text:
I've stayed in some cheap hotels in my life, but this place was pretty bad! I would have changed hotels, but I had driven over 600 miles and was exhausted. Plus they allow pets. I had called ahead to request a ground floor room, but when I arrived they had put me upstairs. I asked to switch and was put... More
- Also Known As:
- Econo Lodge San Antonio
- San Antonio Econo Lodge
- Official Description (provided by the hotel):
- The Econo Lodge East is located minutes from the AT&T Center and downtown and offers a free continental breakfast, free high speed internet, microwave and refrigerators in all rooms and a clean easily accessible place to stay with friendly staff. ... more less
- Reservation Options:
- TripAdvisor is proud to partner with Expedia, Booking.com, Orbitz, Priceline, Travelocity, AAA Travel Services, Choice Hotels, Cheap Tickets, Venere, Olotels, Asiatravel.com Holdings, Hotels.com and Tingo so you can book your Econo Lodge East reservations with confidence. We help millions of travellers each month to find the perfect hotel for both holiday and business trips, always with the best discounts and special offers.


text:
Stop slacking and register already! GAH! Register! Enjoy the server@ hub.hc.to !
Guest, we have a new map coming Oct 4th! Make sure to check it out, You can read more on the front page or here. Enjoy it!
Hey Guest, It's Herocraft's 3rd birthday! Celebrate with us on the new Herocraft and get one of a kind suffix titles if you support the server! Read on about it here!
Join the event team to help create awesome events, or post an event idea under the event suggestions forum!
General Games
The non-minecraft related games
Page 6 of 14
Thread Display Options
Page 6 of 14

subset: commoncrawl


text:
With holdings of nearly three-quarters of a million items, the Sibley Music Library is recognized as one of the world's preeminent research libraries devoted to all aspects of the study of music. Materials are assigned either to the circulating collections or to the Ruth T. Watanabe Special Collections, which includes rare books, archival collections, the Eastman School of Music Archives, and the Eastman Audio Archive.
The circulating collections include scores, books, journals, microforms, and audio and visual recordings. Some of these formats, such as current periodicals, recordings, and microforms, circulate for use primarily within the Library. Scores and books are loaned for use; the precise loan periods are specified under "Circulation Policies."
The Ruth T. Watanabe Special Collections include scores, books, and journals, as well as manuscripts, sheet music, and various archival collections. Notable items or collections include:


text:
The Power of Pseudo HDR with Photomatix
If you are new to the whole HDR concept I suggest you first read my posts titled HDR Introduction and Pseudo HDR Anyone who heard about Photomatix, knows that it creates HDR images. But in addition to a usual HDRs combined from several exposures, you can also create a nice pseudo HDR images – in short an "HDR looking" image made from a single RAW file. In order to do that you open just that one RAW file in Photomatix, and it "understands" that you want to create a pseudo... more


text:
Womens | Color: Mogano Suede | Style Number: 1416225
Total Number of Reviews
100% say this shoe fits True To Size
100% say this shoe fits True to Width
Review By: Trish New Mexico 2/11/2013
Overall Rating:
true to size true to width
These are absolutely one of the best pair of boots I now own They are very comfortable and can be worn with leggings jeans or skirts. Plus the color is easy to accessorize belts and other accessories with Luv them
To add a review, please click here.
Your Color:
Your Size/Width:
In Stock. Ships out in 2-3 business days.
A luxurious buckled boot in soft, slouched leather
Supershoes.com on Facebook


text:
The other day when I had a problem—to be able 'expand' a sortable list. The problem I had was that I needed to refresh the list (while dragging) to make the list recognize the added elements as sortables; these elements are also droppable so I needed a way to make them droppable too. The fast way to do this is to call refresh—at least to make the list recognize the new elements—this will however make the list flicker. To better illustrate the problem I have created an example here: http://jsfiddle.net/Senth/xegTV/. To expand the 'Drag onto this' you need to hover over it for 800ms.
I searched on the Internet for many hours for an answer (like you always do…) but I couldn't find another post which had the same problem; either I was searching with the wrong keywords, missed something trivial, or people haven't shared their solutions. If I have missed something please post a comment
To the solution, or at least soon, first a proclaim; I would like to say that this solution is probably inefficient when having 1 000–10 000+ elements.
The solution I came up with was to load all the elements beforehand and hide all the children by setting their css property display to none. When expanding, simple just change them to either inline or block (whichever you want). Now all elements can be sorted and are recognized. One problem still exists though; how to make the appeared elements droppable. Although they are set as droppables beforehand their position hasn't been updated when they appear; resulting in that the list thinks you are actually hovering over the element that was below before expanding. When moving the mouse over our under the sortable list the positions would fix themselves (and sometimes during too…); if you have a long list this is surely not an acceptable solution. To always update the position the Sortable plugin needs to be extended, adding a function called updateDroppables(event); this is then called when the out event is called on a droppable element that has been expanded. The reason it is called in the out event instead of in expandCategory($id) is because an event is needed to update the positions, there is probably a better way to update them—where you don't need an event—but I couldn't find one without digging too much into the code.
The Solution: http://jsfiddle.net/Senth/5SFFY/
This solution might not be the best and cleanest, but hopefully someone will have a use for it.


text:
Not logged in
Log in now
Create an account
Subscribe to LWN
Recent Features
LWN.net Weekly Edition for December 5, 2013
Deadline scheduling: coming soon?
LWN.net Weekly Edition for November 27, 2013
ACPI for ARM?
LWN.net Weekly Edition for November 21, 2013
You're assuming that it's all software, and that upgrading your stack to a hypothetical IPv6 that is fully backward compatible with IPv4 would essentially have been free. Neither of those is true. Vendors would simply have offered to sell new, improved revisions of their existing, "legacy", IPv4-only devices -- without adding the more expensive silicon that is aware of the new, longer address matching.
What about IPv6 right here on earth?
Posted Jan 26, 2011 22:18 UTC (Wed) by bojan (subscriber, #14302) [Link]
And that's fine. If they don't want to route new, IPv6, hosts. Ever.
However, people connected to their network would automatically start asking for this routing. Because they would already be on IPv6. Without doing anything. Any new host they wished to access that had a real IPv6 address (i.e. not legacy IPv4) would be out of their reach. This would create a lot of complaints (hey, my friend can see this cool new site and I can't), which would either get rid of idiotic ISPs or force them to upgrade. Without the need to tell customers that they need to do something special to see IPv6 hosts.
Posted Jan 27, 2011 12:01 UTC (Thu) by tialaramex (subscriber, #21167) [Link]
Posted Feb 3, 2011 14:43 UTC (Thu) by farnz (guest, #17727) [Link]
We already have the situation you're discussing - I have today's IPv6 and IPv4, and can get to any cool sites that exist on IPv6 only.
Problem; there are no cool sites that are available on IPv6 and not IPv4. The reason? If I'm available on IPv4, close to 100% of my target market can get to me; if I'm not, only a tiny fraction of a percentage point can get to me. The economics are simply not there; in your hypothetical "IPv4++" world, the idiotic ISP would respond with "you need to do this very complex thing (at least as complex as deploying IPv6 is in today's world) to get access - it's the site's fault for using IPv4++". Net result? Everyone continues to use plain IPv4, ignoring the extended addresses possible in IPv4++, because you haven't solved the chicken and egg problem.
Note also that thanks to buggy systems, it's not safe to dual-stack your hosts by default. There are machines out there which think they have working IPv6 routing, but don't - about 0.1% of Google users last time I looked for the figures. So, real world experiments tell us that even co-existence of two protocols doesn't work properly; this leads to a thought experiment. How exactly does IPv4++ handle the case of two IPv4++ hosts with an IPv4 only segment in the middle, such that you can successfully talk IPv4 but not IPv4++?
Any answer that assumes that IPv4++ can transit the IPv4 segment has failed already - IPv6 can transit over IPv4 segments, yet we still see brokenness. Any answer that implies that an IPv4 only host cannot distinguish IPv4++ traffic from traditional IPv4 traffic has failed already - the most common form of brokenness in the IPv6 world is IPv6 in IPv4 tunnelling, where the IPv4 network deliberately blocks protocol 41, and there would have to be some similar indication that this is IPv4++ traffic.
Copyright © 2013, Eklektix, Inc. Comments and public postings are copyrighted by their creators. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds


text:
'); } -->
. Business Opportunity! Local Downtown Bradenton Bar (Beer & Wine License) available for sale, establ More info |
. This site includes two Entryways, has paved parking. Includes a 400 Sq foot office. Almost an entir More info |
. CLASS B BUILDING IN PRESTINE CONDITION. More info |
. JUST REDUCED 10-29-13- This is a NNN property with minimal landlord responsibilities. This is a sto More info |
. There are currently 14 units in five buildings throughout the complex. The property lies on a large More info |
. Prime single tenant development site on the corner of Lorraine and recently widened State Road 64. More info |
. The property sits at just over one acre at 1. 07 AC+/-. It's a perfect opportunity for a business t More info |
. The front two acres of this four plus acre parcel is zoned GC and is perfect for a retail shopping More info |
. BEING SOLD AS IS WITH RIGHT TO INSPECT. This would make a great place for a day care business. Lots More info |
. Huge Price Drop, Ready to Sell! This beautiful 1920's home has been extensively updated by current More info |


text:
- Stay Connected
- Sign Up for Email Alerts
- Contact Us
- Download Our Apps
- YouTube
Information contained on this page is provided by an independent third-party content provider. WorldNow and this Station make no warranties or representations in connection therewith. If you have any questions or comments about this page please contact email@example.com.
SOURCE UBM Tech
The Best of the Best in Insurance Technology
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 14, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- UBM Tech's Insurance & Technology (insurancetech.com), the leading technology media brand focused on serving insurance industry IT and business leaders, announces the 2013 Elite 8 honorees, a list of the 8 most successful and inspiring IT executives in the insurance industry.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20131014/SF97241LOGO)
This is the fifteenth year editors of Insurance & Technology have compiled this distinguished list of insurance leaders, selected for their ability to combine smarts, experience, vision, creativity and common sense in order to help their teams overcome budget limitations, regulatory restrictions, technological uncertainty and cultural resistance to drive productivity, profitability and growth.
The 2013 Elite 8 includes:
"For 15 years Insurance & Technology has recognized the most successful and inspiring IT executives in the insurance industry with its annual Elite 8 Awards. Profiling the best of the best in insurance technology, Insurance & Technology's Elite 8 Awards have honored an impressive pantheon of executives from all sizes of companies and across all lines of business, while also providing a valuable record of the ways leading-edge technologies and insightful leadership are transforming the insurance business," said Kathy Burger, Insurance & Technology Editorial Director.
Celebrating excellence in insurance technology, Insurance & Technology's new Elite 8 Executive Forum & Awards event, "Leadership, Vision, Results," will take place November 7, 2013, at Trump Soho ® Hotel in New York. This year's Elite 8 honorees, along with past Elite 8 honorees and other senior-level insurance technology decision-makers, will come together for a unique forum on the future dynamics of effective insurance IT organizations: the technologies that are key to success; new disciplines, capabilities and structures that drive consistent, efficient, high-quality performance; and the leadership qualities that teach, inspire and deliver.
For more information or to register for Elite 8 Executive Forum & Awards:
About UBM Tech
UBM Tech is a global media business that brings together the world's technology industry through live events and online properties. Its community-focused media and events provide expertly curated content along with user-generated content and peer-to-peer engagement opportunities through its proprietary, award-winning DeusM community platform. UBM Tech's brands include EE Times, Interop, Black Hat, InformationWeek, Game Developers Conference, CRN, and DesignCon. The company's products include research, education, training, and data services that accelerate decision making for technology buyers. UBM Tech also offers a full range of marketing services based on its content and technology market expertise, including custom events, content marketing solutions, community development and demand generation programs. UBM Tech is a part of UBM (UBM.L), a global provider of media and information services with a market capitalization of more than $2.5 billion.
Contact: |
Monique Luttrell |
Director of Marketing | |
415-947-6958 |
©2012 PR Newswire. All Rights Reserved.
Explore KSLA.com
All content © Copyright 2000 - 2013 WorldNow and KSLA, a Raycom Media Station.
All Rights Reserved. For more information on this site, please read our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. |


text: Gina is a successful restaurateur and best-selling author of "The Neelys' Celebration Cookbook: Down-Home Meals for Every Occasion" and "Down Home with the Neelys: A Southern Family Cookbook". Gina recently brought her delicious southern cuisine to New York City with the opening of Neely's Barbecue Parlor. She currently lives in Memphis with her husband and their two daughters.


text:
Marc Veber
Artist Veber, Marc
Available series in store category "Comic books"
Marc Veber in the
" Marc Veber is a French comic artist. His first series is 'Les Aventures de Boro, reporter photographe', a comic about a young Hungarian photographer during the early years of the Nazi regime. The series is based on the novels by Dan Franck and Jean Vautrin and published..." [ Read more ]


text:
- Offbeat
Plane through: Cessna lands on Houston golf course
HOUSTON (AP) — An area near the 11th hole at a Houston golf course provided a smooth landing spot after a small plane ran out of fuel and glided on to the grass.
The Cessna 170 was expected to be moved from Hermann Park on Tuesday. The unplanned landing of the single-engine plane happened Monday night on a flight from Lafayette, La. - Maine ice shack transformed into 'Shangri-La'
- PETA proposes robotic groundhog for Pa. festival
- Judge: Dance parties a no-no at Jefferson Memorial
- Video: Man playing with chicken on NYC subway
Plane through: Cessna lands on Houston golf course
- NDN Video
- Raw: Obama Lights National Christmas Tree Underwood Gets Mixed Reviews VIDEO: Plane tries to land sideways Swim Daily, Hannah Teter SI Swimsuit Shoot Zuma: 'Beloved Madiba' to Be Buried Dec. 15 Check Out the Hottest Beach Bodies of 2013 Wedding Crashed by Ironman, Batman, Knights, Goons and More Highlights: High Point vs. Georgetown Selena Disses Justin's Video Menurkey, Thanksgivukkah Mark White House Event FSU Quarterback Jameis Winston will Not be charged Ford Unveils New Mustang Kobe Bryant and Lionel Messi in Selfie Showdown Beyoncé Shows Off Her Stunning Bikini Body VIDEO: Deer on ice rescued by hovercraft Kellie Pickler Plays Truth or Dare Stunning Cartier Jewels on Display in Paris TV bidding war for Tim Tebow First Dog bumps toddler at Christmas event Emerson College names communications school after 'Anchorman' Ron Burgundy ... for a limited time
- Special Features
- NRA Waterfront Plans
Waterfront plan praised, criticized
NEWBURYPORT -- Architects, city planners and municipal officials last night made public a proposal to develop two buildings and more parkland on the central waterfront, and publicly expressed reaction from the crowd of over 200 was overwhelmingly su
- New plan for Newburyport waterfront unveiled
- Newburyport Redevelopment Authority: A timeline
- Parcel 8: Urban renewal's only new building
- Third time not the charm for Newburyport waterfront
Waterfront plan praised, criticized
Audio: How can we better prepare for tornadoes?
An NPR broadcast examines the question of how communities can better prepare for tornadoes like the one that struck Moore, Okla. on Monday. The broadcast features commentary from Michael Fitzgerald, who reported a five-part disaster series for the CNHI News Service.
- Photos: Aftermath of massive tornado in Moore
- The Big One: Preparing for mid-America earthquake
Audio: How can we better prepare for tornadoes?


text:
Fresh corn is one of summer's best treats, but it's often overlooked because it's intimidating to prepare, or messy to eat. But get it off the cob, and you've got one of the best ingredients for a seasonal meal–especially on Meatless Monday. Ditch plain old corn on the cob recipes, and try one of our vegetarian recipes; we've got tacos, soups—even pizza—and more to help you find new ways of eating this summer treat.
Check them out:


text:
CYA Job Postings
Click here to submit your employment opportunity to the CYA Job Posting webpage. Job postings are to be emailed in a word document and should include the position start date.
Advantage Boating - Combined Senior Maintenace Role & CANSail 3 & 4 Instructor
Advantage Boating
Start Date: Monday, April 15, 2013
Advantage Boating was established in 1992 as the Ottawa Sailing School. Its founding mission was then, and remains today, "to provide the best in boating education and on-the-water adventure". We offer the highest quality sailing programs; our commitment to excellence has led us to become well respected in the sail training industry.
This unique full-time position combines both maintenance and teaching roles.
Reporting to the Director of the sailing school, the ideal candidate will be at least 18 years old and be familiar with both dinghies and keelboats.
As a CANSail instructor, you will be responsible for providing sailing instruction to groups of adults during evening hours.
As leader for the maintenance role, you will be responsible for keeping a fleet of 22-24 foot keelboats in good repair. This includes preparing boats for launch, rigging them, and hauling the boats (winterizing) at the end of the season.
Primary responsibilities include:
1. Oversee the maintenance of the school's fleet & equipment
- • Manage a maintenance schedule for school boats and equipment, including assisting with launch and haul-out, boat repositioning and related tasks
- • Oversee and manage school equipment to ensure all school equipment meets latest standards of safety
2. Provide sailing instruction to young adults up to CANSail level 4
- • Deliver outstanding on-the-water and shore side training, while meeting the individual needs of students and their progressions through the course material.
- • Work closely with other instructors, and the Sailing Director to ensure level of quality that Advantage Boating has become known for.
- • Effective communication and direction to instill the love of the sport with all participants.
The ideal candidate will have the following qualifications:
- • Minimum 5 years' sailing experience in a variety of boats
- • Minimum 3 years experience as a dinghy instructor teaching youth or/and adults
- • Minimum 3 years experience / familiarization with maintaining boats
Skills & Qualifications
- • CANSail Certified Instructor - certified to teach on dinghies. up to CANSail level 4
- • Standard/Emergency first aid with CPR "C"
- • Current Boat Rescue or equivalent
- • Pleasure Craft Operator's Card
- • Knowledge of basic boat maintenance including being familiar with launching and hauling small keelboats
- • Driver's license to be able to drive company van
- • Some computer skills including use of Microsoft Office Suite considered an asset
- • Racing experience on dinghies/keelboats considered an asset
- • Excellent organizational, team management and communication skills
- • A passion for the sport, and teaching others (adults)
This combined position is a full time/seasonal position beginning April 15, and will culminate mid October, with possibility of extension.
The salary for this position is commensurate with experience and certifications. Also please note, only those being considered for the position will be contacted.
Please forward your application with accompanying cover letter and references to:
Advantage Boating
3rd Floor Britannia Yacht Club
2777 Cassels St.
Ottawa, ON
Canada K2B 6N6
E-Mail us at:


text:
How Firm A Foundation John Rippon composed this beautiful hymn in 1787, to the tune of an early American folk song.
April is National Poetry Month, and Jennifer is Poised Pen-in-Hand for a Challenge! April is National Poetry Month, Jennifer has decided to challenge herself! She plans to write one poem every day for the whole month long. That will result in 30 poems, which will make a lovely collection that we will publish as an ebook for Kindle and Nook. How can you help? Suggest poem topics on Jennifer's Facebook wall. Select (i.e. some but… Read more
Christmas Concert & Party @ Dosey Does w/ Max Cat & John Carney! Guitarist John Carney is visiting from Panama and reuniting his band, Max Cat, for a night of jazz, Latin, and country infused rock at Dosey Does in The Woodlands. Special guest - pianist and vocalist Jennifer Grassman - will be gracing the stage performing traditional carols after a Celtic style. The concert will open at 7:30 sharp with a very talented jazz ensemble… Read more
New WordPress Blog for Jennifer! Now when you click the "Blog" tab in the menu on www.JenniferGrassman.com, you can enjoy our new WordPress format, which will allow you to like, share, and comment on blog posts more easily. Enjoy! PS: You can still access Jennifer's old posts here.
Jennifer Grassman Music Seeks Business Intern Jennifer Grassman is seeking an intern to help her manage her creative career as a recording artist and author. Looking for someone responsible, self motivated, ambitious, and computer savvy. We will help you identify and develop your unique talents, learn how to manage a small business, network with entertainment industry professionals (both locally and internationally), build your resume… Read more
Houston Press Exclusive Premiere: Jennifer Grassman's "Haunting" Is Scary Good The last time we visited the cinemaudio work of Houston's own Jennifer Grassman it was because her and her filmmaker sister Kaitlin had cobbled together the suicidally fantastic music video "Bedroom Door." The work showed off Jennifer's penchant for vintage Americana as well as her angelic, ethereal voice and Kaitlin's stunning knack for atmosphere… Read more
Free MP3 + The Haunting Music Video is Live! ~ A Note from Jennifer ... Dear Friends, After much hard work, my sister Kaitlin has finished production on The Haunting Music Video! And her effort shows (if I do say so myself). The Haunting Music Video is now streaming online, and received a stellar review from The Houston Press. Houston Press Link:… Read more
Back to the Garden: A Joni Mitchell Tribute Concert, June 8th On Friday, June 8, 8PM-10PM, join some of Houston's finest singers and songwriters for an intimate, musical evening celebrating the songs of Joni Mitchell, one of the most legendary songstresses of all time.VENUE: Heights Live! 240 W. 18th Houston, TX 77008 (On the grounds of Heights Presbyterian Church. The entrance is through the red double doors at the rear of the… Read more
Jennifer Grassman in Concert @ Springboard South Music Fest in Houston Jennifer Grassman will be performing alongside her good friend, Michelle Cowan, at Springboard South Music Festival during the Official GoGirls Showcase on Saturday, May 5, 3:30 - 5:30. Arrive early to grab a drink and a seat because Jennifer starts play right smack at 3:30 (in fact, it's probably best to arrive at 3PM).FULL LINE UP: 3:30pm Jennifer… Read more
The Houston Press reviews The Bedroom Door Music Video March 2, 2012 by Jef Withonef -- Jennifer Grassman has a voice like an angel. This is not meant as a compliment. "Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell," someone said. It might've been Shakespeare, or it might have been Kain. The point is that the voice of an angel is an agent of the Word, and though sometimes the Word is Salvation, Love, or Comfort,… Read more


text:
December 8, 2011
Mike Scarborough TigerBait.com
TigerBait.comTV has filmed Karr multiple times this season and here is a look at 2014 defensive lineman Gerald Willis who is one to watch. ...More... To continue reading this article you must be a member. Sign Up Now for a FREE Trial
Already a member? Click here to sign in


text:
Locate a dealer near you!
KVMGQ Pro Series King V™
The regally commanding KVMGQ Pro Series King V features an alder body with a striking quilt maple top, 3-piece through-body maple neck with graphite reinforcement and hand-rubbed oil finish, compound-radius (12"-16") ebony fingerboard with 24 jumbo frets and alumiloid shark fin inlays, white neck and headstock binding, EMG® 81 (bridge) and EMG® 89 with push/pull volume coil tap and 3-way toggle switching, Floyd Rose® bridge, black hardware and Dunlop® strap locks. Available in Transparent Black and Amber Sunburst.


text:
UPDATE: A Research Guide to the Argentine Legal System
By Dr.Gisela Monge Roffarello, Emilse Monge Roffarello,
Dr. Ezequiel Trajtenberg
and Prof. Eng. Julio O. Trajtenberg
(Updated by the initial authors on May/ June 2008)
Update by Gloria Orrego Hoyos
Published November/December 2011
Gloria Orrego Hoyos email@example.com is the Legal Reference Librarian (since 2004) and a Professor of Law and Legal Research (since 2008) at the Universidad de San Andrés in Buenos Aires. Additionally, she serves as a consultant for the Observatorio de Sentencias Judiciales (Judicial Judgments Observatory) at ELA Equipo Latinoamericano de Justicia y Género, an independent non-profit organization which analyzes, through the compilation of the rulings of the higher courts in seven countries (Argentina, Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and México), the local judiciaries level of compliance with rights recognized in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and to spread best practices in the defense and recognition of womens rights.
Gloria Orrego Hoyos firstname.lastname@example.com is a native of Colombia, where she obtained her law degree from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana College of Law in Bogotá, Colombia, and is now living and working in Argentina where she obtained a Master in Constitutional Law and Human Rights from the Universidad de Palermo in Buenos Aires. She has also a librarianship diploma from the Universidad de Ciencias Empresariales y Sociales in Buenos Aires. Ms. Orrego Hoyos is a member of the American Association of Law Librarians, and published significant scholarship.
Dr. Gisela Monge Roffarello is a lawyer in Cordoba, Argentina. Emilse Monge Roffarello is enrolled in the Law and Social Science School, at the University Blas Pascal, Argentina. Dr. Ezequiel Trajtenberg is a lawyer and Magister in Relations and International Negotiations - University of San Andres (UdeSA), Argentina. Professor Engineer Julio Trajtenberg is senior Adviser in computer sciences and digital signature at the I.R.S. of Argentina (AFIP -Administracion Federal de Ingresos Publicos); he had been Adviser in computer sciences at the Justice Department of Argentina.
Table of Contents
Argentinas Form of Government
Contentious-administrative jurisdiction
General Auditing Office of the Nation
Environmental Legal Framework in Argentina
Sources of Primary and Secondary Materials
Legislation, Jurisprudence and Doctrine web sites
The Argentine nation adopts for its democratic government the Representative, Republican and Federal form. It is representative because the country is governed by representatives of the people. It is republican because people elect their representatives through vote, because the country is governed by a tripartite system made up of an Executive Power, a Legislative Power, and a Judicial Power, and because Argentina adopts a written Constitution. Finally, it is federal because the provincial governments keep their self-rule despite responding to a common government (The National government). The nation adopts this form of government as established by the National Constitution, passed on 1853.
This text was modified in 1860 when the province of Buenos Aires is included, since it was not part of the Argentine Confederation in 1953.
Then, in 1949, a constitutional convention replaced the 1853/1860 text for a new one, which was rendered null and void by the provincial government through the April 27, 1956 proclamation that replaced the previous text. The National Convention approved the constitutional reforms on August 22, 1994, which became effective on August 24, 1994.
These reforms refer, fundamentally, to the organic part of the Constitution.
The Argentine Republic comprises 23 provinces and the city of Buenos Aires. The provinces are Buenos Aires, Catamarca, Corrientes, Córdoba, Chaco, Chubut, Entre Ríos, Formosa, Jujuy, La Pampa, La Rioja, Mendoza, Misiones, Neuquén, Río Negro, Salta, San Juan, San Luis, Santa Cruz, Santa Fe, Santiago del Estero, Tucumán, and Tierra del Fuego.
Each province has its own constitution, which must state its administration of justice and municipal autonomy, and the scope and content of its institutional, political, administrative and financial orders.
Each province also elects its own authorities: Governor, Legislators and other provincial officers. They dictate their regional legislation through local institutions and are entitled to enter into international agreements as long as they abide by the national foreign policy and do not affect the Federal government faculties or the National public credit. Likewise, they are allowed to enter into partial treaties supported by the Federal government for the purposes of justice administration, economic interests and public interest works.
Provinces shall not execute partial treaties on political matters, enact commercial, interior or exterior navigation laws, set up provincial customs, mint currency, set up banks with bill issuance power without the Federal government authorization, dictate the Civil, Commercial, Criminal and Mining codes after being approved by the Congress, pass laws related to citizenship and naturalization, bankruptcy, currency forgery or state documents, establish tonnage rights or set up warship, neither shall they appoint or receive foreign agents.
The constitutional legal code established for the Argentine nation, since 1853, the above-mentioned form of government, divided into the executive, legislative and judicial powers.
The Executive power is vested in the President who is in charge of the general administration of the country and the compliance with the National State interests.
The President and Vice President are elected directly through vote in general elections on a single electoral district basis. The Constitutional reform of 1994 introduced the two round system (or second ballot) in which, if the most voted formula achieves 45% of the votes or 40% with an advantage of more than 10% over the second formula, its candidates will be proclaimed President and Vice-President. Otherwise, there must be a second round between the two most voted formulas during the first round, and again, the candidates who obtain the majority of votes will be proclaimed President and Vice-President.
When the two round system was introduced in 2003, Carlos Saúl Menem (winner in the first round) had to step aside since Néstor Kirchner achieved the majority with over 22% of the votes obtained in the first round and was proclaimed President.
The President is the supreme head of the nation, controls the general administration of the country, and is the Commander-in-Chief of all the Armed Forces.
The Cabinet chief, appointed by the President, conducts the general administration of the country and together with the other Ministers endorses and authenticates with his/her signature presidential actions that would not be effective otherwise.
· Official web page of the Presidency
Argentina has fifteen ministries:
· Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship
· Ministry of Economy and Public Finance
· Ministry of Federal Planning, Public Investment and Services
· Ministry of Justice and Human Rights
· Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security
· Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation
· Ministry of Social Development
· Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food
The Argentine Republic Legislative Power is conducted by the National Congress, made up of two chambers: the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.
Deputies are elected by people and represent them.
The number of Deputies depends on the number of inhabitants. Currently, the Chamber of Deputies has 257 members. For election purposes, the country is divided into districts and each one elects its members roughly proportional to their population.
Each province is considered an electoral district and elects its Deputies by proportional representation using the D'Hondt method.
Five more Deputies are added to the number of Deputies elected in order for less populated provinces, which would otherwise be limited to one or two representatives, to have a greater representation.
Deputies are elected for a four-year term, with half of the seats renewed every two years and are eligible for re-election.
This Chamber has exclusive rights as regards levying taxes, sending troops and prosecuting the President of the Republic, State Ministers and members of the Supreme Court before the Argentine Senate.
See the Chamber of Deputies official web page.
It is a provincial representation chamber made up of 72 Senators, 3 for each province and 3 for the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. Senators are elected for a six-year term and can be re-elected indefinitely, with the party with the most votes being awarded two of the province's senate seats and the second-place party receiving the third seat.
The Senate renews one-third of the electoral districts (provinces) every two years. The Senate is presided over by the Vice-President of the Republic, who has the casting vote in the event of ties.
Elections of October 14, 2001 set up the definite mechanism that establishes the National Constitution after the 1994 reform. In fact, since this reform and until the before mentioned election, the constitutional text determined a temporary election system that ended with the term of office of all Senators on December 9, 2001 and established the beginning of a new period with some innovations, including the term of office duration (6 years) and the partial renewal of the Chamber (every 2 years).
It is particularly important how Senators are appointed.
Since the last election, members of the Honorable Senate are designated by popular vote, changing in that way the system that conferred this legal authority to local legislative bodies.
Once the partial renewal of the body was constitutionally determined, this first Senate in its new stage decided that legislators are chosen for two, four and six year periods. In this way, all Senators belonging to the same district would finish their term at the same time.
This is the only way two members can be elected for the majority and one for the first minority.
Finally, it should be stated that Senators may be re-elected indefinitely and that in the same election for a permanent position, a substitute is also chosen.
See the official web page of the Senate.
The Judicial Power of the Nation shall be vested in a Supreme Court and in such lower courts as Congress may constitute in the territory of the Nation (section 108 NC). In no case the President of the Nation shall exercise judicial functions, assume jurisdiction over pending cases, or reopen those already adjudged (section 109 NC).
Until the adoption of the reforms, judges were appointed by the Executive Power with the consent of the Senate. In accordance with the new constitutional text, the Council of Magistracy shall be in charge of the selection of the judges (section 114 NC).
The Council shall be periodically constituted so as to achieve the balance among the representation of the political bodies arising from popular election, of the judges of all instances, and of the lawyers with federal registration. It shall likewise be composed of such other scholars and scientists as indicated by law in number and form.
The Justices of the Supreme Court and the judges of the lower courts of the Nation shall hold their offices during good behavior (section 110 NC).
The judges of the lower courts of the Nation shall be removed by a special jury composed of legislators, judges, and lawyers with federal registration (section 115 NC). In such cases of misconduct or crimes committed in the fulfillment of their duties; or for ordinary crimes (section 53 NC).
The Supreme Court and the lower courts of the nation are empowered to hear and decide all cases arising under the Constitution and the laws of the nation and under the treaties signed with foreign nations.
The Supreme Court exercises its appellate jurisdiction as per regulations and exceptions prescribed by Congress.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Supreme Court of Justice exercises original and exclusive jurisdiction over all cases concerning ambassadors, public ministers and foreign consuls; cases related to admiralty and maritime jurisdiction; matters in which the Nation shall be a party; actions arising between two or more provinces, between one province and the inhabitants of another province, between the inhabitants of different provinces, and between one province or the inhabitants thereof against a foreign state or citizen.
In the Argentine judicial regime, the administration of justice is a concurrent power of the nation and the provinces. Sections 5 and 123 of the National Constitution establish that each province shall enact its own Constitution in accordance with the principles, declarations and guarantees of the National Constitution "ensuring its administration of justice".
They elect their governors, legislators, and other provincial officers, without intervention of the federal government (section 122 NC).
Section 31 of the National Constitution states that the Constitution, the laws of the Nation enacted by Congress in pursuance thereof, and treaties with foreign powers, are the supreme law of the Nation, and the authorities of each province are bound thereby, notwithstanding any provision to the contrary included in the provincial laws or constitutions.
It is the responsibility of each province for the enforcement of ordinary justice within the provincial territory, and also for applying the codes mentioned in section 75, subsection 12º - the Civil, Commercial, Criminal, Mining, Labor and Social Security Codes, depending on the respective jurisdictions for persons or things.
As regards the national justice, section 116 of the National Constitution establishes that The Supreme Court and the lower courts of the Nation are empowered to hear and decide all cases arising under the Constitution and the laws of the Nation, except for matters under provincial jurisdictions. In such cases, according to section 117, the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction.
See the official web page of the Judicial Power of the Nation.
The Civil Courts have jurisdiction over civil law matters.
· Civil code:
Official Version in force at September 23, 2011
· Jurisprudence:
· Doctrine:
Commercial judges have competence in all matters arising under commercial laws.
· Commercial code:
Official Version at September 26, 2011
· Jurisprudence:
· Commercial doctrine:
Contentious-administrative Courts have competence in all matters arising from administrative contracts in connection with Customs General Administration, the AFIP (Federal Administration of Public Revenue), fiscal executions, etc.
· Jurisprudence:
· Doctrine:
The Labor Justice shall have competence over contentious causes in individual conflicts arising from lawsuits related to labor contracts or collective Labor Agreements, and causes between employers and employees in relation with labor contracts, such as dismissals, notice of dismissal, compensation, accidents at work, etc.
· Employment contract law:
Official Version at September 27, 2011: http://www.infojus.gov.ar/index.php?kk_seccion=documento®istro=LEYNAC&docid=LCT%2520C%2520020744%25201976%252005%252013
· Jurisprudence:
· Doctrine:
Criminal Courts have competence over all matters arising under the Criminal Code.
· Criminal Code:
· Jurisprudence:
· Doctrine:
The Common Law has solved the problem of certainty of law in accordance with the stare decisis principle that states the moral obligation of jurisprudence drawn up by the Superior Courts, even when it is not a strict obligation but allows evolution as long as judges, once they move away from said precedents, refer to the inconvenience of its application.
The task of solving the theoretical aspects of a case, at Common Law Courts, is mostly based upon finding the right precedent. The advantage of precedent over the law is its singular decision nature that solves a specific matter and adjusts the underlying principle margin in that decision.
The Supreme Court of the United States has stated that "The stare decisis comprehends an important social policy. It represents the element of legal continuity and has its roots in the psychological need of fulfilling reasonable expectations".
Within the Common Law system, judges have the possibility of empirically examining the results of previous decisions or criteria, and when any inconvenience is shown in particular cases, they may step aside. Besides, the specific nature given to the principle content extracted from a case allows courts to have a wide range of variants to assess different details, and even consider the precedent non-applicable.
In Argentina, codification of law has not allowed jurisprudence to reach the same significance.
Precedents carefully prepared for decades are sometimes made useless in a day by a Congress law that states the opposite, and that legal provision, as long as judges do not believe that it breaches the National Constitution, is considered mandatory.
The tradition of codification and regulation minimized the importance of jurisprudence, consigned to fill in legislative empty spaces.
But even within the restricted scope of jurisprudence, our Supreme Court set up regulations that state the compliance with its judgment.
Lower Courts can step aside the Court doctrine, even when judging similar cases, without placement of constitutional burden by virtue of its criteria autonomy, except when not knowing the judgment of a similar case, breaching the principle that states judicial decisions are mandatory.
However, the withdrawal shall not be arbitrary or groundless since judges only decide in specific processes assigned to them, and since the Supreme Court judgments are not mandatory for similar cases, lower judges must decide consequently. "As a consequence of this doctrine, it will be groundless all the judgments from lower courts that step aside the precedents of Court without providing new arguments which justify changing what the Court already decided, as supreme interpreter of the National Constitution and laws arising thereof."
The Supreme Court doctrine of judgments, also in Argentina, has moral authority that justifies the obligation, for lower courts, to support its judgments when not agreeing with the Supreme Court decisions; but, at the same time, it does not completely ban said disagreement. In this way, an organized growth of jurisprudence is allowed, without turning the Supreme Court into a new legislator, as later occurred when the Chambers faculty of giving plenary judgments to unify jurisprudence was introduced.
The National Constitution establishes the trial by jury in three sections:
It is the intention of the constituent to carry out criminal trials in the Argentine Republic through this mechanism. However, and not knowing why, the doctrine arduously debates about these postulates validity or their common repeal. These questions generate uncertainty since it is difficult to understand how it is possible for a fundamental regulation of a Rule of Law to lose validity just because political powers do not comply with it. Our constituents, since the National Constitution establishment and until its last reform in 1994, have stated, and implicitly confirmed, their intention.
In case the National Congress does not secure the establishment, in the short term, of this institution in the Argentine Republic, it implies open violation and disregard of constitutional regulations.
This trial methodology has recently started to be applied at the provincial level, and the first verdict took place in August, 2005 in a trial by jury. The first trial by popular jury occurred in the Bureau of crime in the city of San Francisco, province of Córdoba, when Victor Fernando Luna was sentenced on charges of "perpetrator and responsible of aggravated murder: death in possession of a weapon". Trial by jury is established to judge certain specific crimes: aggravated murder, kidnapping with extortion, murder with torture, murder with robbery, and sexual harassment crimes.
Trial by jury links:
· http://www.clarin.com/diario/2005/08/22/um/m-1038462.htm
· http://www1.hcdn.gov.ar/dependencias/dip/publicacion/ei13web.pdf
· http://www.lanacion.com.ar/732395-debutaron-en-el-pais-los-juicios-por-jurados
· http://www.espaciosjuridicos.com.ar/datos/AREAS%20TEMATICAS/PENAL/Juicioporjurados.htm
· http://www.pensamientopenal.com.ar/52jurados.pdf
Argentinas Official Institutions Guide
The General Auditing Bureau is the advisory body of Congress with functional autonomy, which controls the Executive Power management of the national civil service as regards its estates and its economic, financial and operative aspects, controls public accounts and analyses the administration of financial interests. Controls but does not co-administer the public area: assesses facts, acts and documents once the organizations to be audited finish their accounting exercises.
The revision and opinion of the Legislative Power about the performance and the general situation of the national civil service are to be based on the reports of the General Auditing Office of the Nation, which shall include comments, conclusions and advice.
The main objective of the General Auditing Office of the Nation is to take part in the approval or rejection of the revenue and investment accounts of public funds.
See also the official web page.
The Ombudsman is an independent body created within the sphere of the National Congress that operates with full autonomy without receiving instructions from any authority. The mission of the Ombudsman is the defense and protection of human rights and other rights, guarantees and interests sheltered under the Constitution and the laws, in the face of deeds, acts or omissions of the administration; as well as the control of public administrative functions. He shall hold office for the term of five years and may only be re-appointed on one occasion. He is appointed and removed by Congress with the vote of two-thirds of the members present of each House.
See also the official web page.
National Institute against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism (INADI)
The INADI is a decentralized organization created by Law No. 24.515 in 1995 and started work in 1997.
Since March 2005, by Presidential Decree No. 184 was placed in the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice, Security and Human Rights.
The actions of INADI are for all those whose rights are affected by being discriminated because of their ethnicity or nationality, political opinion or religious beliefs, gender or sexual identity, having a disability or illness, their age or their physical appearance. Its functions are aimed at ensuring for such persons the same rights and guarantees enjoyed by the whole society, i.e. equal treatment.
also the official web page here .
Office of Domestic Violence
Dependent of the Supreme Court's Office, the office of domestic violence seeks
to temper the effects of judicial dispersion and unify jurisdictional criteria
for recording cases of domestic violence that currently are not specialized.
Additionally seeks for the development and organization of material and human
resources for the production of statistics and analysis of them in order to
assess the true magnitude of the phenomenon.
See also the official web page here .
Legal organization
As established by the National Constitution, Argentina adopts a representative, republican and federal form of government. There are three levels of government: national, provincial and municipal. The distribution of power among them arises from a generic distribution also established in the National Constitution by which provinces keep all the power not granted to the Nation.
The Nation is entitled to:
Federal tax participation regime
The National Constitution established the federal participation of taxes between the Nation, the provinces and the city of Buenos Aires (in relation to services and competences that each of them assume).
The agency in charge for the collection of taxes is the Federal Public Revenue Administration (Administración Federal de Ingresos Públicos) or AFIP.
Types of taxes
The Argentine tax system is mainly organized on the taxes on incomes, property and value added taxes.
Listing of the main taxes at different governmental levels:
Federal government:
Taxes: Income tax, tax on presumed minimum income, tax on personal property, real property transfer tax, tax on financial transactions, value added tax, internal taxes, tax on liquid fuels and natural gas, social security regimens, customs rights and others.
Provincial governments:
Taxes: services compensation rates and specific rights.
The National Government is entitled to sanction the minimum budget for environmental protection without affecting local and provincial jurisdictions.
The National Congress has the faculty of legislating on environmental matters through the civil, commercial, criminal, mining, labor and social security codes it is entitled to sanction. Local courts are in charge of applying said sanctions to things or people under their jurisdictions.
The reform of 1994 establishes that all inhabitants are entitled to the right to a healthy and balanced environment fit for human development in order that productive activities shall meet present needs without endangering those of future generations, and shall have the duty to preserve it.
The Constitution:
The Argentine Republic has signed, among others, the following agreements and treaties:
office in charge of the implementation of such policies is the Secretariat of
Environment and Sustainable Development of the Nation (http://www.ambiente.gov.ar/)
which depends on the Cabinet of Ministers.
Its objectives, programs and projects are the preservation and environmental
protection, implementation of sustainable development, rational use and
conservation of natural resources - renewable and non renewable-aimed at
achieving a healthy, balanced and fit for human development are objectives that
programs and projects (on forests, climate,
pollution, etc.).
The international treaties hierarchy is stated under section 31 and 27 of the National Constitution. The first one refers to the regulations appeal priority establishing that "This Constitution, the laws of the Nation enacted by Congress in pursuance thereof, and treaties with foreign powers, are the supreme law of the Nation..." and then determines that each province are bound thereby, notwithstanding any provision to the contrary included in the provincial laws or constitutions. Section 27, establishes that "The Federal Government is under the obligation to strengthen its relationships of peace and trade with foreign powers, by means of treaties in accordance with the principles of public law laid down by this Constitution". The amendments that arose from the 1994 convention state in the constitutional text an evolution that is also observed in jurisprudence. The priority order of regulations is changed, as well as the current reality of government structures aimed at creating large supranational spaces through integration of nations:
Regulations appeal priority
The Argentine legal pyramid changed with the 1994 reform since it changes the hierarchy of international treaties. This change is reflected in the texts of two subsections of section 75 devoted to the Legislative Power scope. In fact, a first prescription establishes the general principle in this matter when states that "Treaties and concordats have a higher hierarchy than laws".
Special hierarchy reserved for certain treaties on human rights
The constituent has followed a tendency observed in compared constitutional rights aimed at the internationalization of human rights. Section 75, subsection 22 continues with a list of two declarations and nine international conventions, all of them related to human rights. Among others, we find The American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, the American Convention on Human Rights, the International Pact on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, etc. All of them have "Constitutional hierarchy".
These treaties shall only be denounced through a particular procedure. The same subsection states that "They shall only be denounced, in such event, by the National Executive Power after the approval of two-thirds of all the members of each House". Also, the constituent establishes the possibility for other treaties on human rights to acquire the same constitutional level as the ones enumerated. Consequently, it is decided that, in order to "attain constitutional hierarchy", the other treaties and conventions on human rights shall require the vote of two-thirds of all the members of each House, "after their approval by Congress". In this way, in 1997 the Forced Displacement of People Treaty was given constitutional hierarchy and was added to the mentioned list under section 75, subsection 22.
Delegation of competences to supranational organizations through treaties of integration
Section 75, subsection 24 establishes the Congress approval of "treaties of integration which delegate powers and jurisdiction to supranational organizations under reciprocal and equal conditions, and which respect the democratic order and human rights. The rules derived there from have a higher hierarchy than laws". This disposition considers the world evolution as regards integration in large economy spaces. In our particular case, it tries to encourage Mercosur.
The second part of the above-mentioned subsection refers to the approval and denouncement regime of this kind of treaties. Regarding the approval, it distinguishes the treaties signed with Latin American States from the ones signed with other nations. For the first case, approval "shall require the absolute majority of all the members of each House". For the second case, "the National Congress, with the absolute majority of the members present of each House, shall declare the advisability of the approval of the treaty which shall only be approved with the vote of the absolute majority of all the members of each House, one hundred and twenty days after said declaration of advisability".
Beyond the validity of the herein stated casuistry, it is believed that the second type of treaty produces uncertainty over those signed among countries from the first and second areas. The entry of Argentina into NAFTA reflects this particular case since the organization includes countries from both geographical areas.
Finally, it is required for the denouncement of this kind of treaties "the prior approval of the absolute majority of all the members of each House". This is a logical demand since it perfectly complies with the approval system for this kind of international agreements.
Compatibility of the regulations of the organic and the "old" dogmatic parts
1 - The National Constitution and human rights treaties in section 75, subsection 22 and the ones to be added according to the special procedure there under. Regarding this category, it shall be established whether it is about the Constitution itself or they have the same hierarchy but are not included within its sections. It shall be considered, they make up the internal law "in their validity conditions". It means that it shall be taken into account the evolution of the normative in the international sphere.
Moreover, the constituent declares that these conventions "do no repeal any section of the First Part of this Constitution and are to be understood as complementing the rights and guarantees recognized herein".
2 - Treaties and agreements in the first part of section 75, subsection 22, as well as treaties of integration and the regulations arising thereof with the scope jurisprudence establishes for them.
3 - National Legislation
Until now, it has been stated the hierarchy of federal regulations. The reform clarifies the situation of the relation between international treaties - law.
Now it is clear that section 75 arranges section 31 interpretations by deciding a higher appeal level of treaties over laws, establishing at the same time that certain treaties are positioned at the same level of the fundamental law.
4 - The constitutions, international treaties signed by provinces and provincial laws.
The official site web page for treaties: http://tratados.cancilleria.gob.ar/
· http://www.legislaw.com.ar/legis/consti.htm
· http://www.derechos.org/ddhh/cejil/acuerdo.html
· http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?pid=S0718-00122003000100021&script=sci_arttext
· http://www.ciencias.org.ar/user/files/GarciaBelsunce.pdf
· http://www.caei.com.ar/es/programas/di/56.pdf
· http://www.derecho-comparado.org/sentencias/argArancibiaClavel4.htm
The regulations frame concerning the Digital Signature in the Argentine Republic is constituted by Act nr 25506 (B.O. 12/14/2001), Decree nr. 2628/02 (B.O. 12/20/2002), Decree nr.724/06 amending the latter (B.O. 06/13/06) and a number of additional rules that state or modify the scope of application and set the procedures.
Under the argentine law the expressions Digital Signature and Electronic Signature do not have the same meaning. The difference lies in the probative value each of them has. The expression Digital Signature is favored by an "iuris tantum" presumption; that is to say, if a digitally signed document is correctly tested, it is assumed unless otherwise proved, to have been done by the person signing the associate certificate and not have been modified. On the contrary, in the case of the electronic signature, if the holder fails to acknowledge his signature, the one who claims to be the person signing must prove the validity of his signature.
Argentine legislation uses the expression Digital Signature as analogous to Advanced Electronic Signature or Acknowledged Electronic Signature, the name given by the European Community, or Electronic Signature as it is used in other countries such as Brazil and Chile.
This set of regulations constitutes a Digital Signature structure, which has a federal scope and includes:
Application Authority: |
As per Decree nr. 409/2005, the Public Management Office (Subsecretaria de la Gestion Publica) will act as the application authority of the regulations on Digital Signature stated in Act 25506, and as the control licenser body |
Digital Signature Advisory Commitee: |
It works within the
Public Management Office (Subsecretaria de la Gestion Publica) and gives advice on technical matters in relation to the Digital Signature
structure. |
Licenser: |
It is the technical and administrative body entrusted with the granting of licenses to the licensees and the control of these procedures... |
Licensees: |
Any legal entities, Contracts Public Register or State body which may obtain a license issued by the licenser in order to provide certification services, according to the provisions of Act nr. 25506 and its additional rules. |
Register authorities |
Organizations having the responsibility of certifying the identity and other data from the certificates signers. These duties have been delegated on them by the Licensees. |
Audit System: |
It will be settled by the Application Authority so as to assess the reliability and quality of the procedures used by the Licensees. |
This Regulations Frame derogates Decree nr.427/98 which scope of application was specifically for the Public Sector, since it comprises its objectives and range.
News on the Digital Signature
· Justice General Inspection Office. Digital Signature
The Justice General Inspection Office (Inspeccion General de Justicia) ordered a new method for the digitalization of any official documents submitted by overseas companies when complying with the Annual Information Rule. Said documents will be digitized and certified through digital certificates issued by the National Office for Information Technology (Oficina Nacional de Tecnologías de Información).
The Labor and Social Security Ministry approved Resolution nr. 1007/07. In accordance with it, instructions have been given for the implementation of the digital signature and the National Plan for the Electronic Government, at the above-mentioned Ministry as per Act nr. 25506 and Decree nr. 378/05.
· Digital Signature in criminal proceedings. Province of Chubut.
The UNLP Grid Project is being developed by the National University of La Plata through the Advanced Centre for Information Processing (Centro Superior para el Procesamiento de la Información).
· Digital signature in the Government Financial Administration is being implemented
The Treasury Department of the Finance Minister (La Secretaría de Hacienda del Ministerio de Economía y Producción) has determined the digital signature shall be used in the Sistema de Administración Financiera Local Unificado (SLU). This system will support the Financial and Administrative Services rendered to the National Public Administration Offices, making it possible a record of the transactions for the purpose of budget formulation. The system users can apply for admissions, modifications or drops by means of a digital certificate issued by a Certifying Authority from ONTI.
Data Confidentiality - Amendments
January 8th, 2008. Act. 26343 enacted thus amending the Personal Data Confidentiality Act. Under this law, companies bearing credit risk are bound to remove from their database, those persons having fallen into arrears between January lst, 2000 and December 10 th, 2003, provided such debts had been paid at the commencement of said Act enforcement or within 180 days after it. For the purpose of this law, a written agreement from the debtor to pay in instalments or the homologation of an extrajudicial agreement will cause the debt to be paid off.
Termination of Double Severance Pay
September 11th, 2007. By means of Decree 1224, the Executive Power nullified the double severance pay under Act 25561 and its amendments, due to the fact that the unemployment rate informed by the National Institute of Statistics and the Census (Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Censos-INDEC) is less than TEN PER CENT (10%).
Promotion of Development and Production of Modern Biotechnology
Act 26270. Passed on July 25th, 2007. This law provides a variety of actions and procedures to those interested in biotechnological investment, research or development. These actions and procedures granted do not imply tax exemptions and consequently a loss for the Government Administration. On the contrary, they bring about an advantage since new undertakings can be developed.
The aid offered includes: 1) an accelerated amortization of profit tax for capital goods, equipment or any purchase intended for the project; 2) an early return of the V.A.T. on the purchased products; 3) a system of Fiscal Credit Bonds will be granted to the investors for a 50 per cent of the social contributions and labor taxes on all workers involved in the Project, and - what may be even more encouraging - for a 50 per cent of the salaries of the research staff provided they belong to CONICET, a national university or Research Centres connected to these institutions.
This regulation which will be in force for 15 years since its enactment states the meaning of the word modern technology as the technological practice based on rational knowledge and scientific principles from Biology, Biochemistry, Microbiology, Biocybernetics, Molecular Biology and Genetics Engineering, which handles live organisms or its parts with the purpose of either obtaining goods and services or for the betterment of production processes and/or products.
Promotion of electric power generation from renewable sources
Enacted December 27th, 2006. Act 26.190 System of National Promotion of Renewable Sources for the Generation of Electrical Power This law fosters the investment in the electric power generation business that makes use of renewable resources. This promotion will be carried out through a System of National Promotion that will include investments, benefits and sanctions. The main objective is that the alternative sources can reach the 8 per cent of the electric power consumption over a period of 10 years.
Enacted July 15th, 2010. This law modifies the Civil Code concerning to marriage. According with the new law, the marriage will have the same requirements and effects regardless of whether the parties are the same or different sex. This means that same sex couples will be able to adopt children, inherit their partner, etc. The law amended in total 43 articles of the Civil Code.
Law Bills
Exceeding of the speed limit, the higher centre of gravity in these vehicles, and also the wind, make up a mix of critical variables, which cause a high number of fatal accidents, as shown in the national statistics reports.
· The Slave Trade and the Protection of and Assistance to Victims
The Argentine Nation is to fulfil the agreements made with the International Community under Act 25632 and take the necessary measures for the prevention of Slave Trade, for the reinforcement of its criminal persecution and the protection and assistance of victims.
· The Protection and Rearrangement of the National Agricultural Environment
To control the use and treatment of those soils suitable for agricultural and forestation activities since the inadequate exploitation of said soils have already shown, -or may show- signs of degradation caused by the harmful action of human beings.
· Law Against Maltreatment of Animals
Any individual who ill-treats animals will be fined a sum ranging from two (2) to twenty (20) minimum wages, or put into jail for a period of fifteen (15) days and up to one (1) year.
· Special Taxes on Tobacco, Alcoholic Drinks and Stimulants
For the sake of public health, cigarettes either of national or foreign manufacturers, will pay taxes on the consumer price except V.A.T. This is a special one per cent (1 %) tax. The same tax will be imposed on all alcoholic drinks, beer, champagne, fizzy wine, syrups, extracts and concentrates considered as imports, and to be used in the preparation of alcoholic or non-alcoholic drinks.
· Abortion
With the purpose of regulating the Article 86 of the Criminal Code regarding to legal abortion in three limitation circumstances, this bill seeks to end debate on the interpretation of Article 86, putting an end to the debate on the legal abortion in a country with high maternal mortality rate due to illegal abortions and in unhealthy conditions.
The Official Gazette (Boletin Oficial ) Since January 1st , 2011 through the Resolution 70/2010 of the Legal and Technical Secretariat of the Presidency of the Nation, the Official Gazette can be found free (only to the daily edition of the 1st. section its database) at www.boletinoficial.gov.ar
Similarly, the Decree 1431 of 2011, the Argentine Legal Information Service (Sistema Argentino de Información Jurídica) formerly known as SAIJ, now InfoJus) can be found online full text and for free.
Through the InfoJus site are accessible (in Spanish and full text):
- National Laws
- Provincial Laws
- National Decrees
- Provincial Decrees
- National and Provincial Jurisprudence
- Doctrine
- Dictates of the Solicitor of the Treasury
- Information about Argentina and Mercosur
- And Resolutions of the AFIP (tributary agency)
Infoleg is a free site belonging to the Ministry of Economy and one of the most complete in legal information regarding national law, provincial law, Mercosur, jurisprudence, doctrine and standards of public national administration. There you can also find all national codes, civil, commercial, penal, etc.
Centro de Información Judicial is a free site with the news of the Judiciary. You will be able to find the latest information regarding the case law and the work of the courts and judges in all levels.
National Codes
Legal Publishers
The most well known editorial houses of legal publications and codes are:
Another good source is UBP Biblioteca/ / Bases de datos, portales y revistas electrónicas / Temática Derecho -- the University Library.


text:
Archive for category : Your Local News
800+ Students Graduate from Northampton Community College
Northampton Community College held a commencement ceremony on May 23 for more than 800 students who completed associate degrees, specialized diplomas
Obituaries – May 31, 2013
Susan H. Hixson Susan H. Hixson, 66, of East Allen Twp., passed away on Monday, May 27th, 2013 at Hospice
Obituaries May 29, 2013
Robert E. Correll, Jr. Nov. 21, 1928 – May 20, 2013 Robert E. Correll, Jr., 84, of Lower Nazareth Township,
275th Anniversary Book goes to Printer
Everyone is still talking about the parade, people are hoping for another pig roast and the smiley face that was
Grow UR Biz – Shark Weak
If you own a business, I insist you watch Shark Tank on Friday night at 8pm. This amazing show hosts
Nazareth Business Council hosts Business Spotlight in Nazareth!
Nazareth Business Council of The Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber hosts Business Spotlight in Nazareth! The Nazareth Business Council (NBC) hosted
Middle School Evacuated, given the all clear
According to a district wide email from Northampton Area School District earlier today, an underground propane tank at the Vo-tech
The Pennharmonics in Concert
Nazareth,PA: On Tuesday evening, May 7,The Pennharmonics, a16-voice a cappella group from Penn State University, will present a concert at
Andy Weaver throws first pitch at Nazareth – Easton Game
Our buddy Andy Weaver of Nazareth was honored by throwing out the first pitch of the Nazareth – Easton baseball
Ribbon Cutting held at new business in Bath
By: Alice Wanamaker Open for just over two months, The Friendship Tree Thrift store in Bath celebrated their official grand


text:
CORAL GABLES, Fla. -- Mitt Romney, recognizing the damage to his campaign, on Wednesday night backed off his statement from earlier this year that he wouldn't contend for the support of the 47 percent of Americans who don't pay income taxes.
"My campaign is about the 100 percent of America," Romney said in his opening comments at a Univision forum here.
Romney repeated the phrase "the 100 percent" three more times in his initial statement.
It was the furthest the Republican presidential nominee has gone to clean up an issue that has dogged him for three consecutive days. Romney, in remarks that were surreptitiously taped, said at a high-dollar fundraiser in May that the 47 percent of Americans who don't pay income taxes were sure to back President Barack Obama.
"My job is not to worry about those people," he said at the fundraiser, in comments that liberal magazine Mother Jones reported on Monday. "I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."
Taking a question on Wednesday about the controversial remarks from a pair of news anchors speaking in Spanish, the former Massachusetts governor struck a very different tone before a live audience at the University of Miami.
"The last several years, you've seen greater and greater divisiveness in this country," the GOP hopeful said. "We had hoped to come back together. But instead, you've seen us pull apart. And politics has driven us apart in some respects. So my campaign is about the 100 percent of America. And I'm concerned about them. I'm concerned about the fact that over the last four years, life has become harder for Americans."
Romney didn't explicitly reference his now-famous comments about "the 47 percent," but he sought to draw a difference between targeting potential supporters and wanting to help the entire country.
"I know I'm not going to get 100 percent of the vote, and my campaign will focus on those people we think we can bring in to support me," he said. "But this is a campaign about helping people who need help and right now, the people who are poor in this country need help getting out of poverty, the people in the middle class need help because their incomes have gone down every year for the last four years."
Taking questions for about 30 minutes from the Univision anchors and audience members, Romney used more gentle language on other issues as well, attempting to appeal to a crucial bloc of voters he's trailing badly with in key states.
The Republican even embraced the Obama administration's claim that his Massachusetts health care reform plan made him "the grandfather of Obamacare."
"I don't think he meant that as a compliment but I'll take it," Romney said, adding that such a depiction was likely not "helpful" during the GOP primary.
Romney, responding to a question about whether he'd repeal Obama's health care law, went on to tout his signature achievement in Boston with language that has irritated conservatives in the past.
"Every child has insurance, 98 percent of adults have insurance," he said, adding that his preferred approach to health care would give more flexibility to the states.
Pressed on immigration, Romney similarly sought to downplay some of his harsher language from the GOP primary season.
He repeatedly said he would not be in favor of "rounding up" the illegal immigrants currently in the country for mass deportation and sought to soften his use of the phrase "self-deportation" from earlier in the year.
"I believe people make their own choices as to whether they want to go home and that's what I mean by self-deportation," he explained. "People decide if they want to go back to the country of their origin and get in line legally and be able to come to this country."
Romney also said he was interested in pursuing legislation granting legal status to the children of illegal immigrants, twice referencing Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who drafted a bill on the issue earlier this year.
During the primary, Romney said he opposed the DREAM Act, legislation that would let the children of illegal immigrants stay in America. A few months ago, Obama implemented part of the DREAM Act through executive action.
In his concluding remarks, direct to the camera and without questions from the anchors, the GOP nominee lamented the unemployment and school dropout rates of Hispanics.
And asked what his views on gay marriage would be if one of his own children or grandchildren were gay, Romney reiterated his support for traditional marriage but not before emphasizing his desire to see same-sex couples accorded partnership rights, including the right to raise children.
"I love my children and I love my grandchildren and I would of course want them to be happy," Romney said. "My view is this: that individuals should be able to pursue a relationship of love and respect and raise a family as they would choose."
The audience on campus was filled with Romney supporters and they applauded many of the nominee's answers and audibly grumbled when the two interviewers pressed the Republican.
Romney seemed to be relaxed despite the aggressive questioning and cracked a joke about how he might be better off if he were Latino.
"I think for political purposes that might have helped me here at the University of Miami tonight," Romney said when he was asked by the moderators about his father's childhood in Mexico.
Later Wednesday night, rallying a heavily Latino crowd in Miami, Romney called the GOP "the natural home for Hispanic-Americans," lamented the number of Hispanics who have fallen into poverty under Obama and praised Cuban dissidents.
Taking the stage to the strains of Neil Diamond's "Coming to America" and departing to a rendition of Guantanamera, Romney was introduced by his Spanish-speaking son, Craig, and stood in front of a large banner that read: "Juntos con Romney."
Romney didn't repeat his comments about "the 100 percent of America" to a Republican crowd of about 1,000 people but did offer an assurance before making his case for why he'd be a better president than the incumbent.
"The president cares about the people of America; I care about the people of America," Romney said.
As he has since a 1998 video of Obama citing support for "redistribution" of wealth appeared Tuesday on the Drudge Report, Romney also criticized the president for what the Republican claimed was a desire to transfer wealth from one segment of society to another.
But in an audience full of immigrants, the wealthy Romney also recalled that his own father's family had needed government assistance when they fled revolution in Mexico to return to the United States.
"The government helped his family be able to get on their feet again," Romney said, adding to booming applause: "That's the way America works: We have big hearts, we care for people who have needs, we help lift them up but then we don't make it a permanent lifestyle."
Link to the story
Barrington Broadcasting is a member of the Politico Network.


text:
ELS Language Center at Hawai'i Pacific University
Hawai'i Pacific University (HPU) is excited to be welcoming ELS Language Centers (ELS) onto our campus this summer. Since June 2,2008 ELS, the international leader in academic English-language preparation, is providing intensive English training, semi-intensive English training and their American Explorer program on HPU's downtown Honolulu campus.
ELS Language Centers operates more than 45 intensive English language centers throughout the U.S., most of which are located on college campuses. ELS offers Intensive (30 lessons per week), Semi Intensive (20 lessons per week), and American Explorer (15 lessons per week) programs organized over 4-week sessions. Four weeks are required to complete each level in the ELS 12-level curriculum. ELS's 12-level program ranges from absolute beginner to the highly advanced level needed for university entry.
HPU will accept a certificate of completion of level 112 of the ELS intensive program in place of our TOEFL requirement, and will offer "conditional letters of admission" for all students who meet HPU's academic requirements but have not yet satisfied our minimum English requirement.
ELS students are integrated into HPU's student life experience, providing students the opportunity to make friends with American and other international students from the moment you arrive, so that by the time you are ready to matriculate into full-time study at HPU, you will be fully oriented and prepared for your HPU education.
Students not meeting the University's English requirements will need to apply to both, the ELS Center and HPU.


text:
Pie Crust
1¼ cup all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
cup shortening
4-5 tablespoons water
1 cup white corn syrup
1 cup brown sugar
cup melted butter
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
3 eggs
1 cup whole pecans
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
For the crust: Stir together flour and salt. Using pastry blender or two forks, cut in butter and shortening until pieces are pea-size. Spray surface of the flour lightly with ice water and gently toss with a fork. Push moistened dough to side of bowl. Repeat moistening dough, using small amounts of water at a time, until all dough is moistened. Form dough into ball and place in large plastic bag. Press ball into a disc and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Heat oven to 400 degrees. On floured surface, use hands to slightly flatten dough. Roll dough from center to edges into a 12-inch circle. To transfer pastry, wrap around rolling pin. Unroll pastry into a 9-inch pie plate. Trim edges to ½ inch beyond edge of pie plate. Tuck edges under and pinch to make decorative edge. Poke holes in dough and place in refrigerator for 15 minutes. Place parchment paper on top of dough and fill with dry beans. Press beans into edges of dough and bake for 10 minutes. Remove parchment and beans and set aside. Decrease oven setting to 350 degrees.
For the filling: Beat corn syrup, brown sugar, melted butter, vanilla and flour together until blended.
In a small bowl, whisk eggs; add to mixture and mix well. Stir in chocolate chips.
Cover bottom of pie crust with a layer of pecans and pour filling into crust. Sprinkle remaining pecans on top. Place pie on cookie sheet and bake 35 minutes. Let cool. Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream if desired.
Serves eight to 12.
Pie crust recipe from Jacqui Sharpe


text:
We are witnessing the end of a remarkable and confounding era for stocks, best described by the "quality conundrum" investors faced for much of the last two years. During that time, the combined outperformance of low-quality stocks alongside the underperformance of high-quality stocks, was unprecedented in the last 30 years.
Now, we are embarking on an era where high-quality stocks will likely significantly outperform low-quality stocks, resolving this conundrum. Regardless of how you manage money for your clients, understanding this impending regime change will be critical to delivering superior performance.
The resolution of the quality conundrum will proceed independent of the overall market's direction. This is important because the third, and perhaps final, painful decline of the current secular bear market remains ahead. Against that backdrop the renewed outperformance of high-quality stocks may begin as a flight to safety, but can continue as the seedlings of a new secular bull market, eventually driving market indexes higher. Attractive absolute valuations of many high-quality companies – those trading at single-digit P/E and cash-flow multiples, around tangible book value, and with respectable 3-6% dividend yields – will be the foundation for those eventual gains.
By reviewing the nature and magnitude of the quality conundrum investors have faced of late, we can begin to understand how it will resolve and how to take advantage of the looming shift.
A conundrum among many
The market has a way of frustrating even the most patient investors. Value investors who correctly identified the expensive valuations of large-cap equities in the late 1990s spent several years watching those overvalued markets become even more so. Investors who correctly identified the nominal lows in stock prices in 1974 had to wait another seven years for their investments to begin compounding at meaningful real rates of return. In November 1979, investors who watched gold appreciate over 1,100% in less than 10 years – and were sure that, at $400/oz, its pricing was unmistakably speculative – must have been shocked to see prices double once more to over $850/oz over the course of the next few months. As the eminently quotable John Maynard Keynes noted, the market can stay irrational longer than most investors can stay solvent. This, no doubt, is a lesson learned and relearned throughout history.
Fortunately, for those investors who aim to stay solvent and generate a meaningful return along the way, the occasional irrationality of market prices has a counter-force – mean reversion. This phenomenon is driven by valuation, which as James Montier points out, is the closest thing we have to a law of gravity in finance. . In the Seven Immutable Laws of Investing, he identifies valuation as the primary determinant of long-term returns, and countless academic studies back up that assertion.
Those focused on valuations were pleased to see stocks trading around 700 on the S&P 500 in March of 2009. At a normalized P/E of 13, the market was priced to deliver decent returns for the foreseeable future, approximately8-10% annualized. Investors of nearly all types, in nearly every risky asset class, saw tremendous value. Only those paralyzed by fear or a lack of liquid capital were unable to benefit from the cheapest market we had seen since the mid 1980s.
The joy of inexpensive markets faded rather quickly, however, as the S&P 500 rallied more than 40% over the subsequent six months and went on to appreciate by more than 75% from its March 2009 low by the end of 2010. In essence, the promise of 5-10 years of 8-10% annualized returns was compressed into just a handful of quarters.
Skeptics have observed that more than just fundamentals have been driving stock prices over the last few years. Whether it was crisis-induced fiscal and monetary policy, rampant global liquidity from expanding central bank balance sheets, or greed's influence on "animal spirits" – something just didn't feel right about the nature of the stock market's rally from the March 2009 lows.
The Quality Conundrum and the Dash for Trash
During the market rout of late 2008 and early 2009, the market punished the stocks of the weakest companies the most. This made sense. We were not only in a recession, which meant declining revenues, but many companies had taken on a tremendous amount of debt over the previous 5-10 years and were vulnerable as a result. As Russell Napier of CLSA reminded us at the CFA annual conference, "equities are the fine sliver of hope between assets and liabilities." The prospect for increased bankruptcy risk rightly drove prices of the stocks with the most financial and operating leverage down the most. High-quality stocks were outperforming their lower-quality brethren.
Once it became clear, however, that the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Government would be the lender of last resort, committed to a policy of extend-and-pretend to minimize the near-term pain of failed businesses, the dash for trash was on.
In 2010, Brian Smith, CFA, of Atlanta Capital Management, published The Third Dimension: An Investor's Guide to Understanding the Impact of "Quality" on Portfolio Performance. The article makes a compelling case for the long-term, risk-adjusted return advantage of high-quality stocks, which Smith defined as those rated B+ or better by Standard and Poor's.
Unfortunately, similar to the excess returns that can be found with value stocks, the relative returns on these investments can be choppy – there can be long periods when low-quality stocks outperform. Witness the chart below, which shows the rolling 12-month returns for high- and low-quality stocks (in excess of the Russell 3000 broad stock index) from 1980 to 2009. As noted above, during 2008, high-quality stocks delivered over 4% excess returns versus the Russell 3000, while the lowest-quality stocks offered an excess loss of over -2%.
The outperformance of high-quality stocks, however, was short-lived. In 2009, the lowest-quality stocks outperformed the broad market by more than 15%, the largest margin in at least the last 30 years.
But that doesn't even tell the whole story. Over the same period, the highest-quality stocks underperformed the broad market by nearly 9%, also among the largest such discrepancies in over 30 years. By the end of 2009, the spread between the excess returns of the highest-quality stocks and the lowest over the preceding 12 months, over -24%, was the most extreme it has been over the last 30 years, on par with the spread that existed when the market peaked in early 2000.
The Law of Gravity At Work
The extreme divergence between the returns of high-quality and low-quality stocks threw the relative valuations of the two groups out of whack. Normally, high-quality stocks get premium valuations relative to their low quality-counterparts. This makes both intuitive and theoretical sense, since high-quality stocks tend to have higher returns-on-equity and more stable earnings. As Brian Smith of Atlanta Capital showed, however, at the end of 2009 high-quality stocks actually traded at a 15% discount to low-quality stocks on current earnings and sported a dividend yield more than 60% higher.
The anomalous performance moderated some in 2010, but investors who focused on taking advantage of the mismatch continued to be frustrated. High-quality stocks lost over 4%, and low-quality stocks gained more than 6% in excess of the broad market. The low-quality skew of the market was particularly evident in the rally sparked by the second round of Quantitative Easing in the fourth quarter of 2010.
So far in 2011, we've seen a clarifying of the quality conundrum. Much in the same way the markets for risky assets have broadly reassessed the sustainability of stimulus-driven returns, the outperformance of low-quality stocks has reversed course. This reversal has been confirmed by a commensurate positive excess return to high-quality stocks. In the 12 months ending October 31st, high-quality stocks have generated nearly 1% excess returns, while low-quality stocks have lost over 2%, for a spread of over 3%. This trend likely grew stronger in November.
Agreeing to Agree. And Disagree.
It is difficult to say what exactly drives returns to high- or low-quality stocks over various time periods. Certainly valuation is important. At the peak of the market in 2000, larger, high-quality, "blue-chip" stocks carried excessive premium valuations – just as the "Nifty Fifty" did in the late 1960s. The laws of valuation ensured poor subsequent returns. What we label quality is also subject to error – many large-capitalization investment banks, commercial banks, insurance companies, and the like have all been inappropriately highly rated by S&P recently.
We can also measure quality in different ways. An analysis of factor returns, for example, shows that stocks that rank highly on certain quality factors, like earnings stability, inventory turnover, debt/assets, ROE and the like have generated meaningful long-term excess returns, though in varying amounts for different sectors.
Furthermore, it is difficult to generalize about the propensity for high- or low-quality stocks to outperform in up- or down-market environments, which gives market bulls and bears something on which to agree. During the secular bull market of the 1980s and 1990s, high-quality outperformance was the norm, with low-quality surges only appearing briefly, typically during speculative periods preceding the short corrections of the era. In contrast, during the secular bear market of the last 12 years or so, high-quality stocks have delivered excess returns only during market declines. Perhaps the sustainable and ongoing outperformance of high-quality stocks is a necessary marker of durable broad market gains.
This gives the long high-quality/ short low-quality trade an unusual and extraordinarily valuable distinction: It can generate meaningful returns regardless of whether one expects a cyclical broad market decline or whether one expects that we are in the early stages of a multi-year bull market. As long as relative valuations for high-quality stocks remain attractive, the relative returns can be robust. Indeed, in GMO's monthly forecast of 7-year asset class returns, U.S. high-quality stocks are priced to deliver 5.4% annualized real returns, which far exceeds the 1.8% forecast for the U.S. large-cap space and -0.4% forecast for the U.S. small-cap class.
At Sitka Pacific, we currently favor global high-quality stocks with inexpensive valuations in the equity portion of our Absolute Return strategy, while hedging that exposure with positions that move against various broad market indexes. In our long/short equity strategy, Hedged Growth, we are further able to take advantage of expensive, low-quality stocks on the short side – leading to a more direct manifestation of this theme and an opportunity to generate meaningful returns in a variety of market environments.
Bringing It All Home
Understanding the returns to high- versus low-quality stocks is as important today as understanding the relationship between growth and value stocks. Whether you are picking stocks or evaluating outside managers, it is essential to understand the drivers of future returns. The quality conundrum has created tremendous opportunity, and some investors will capture these returns better than others. A flexible long/short approach, emphasizing high-quality stocks with low valuations, will generate meaningful positive returns – in a world in which such returns will continue to be hard to come by.


text:
Two paramedics with the Dougherty County EMS were honored at Mondays Dougherty County Commission meeting
ALBANY, GA -- All the evidence that remains is broken windshield glass, metal and part of a side mirror from a small car. However, the memory of the crash that happened here is still fresh on the mind.
"And Elizabeth was driving and I was typing data into the computer and I heard her say 'what is he doing?'," said Paramedic Jeff Rambo.
"We were in the left hand lane, he was in the right hand lane on the one way and he just turned left in front of us and I couldn't get out of the way," said Paramedic Elizabeth Posey.
The two were traveling south on Madison Street September 13 when they struck the Honda Accord.
"We hit his rear end and then went into the driver side door," said Rambo.
The alley way between Whitney and Mercer was where the vehicle tried to turn into. Paramedics say they just don't know what was going through the mind of that driver.
"I don't know if he saw us or not, if he did, he didn't stop," said Posey.
But it's for what happened next that these two are being honored.
"Like always, they put the their patient ahead of themselves and everything else," says EMS Director, Bobby Tripp.
"And then after the impact she looked at me and I looked at her and we kind of said at the same time 'are you alright?' and then we saw him come out of the car and we went over there and started working with him," said Rambo.
Before a back-up ambulance arrived, Rambo and Posey had already treated the driver of the Honda. And although Rambo has been named paramedic of the year for his actions, he says it was just another day.
"I think we both appreciate that but it's just what we do every day that we work. That's our job is to take care of people," added Rambo.
The driver of the Honda was charged with improper lane change and driving with a suspended license.
Related Links


text:
current opportunities
Join the hundreds of volunteers who help us with a range of different tasks - from fundraising and awareness raising, to office admin and activities for our residents.
volunteer groups
Find out more about the various volunteer groups we have established to tailor for people at different stages of their lives and careers.
employee volunteering
We are continuously creating opportunities for corporate volunteering teams across the country. Our beneficiaries have gained from various projects at our care centres and from employee fundraising.
stay in touch
Make sure you register to keep up to date with what's happening at BEN and to make sure you stay in touch with your fellow volunteers.
Check out BEN new Volunteer's Newletter and keep in touch with what's happening in the world of volunteering!


text: Alaska Canopy Adventures provided an wonderful experience! This was my first time ever doing a zipline and I will most certainly go again. This was the only day of my vacation in Alaska that rained but I think that only made the experience that much more enjoyable. Met with the guide in downtown and she took the group down to... More