defensive end," Wilfork said. "We didn't give up a lot of points today, had some three-and-outs, made some plays. Offense is OK to have a bad game here and there. They've done so much for us and one thing we want to do around here is we always want to play as a team."
It was the first December win for the Patriots in Miami since Brady has been the starting QB.
The Dolphins were a bit of a mess in the opening two quarters, with several key mistakes that began on their first possession.
Miami got the ball to start the game and went three-and-out. A low snap from John Denney to punter Brandon Fields led to Fields trying to run with the ball, but Slater got to him quickly, allowing the Patriots to start their first drive just 12 yards from the end zone.
Although a Donald Thomas holding call pushed the offense back to the 22, Brady completed a 12-yard pass to Welker as Brady was falling down, then an 8-yarder to Hernandez for the first down. Ridley got the ball for the 2-yard touchdown.
It was the fifth straight game that Ridley has recorded a rushing touchdown.
On the Patriots' third possession, Brady threw just his fourth interception of the year when Reshad Jones picked off a sideline pass intended for Hernandez; it was a high degree of difficulty play pulled off by Jones.
The safety sprinted toward the end zone for what first appeared to be a tying pick-6. But a penalty for low blocks on both teams wiped the TD off the board, although Miami retained possession.
Despite starting at the New England 34, the Dolphins got no farther than the 26 and got their first points on a 44-yard Dan Carpenter field goal.
Another costly Miami mistake led to the Patriots' second touchdown.
After not picking up a first down, New England's Zoltan Mesko lined up for his first punt of the game. But Jimmy Wilson committed a blatant roughing-the-kicker penalty, drilling Mesko in the groin.
Given 15 yards and a fresh set of downs, Brady and Welker worked their connection, with the receiver making four catches for 36 yards after the penalty, including the 7-yard touchdown.
"Oh man, I'm sick about that," Wilson said. "I got a late jump. I shouldn't have left my feet."
The defense got its 33d takeaway of the season 90 seconds later when Trevor Scott, who saw a lot of playing time thanks to Chandler Jones's injury and Jermaine Cunningham's suspension, forced the ball out of Ryan Tannehill's grasp when he hit him from behind. Wilfork fell on the loose ball.
"For the opportunity Trevor got — a two-sack game speaks for itself," Rob Ninkovich said. "It's great — with some guys down, other guys have to step up."
Though they again started with a short field, the Patriots went nowhere; Gostkowski hit from 43 yards for a 17-3 lead.
The Dolphins got their only touchdown just before halftime, overcoming two early penalties that backed them up to the 5. Tannehill ran the ball in himself, though he was flipped off his feet by Alfonzo Dennard and absorbed a hit from Ninkovich.
Brady looked to Welker so often in the first half — he was targeted 13 times, as many as the other five targeted players total — that he had 10 catches by the break.
It gave him his 17th career game with 10 or more receptions, tying him with Jerry Rice for most all time.
Shalise Manza Young can be reached at email@example.com. Follow her on Twitter @shalisemyoung.


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Multilevel CFA
Mplus Discussion
Multilevel Data/Complex Sample
posted on Friday, June 19, 2009 - 6:54 am
I am looking at a five factor model with 56 survey items answered on a five point likert scale. Data were collected from 130 people who are nested within 25 organisations which are nested within 5 geographical regions.
I am trying to understand if there is an organisational impact on the individual level factor loadings arising from organisational membership.
Would a multilevel CFA help me to identify the impact of an organisational context on individual level factor structure and item loadings?
Given the above is it possible to rum a multilevel CFA?
Linda K. Muthen
posted on Friday, June 19, 2009 - 9:28 am
You can use TYPE=TWOLEVEL; with CLUSTER = organization.
Tor Neilands
posted on Thursday, August 02, 2012 - 12:01 pm
I am attempting to fit a similar set of twolevel CFAs to 1181 cases collected from 22 villages. Most CFAs posit one or two factors at each level with 6-16 items per factor. Items have three ordered categories, so I specify them on the CATEGORICAL statement. Depending on the estimator (I've tried WLSMV & MLR) and item sets I am using, I am receiving various warnings and errors, more so than convergence (though occasionally I do get convergence for some of the one-factor models). I think this may be due to the relatively small number of villages at the between level. I imagine this problem (small number of level-2 units) is encountered frequently in twolevel CFA work. Do you have a set of recommended best practices or suggested remedies I could try to obtain convergent solutions in this situation? Thanks.
Linda K. Muthen
posted on Friday, August 03, 2012 - 12:04 pm
We have found that the factor structure on the between level is most often simpler than on the within level. Try one factor on the between level with the residual variances fixed at zero. See the following paper which is available on the website:
Muth�n, B. (1994). Multilevel covariance structure analysis. In J. Hox & I. Kreft (eds.), Multilevel Modeling, a special issue of Sociological Methods & Research, 22, 376-398.
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Obtaining a business loan has become more difficult as the economy, regulations, and lendig policies become more stringent. I took the following notes during a recent staff training presentation and hope they will help you to understadn what lenders need to see in a business loan appllication.
I. Understanding the Lender
It is much easier to find a business lender if you understand what a lender needs in order to process your loan application. I recommend starting with the lender you are already doing business with but check for the most recent bank policies and procedures. Government regulation and bank policies are frequently updated. To prepare you application it is helpful if you know the following:
Bank Policies –
Loan portfolio mix, number of and type of loans they like to make.
Loan Programs they use? (SBA or USDA programs?)
Loan requirements – Minimum Credit score, Loan to Value, Collateral, Equity, Lending Ratios -- Liquidity, Debt Coverage, others
Risk tolerance – some banks are more liberal, others more conservative.
Lender's experience with customers in your industry?
Recent changes in the bank's corporate structure that effect lending policies.
Banking regulations that affect the bank's lending policies.
Average time to close a loan.
• Loan Underwriting – The lender will only know what you provide, incomplete applications get denied. Your loan officer will need to justify a loan approval based on due diligence review of you and your business. Information they are looking for includes:
Is the loan purpose consistent with the type of loan?
Credit Standing (score and credit report)
Cash Flow, is the business be profitable?
.... Are losses explained?
.... How were losses funded?
.... Quality and value
.... Collateral value covers loan?
Equity/Net Worth
.... Has equity increased or decrease over last three years?
.... Amount of contributed equity and earned equity (retained earnings)
Financial ratios
.... Exceed lenders minimum target?
.... Ratio trends over last three years
Business condition – Strengths, Weaknesses, Issues
.... Other business owned
.... Other sources of income
.... Personal Financial history
II. Preparing a loan package
Presenting the lender with a complete package is critical. Your package must demonstrate your capacity to manage the business, your capacity to produce stated outcomes, and the market place capacity to buy your service/product. Incomplete packages slow review and errors or misstated information will result in a denied application. Lenders will be examining:
1. Financial Statements – History
• Profit Loss Statements- YTD Revenue, margins, profit
• Cash Flow: EBITDA and Working Capital needs, Owner draws, distributions, When you spent cash, when you received cash
• Last three years of Tax records, Explain differences between tax records and Profit & Loss Statements. Explain any expenses made for tax purposes
• Balance Sheets – current liquidity, asset quality, leverage, capital structure, retained earnings, Aging of A/R and A/P
• Budget Projections with assumptions
• Break Even analysis
• Ratio analysis - Liquidity, leverage, performance over time has been consistent and is sustainable Sales to Assets, ROI, ROA, A/R Turnover, Average Collection period A/P turnover, average payment period Inventory Turnover, Inventory on hand
2. Management
Character of top management, resume of management experience, experience as management in this business/industry. Team depth, who does the tasks of CEO, CFO, A/R and A/P. Succession (who runs the business if you can't be there?) Performance as compared to industry standards and trends
3. Business Plans
• Supports and explains how you will accomplish what you claim in your budget. How you meet the five C's of credit. (Character, Capacity, Capital, Conditions, Collateral)
• Explains market opportunity
• Provides budget assumptions.
• Describe the business, how you make money
• Describe the service/product, provide pictures, marketing materials, samples
• Associated documents, Articles of Incorporation (Partnership), Leases, Contracts, firm estimates on major purchases, Collateral
III. Presentation Tips
• Be enthusiastic
• Be professional
• Be prepared
• Make an appointment, be early and ready
• Be organized and bring copies of all the document to leave with the lender
IV. Deal Breakers
Some issues in your history can be deal killers, there must be extenuating circumstances before a lender can consider proceeding with an application. Other problems could result in a loan application being considered as a higher risk. If a loan were to be approved, these issues could result in higher interest rates and more conditions and restrictions.
Preparing a quality loan application package will help identify potential deal breakers and provide you the opportunity to explain what happened and what you have done to correct the situation. Remember, it is safer for the lender to say no if there is any doubt or perception that your loan is a higher risk than the lender wants to accept.


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Prison Break is one of the worst shows in terms of dialogue, plot and acting in the WORLD after Hollyoaks. But there is a reedeming light in the show and he is called Wentworth Miller.
Who the hell is called Wentworth anyway? It doesn't matter when you look like this:
Wentworth has the right mix between thuggish good looks and intelligence. Oh and sensitivity.
He was born in England (me too!) and has a mum and dad (me too!) and he graduated from Princeton with a Degree in English Literature (me too! But not a Princeton, d'oh).
Wentworth is 36 and has no wife. He is probably, most likely, Gay. There I said it. Do you know any decent, intelligent, gorgeous, sucessful men at 36 who don't have a wife? You can't count George Clooney as he's old and concited, and prbaly gay too.
He's supposed to be very private and all – not a publcity whore even though he coud be.
I can't think of anything else to say about him – oh he looks terrible with hair.
Just enjoy:


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The Kardashian sisters did NOT sell bogus diet pills to millions of gullible consumers ... they just coaxed 'em into buying them -- this according to new legal docs, obtained by TMZ.
Kim, Kourtney, and Khloe Kardashian just filed their response to a $5 million lawsuit that accuses them of peddling lies to the public about the diet pill QuickTrim. The product's main ingredient is caffeine, which the FDA has decided is not an effective weight-loss drug.
But Kim & Ko. are now firing back -- claiming they're NOT the sellers of QuickTrim, they're just the pretty faces promoting the product ... so they shouldn't be held responsible for QuickTrim's lies.
The sisters claim there's currently no law that holds spokespeople accountable for false advertising -- and it should stay that way.
The Kardashians want their names dropped from the lawsuit.


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Carol Jones, a cashier at Pooler Publix, kept finding handfuls of expired coupons in the baskets and in various places in the aisles in the store. At first she just tossed them out. When she came across the Coupons for Troops post on my Facebook page, she decided to put those expired coupons to good use.
Carol researched and found the military can use those coupons up to six months overseas. A couponer for 25 years, she saw the value in coupons that were going to waste. You may see her from time to time shopping with her five-inch Case It binder. She loves coupons so much she passes out ones she won't be using to customers in the store.
Carol has such a big heart that she decided to start a volunteer program to get those coupons into the hands of the military who need them. She was able to get approval from her employers to place a donation basket at the Pooler Publix where expired coupons can be donated.
You will find this basket right inside the doors of the store, and it is decorated appropriately in red, white and blue.
Each month, Carol donates countless volunteer hours to this project. She sorts the coupons into four categories: food, non-food, baby and pet. This makes it easier for the base to use those coupons and get them into the right hands quickly.
Although they can use the coupons up to six months after expiration overseas, by the time those coupons are shipped, received and distributed, quite a bit of time goes by. For this reason Carol tries not to send coupons that are more than two months past the expiration date.
Once the coupons are sorted, Carol spends about $30 to $45 each month to ship the coupons to a base overseas. She uses a flat-rate box to ship to try to keep the costs down. Each month she checks the website to see which bases are still accepting coupons and selects one that is in need.
She said the response to the program has been tremendous. Each day the basket is filled with more and more coupons. People who shop at different Publix locations have even called to request her address so they can send the coupons directly to her for shipping.
I asked Carol what would make this project a little easier for her, and she gave me these tips:
• Sort coupons into four categories: food, non-food, baby, pet
• Only place paper manufacturer coupons in the box. No store, restaurant or printable coupons can be sent.
• Place the sorted coupons in plastic baggies and label them accordingly.
• Do not place any coupons that are over two months past their expiration date to allow for sorting, shipping and distributing the coupons.
Carol also said this would be a wonderful community service project and would love to have volunteers to help sort the coupons.
If you have a Sunday school class, a Girl Scout or Boy Scout troop or are a member of any clubs or organizations, this would be a great project. If you would like to help, you can email Carol at firstname.lastname@example.com.
If you would like to ship coupons to a base yourself, check this website each month for an address: www.ocpnet.org. At the top of the page you will find a "Base List" tab. Click on it, and you will be provided with addresses to mail your packages.
Please follow these guidelines when mailing:
• Sort into food/non-food. If you can divide by pet and baby, too, that's even better.
• Mail in a flat-rate box.
• No store, restaurant or printable coupons.
• Do not send coupons that are more than two months past their expiration dates.
If you would prefer to adopt a specific military family, you can visit this website: www.couponstotroops.com/sign-up-to-adopt-a-family. You will fill out a form on the site, submit your information and be matched up with a family. The family will then contact you with their mailing address to mail the coupons to. Please take some time to read the FAQ on the site. Per the site, by sending directly to a family you are cutting out the middleman and getting those coupons into the hands of people that can use them.
Please consider donating those expired coupons to the military. You can drop them off at Pooler Publix, or ship them directly yourself. It's a great way to show your appreciation for the military and their families. Many families overseas are dependant on one income and these coupons really help to stretch their budget.
Keeping up with
expired coupons
Everyone always asks me how I keep up with my expired coupons. Twice a month, usually around the first and the fifteenth, I go through my coupon binder and pull the ones that have expired. I may not find every expired coupon, so I am careful to check the expiration date before using them.
There is no reason to get upset over an expired coupon. Lots of my coupons expire. I don't use a coupon just because I have it. I only use coupons for things I will use and only if they are at a good price.
I am going to try a new trick to help me spot expired coupons quickly, I am going to stick red and blue dots on my baseball card protectors. When I file my coupons, I will place coupons that expire between the first and the fifteenth on the red pages and those that will expire the sixteenth to thirty-first on the blue pages.
Some people keep a spreadsheet with all of their coupons listed and the expiration date so they can pull those coupons on the day they expire. It also gives them a handy list of the coupons they have available to them when they are in the store.
Personally, I use the Shopping Wizard at savannahnow.com/savvyshopper to research coupons. Just click on the "Shopping Wizard" and then "Coupon Index" and search the database. You will be provided with the date the coupon was in the paper, which insert it was in and the date it will expire.
Send your questions or tips to Savvy Shopper Michelle Rubrecht at email@example.com or post them to Facebook at Savannah Savvy Shopper.
Class Schedule Couponing 101
Feb. 28, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Savannah Morning News, 1375 Chatham Parkway
Couponing 102: How to shop at the drugstores
March 10, 10 a.m.-noon. Savannah Morning News, 1375 Chatham Parkway
Southern Women's Show
11:30 a.m. Feb 18-20 at the Southern Women's Show at the Savannah International Trade Center. Class is free, but there is an admission fee to the women's show.
Savvy Deal Picks Publix
(Deals good through Feb. 15)
Duncan Hines Cake Mix $1
35 cents on one Duncan Hines Cake Mixes (SmartSource, Feb. 5) doubles to 70 cents in Georgia stores
Final price: 30 cents
Two Pillsbury Grands Biscuits @ $1 each
30 cents on two Pillsbury Refrigerated Grands (SmartSource, Feb. 5) doubles to 70 cents in Georgia stores
Final price: $1.40 or 70 cents each
(Deals good through Feb. 14)
Duncan Hines Cake Mix $1
35 cents on one Duncan Hines Cake Mixes (SmartSource, Feb. 5) doubles to 70 cents
Final price: 30 cents
Lipton Tea Bags $3.49
50 cents on one Lipton Tea Bags (Red Plum, Jan. 29) doubles to $1
Final price: $2.49
(Deals good through Feb. 18)
Gift card offer: Buy 4 participating items get a $5 gift card.
Deal idea:
Buy four Dove Deodorant participating twin packs @ $3.99 each = $15.96
- Four 75 cents on one Dove go fresh Deodorant (Red Plum, Jan. 29)
Final price = $12.96 at the register
Get back $5 gift card = $7.96 for 8 deodorants or $1 each
*Save an additional 5% if you have the Target Red Card
*Single packs are participating and are $3.49
(Deals good through Feb. 18)
24 Pack Purified Water $2.44
(Deals good through Feb 18)
Charmin Basic 12 pack $5.99
-25 cents on one Charmin (P & G, Jan. 29)
Final price = $5.74
Get back $1 Register Reward = $4.74
LypSyl Extreme Cold Sore Relief $5
Get back $5 Register Reward = Free


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Terrebonne's new Clerk of Court Theresa Robichaux was sworn in at a ceremony in the Terrebonne Parish Courthouse Saturday evening.
Terrebonne's new Clerk of Court Theresa Robichaux was sworn in at a ceremony in the Terrebonne Parish Courthouse Saturday evening.
Robichaux is the first woman ever elected to a parishwide office and is also Terrebonne's first new clerk of court in nearly 50 years. She takes office today.
Addressing a full courtroom of family, friends and parish officials, Robichaux thanked her predecessor, outgoing Clerk of Court Bobby Boudreaux, her family and the voters of Terrebonne Parish.
"Mr. Boudreaux left me with the best thing I could ask for, a competent and dedicated staff — and that's a present without a price tag," Robichaux said. "I don't have to try to make it the best clerk of court office in the state."
The Clerk of Court Office organizes and oversees elections in the parish, issues marriage licenses, files land documents and catalogs civil lawsuits and criminal case documents, among other functions.
Robichaux is replacing the retiring Boudreaux, 80, who served as clerk of court in Terrebonne for 47 years.
"I didn't start off aiming to set any records," Boudreaux said. "But I really like what I do. I'm proud you helped me realize that dream by allowing me to do what I do for as long as I could."
Boudreaux swore Robichaux into office with her daughter and parents by her side.
He said he was proud to have Robichaux as his successor, saying she would bring "experience, quality and dedication" to the office.
Robichaux, who served under Boudreaux as deputy clerk of court, has worked in the courthouse for 24 years.
"We're here today to begin another historic career in the clerk of court's office," Boudreaux said.
Addressing the room, Robichaux shared anecdotes from the campaign trail and also took a moment to honor her nephew, Mathew Arceneaux, 28, who campaigned door-to-door with her and gave her advice during the campaign. Arceneaux, 28, died of cancer in March.
As Terrebonne's clerk of court, Robichaux said she hopes to update the office's technology, beginning with the launch of the office's new website.
She said there will also be physical changes to the clerk's office, with new counters and added security.
"I appreciate the vote of confidence from residents, and I hope to move us forward," Robichaux said. "We already have a great office. I can only try to make it better."
Nikki Buskey can be reached at 857-2205 or firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Bricks-and-mortar stores have had e-commerce giants breathing down their necks for quite some time, with their lower-priced offerings and convenience, but the growing promise of same-day delivery could take away a key advantage of traditional stores: immediacy.
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"Look at how we shop now," says Jed Kleckner, CEO of delivery.com. "Ten years ago, we might have surfed the web to find products, but now everything is done on our mobile phone, we want everything now, there's no waiting and small businesses better be ready to deal with that demand."
If e-commerce can pull off same-day delivery, which experts say is a big 'if', traditional bricks-and-mortar stores will have to learn to match the promise or compete with different offerings.
Online giant Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) announced last year it was looking to offer same-day delivery to shoppers, but has since backed off the idea, citing the high cost.
"It's the stupidest idea ever," says Forrester analyst Sucharita Mulpuru-Kodali. "Not only is it incredibly expensive -- and consumers won't pay extra -- the strategy is to get consumers addicted to the behavior to help subsidize the cost, but that just isn't going to happen."
Same-day delivery has been around since the dawn of time, says Andrew Schmahl, principal at Booz & Co. "Back in the day, it was the guy running a marathon to deliver news. It has always been the most expensive method of delivery around. It popped back up and failed during the dot-com bubble, and for some reason, we are seeing a resurgence of it now."
Indeed, many retailers have announced plans to offer same-day delivery, including Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) and eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY).
Is the Demand There?
It's no secret we're a society looking for instant gratification, but what happens when that need for immediacy coincides with our budget consciousness?
A recent report from the Boston Consulting Group shows only 9% of surveyed consumers cited same-day delivery as a top driver when shopping online. Close to 75% of the 1,500 consumers surveyed report free delivery as a priority and 50% want lower prices.
"Right now, the demand isn't there, but it will be soon, especially for the higher-income shoppers," says Himanshu Sareen, founder and CEO of Icreon. "People in higher income brackets are definitely needing that instant gratification and just as e-commerce sales took off when free shipping became more common, so too will same-day delivery."
A study from Booz & Company reports same-day delivery might be an attractive option, but it's still a niche offering with 88% of customers saying they wouldn't pay more than $10 for same-day shipping.
Shopping habits might also run counter to same-day delivery demands. The Booz report found 60% of online shoppers buy after 5 p.m. ET, creating a short delivery window.
"Right now same-day delivery is just not needed in most markets," says Mulpuru-Kodali. "There are some companies that have it down pat, like Dominoes, but that is a different business model with a finite amount of merchandise and a finite delivery space. They are doing one thing: making pizza."
She expects same-day delivery to continue to gain traction in the grocery industry in certain markets, but not enough to become a major factor in big corporations' business models. "Right now, you still get delivery windows when ordering groceries, so the logic is: I don't have time to shop, but I have three to four hours to wait around for my order? It just doesn't make sense."
Same-day delivery is an expensive offering, and the only way to make it cost-effective is to attach the promise to small, easily-transportable items that carry high margins.
"Even with Amazon.com, which has a very long tail, just because I am buying milk, office supplies or a pair of shoes, doesn't mean I am going to throw in a digital camera — and that's the only way that delivery becomes profitable for the company."
Can Small Businesses Still Compete?
Betsy Burton has run the King's English Bookshop in Salt Lake City, Utah, for 36 years, and has battled to survive the surge of bookstore chains in the 1990s, and now, online giants, and pins her success on always offering value and becoming part of the community.
"We buy very carefully, we know the books we offer, we learn about our customers and we match them with books they will like. After all, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter how cheap or fast you get a book if you don't like it."
Cliff Courtney, chief marketing officer at Zimmerman Advertising, says when it comes to competing against the corporate giants, small businesses need to focus on their brand. "I get free coffee at work, but I still stop by Starbucks (NASDSAQ:SBUX) every morning, because it's an experience. That's what small businesses need to always remember. If they fail, it's because they didn't connect with their customers."
Same-day delivery is only possible if businesses -- no matter their size -- learn how to leverage their delivery costs. Creating a low-cost model requires working with delivery companies and using technology to maximize efficiency.
Mulpuru-Kodali advises small-business owners to work with local and national courier networks to use any extra capacity they might have and borrow their delivery infrastructures. "Combining local services with the U.S. Postal System and the likes of UPS and FedEx could help them compete, but there will be a steep learning curve."
Sareen also recommends businesses learn how to better track their inventory with machine intelligence technology.
"What is going to be key is putting in some predictive mechanism to figure out sales, track current inventory flow and find merchandise when ordered. Once you have the required products, locating a delivery. But that all comes at a cost."


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THIS Is Why Athletes At The Games BITE Their Medals
You may have noticed something weird at The Games, every single time somebody wins a medal.
Once the athletes are on the podium, they pose for the world's press and then bite their medal.
While it may seem a bit weird for us back at home, it is a trend that spans the world, all sports and several Games now.
If you have thought it is because the athletes are testing whether the medals are made of actual gold, well that would be wrong. The Gold medals are 93% silver, 6% copper and 1% gold.
The actual reason as to why they bite their medals? It's just because the photographers want more interesting pictures to sell than a champion smiling and holding the medal, according to Mental Floss.
It can have a little repercussion, though, with German athlete David Moeller chipping his tooth at the 2010 Winter Games saying ''"The photographers wanted us to bite into our medals at the presentation ceremony. And a corner of my front tooth broke off.
"It wasn't too bad, and it didn't hurt. But it is annoying when you can't smile as you normally do. And because I want to have beautiful pictures and happy memories of my Olympic Games, I went to the dentist to get it repaired."
So careful biting, everyone.


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The football talents of Havelock rising senior running back Derrell Scott reached a broader audience this week.
HAVELOCK � The football talents of Havelock rising senior running back Derrell Scott reached a broader audience this week.
Scott competed in Nike�s The Opening football camp in Beaverton, Ore., which features the top 150 prospects in the nation.
His team, Alpha Pro, finished second in the 7-on-7 tournament, falling to the Field Generals in the championship game.
For a kid who relentlessly hunts elite competition, Scott found what he was yearning for in Oregon.
�It was great and it let me realize that I�m just as good as the other guys who are rated high,� Scott said. �Once I got out there, I saw that they�re just normal guys like me and I did my best to compete hard against them.�
One of �them� was the nation�s No.1 prospect, running back Leonard Fournette out of New Orleans, with whom Scott forged a friendship.
�I met a lot of great people out there. I talked with Leonard (Fournette), Curtis Samuel, Corey Holmes and Duke Dawson pretty often. My favorite thing about it all was just the competition,� Scott said.
Scott sat out the championship game after getting hit in the back in an Alpha Pro quarterfinal victory.
�I was running over the middle to catch a pass and somebody hit me in my lower back with a forearm and I just tweaked something,� Scott said. �It�s already starting to feel much better though.�
During his time in Oregon at Nike headquarters, he competed in the Sparq ratings drills, one-on-ones, position-specific drills and of course, the 7-on-7 tournament.
Scott had the opportunity to listen to numerous NFL legends and current players, as well as reigning Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel.
While doing running back position drills, Scott caught the eye of a certain budding NFL talent.
�During our position drills, LaMichael James told me that I looked the best he had seen going through the drills,� Scott said. �We got to talk and listen to Bo Jackson, Ndamukong Suh, Demaryius Thomas and other NFL guys too.�
Scott caught a red-eye flight that departed at 10:20 p.m. back to Havelock Wednesday night and is already getting back into his normal routine.
�For the rest of the summer until we start practice, I am just going to keep working and training hard and get ready for the season,� Scott said.
Jordan Honeycutt can be reached at 252-635-5670 or at firstname.lastname@example.com Follow Jordan on Twitter @JHONEYnbsj29


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The Family Advocacy Unit at Community Legal Services represents hundreds of parents in the child welfare system every year. Many of the parents we represent become involved with the child welfare system for reasons stemming from their poverty and lack of adequate support . While a number of the parents we represent struggle with serious drug addiction, all too often we see parents who are capable and loving parents labeled unfit to care for their children due to their sporadic marijuana use. As this article describes in detail, while marijuana use doesn't usually form the basis to bring a family into the child welfare system, it can form the basis to keep a family in the child welfare system and to keep a child in foster care:
Marijuana's impact on parental status more about class, race than parentingNovember 18, 2011


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Exhibition Stands & Displays
Exhibition Stands & Trade Show Displays
Here at Red 17 we are dedicated to providing high-quality display solutions, including exhibition and pop up stands. Exhibition stands are ideal for events and shows where you want to stand out from the crowd and catch the eyes of thousands of customers at tradeshows and exhibitions.
So if you are in need of exhibition stands ready for your next trade show then shop here and buy online today.
Exhibition Stands Uses
Uses of a Trade Show Display
Regardless of industry, it is always beneficial for a business to attend exhibitions. They raise awareness of the business, help you to network with other businesses and broaden your customer base. Plus, they're an all round great way to market a new product or service. So, how do you stand out at an exhibition? One of the most effective ways is with exhibition stands or displays.
When attending an exhibition it is vital that you give yourself the best chance of making an impression, so turning up with anything other than a high quality stand or display won't cut it. At Red17 we use high quality materials and quality marketing to ensure you have professional and creative marketing materials to use wherever they are required.
How To Use Exhibition Stands and Displays for Marketing
All different types of businesses can benefit from the uses of exhibition stands and displays. The most popular uses include:
- Using an exhibition stand or display to market a new product or service to existing clients. The stands or displays could be placed in a shop, at a office reception or throughout the business. As long as a potential customer or client can see the display, they're an effective way to market.
- At an exhibition to help the business stand out from competitors. A high quality stand or display grabs the attention of exhibition attendees, compared to those who do not have this form of marketing.
- To raise awareness of a brand. When starting a new business it is important that the target market are aware of the business name, logo, design and colour scheme; this helps it to become recognisable, in a similar to way to how McDonald's is recognisable by it's logo alone. The more a person sees a business logo, the more likely they are to recognise it.
- To encourage foot traffic and those passing by to check out what the business is offering. This is especially popular among businesses who work outside such as car dealers.
Whether your business is B2B or B2C, you're sure to benefit from networking and attending industry events. If you have an exhibition coming up and want to stand out from your competitors, Red17 can help.
Additional Information
Exhibit the right way
Exhibitions usually cost to attend for traders and so it's vital you are using the best quality marketing materials and display stands to attract customers. With our expertise in this industry, this has led to us working with top brands, including Tesco, Subway, Boots and Vodafone to name but a few and we have previously supplied stands and displays to several venues throughout the UK. These include Earls Court, London Olympia, NEC and the O2 Arena and we have formed strong relationships with satisfied clients who come back to us again and again.
Available in a wide range of sizes and colours you're sure to find the one you're looking for
Round Display PlinthsFrom: Was: £76.44 £49.00 (£58.80 inc. VAT)


text: Patient Testimonials - Pelvic Floor Reconstruction Twenty-five years ago I had a bladder suspension, which lasted about 15 years. Then I started leaking again when I hit a ball playing golf, worked out at the spa or when I sneezed or coughed. It continued to get worse. Not only did I wet my pants, but I had difficulty with bowel movements. Before the procedure I always had to wear a big pad and keep my fingers and legs crossed. Whenever I walked into a place I always asked where the ladies room was just in case of an emergency. The last eight years were a terrible experience for me, until I found out I was going to the wrong doctor! I thought I had a good urologist, but he kept advising me not to have surgery and had me trying medication after medication. Nothing worked, and there were side effects, like blurred vision and waking up at night with a dry mouth. My condition worsened. I told my G.P. (general practitioner) of my dilemma, and he recommended I see Dr. (Andrew) Cassidenti.Even though he's pretty busy, Dr. Cassidenti didn't mind answering all of my questions. After consultation and tests, he performed a pelvic floor reconstruction. Everything went as planned and he took me out of misery. The results were immediate. This was a rebirth for me. I should have done this years ago. Having my plumbing fixed is like a miracle! In the hospital, the nurses were upbeat and pleasant. They all love Dr. Cassidenti and told me I had a good doctor, which gave me confidence. They were also very thorough with their (post-operative) instructions. This spring we're going to take a nice vacation, possibly in our motor home, or we might take a cruise. I have a few more weeks of taking it easy, but I feel like a new person! Thank you, Dr. Cassidenti, and thank you St. Joseph Hospital staff. - Marie P., age 79 I have told so many women (who complain of bladder problems) that if they want the best, go see Dr. (Andrew) Cassidente. I'm 46, and he's helped me to feel like I did when I was in my 20's, before I had my kids. Whenever I laughed, coughed, walked fast or ran, I would lose urine. I constantly had rectal pressure and back pain. Sex was uncomfortable and it always felt like all of my organs were falling out. I stopped exercising because of the discomfort and because I could always count on having wet pants when I was finished. It was just easier and more comfortable for me to come home after work and lay down. I frequently suffer from chronic bronchitis. One year, during a particularly bad bout, I attended my daughter's choir concert and coughed through most of the performance. By the end, I was completely soaked and needed my husband to walk in front of me and my daughter to walk behind me to the car. I was mortified. It was so embarrassing and unnecessary…. After a few more of those instances and of constantly dealing with the frustration and embarrassment, I saw my gynecologist, Dr. (Marc) Zepeda, and told him I was tired of the way that I was feeling and begged for relief. He referred me to Dr. Cassidenti and for that I will be eternally grateful. After Dr. Cassidenti ran some tests he told me that my bladder was leaking and that because my uterus and my bladder were not in the proper place, it was causing holes to wear in other areas that had caused a cystocele and rectocele. Because of a hole worn into the rectal area, my bowel movements weren't clearing completely, which were making the problems with rectal pressure worse and making me even more uncomfortable. Dr. Cassidenti's office staff was great. Because I go to school, work full time and have kids, my schedule is very full. However, the scheduler worked with me and was able to get me in for surgery at a time that was convenient for me (at St. Joseph Hospital) which happened to be on the Friday before Christmas. She and the scheduler at Dr. Zepeda's office had to coordinate schedules because I also had a hysterectomy, so it was quite a job to make sure that both doctors were available. However, they made it happen! After the surgery, Dr. Zepeda came to see me and told me what a beautiful job Dr. Cassidenti had done with repairing my bladder, the cystocele and the rectocele. The day after surgery, the nursing staff had me up walking and I was able to manage my pain by taking some Vicodin. I went home on Sunday and was off work for six weeks. While I couldn't do any heavy lifting or driving for a couple of weeks and just basically had to take it easy, it actually gave me a good excuse to rest – something I don't often have a chance to do. Having the surgery was so worth everything! I can laugh, cough, evacuate my bowels completely, and there is no more back pain. I no longer have to wear Depends (pads). It's incredible how much better I feel. I'm so much more comfortable! My husband says this is the best thing that could have happened. He had sensed I was withdrawing - I didn't want to go anywhere or do anything. Our sex life had become non-existent and I wasn't the person he knew me to be. Now I have my life back and I'm very thankful for what Dr. Cassidenti did to make that happen for me! I have a few friends and even my mom who are experiencing some of the same things that I did. The first thing I have told them is to go see Dr. Cassidenti – they won't regret it. Cheryl H., age 46


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Man Allegedly Kills Wife and Posts Photo of Dead Body on Facebook
An awful story out of Miami has seen a man kill his wife and then write about it on Facebook, with a picture of the body and an apparent confession on his page.
On Thursday, Derek Medina posted a graphic photo of what he claimed was his wife's body with the following comment:
Im going to prison or death sentence for killing my wife love you guys miss you guys takecare Facebook people you will see me in the news my wife was punching me and I am not going to stand anymore with the abuse so I did what I did I hope u understand me."
The post has yet to be removed.
Medina reportedly told police he had a fight with his wife and then shot her. The couple married in April of last year.
[New York]


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When someone uses screen blanking, I would like to have the two features added:
+ Custom Image (server config can point to optional 800 x 600 image to screen blank each monitor.
+ No Screen Blank Stretch screen blank (each monitor gets the screen blank stretched to monitor's size instead of stretched between all monitors.
+ Disable Local input Without Blanking. Many times a tech just wants to disable "uncooperative" servers that are working against them trying to resolve an issue. I would like to just see an icon popup on the system tray saying "Remote User Temporarly Disabled Your Mouse and Keyboard."


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Industries › Ports/Trade
Fourth-quarter profit rises at Huntington Ingalls Industries
- February 28, 2014
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THE TAKE: Newport News-based shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries reported on Thursday that fourth-quarter diluted earnings per share rose 86 percent to $1.82. Revenues for the quarter totaled $1.94 billion, up 6.3 percent from the same period last year.
Fourth-quarter revenue: $1.94 billion, up from $1.82 billion in the fourth quarter of 2012.
Fourth-quarter diluted earnings per share: $1.82, up 98 cents in Q4 2012..
Fourth-quarter adjusted diluted earnings per share: $1.66 in Q4 2013, compared to $1.30 in Q4 2012.
2013 revenue: $6.82 billion, up from $6.71 billion in 2012.
2013 diluted earnings per share was $5.18, compared to $2.91 in 2012.
2013 adjusted diluted earnings per share: $5.36, up from $3.95 in 2012.
"As HII's three-year anniversary approaches, I am pleased with the operational improvements achieved by our team and the resulting financial performance," Mike Petters, HII's president and CEO, said in a statement. "The last of our underperforming contracts, LHA-6 America, will be delivered in the coming weeks, performance continues to improve at Ingalls, and we are on schedule to meet our 2015 operating margin goal."


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It looks like your browser is out of date.
To use all features of KLM.com safely, we recommend that you update your browser, or that you choose a different one. Continuing with this version may result in parts of the website not being displayed properly, if at all. Also, the security of your personal information is better safeguarded with an updated browser.
While there are long-haul buses linking the major cities in Bahrain, there is little in the way of local public transport. The only way to get around without hiring a car is by taxi; meters should be insisted on, although there are surcharges for night time fares (between 10pm and 6am), and hotel or airport pick-ups. Taxis are easy to find on the main streets, or at taxi stands. Hiring a car is the only other practical way to get around Manama, which is not considered pedestrian-friendly and has no sidewalks.
Electrical current in Bahrain is 230 volts, 50Hz. UK-style three-pin plugs are used.
The official currency is the Bahraini Dinar (BHD). The Bahraini Dinar is linked to the US Dollar at a rate of US$1=BD 0.375. Money can be exchanged at bureaux de change, commercial banks in Manama or at money changers operating in souqs. ATMs are available in larger towns. Credit cards are widely accepted.
The international direct dialling code for Bahrain is +973. There are no city or area codes. Public phone booths were once widely available, some accepting phone cards and some coins, but are slowly being removed due to lack of use. Mobile phone coverage is good. Internet is available at most of the larger hotels in Manama.
Emergencies: 999
Everything about travel documents
Many hotels operate courtesy buses for their guests to and from the airport. There is a bus service to the Muharraq bus terminal approximately once per hour.
Budget, Europcar, Hanco, Hertz, Oscar, National, Avis, Gulf, Sixt, Al Obaisi, and other companies operate from Bahrain Airport.
There are taxis outside the terminal, but they tend to overcharge foreigners. It is better to phone for a metered taxi service. It is about a 15-minute drive to Manama.
Facilities include banks and currency exchange services, restaurants, cafes and bars, gift shops, a post office, communications centre, tourist information and a prayer room. The Bahrain Duty Free shopping complex is internationally acclaimed. Disabled facilities are good.
Short and long-term parking facilities are available in front of the terminal. The cashier counters are available at the exits and they are open 24 hours. No credit cards are allowed, only cash payment. A free shuttle bus service operates between the terminal and the long-term car parks.
Free wifi is available throughout the terminal.


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Are you a community organizer or committee chair? Thousands of townships, municipalities and local organizations are using Fundly to raise money online for things like parks, playgrounds, community centers, shared spaces and more.
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Quotes I Like*
Give Satan an inch & he'll be a ruler.
*Your mileage may vary. Some quotes are puns, or require historical or technical literacy to appreciate. If you miss the humor, please re-read the Internet and then try again.
More About This Website
Dr. George's Science Web is 100% kid-safe, pro-Christian and pro-Free Software. Read more about DGSW here.
Inside the drawer you find a single white candle, about ten centimeters long. Although it apparently has been burned before, it appears in relatively good condition (relative, that is, to the shape this old house is in!). Try as you might, however, you can find no matches here.


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The message from the Chairman
Improving management of administrative flows to focus on core business and productivity. This is the challenge facing most organisations. Through our digitisation expertise, at Spigraph we provide the right solutions.
Spigraph's interest in document capture goes back over fifteen years. We have perfect understanding of how to optimise information flows by integrating them into corporate management systems.
Supported by our partner suppliers - leading scanner manufacturers and software publishers in their respective fields - we have set up a solid organisation to steer through all document capture project phases. Objective: offering the tailored solution most suited to your back office.
For us, a capture project is tackled in all its aspects and its success is above all quantified in terms of user satisfaction and rapid return on investment.
Our strength: our expertise related to the quality of our partner networks.
Technological monitoring, R&D, advice, training and maintenance are all fields which, with the support of manufacturers and publishers, have made Spigraph a major player on European and African document capture markets.
Our partners include several specialised companies with which we pool our talent and resources to be at your side when you need it most.
Daniel CHAUTARD
Chairman and CEO, Spigraph Group