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Hotel Booking by Templatic
Kedokato | Jun 11, 2012 | Comments 0
Our plugin for WordPress now allows you to add a small hotel booking widget in the sidebar of your website. The booking widget lets your guests search and book straight away, and it can be displayed on as many pages as you like. The actual booking form will open in a new window/tab when a search is made through the widget.With the plugin you can also display the full-sized booking form on any page, through a simple shortcode.Read more and download our WordPress plugin here: hotel booking widget for WordPress
If you are looking for a wordpress with great features like online bookings, online payments, manage orders, the HotelBooking wordpress theme is a great choice. Designed by WordPress Themes Club Templatic, HotelBooking a wordpress theme for the website related to tourism, restaurants and hotels. The theme will help you create a beautiful website Hotel beside the great features for the Hotel business owners.
Hotel Booking WordPress Theme Features
- Out of the box – Auto Install
- Strategic homepage design
- Manage Bookings Online
- Homepage Slider
- Powerful back-end for booking setup
- Add new Custom Fields
- Inbuilt Payment Gateway
- News/services Blog
- Design Settings
- Integrated Short-codes
- Five detailed color schemes
- Excellent Support
- Theme Guide & Tutorials
- PSD File Included with multiple use license
- Drop Down menu
- Gravatar Support & Threaded Comments
- Built-in Ad Monetization
- Integrated 30 short-codes
- Built in 8 Page Templates
- Built in SEO options
- Widget Ready with custom widgets
- Valid, Cross browser compatible
Out of the box – Auto Install
Confused on how to get started? Our 1-click auto-install feature helps you out. Once you activate this theme, you will have the option to populate all of the required sample data with a click of a button. You don't have to setup every section of the site step by step.
Strategic homepage design
To give you the best possible results, the homepage of this theme has been carefully designed and coded, without compromising on customizability and flexibility. The custom dynamic widgets add more to the overall appeal of your site.
Manage Bookings Online
The Hotel Booking theme is equipped with a complete booking module, using which, your visitors (and potential customers) can book rooms and other services and you, as an Admin can accept/reject and manage requests.
Homepage Slider
This theme includes a cool slider on the homepage. It is completely widgetized so you can configure it and remove it easily, just like any other widget.
Powerful back-end for booking setup
The theme's powerful and easy to use back-end helps the administrator to add services, availability, closing hours, manual bookings, and much more. The booking module is built specifically for hotel businesses. It is intuitive and easily manageable.
Add new Custom Fields
The inbuilt interface helps you easily add new custom fields for the booking form. We know the requirements differ and hence the new custom fields. Admin can easily add, edit or remove the custom fields like select box, check box, radio button, date picker, etc.
Inbuilt Payment Gateway
For admins to accept payments, there are seven integrated payment gateways within this theme. You can set the payment-related options like activating, deactivating and configuring payment gateways in the 'Payment Options' screen.
News/services Blog
No, we didn't forget the regular blog section. You will have a full fledged blog on your site, and its too easy to setup. Provide any news and announcements, list out your services or simply get personal with your visitors.
Design Settings
With our advanced design settings, you can change font color, link color, body background color, and much more, without even touching the code
Integrated Short-codes
There are 30 handy short-codes to save your time and effort. The beauty of short-codes is that they can be used anywhere. In order to use them, just type in a particular 'code' and voila, your job is done
Standard pricing of the Hotel Booking theme from Templatic is as follows :
Hotel Booking Theme ( Standard version) : $65 (single site license)
Hotel Booking Theme ( Developer version) : $99 (single site license)
Preview & Related Themes - Purchase Themes
Filed Under: Best WordPress Themes • Hotel Themes • Premium wordpress themes • Professional Themes • Travel Themes • wordpress • WordPress Design • Wordpress themes • Wordpress Tutorial • Wp Templates


text: If you are in Thailand and also a regular web surfer , you would should know that there are several TEKKEN 4 compettition happening within this month. Gamefreaks will have one on the 19th and then SONY's one will be held on the 23rd. Don't you ever wonder why there have never been any VF competition in Thailand ? Maybe VF is not a good game , no absolutely not , or maybe we are not good enoug to compete each other , no I don't think so. So why not ? I would like to know what you guys think. Oh , just for a note I will enter both competitions just to see how far I can go.I just started playing TEKKEN 4 today !

subset: commoncrawl


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Black Wolf Lodging
Vacation homes in Twin Lakes and Breckenridge, Colorado
now available for your family reunion, girlfriend getaway or corporate retreat
Mountain Magic
6288 CR 10 , Twin Lakes, Colorado
2 bedroom + futon, 2 bath |
Guest Reviews
Contact Info
Twin Lakes Homes
Make Reservations
Check Availability
Local Links
About Twin Lakes
Million dollar views... and a walk to the lake
Mountian Magic has decks all across the front of the home to enjoy the unobstructed view of the lakes and mountains.
Great Room with comfy seating to watch the sunrises and sunsets.
16' by 12' kitchen provides room for the gourmet chef,
or a group of friends to help you cook
Great Room with
wide open floor plan provides views from every angle in the house
The master bedroom with king bed has an elevated ceiling for a true spacious feeling. Lie in bed at night and watch the stars twinkling in the sky.
Master Bath
Feel like you're showering outside in the privacy here!
Guests upstairs will not feel crowded in this spacious bedroom
with queen bed and views where elk roam and a book exchange.
Loft withfuton that makes unto a double bed for extra folks.
TV with DVD player and movies. Games for quiet nights.
Shared Private Paved Drive, 2 car pad. Plenty of other parking
DVD player, TV, board games, book exchange, movies
Washer, Dryer, sheets and towels provided, Kitchen has dishes, silverware, pots & pans, deck chairs, BBQ
2018 Rates:$250/night (+ $150 cleaning if less than 3 days), $1500/week
Pets Allowed, (must be kenneled when guests are absent) see polices
No smoking, vaping or electronic cigerettes inside or on the property
Leadville 100 requires 5 night minimum
with special payments
This property is licensed though Lake County Land Use #2018-43


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Deal is Signed!
We have BIG news!
We have officially signed a book deal with our new author Korby Lenker! We are publishing his incredible compilation of short stories, scheduled to release in December 2015-stay tuned for more details!
Here is a little Bio on Korby himself:
Korby Lenker is a sneaky-good songwriter. And singer. And multi-instrumentalist.
An abbreviated list of Lenker's achievements so far includes: a significant amount of airplay on the legendary Seattle indie rock station KEXP; a BBC 2 interview with Bob Harris, which is only about the highest honor a rootsy singer-songwriter touring the U.K. can get; opening slots for acts ranging from Willie Nelson to Ray LaMontagne, Nickel Creek, Keith Urban, Susan Tedeschi and Tristan Prettyman; a successful run with one of the hottest young West Coast bluegrass bands of the aughts; and wins in the Merlefest folk songwriting contest as well as the Kerrville Folk Festival's elite New Folk songwriting competition.
Lenker's composition "My Little Life" brought him the Kerrville honors this year. It doesn't seem possible that one song could work so well in such disparate worlds, but it also proved its powers as a galvanizing piece of indie-pop, drawing a small army of likeminded, rising Nashville artists and personalities-Jeremy Lister and Katie Herzig to name two-to make lip-syncing, ukulele-strumming cameos in Lenker's music video.
Back in high school, Lenker had a cover band that enabled him to try on various alt-rock identities. "We covered 'Under the Bridge,' by Red Hot Chili Peppers," he says, "and I didn't know this at the time, but I listened to it recently and I'm like, 'Whoa, that's Korby trying to sing like Anthony Keidis. And this is Korby trying to sing like Trent Reznor.'"
After that, he got really into transcribing Trey Anastasio guitar solos as part of his music theory studies at Western Washington University. He also spent a semester in West Virginia with only his Martin D-18 acoustic guitar for company.
Here's a bit of insight into the spontaneous spirit that makes Lenker's music so interesting: He picked up a bargain bin copy of the journalistic snake handling memoir Salvation on Sand Mountain, and, with that alone to go on, decided to drive until he found one of the mountain churches mentioned in the book.
Lenker got new perspective, and a song about a snake-handling preacher, from the experience. "I ended up going home with one of the families," he says. "We rode home with the snake in the box in the backseat. And I got to be friends with this kid who was my age-I was 23 at the time, and he was 23. We couldn't have had more different backgrounds. He had an 8th grade education. But we somehow also had a lot in common. We ended up trading letters back and forth for years."
Lenker returned to the Pacific Northwest inspired by his Appalachian adventures and fully immersed himself in the region's bluegrass scene, forming a band called The Barbed Wire Cutters that proved to be an immediate hit in those parts. And he found ways to apply his pop-honed sensibilities to that tradition.
All this time, Lenker was also making solo albums, and that became his primary focus with the folk-leaning Bellingham, which went over wonderfully in the U.K. and landed him on Bob Harris's BBC Radio 4 show. After a move to Seattle, he got the urge to plug in again, hooked up with Candlebox drummer Scott Mercado and made a nimble modern rock record called King of Hearts that got lots of spins on KEXP and a 4 star review in UK mainstay MOJO magazine.
Toward the end of the last decade, Lenker followed his muse down to his present home of Nashville where he's not only continued to hone his own unique artistic voice, but launched a stripped-down series of performance videos dubbed Wigby, spotlighting kindred musical spirits he's found.
Deep down, Lenker is drawn both to the sort of unadorned expression the discerning folkie crowd treasures and to the sort of playful pop embellishment and electronic textures that may land one of his tracks in a primetime T.V. show or film any day now.
And there's nothing at all wrong with having it both ways musically when it comes this naturally. "I can't abandon either one of them," Lenker says, "because they're both so me. One of my favorite musicians in the world, bassist and composer Edgar Meyer once said in an interview 'The boundaries of music have been and always should be limitless.' I couldn't agree more."


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Major Lafayette Woods, Jr.
Operation Commander/Public Information Officer
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
SHERIFF ISSUES FINAL WARNING TO DEADBEATS DELINQUENT IN CHILD SUPPORT: Jefferson County, Arkansas – May 7, 2014 – Jefferson County Sheriff's Office is issuing a final warning to deadbeats who have defaulted on their child support payment obligations. One of the many special operations conducted by the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office is "Operation Mother's Day", an operation initiated by Sheriff Gerald Robinson in 2007 to target "deadbeat parents" subject to arrest for contempt of court due to failure to pay child support.
"Complaints from single mothers regarding little to none financial support of their children from deadbeat dads has minimized since the launch of this operation. However, non-support from deadbeat dads continues to be a problem for many single mothers struggling to make ends meet. Although deputies enforce the orders of the court by serving active warrants for child support and others alike, a more concentrated effort is done through "Operation Mother's Day" to hold defendants accountable for child support payments. Parents have a moral and legal obligation to make regular child support payments. By collecting child support, we are ensuring children in Jefferson County have the resources they need to grow healthy and strong," Sheriff Gerald Robinson said.
Violators who are arrested face potential jail time and cash bonds posted by those arrested are paid to the custodial parents and children who are owed back child support. To avoid arrest and jail, those who have fallen behind or defaulted on their child support payments, but do not have warrants for their arrest should contact the Office of Child Support Enforcement at (870) 534-5271 to arrange payments. Parents with child support warrants and remain non-compliant through Sunday, May 11, 2014 can surrender themselves to the W.C. "Dub" Brassell Adult Detention Center or risk being arrested at a later date.


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Closure to "Wave Forces on Vertical Circular Cylinder by Subrata K. Chakrabarti, William A. Tam and Allan L. Wolbert"
See related content
Serial Information: Journal of the Waterway, Port, Coastal and Ocean Division, 1977, Vol. 103, Issue 4, Pg. 567-567
Document Type: Discussion & Closure
Services: Buy this book/Buy this article
Return to search


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|Tyson Gray receives an award
Bursaries and major awards
Norske Skog Bursary for students proceeding to college education in 2013: Caitlin Carnes, Jessica Hall, Alice Mutton, Mitchell Rice.
Claremont College Bursary for a student proceeding to Claremont College in 2013: Travis Wesley
Magra CWA Bursary for a student proceeding to a Vocational Education and Training Course: Emma Mutton
Sylvia & Charles Viertel Charitable Foundation Springboard to Higher Education Bursary: Jaycob Martin
Caltex Grade 10 Best All Rounder Medal: Tyson Gray
Dux of New Norfolk High School: Sophie Briggs
New Norfolk High School Medal for the most outstanding student: Sophie Briggs and Tara Maddox
Subject Achievement Awards
Phil Lake Award for Mathematics: Jaycob Martin
NNHS English Award: Sophie Briggs
Damian Bester Award for Society and History: Caitlin Carnes and Tyson Gray
Tim Morris MHA Award for Science: Jaycob Martin
NNHS Health and Wellbeing Award: Tyson Gray
NNHS Vocational & Applied Learning Award - Personal Futures: Ella Williams
NNHS Vocational & Applied Learning Award - Foods: Caitlin Carnes
NNHS Vocational & Applied Learning Award - Materials, Design & Technology: Jacob Daley
NNHS Performing Arts Award - Dance: Hayley Roberts
NNHS Performing Arts Award - Music: Jackson Simpson
NNHS Visual Arts Award: Sarah Clarke
Grade 10 Awards
Uniting Church Personal Endeavour and Commitment to Personal Growth Award: Alexandra Kemp
Senator Carol Brown Award for Personal Endeavour: Emma Mutton
Rebecca White MHA Encouragement Award: Hannah Murray
A.J. & I.A. Pearson Award for Achievement in Public Speaking: Sophie Briggs
Tina and Stephen Rhodes Memorial Award for Girls' Outstanding Values in Sport: Alice Mutton
Michael Graham Memorial Trophy for Boys' Sport & Sportsmanship: Tyson Gray
Australian Defence Force Long Tan Leadership & Teamwork Award: Sophie Briggs
David Jefferson Memorial Award for Service to the School Community: Caitlin Carnes
Pat Blackwell Community Service and Citizenship Award: Tara Maddox
Apex Shield for Citizenship, Service and Fellowship over 4 years: Sophie Briggs and Caitlin Carnes
Nick McKim MHA Global Citizen Award for Thinking Globally, Acting Locally: Hayley Roberts
|An award for Charlie Stewart
Merit Awards: Daniel Coppleman, Brodie Fletcher, Corey Hansch, Travis Harris, Jessica Hutchins, Samantha Lester, Caitlin Smith
Dick Adams MHR Award for Achievement in Maths and English: Charlie Stewart
The Gazette Award for Achievement in Communications: Zara Bender
Mathematical Association of Tasmania Award for Consistent Effort in Maths: Adriel Sayson
Derwent Valley Sport and Recreation Centre Encouragement Award: Jye Hay Mackenzie
Lions Club of New Norfolk Community Service & Citizenship Award: Acacia Fenton
Claremont Rotary Club Award for Exemplary Commitment to the Values of Education: Adriel Sayson
Derwent Valley Council Award for Outstanding Achievement across the Curriculum: Zara Bender
Derwent Valley Masonic Lodge Grade 9 Best All Rounder Award: Charlie Stewart
F.H. Dixon Bequest for Achievement in Public Speaking: Ella Browning
|Jaidyn Daniels rewarded
Merit awards: Nathasja Duindam, Abby Hay, Shaniah Smith, Nicholas Toth, Jordyn Wilton
Lachlan CWA Memorial Committee Encouragement Award: Kyle Jones
Forestry Tasmania "Care for People" Award: Isabella Darey
Dazeley Award for Service to the School Community: Jaidyn Daniels
RSL Award for Improvement and Consistent Effort: Mitchell Booth
Tasmanian Alkaloids Award for Exemplary Commitment to the Values of Education: Caitlin Wesley
Mark Shelton MHA Award for Upholding the School Values and Being a Professional Student: Alice Clarke
Michael Polley MHA Award for Outstanding Achievement across the Curriculum: Isabella Darey
Commonwealth Bank Grade 8 Best All Rounder Award: Jaidyn Daniels
Rene Hidding MHA Award for Achievement in Health and Wellbeing: Zak Booth
Derwent Valley Concert Band Award for Achievement in the Arts - Music: Jaidyn Daniels
Hair & Beauty Secrets Reading Award: Isabella Darey
|Brianna Fenton rewarded
Merit awards: Haidee Connor, Jacob George, Liam Knowles, Chloe Morgan, Taleah Oates, Jack Thompson, Abbey Turner
Outstanding Achievement across the Curriculum (for a former Fairview Primary student): Campbell Evans
Outstanding Achievement across the Curriculum (for a former Molesworth Primary student): Natasha Winter
Outstanding Achievement across the Curriculum (for a former New Norfolk Primary student): Ellie Hayton
Hair & Beauty Secrets Reading Award: Jye Wilton
Lachlan CWA Memorial Committee Encouragement Award: Suzzanne Clarke
RSL Award for Improvement and Consistent Effort: Melissa Gleeson
Craig Farrell MLC Award for Community Service & Citizenship: Campbell Evans
The Shoe Mart Sport and Sportsmanship Award: Chloe Tassell and Rowan Thomason
New Norfolk High School Award for Upholding the School Values and Being a Professional Student: Jessie Ure
Commonwealth Bank Grade 7 Best All Rounder Award: Brianna Fenton


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Santa Monica author and TV writer Robert Masello's novel "Bestiary" has a heroine who's a curator of medieval manuscripts at the Getty. Her name is Beth Cox. After the book came out, he got a call from a woman who, like his character, is a specialist in bestiaries. She, too, was named Beth — and she is a curator of medieval manuscripts...at the Getty. Some of the rest you can probably predict, as Masello posts at the Getty blog.
while her last name wasn't Cox—it was Morrison—she had indeed dated a guy named Cox ("whom my mother was dying for me to marry"). And after checking my website, she also discovered that she had been born in Princeton, New Jersey, where I'd gone to college, while she had gone to Northwestern in Evanston, Illinois, the town where I was born and raised. The coincidences went on from there, and as the real Beth put it in that e-mail, "I was quite pleasantly surprised to find that the basic material of my life could be intriguing enough for an author to invent it!"
Well, as you can guess, we had to meet in person, which we did, over lunch in the Getty cafeteria. Again, I saw that I had most of the details right—she was young, pretty, tall, but, disappointingly, a redhead. My Beth was a brunette. How could I have been so wrong?
No romance (that we know of), but they have become friends.


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While the information contained within the site is periodically updated, no guarantee is given that the information provided in this web site is correct, complete or up-to-date.
1066 Heritage Web site takes no responsibility for the accuracy or safety of external links.
Links from 1066 Heritage to third-party sites do not constitute an endorsement by 1066 Heritage of the parties or their products and services.
The appearance on the Web site of event and background information including dates and times does not constitute an endorsement by 1066 Heritage.
If you require any further information please contact the webmaster firstname.lastname@example.com


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Contour Pillows And Therapeutic Pillows
It's a simple fact that not everyone can pull off a good night's sleep with a straight, basic pillow. Fortunately, contour pillows and therapeutic pillows can offer a level of extra support that can make sleeping with just about any ache, pain, illness or discomfort a bit easier. These pillows are so effective, in fact, many without an ache, pain or worry in the world insist on sleeping with them night in and night out anyway.
Contour pillows and therapeutic pillows are generally designed to offer support for specific parts of the body. Their hallmark is offering neck support that regular pillows just can't muster. Making it easier for people to sleep through the night with out the kinks, cramps and general discomfort regular pillows can present, contour pillows are very popular purchases. Their use is becoming mainstay in many homes with all members of a family enjoying their own contour pillow designs.
With the specific design meant to target support at different areas of the body, the contour pillow is fast replacing regular pillows in many homes. There are http://www.illuporistorante.com/ of options in these contour pillows, too. From the memory foam contour pillow to contour cloud pillow designs and even contour wedge pillows and contour pillow travel makes, there are types of contour pillows that are ideal for almost everyone. With types such as the memory foam contour pillow offering an ability for the pillow to 'remember' where support is needed, these pillows become individual treasures, too. While many contour memory foam pillow designs target the neck and head specifically, there are options for other parts of the body, as well. The contour leg pillow, for example, offers much needed support for those who must sleep with their legs elevated or in another specific position and the contour twist pillow is perfect for all types of situations. A person doesn't need to suffer from an ache or a pain to enjoy the use of a therapeutic pillow either. Therapeutic pillows are often so comfortable for those who use them that long after the malady or ache has dissipated, the use of the pillow continues. There's nothing wrong with this and considering the fact a good night's sleep is vital for everyone, it's a great idea.
Whether it's contour memory foam pillow, contour foam pillows or some other design being sought after, the extra support can go a long way toward helping almost anyone enjoy a better night's rest. There's no reason to wake up with a kink in the neck or a cramp in the back when one of these therapeutic pillows might just prevent it all together.


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Historical Laws and Security
Write a brief description in your own words of the following laws, including where and when each law originated: · The Code of Hammurabi · Draco's law · Law of the Twelve Tables · Justinian Code · Magna Carta · Statute of Westminster Answer the following questions: · How have these laws led to the historical development of security forces, both private and public? · Why do you think the need for both private and public security still exists?
Review from student
Brown University
1271 Tutors
California Institute of Technology
2131 Tutors
Carnegie Mellon University
982 Tutors
Columbia University
1256 Tutors
Dartmouth University
2113 Tutors
Emory University
2279 Tutors
Harvard University
599 Tutors
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2319 Tutors
New York University
1645 Tutors
Notre Dam University
1911 Tutors
Oklahoma University
2122 Tutors
Pennsylvania State University
932 Tutors
Princeton University
1211 Tutors
Stanford University
983 Tutors
University of California
1282 Tutors
Oxford University
123 Tutors
Yale University
2325 Tutors


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June 20, 2018 - August 24, 2018
Cranberry's annual fire hydrant and distribution system flushing program gets underway on Mon., June 18, and continues for ten weeks. It is a routine maintenance operation designed to flush sediment from the water system, check fire hydrant operation, and test chlorine levels in the water lines throughout the Township. Flushing is conducted Mon. - Fri. between 7 am and 4:00 pm. Discolored water and fluctuations in water pressure are normal during flushing. Refrain from doing laundry when your neighborhood lines are being flushed. i
July 10, 2018, 8:30 AM - 9:15 AM @ Venango Trail / Fitness Center
Iron Yoga – Yoga with a little twist – yoga-inspired sculpting moves (you have the option of using light weights)
July 10, 2018, 9:20 AM - 10:20 AM
This class rotates between Step, Cardio Butts and Gutts, HIIT Intervals and Step Intervals. Check the monthly calendar for more specific information.
July 10, 2018, 6:00 PM - 6:55 PM @ Venango Trail / Fitness Center
Interval training by the makers of Zumba! Lots of different types of movement and great music!
July 10, 2018, 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM @ Venango Trail / Fitness Center
Energetic, vinyasa style flow emphasizing continuous movement with the breath
July 10, 2018, 10:00 AM - 10:45 AM @ Cranberry Public Library
Please join us for 45 minutes of free play and family bonding time. This session is for children birth to age 18 months and their caregivers. Registration required. You must register for each individual session. Sorry, no waitlist available.
July 10, 2018, 11:00 AM - 11:45 AM @ Cranberry Public Library
Please join us for 45 minutes of free play and family bonding time This playtime is for children 18 months and older and their caregivers. Registration required. You must sign up for each session separately. Sorry, there is no waitlist available.
July 10, 2018, 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM @ Franklin North & South Combined
With Major League Baseball's All-Star Game just a week away, Cranberry Township author and journalist Frank Garland will discuss his experiences researching and writing about two Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Fame baseball players, Willie Stargell and Joseph Floyd "Arky" Vaughan. Both are ranked among the top performers ever to wear a Pirates uniform, with Stargell leading the team to a 1979 World Series championship and Vaughan carrying the Pirates to the brink of the 1938 National League pennant, only to see his team turned away in the waning days of the season by one of the most famous home runs in the history of baseball.
July 10, 2018, 9:00 PM - 11:00 PM @ Community Waterpark
$2. per person. Members are free. Enjoy an evening dip at the Waterpark.
July 10, 2018, 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Out of Sight Shredding is a social enterprise of the Blind Association of Butler and Armstrong Counties and provides unique employment and job training opportunities to blind and visually impaired individuals. Out of Sight Shredding is certified and insured (NAID AAA Certified) and provides document destruction services throughout western Pennsylvania. Shredded paper will be recycled!
July 10, 2018, 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM @ Council Chambers
Our July meeting is canceled. We'll see you in August.


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EDITOR\PUBLISHER: A.V. Krebs
ADDRESS: PO. Box 2201, Everett, Washington 98203-0201
E-MAIL: email@example.com
WEB SITE: http://www.ea1.com/CARP/
TO RECEIVE: Name and e-mail address
DAVID MIGOYA, DENVER POST: Last week's decision to shut down the former ConAgra slaughterhouse in Greeley because of recurring meat contamination may be an indication that a recent get-tough stance by federal food safety regulators is more than rhetoric, consumer groups say.
But they are only cautiously optimistic.
In a summer marred by two of the largest meat recalls in history, one of them by the plant in Greeley, the U.S. Department of Agriculture may have finally found itself able to crack down, according to Caroline Smith-DeWaal, food safety director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
"The massive recalls have proven to be a trial by fire for the feds in charge of meat safety," DeWaal said. "They're finally willing to take tough actions when the industry doesn't respond to violations."
The plant in Greeley, one of the nation's largest slaughterhouses and now owned by Swift & Co., was forced to close Friday when inspectors walked out after again finding feces-contaminated meat.
The Denver Post has learned the government had already cited the plant 19 times since late August for allowing meat to become contaminated with feces, the favored breeding ground for the potentially lethal E. coli bacteria. Inspectors said they had briefly shut down production several times in prior weeks because of contamination, each time allowing it to resume when plant officials promised violations would not recur.
Three of the 19 violations occurred in the past week, inspectors said. Finally, the USDA concluded that the plant's efforts to keep meat free of feces were "ineffective or inadequate," agency spokesman Steven Cohen said. "The number of violations show a breakdown with their program."
Slaughterhouses cannot produce or sell beef without federal inspection or the USDA seal of approval and are effectively shut down when the USDA withholds inspection.
The plant, partly owned by Vail investor George Gillett, is expected to remain closed at least until Tuesday, spokesman Jim Herlihy said. "We are negotiating with the USDA about when we can resume production," Herlihy said Friday. "This is a regulatory issue, not a food-safety issue. There have been no allegations of contaminated product in commerce."
The agency's actions come just two weeks after a new USDA food-safety administrator told meat industry executives to be prepared for tougher oversight. "Your system is broken, and it needs to be repaired," Garry McKee said at an industry convention on October 28 in New Orleans.
Plants without adequate plans to prevent meat from becoming contaminated would find themselves scrutinized more, he said.
On Friday in Greeley, the USDA backed up those words. "I'd call this a great step forward; we're glad to see it," said Karen Taylor Mitchell, executive director of Safe Tables Our Priority, a Vermont advocacy group representing the families of victims of food-borne illnesses.
Part of the problem has been the USDA's lack of enforcement when fecal-contaminated meat was at issue, known as "zero tolerance failures." Violations were written, sometimes dozens, but little else happened.
That occurred in Greeley, where inspectors found dirty meat nearly two dozen times before July, when the plant recalled nearly 18.6 million pounds of beef because of E. coli contamination concerns. Even right after the recall, when the government was scrutinizing ConAgra's every move, inspectors quickly found problems with feces-smeared meat again --- and did little more than produce more paperwork.
Since the recall, the plant has been operating under a USDA warning, called a "notice of intended enforcement." A threatened suspension was set aside to allow the plant to implement a plan that would keep meat free from fecal contamination, a normal process.
Recently the Government Accountability Project, a consumer group that has tangled often with the USDA over inspection enforcement, disclosed documents it acquired from a Midwest plant whose inspectors were told in writing not to enforce the zero tolerance rule vigorously.
"What they've done in Greeley is a welcome sign, that maybe they've not completely abandoned the zero-tolerance rule," said Felicia Nestor of GAP. "I really don't know if this is all that encouraging or just another blip on the screen."
USDA's Cohen wouldn't say McKee's promise of stronger enforcement prompted Friday's action in Greeley, but he agreed "it was consistent with the vision of food safety inspection recently laid out by the new administrator." Before his appointment this summer, McKee was director of Wyoming's health department.
Taking action against one of the country's biggest beef packers is a bold move that some say proves McKee wasn't just schmoozing in New Orleans. Still, others say, USDA didn't move on the Greeley plant until repeated violations had been noted, a chronic symptom of what's wrong the agency.
"It seems like 19 warnings is probably too many, given this plant's history," said Smith-DeWaal of the science center. "Any speeder who gets that many warnings before getting a ticket feels as if they can speed forever."
The slaughterhouse employs 2,500 people, processes 1.2 million cattle a year and produces several million pounds of beef a day, a lot of it shipped to Colorado stores.
Problems with contaminated meat aren't new to the plant. The Post in September revealed that violations for dirty meat were found there more than two dozen times in the months leading up to --- and soon after --- July's recall occurred. More than half of those violations since July 2001 were for allowing feces to contaminate beef.
Just two days before Friday's suspension, Swift officials said workers at the plant would have new authority to shut down production if they spotted potential food safety hazards. Previously only supervisors could stop production. The policy shift is indicative of the company's commitment to food safety, Swift's Herlihy said.
"We've been under intense USDA and self scrutiny since the recall," Herlihy said. "We have to find the best avenue from this point to move forward. With these new findings, we're taking every step possible to ensure it's minimized and that we produce nothing but safe, wholesome meat."
This is the first time the USDA suspended inspection at the Greeley facility,
a move the USDA does not do easily, although it has done it frequently.
Nationally, this is the 128th time the USDA has suspended inspections at a
facility it oversees. Most suspensions were for a few hours, but some have
lasted weeks.
DOUGLAS FARAH, WASHINGTON POST: For the past decade, one of the world's largest tobacco companies has illegally funneled millions of dollars worth of cigarettes into Iraq in direct violation of U.S. trade sanctions and has knowingly helped Russian organized crime and Colombian drug traffickers launder billions of dollars more, the European Union alleges in a lawsuit filed recently in New York.
The lawsuit alleges a vast conspiracy in which R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc. and its subsidiaries set up special operating units to help launder money for criminal organizations, using special accounting methods, offshore tax havens and false invoicing. In exchange, the suit says, the criminal groups pushed Winston and Camel cigarettes into markets the company was seeking to penetrate and helped RJR increase its profit margins by accepting sales and credit terms that paid far more than those for legitimate customers.
The 144-page complaint, filed on October 31 in the Eastern District of New York, alleges that RJR executives "at the highest corporate level" made it "part of their operating business plan to sell cigarettes to and through criminal organizations and to accept criminal proceeds in payments for cigarettes by secret and surreptitious means."
In a statement, RJR called the lawsuit "absurd" and said the company and its subsidiaries "operate their businesses in a legal, responsible manner. The plaintiff's allegations that any of these companies were either involved in or aware of money laundering, conspiracy or any other illegal activities are unfounded."
But European and U.S. law enforcement sources said the detailed allegations in the lawsuit were developed by the law enforcement resources of the ten European countries that filed the suit. Several, such as Italy, have been investigating cigarette smuggling for years.
Dean Boyd, a spokesman for the U.S. Customs Service, would not comment specifically on the lawsuit, but he said the agency is actively investigating organized illegal cigarette sales because "tobacco smuggling is a global, multibillion-dollar problem that involves any number of criminal organizations, ranging from terrorists to money launderers to drug smugglers."
U.S. officials said there is one ongoing criminal investigation of cigarette smuggling into Iraq, but they would not say which tobacco company is the focus of the probe.
Cigarette transactions have long been favored by drug traffickers as a means of laundering their illicit proceeds. It is often difficult for drug traffickers to move the money they make from the sale of drugs in the United States and Europe back to their homelands because law enforcement agencies have cracked down on wire transfers and the sheer weight of cash makes it difficult to transport.
Instead, drug traffickers often buy millions of dollars worth of cigarettes with the proceeds, smuggle the cigarettes into their home countries and resell them to recoup their profits.
A lawsuit against several tobacco companies filed by the EU in the same jurisdiction was dismissed in February because it sought to recover billions of dollars in tax revenue lost to cigarette smuggling. U.S. District Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis ruled that such claims were improper, but he said he would consider a suit based on money laundering allegations. If the current lawsuit goes forward, sources close to the case said, similar ones will be filed against other major tobacco companies.
In its statement, RJR said it believes the new lawsuit should also be dismissed. "However, if this case ever goes to trial, it will be the burden of the plaintiffs to prove their allegations, and they will be unable to do so because their allegations are simply untrue," the statement said.
While the suit does not specify the damages sought, sources familiar with the case said they would amount to hundreds of millions of dollars.
The new EU lawsuit goes far beyond any previous allegations, accusing RJR of direct complicity in facilitating not only money laundering schemes but also other criminal enterprises.
According to the lawsuit, RJR maintained lists of "direct customers of RJR," which "included special handling instructions for shipments designated for RJR customers that RJR knew were involved in criminal activities." The special handling, the suit said, included making sure some cases of cigarettes that criminals did not want traced would be "neutralized and decoded" -- meaning marks and numbers that make the tobacco traceable would be removed.
"These direct customer lists clearly demonstrated that the RJR defendants knew they were selling to criminal customers and thereby demonstrated that RJR knew that they were receiving criminal proceeds in payment for their product," the lawsuit alleges.
As part of the scheme, the lawsuit says, RJR companies constantly switched banks where they received payments for illicit sales to make it impossible for U.S. and EU investigators to detect the transactions. "This process was known within RJR as `musical banks,'" the lawsuit says.
The suit also alleges that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his son, Uday, reaped millions of illicit dollars from the sale of cigarettes in Iraq by RJR, as did the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) --- a group that has carried out bombings and kidnappings in Europe in its bid for an independent Kurdish homeland and that was designated a terrorist entity by the United States in 1998. The group controls parts of northern Iraq and extracts a fee for each container of cigarettes it allows to pass from Turkey into Iraq, the lawsuit alleges.
RJR knowingly sold billions of cigarettes to Iraq in violation of U.S. and United Nations sanctions, the suit alleges, by setting up a special operation in Cyprus. Part of the plan included creating false paperwork that would misstate the destination of the cigarettes, usually listing Russia instead, the lawsuit says.
Sales of the cigarettes brought millions of dollars to Hussein's regime and specifically to Uday Hussein, who "oversees and personally profits from the illegal importation of cigarettes into Iraq."
The suit alleges that RJR knew that the PKK charged a fee for each container
of cigarettes and that, by paying the fee, the tobacco company and its
co-conspirators "have provided direct benefits to the PKK and other terrorist
Once again the world's largest grain trader --- Cargill Corp. ---- led
Forbes Magazine's list of the top U.S. private corporations. In fact, as
the chart below shows, eight of the top 15 U.S. private corporations were
corporate agribusiness related enteprizes.
RANK NAME STATE INDUSTRY REVENUES ($mil)
1 Cargill Minnesota Crops $50,826
2 Koch Industries Kansas Oil & Gas Operations $40,000
3 Mars Virginia Food Processing $17,500
Publix Super
Markets Florida Retail (Grocery) $15,370
7 Meijer Michigan Retail (Grocery) $10,600
9 HE Butt Grocery Texas Retail (Grocery) $9,9002
C&S Wholesale
Grocers Vermont Retail (Grocery) $9,700
Swift &
NEIL WEINBERG & BRANDON COPPLE, FORBES MAGAZINE: Down a two-lane highway that winds through oaks and evergreens 25 miles west of Minneapolis, a secluded access road turns off to the south and is marked only by a small sign: "Cargill Lake Office." There near the shores of Lake Minnetonka, amid the sedate elegance of an antique French-style mansion, Warren Staley plots a revolution at the most dominating--and obsessively private- --- company on the planet.
On the face of it Cargill looks like the last business in need of a shakeup. Earnings more than doubled last year. At $50 billion-plus in annual sales, Cargill is twice the size of its closest rival, Archer Daniels Midland, and bigger than Procter & Gamble or AOL Time Warner or Merrill Lynch.
In sales Cargill is the 19th-largest company in America. Its 97,000 employees run more than a thousand production sites and operate out of 59 countries. They feed the world's herds and fertilize its crops. They store the harvest, process it and transport it around the globe. They finance and hedge the risk.
Cargill, or farmers working for it, raise 17% of the world's turkeys. In the U.S. it controls 22% of beef production and 25% of grain and oilseed exports. Its vast financial trading arm is a leading commodity broker and a heavyweight in sovereign debt, having reportedly controlled one-quarter of Russia's bond market. Is this behemoth too damned big for its own good? Is it too big for the good of the country?
Such suspicions run deep because Cargill goes to such lengths to keep its profile low. Some foreign outposts bear no company shingle. Its annual report contains no financial tables. Discretion is so deeply woven into the company that even former Cargillites shy away from public comments about their old employer --- compliments included. Cargill has been incomparably adept at growing without having to go public and making all the compromises that would entail.
"I'd hate to have to manage this company worried we'll miss an earnings forecast by a penny a share and have 40% clipped from our value," says Staley. "It's a great advantage being private, with shareholders who understand agriculture is cyclical, returns are lumpy and not every risk will go our way."
C. Daniel Clemente, a Virginia lawyer who is a Cargill family trustee, says the company is a paragon of how to stay out of the public equity markets for generations. "Cargill should be the Harvard Business School model for how to stay private," he says.
Cargill, founded in 1865 by William and Samuel Cargill, sons of a Scottish sea captain, started out as a lone grain-storage flat house in a frontier town in Iowa. Over the decades Cargill grew like bamboo, silently snaking its roots below ground only to shoot up in unexpected places and redraw the landscape.
Sprouting from the grain trade, it spread its tendrils into farming, milling, flavoring, a fleeting stab at energy trading and a bizarre global mishmash of seemingly unrelated ventures, from steelmaking to viatical financing to ownership of a casino in Las Vegas. Cargill let these businesses operate separately and autonomously, each one unaware of (or unconcerned with) goings-on elsewhere in the empire.
No more. Staley, 60, chief executive since 1999 and five years from company-mandated retirement, wants to reshape Cargill into a more sensible giant with a sharper focus on its origins --- the food business --- and new cooperation. "To grow our opportunities we have to shrink our sandbox," Staley says in a rare interview. "That means telling our businesses, `We won't starve you, but we may shoot you.'"
That is a stunning threat in a firm where lifetime employment is the norm, especially in the highest echelon, and where employees boast that their blood runs Cargill green. Staley is shaking the place up. He has bumped dozens of managers. He is drawing new talent via acquisitions and new hires. "Making sure the right people are on the bus and in the right seats" is how he puts it.
In three years Staley has jettisoned $2 billion in businesses, from steel-pipe making to coffee trading. He has spent a few billion dollars buying competitors in key markets, building up Cargill's position as the nation's biggest flour miller and number-two turkey producer, and as the largest grain merchant and among the biggest producers of vegetable starches in the world. Staley's shopping spree will continue for a while, bankrolled by more asset sales, $700 million in cash and annual cash flow from operations of $2.3 billion. "We're keeping things bubbling," he says. "Fortunately, cash is king, so it's a very interesting time for people like us."
William W. Cargill begins operating grain-storage flat house in Conover, Iowa Expands to 71 grain elevators, two flour mills
Willliam's son-in-law John MacMillan Sr. takes over after rescuing firm from near-bankruptcy.
Sets up first foreign operations in Canada, Italy
Barred from futures trading at Chicago Board of Trade.
Becomes Navy shipbuilder, enters soy-processing business
Loads first bulk corn shipment in Brazil's interior.
Sets up financial unit in Geneva
Enters Korea and Taiwan.
Gets into steelmaking, cattle feedlot businesses.
Cargill, MacMillan families sell 17% of firm to employees.
Launches drive to develop high-value-added foods
ANN ZIMMERMAN, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Despite a slowdown in sales, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. posted a 23% jump in fiscal third-quarter profit as strong food and clothing sales at home and abroad helped offset struggles at the company's Sam's Club unit.
Wal-Mart, Bentonville, Arkansas, said that despite the challenging economic environment, it was optimistic about the holiday season. The discount retailer forecast sales at stores open more than a year to rise 3% to 5%, ahead of analysts' predictions. Wal-Mart also said it expects to achieve its previously stated earnings target for the year of $1.76 to $1.78 a share.
"Although the increase in spending is less than anyone would like, we expect to get our fair share and maybe a little more" during the holidays, Lee Scott, Wal-Mart's chief executive, said in a recorded statement.
But the company voiced caution about the economic climate, saying they expect consumers to continue trading down to the lowest-priced brands, even in food categories. "When they are talking about shoppers switching from Tree Top apple juice to Sam's Choice, you know there is serious concern about the consumer," says Emme P. Kozloff, retail analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.
For the period ended October 31, Wal-Mart reported net income of $1.82 billion, or 41 cents a share, up from $1.48 billion, or 33 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 12% to $59.33 billion from $53.19 billion, and sales at stores open at least a year rose 3.5%.
Reflecting the speed of the consumer-spending slowdown, same-store sales at the Wal-Mart division rose 4.2%, compared with a second quarter increase of 7.1%. Operating profit in the division rose 16% to $2.68 billion from $2.32 billion. Wal-Mart achieved the profit growth by reducing markdowns and losses from damaged or stolen merchandise, and by increasing sales of higher-margin goods, particularly apparel.
Results at the Sam's Club warehouse division lagged behind, posting just a 0.4% increase in same-store sales, although total sales rose 6.1% to $7.7 billion. Memberships jumped a healthy eight percent during the quarter as Sam's Club reduced fees and streamlined the process for signing up new members. But competition and sluggish spending by families and small businesses has taken a toll on sales this year, analysts say.
"I do believe that we have identified the steps necessary to return this business to acceptable profit," Mr. Scott said of the Sam's Club division. "However, there are no quick fixes, and sales and earnings will probably remain under pressure well into next year."
Wal-Mart's international segment saw its operating profit surge 42% to $447
million. In its German operation, losses were in line with Wal-Mart's plan.
Same-store sales were down from a year ago, but expenses were cut and inventory
was better managed, Wal-Mart said. At Wal-Mart's Asda unit in the United
Kingdom, comparable sales were up in the high-single digits, buoyed by sales of
Wal-Mart's George apparel line, which jumped almost 30%.
PAUL SCHNITT, SACRAMENTO BEE: If Dan Gerawan wasn't a patient man earlier in life, he's probably learned to be one by now.
In 1988, the Fresno fruit grower was among a group of Central Valley fruit growers and packers who sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They claimed the government's fruit marketing programs violated their free speech rights because they were forced to pay for advertising plums, peaches and nectarines whether or not they agreed with the message.
The California Tree Fruit program is one of many campaigns run by commodity boards throughout the country. The boards' advertising has spawned catch phrases such as "Got Milk?", "It's the Cheese," "Beef, It's What's for Dinner," and "The Incredible, Edible Egg."
But nearly 15 years after the fruit growers' suit, Gerawan and others still battle the marketing boards in the courts, and the constitutional issue remains unresolved. Courts have ruled both for and against the mandatory assessments of farmers.
An estimated ten current lawsuits around the country target these marketing programs set up by Congress and the USDA to promote farm products. And in California, 11 cases have been brought against state commodity programs. Although the U.S. Supreme Court has taken up the commodity board issue twice, its rulings have been somewhat contradictory and left things muddled.
"It's been a long fight," says Gerawan. He likes the ruling last week by a federal district judge in Michigan that found unconstitutional a National Pork Producers Council promotion program funded by mandatory assessments of hog farmers. "Momentum is in our direction," Gerawan says.
But . . . a federal judge in Montana ruled that assessments levied by the beef promotion board were constitutional. "The outcome is not clear. We have miles to go," says George Soares, partner in a Sacramento law firm that represents more than 20 farm commodity groups. He says about two-thirds of California's nearly $30 billion agriculture industry is covered by one of the state's 51 commodity boards.
The first boards were created during the Great Depression to promote agriculture products when most farmers couldn't afford marketing on their own. Nationwide, the boards' mandatory assessments bring in more than $1.2 billion a year that is used for promotions and product research. The marketing campaigns feature the product without using brand names.
Steve Weaver, who raises about 1,000 hogs each year in the Elk Grove area, was one of those disappointed by the ruling that threw out the promotional efforts of the national pork group. He hopes the decision will be appealed. "The act has done more to promote pork in the United States and to promote the value of pork worldwide than anything else that has been done," says Weaver, who is president of the California Pork Producers Association.
A decade ago, the pork industry was stagnant at a time when the poultry industry was doing an effective job promoting its product, Weaver says. Then along came the advertising campaign, "Pork, the Other White Meat." Weaver says that campaign has been primarily responsible for increasing pork consumption in the United States by at least five percent each year.
Gerawan, who has vast fruit orchards in the Central Valley, is in a different position and he argues that he has the right to run his own advertising campaign promoting his Prima brand of plums, peaches, nectarines and fresh grapes. "I believe advertising should be voluntary," Gerawan says. "Call me a radical. People should decide for themselves whether to advertise or not on their own without being compelled to do so."
Gerawan estimates he is assessed about $500,000 a year by commodity marketing groups for their generic advertising. Pushing his own brand is an additional cost.
Joseph Gallo Farms, a large dairy operation in the San Joaquin Valley, shares Gerawan's philosophy. While most dairy farmers sing the praises of the "It's the Cheese" campaign, Gallo officials have called the ads "corny and even idiotic." The company saw the assessments as a free speech issue and filed a lawsuit in federal court.
Gerawan and the other fruit farmers lost their original lawsuit in a 5-4 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1997. The court ruled that joint advertising campaigns are constitutional in heavily regulated industries, such as plum production.
But last year, the high court, by a 6-3 vote, ruled that in less-regulated markets some advertising funded by compulsory fees violated free speech rights. That case involved the Dublin-based Mushroom Council. The two seemingly conflicting opinions beg for further clarification from the Supreme Court, agree those on both sides of the issue.
Undaunted by defeat in the federal courts, Gerawan took his case to the California state courts. Two years ago, the California Supreme Court concluded that Gerawan's freedom of speech may have been violated by his being forced to pay mandatory fees for advertising plums.
The state's highest court sent the case back to a lower court to set standards for measuring whether the grower's constitutional rights were violated. A final decision is pending.
Gallo, which initially lost a free-speech challenge in federal court, was encouraged by Gerawan's outcome and has now taken its case to a state court. Even if the assessments are declared, once and for all, unconstitutional, farm interests could push for legislation that would set up marketing fees.
Meanwhile, Gerawan fights on. He's challenged the compulsory fees he pays for
selling peaches and nectarines. "I've started over again what we started 15
years ago, and we're back there," he said. "We hope to prevail, but that's a
long way off."
STEPHANIE HOOPS, , TUSCALOOSA NEWS: A group of Alabama Sierra Club members and residents concerned that Alabama is on the verge of being inundated by industrial hog farms is taking a tour of communities in northeast Alabama affected by hog factories.
Dubbed the "Tour de Stench," the trip is an effort to bring attention to the growing number of industrialized hog farming facilities in Alabama .. . . . Peggie Griffin, conservation organizer for the club, said the hog farms are moving into Alabama at a growing rate because other Southern states, such as Mississippi, have established moratoriums on new hog farms.
"This is a real concern for residents of Tuscaloosa County because straight west on Highway 82 in West Point, Mississsippi, is the Bryan Foods meat packing company, and we are definitely in range of that meat-packing company," Griffin said. "They tend to locate the hog factory farms in close vicinity to the meat-packing companies, and our water supply in Tuscaloosa covers a vast area, and it would be very easy for a hog industry to locate near our drinking supply."
A spokesperson for Bryan Foods could not be reached for comment.
Griffin said the proposed zoning laws in the November 5 election could have offered some protection for Tuscaloosa County, but voters rejected the measure. She said people living in the vicinity of the hog farms in the northeastern part of the state wish they had zoning restrictions.
A tour van and car pools [left] Tuscaloosa at 7:30 a.m. [November 16] and will stop in Birmingham on the way to the affected communities.
The visitors will make three stops: one near a sow operation where baby pigs are handled; a second one near a confined animal feeding operation, where the pigs are grown to market size; and a final stop at a home near a hog processing plant. "This plant is located in a neighborhood, and were going to visit a family that has to look into the hog processing plant," Griffin said. "They can hear the squealing pigs as they're being dragged to slaughter and being slaughtered."
The Sierra Club's position is that small farmers who raise hogs in a natural
environment are being pushed out of Alabama by contract farmers who keep
thousands of hogs confined in buildings, bringing industrial stench to
communities and disrupting the air, water and property values. They claim the
industry has set up 35 such operations in Alabama in the last six years in
places such as Sumter, Greene, Pickens, Dallas, Jackson, DeKalb and St. Clair
SAM SMITH, UNDERNEWS: While [Nancy] Pelosi was being characterized as a latté liberal, a real progressive entered the race at the last minute, Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio. She got little attention from the media. In the Washington Post, she was mentioned in passing in the 9th graf. In fact, what she had to say was far more interesting than most of the words spewing out of the capital that day.]
REP. MARCY KAPTUR: "I realize that Congresswoman Pelosi has commitments from a majority of the Democrats, but I think it's important to offer a choice and to give voice to the `reform wing' of the Caucus. Members need to talk to each other, compare notes, and assess last Tuesday's elections, with a particular eye to the outrageous campaign spending that is corrupting our Republic. We have plenty of time to organize for the 108th Congress.
"To win, our party must adopt a reform paradigm. We will never raise more money than the Republicans- --- never. We must elevate the non-money wing of the Democratic Party and create populist symbols to convey our message.
"We should hold up key Republican fundraisers, such as Jack Welch and Kenneth Lay, as the `poster boys ' for the failed GOP economic strategy. We should hold the Republicans' feet to the fire on rising bank fees, skyrocketing insurance rates, tax breaks skewed to the richest Americans, and a failed deregulation strategy.
"But we Democrats have to articulate an alternative for America's families and workers. We should work with Democratic governors and state legislatures to push prescription drug initiatives. We should propose a federal national health insurance plan for small businesses. We should propose a national service program to help students pay off their college loans.
"We should propose a counter-cyclical economic stimulus plan that includes visionary projects such as high-speed rail to get our country out of recession. And we should champion an energy independence plan that would liberate our foreign policy and help solve our balance of payment problem.
"We should stand up not only for the steel industry, but also the textile
workers in the Southeast, the auto parts industry in the Midwest, and the small
businesses such as tool and die shop owner and the family farmer all around the
country. They're all in trouble, and nobody's standing up for them because
they're not giant multinational corporations pumping money into the political
DAN LOOKER, BUSINESS EDITOR, SUCCESSFUL FARMING: Harold Breimyer has been dead more than a year. And he's still right. It's uncanny.
Born on a modest farm in Ohio in 1914, Breimyer was a brilliant economist who began a long USDA career by driving country roads to sell New Deal farm programs in 1933. He retired as a nationally respected professor at the University of Missouri in 1984. Almost to his death in 2001, Breimyer wrote a clear, blunt newsletter called On The Economy.
Years ahead of Ken Cook
His newsletter recognized the stock market bubble early and predicted failure for the Freedom to Farm bill. Breimyer called the 1996 Farm Bill the worst ever. "What is worst of all . . . and indefensible, is the paying out of big bucks (1) irrespective of the level of market prices, and (2) without necessarily requiring performance on the farmer's part. The former is often put in terms of seriously weakening the safety net that has long been a distinguishing feature of farm programs."
He wrote that back in March 1996, before grain prices collapsed and long before Ken Cook's Environmental Working Group put your USDA payments on the Internet.
Don't think Breimyer was a mystical seer who could predict the future. He was a smart man who saw through political BS and kept his Jeffersonian dream of opportunity for farmers. I can imagine what he would say about the latest farm bill. He might like its new conservation emphasis and efforts to protect you better from low prices.
Yet, I'll bet the plainspoken Missouri professor would give it a D.
The reason? There's no food security in the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002. Breimyer knew that conservation and food reserves are crucial to gaining public support for help for farmers. Just as our federal government has been filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to ready for war with Iraq, corn supplies are shrinking. Even with a normal 2003 crop, Iowa State University economist Bob Wisner expects a corn carryover below 700 million bushels by next September.
The coming food crisis
The 1996 Farm Bill killed the farmer-owned reserve that used to pay you to store grain. The federal government no longer controls big supplies as it did during the early 1980s. Like the rest of our economy, agriculture has gone to a just-in-time delivery system. It sticks farmers with the cost of being the nation's granary. This year is a taste of what's to come. If we have another drought as bad as the one of 1988 --- when some Iowa counties had the least rainfall in recorded history --- watch out.
Prices could get so high that you'll finally have something to put in the bank. Hang onto it.
Those prices will also hurt your customers --- cattle feedlots, ethanol, and ultimately, consumers. After the 1988 drought, the Food and Agriculture Policy Research Institute estimated what would have happened if USDA hadn't had 4.3 billion bushels of corn on hand. With just 2.3 billion bushels in storage consumers would've paid $40 billion more for food from 1989 through 1996. (September corn stocks this year were just 1.6 billion bushels.)
University of Tennessee economist Daryll Ray shares Breimyer's view that reserves of grain make good sense. As he said in his July 22 column .. . . . "Low grain prices appeal to livestock feeders, and high prices appeal to crop farmers. But could it be that we are better off with relatively stable prices that moderate the booms so that busts are less likely to follow?"
Junking a divine inspiration
Mandatory set-asides in the old farm program didn't work well. (I like the idea of voluntary set-asides.) But we ditched the farmer-owned reserve at great risk. What if we had a drought worse than 1988? Civilizations have fallen to climate change before.
Breimyer's Depression-era contemporary, Agriculture Secretary Henry Wallace, got Congress to create his "ever-normal granary" in 1938. His idea of storing surplus crops for lean years came from Joseph's advice to the Egyptians in the Bible.
The Chinese had a similar system of paying farmers for surplus grain to store for lean times. It lasted 1,400 years. Congress killed our food security after just 58 years. Angry consumers may one day ask why.
Preparing to post this 203rd edition of THE AGRIBUSINESS EXAMINER it is
gratifying to know that over 1100 people throughout the world are currently receiving it
on a regular basis and judging from comments received feel it is a valuable
source of
information. However, it is also quite troubling to realize that less than 4.5% of that
readership has ever seen fit to make any contributions toward its continued existence.
To that small cadre of contributors this editor can only express his profound
and appreciation for I realize that in some cases even a small donation was a sacrifice for
From the outset it was never the purpose of THE AGRIBUSINESS EXAMINER to
charge a subscription fee for the original intention of this newsletter was to get it into as
many hands as possible as a vehicle for monitoring corporate agribusiness from a public
interest perspective, just as was the establishing of a web site
[http://www.ea1.com/CARP/] to provide facts, background, analysis and educational
information on corporate agribusiness.
Thanks to the generosity and creativity of the editor's oldest son David and
his business
colleagues at ElectricArrow in Seattle, Washington that sight is being maintained on a
virtual pro bono basis.
Having said all this, may I repeat CONTRIBUTIONS FROM READERS are always and
will always be most welcomed for editors of such publications as THE AGRIBUSINESS
EXAMINER can not always live on bread and water alone. Such checks made out to
A.V. Krebs can be sent to P.O. Box 2201, Everett, Washington 98203.


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On Monday, Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine held a rally in West Palm Beach, Fla. before an audience of less than 100 people, including journalists and operatives.
BREAKING: #TimKaine rally only about 30 people show up. Her campaign is dead in #Florida nobody wants #HillaryClinton Serial Liar Corrupt pic.twitter.com/vgnWGHxXgs
— Florida Street Team 🇺🇸 (@ppv_tahoe) October 24, 2016
Looking weary, Kaine still summoned enthusiasm and took shots at the Republican nominee, Donald Trump. He also pointed out Florida's importance in this year's election.
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"You really are a checkmate state," he told the sparse crowd. "That's more than a battleground state. … If we win for Hillary here, it's over. She's going to be president."
Kaine denounced Trump's comments on immigrants and women, also criticizing Trump's claims of a "rigged" election system. He confidently told the crowd he has won all of his eight elections and plans to win his ninth.
TRENDING: Comey Admits His FBI Didn't Bother To Corroborate Majority of Dossier
"You can beat me at Scrabble," he said. "You can beat me in Trivial Pursuit. You are not going to be beat me in an election."
Despite his confidence, the contrast between the size of his rally and the size of his opposition is stark. Some have compared the attendance of Kaine's rally to those of Trump's and Pence's, calling it a "tale of two campaigns."
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Trump's Monday rally, in contrast, drew over 20,000 attendees, while his vice president drew hundreds in North Carolina.
In Tampa, Trump maligned the "dishonest" media, firing up an already-boisterous crowd. Chants of "Donald Trump!" filled the venue, and the Republican nominee landed several blows against the Clinton and the media.
While vice presidential candidates don't generally draw large, energetic crowds, the attendance at Pence's rally was still larger than some held by the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton.
The poor attendance of Kaine's rally is not the first red flag for Team Clinton in Florida. Back in September, some said her campaign was in "panic mode" due to trouble recruiting black voters.
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Leslie Wimes, a South Florida-based president of the Democratic African-American Women Caucus, then told Politico that she believes the Clinton campaign took black voters for granted. As a result, she said, the campaign will have to scramble to convince them to come out and support Clinton in November.
Both candidates have long considered Florida as integral to the success of their campaign. Polls have shown Hillary leading the state, but the poor attendance of Kaine and Clinton rallies speaks volumes.
Pundits have pointed out the enthusiasm gap between Clinton and Trump, saying that Kaine's rally is another sign that Team Clinton may be in for a surprise on election day.
"You can have all the infrastructure you want, but if people are not inspired or excited to vote for you, then it is not going to do you any good," said Michael Steele, a former chairman of the RNC. "You can have very little, or weak, infrastructure, but if you create momentum or a force majeure that wins the argument."
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.


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Flight Training
Now that the tropical storm exited the country flying schools are back to the skies. I remember when I was still working with an aircraft maintenance provider in Clark Pampanga, everything is at a total standstill whenever there is a weather disturbance. It's a losing proposition for both service centers and flying schools. Flight schedules are delayed and maintenance operations grind into a halt. No flight, no income. There is that old aviation saying that aircraft sitting on the ground will never make money. And now that it's sunny skies again its business as usual for our fly boys. Thank God!
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From the age 12, till she turned 18, Sukanyeah suffered great humiliation, being mocked by other kids for the way she walked and talked.In an effort to 'fix the problem', her family took her to a doctor who gave her hormonal injections that resulted in several health issues, due to which she was unable to appear for her SSC examinations.
Soon, we started talking very day," said Sukanyeah.He had gone on a business trip for a week and 5days had already passed. I picked up the fallen broom from the floor and was walking back to the place the door bell rang. He said that he lived 3 stations away and was done for the day.I walked quickly to the door hoping that it was my husband who returned early. " and held a plastic box with a picture of a woman in bra and panties. He was walking towards the station to catch his train and wanted to try his luck in our place, on the way.She was a woman trapped in a man's body; he, a man in a woman's body.Three years ago, they found each other when they came to Mumbai for gender reassignment, and the meeting ended up transitioning into love.Even my moustache and beard started growing," he added.


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Viral Pathogenesis and Animal Models
U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, US Army Medical Research Insti Infec Diseases
Opportunities are available for basic and applied research utilizing current methodologies in virology, immunology, and molecular biology with a focus on preventing disease by encephalitic viruses for the protection or treatment of the warfighter. Research focuses on the development and characterization of animal models of viral agents. Emphasis is placed on determining virus dissemination and pathology following infection, as well as identifying potential targets for future medical countermeasures.
Hu X, et al: Biochemistry 55(21): 3007-19, 2016
Honnold S, et al: Virology Journal 12(1): 154, 2015
Honnold S, et al: Virology Journal 12(1): 152, 2015
Reed D, Glass P, et al: Journal of Virology 88(20): 12077-86, 2014


text: Hey guys just a note to bring you up to date. This coming hunting season I will be 79 and slowing down. Had both of my knees totally replaced and a gangerous gall bladder removed within the last year, but am planning a couple of hunts this season. Have a hunt planned in South Carolina for a week for whitetails and hogs and a buffalo hunt in October along with 2 deer hunts in Pennsylvania before the year is out. Hope I can do all without falling short of my plans. Will let you know about the hunts after completion. CD


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The United States took care of business with a 2-0 win over Trinidad and Tobago on Thursday, meaning that they are not in a calamitous World Cup qualifying situation.
That takes a little bit of the edge off as they head to Estadio Azteca for a clash with Mexico. Now, all that's on the line is regional supremacy, the aura of El Tri's vaunted home stadium, bragging rights and one of the most heated rivalries in world soccer.
No big deal.
The Americans have never won a World Cup qualifier at the Azteca. What are they keys to a historic win on Sunday (7:30 p.m. ET on FS1)?
Solidify the midfield
Bruce Arena has found some success using Michael Bradley as a lone central midfield, at least against inferior teams at home. They thrashed Honduras in March and beat T&T the other day, but there have been some holes in the midfield with that setup, even against weaker sides. They can't expect to get away with such a weak midfield against a very good Mexico team.
The question for Arena becomes who he adds to the center of the park. When he went to Panama in March, he used Jermaine Jones alongside Bradley, but Jones isn't with the team in Mexico. Geoff Cameron could step up from defense and provide a solid option, but in addition to solidifying the midfield defensively, the Americans also need to do better linking from the back line and Bradley to the attacking players. Kellyn Acosta provides both defensive work and quality passing, making him the ideal fit. But will Arena throw a 21-year-old out there for his first ever World Cup qualifying start at the Azteca?
Whatever Arena decides, the midfield needs some added punch.
The kids need to stay calm
Against Trinidad and Tobago, Christian Pulisic, Jorge Villafana and Darlington Nagbe were the Americans' best players. What else did they have in common? They had less international experience than any other U.S. players. That clearly wasn't a problem, but handling a home World Cup qualifier against Trinidad and Tobago is very different than staying calm against Mexico in front of 90,000 fans. Toss in someone like Kellyn Acosta, who might start, or Jordan Morris, who is an option off the bench, and the Americans will be counting on several inexperienced players handling everything that goes along with the U.S. vs. Mexico at the Azteca.
Flawless play from Tim Howard
Howard is not as good as he used to be. He's still solid and the Americans have one of the better backstops in CONCACAF with him, but there are more mistakes than there used to be. He can't have those against Mexico and he'll probably need to come up with a few heroic saves like used to be the norm. The Americans' greatest ever wins almost always include a couple great saves – Howard will need those on Sunday.
Clinical finishing
One of the Americans' issues against Trinidad and Tobago was some shoddy finishing. Jozy Altidore misfired on a couple opportunities, while Bobby Wood hit one off the post and a couple other good chances went begging as well. The U.S. won't get as many chances against Mexico and they need to make sure they finish the handful of chances they do get. Whether it's Altidore or Wood up top, they need their striker to be ruthless in front of goal, to go along with their constant movement and ability to make some great passes. The all-around game will be important, but the finishing needs to be there from the front men too.
Good bench play
The U.S. have been training at altitude for two weeks. They're as well-prepared for it as possible, and they're used to playing in hot conditions. Still, the altitude, heat and smog of Mexico City will take their toll and the Americans need to play well from start to finish if they want to topple El Tri. That puts an especially big emphasis on whoever comes off the bench to provide fresh legs and make an impact, be that going forward or in defense. Bruce Arena has talked about how he thinks the speed and physicality of Jordan Morris is a real asset on the bench, but he's just one of a handful of players who Arena can call on. Whoever he does tap to come in need to be more than just another body or even fresh legs. They need impacts from all three.


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Source: isigood.com
Grade Point Average is one of the basic indicators of a student's personal academic achievement. It is the average of the grades on all courses with course credit considered.
Once in a blue moon, you don't have to guess whether your score is enough to pass the course or take MBA program. To ease your life, we've developed this convenient online GPA calculator based on the United States educational system. Most often, GPA calculation is done via 4.0 scale. Don't you know how to calculate GPA on a 4.0 scale? Our converter transforms each grade you enter to points using U.S. academic scale. Here is a generally accepted formula on how to calculate your GPA: each class points have to be multiplied by the corresponding number of credits or hours for that particular class. Then, they are all added together. That sum is divided by the total number of credit hours obtained. The credit fields have to be filled with digits, while your grades can be put in letters.
What for Do I Need That GPA Stuff?
Mind that receiving straight A's all the time doesn't guarantee you the highest GPA scores! It depends on this: your higher education, career opportunities, overall wealth… Find out whether your GPA score meets the requirements of the educational institution you wish to apply for.
No matter if you are middle school, high school or college student, GPA calculator is a crucial tool for reaching success and keep your academic performance on the appropriate level.
If you are about entering some college or university, you have to learn more about its GPA and other academic requirements. THE SCHEDULE IS NOT THE SAME FOR ALL EDUCATION ENTITIES!
I Wanna Calculate My GPA!
Fill in each of the proposed fields accurately. Choose a letter equivalent grade for every course you take. You may input a real one or the expected. It is always better to check your GPA in advance. In front of your grade, enter the credit hours earned. Go on entering these two features for each class one-by-one. Your GPA will be calculated immediately for all the courses and their grades you insert. There is an opportunity to add more classes in case our suggested amount is not enough.
It's so simple: your "Overall GPA" for both Fall and Spring is displayed at the bottom of the class list included below.
It is much more convenient to get your GPA results by inserting course names, hours and grades into the corresponding fields. However, you may be interested in learning how to do it alone. By using this universal GPA formula, you'll be able to calculate your academic success anytime, anywhere:
Grades * Credits / Credits = GPA
What Are the Equivalents?
Roughly speaking, if you wish to know how GPA score complies with the traditional grading system, here is a hint (it is relevant only for simple GPA estimation): A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1, F=0.
A new scale determines 4.3 score as the highest one (A+). Weighted GPA is approximately the same as the simple one, so the evaluation system is the same.
Advanced Placement GPA is considered the most complicated one. It is count in a more tricky way, and the highest number possible to obtain is 5.3. You have to be aware of all these nuances in order not to get trapped.
Weighted GPA along with AP/IB/Honors has a 10.0 schedule. However, this score is valued higher than ordinary college GPA scores. So, while in some cases you have to find the weighted average, in other you need, to sum up, few scores after calculating each separately.
What Types of GPA Exists?
Note: take only such subjects as English, Math, Social Studies, Foreign Language and Science into account. You need weighted GPA to pass the admission commission. Unfortunately, its officers are not interested in your Music or PE achievements. Of course, another thing which counts is the type of college/university you wish to enter and the desired degree.
Note: semester GPA is calculated two times per academic year (after the Fall and Spring semester respectively). To add both scores is not enough to get the total GPA in the end.
Note: cumulative GPA is the same as overall.
What's Next So Far?
GPA calculation is used for planning purposes mostly. Your official achievements are received at the very end along with your diploma. But what for should you risk? Make sure you include failed as well as successfully passed subjects because both are parts of your GPA.
So, you have calculated your GPA rate. Now, if you are still a high school student, decide whether your AP/IB/Honors classes do not influence it negatively? In case your GPA is too weak, try moving to regular level classes. It will automatically improve the situation (eg., turning your C into B).
Being an undergraduate who cares about Non-STEM, you need to meet most graduate school admission standards. The fewer credit hours you earned may play a significant role in your case.
Being undergraduate with STEM awareness, focus more on your science or engineering classes performance along with credit hours amount.
Note that the calculated GPA returned is based on your information only. It is not an official grade point average. Campuses may calculate your grade point average in a different way - based on your official high school transcript.


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Warm And Cozy Sleeping Space With Master Bedroom Bedding Sets In Lovable Patchwork Quilt And Coverlet Ideas
Bring warmness and coziness to your sleeping space during this wintry season by applying amiable master bedroom bedding sets in patchwork quilts and coverlets. Not only providing you with warm comfort, those patchwork quilts and coverlets will also add more nice looking decorative look with their beautifully and colorfully intricate stitch patterns. For sure, these particular types of bedding linen sets are going to uplift your sleeping interior decor as well.Master bedroom bedding sets in patchwork quilts and coverlets will completely transform your sleeping interior with more comfy color splashes. Most of these quilts are made of cotton fabric composition for surface and filling, pursuing supreme softness and comfort. They are designed in various appealing elaborate themes like cottage floral, rustic lodge, cheerful childhood times, and many more. Enrich your sleeping space with typical stitch motif from patchwork quilts and coverlets applied as master bedroom bedding sets and enjoy their pleasant warmth.


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Library:How to Cite/Start
Whenever you use someone else's words or ideas in your paper or presentation, you must indicate that this information is borrowed by citing your source. This applies to written sources you've used, such as books, articles and web pages, as well as other formats, such as images, sounds, TV/film clips, and DVDs. Failure to cite such sources may be considered plagiarism. Avoid distress and embarrassment by learning exactly what to cite – the who, what, where and when of your source!


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The Four Hundred
1979 · New York
by SHEPPARD, Stephen
New York: Summit, 1979. Very Good/Very Good. Book club. Very good in very good dustwrapper. Dustwrapper shelf rubbed. Please Note: This book has been transferred to Between the Covers from another database and might not be described to our usual standards. Please inquire for more detailed condition information. (Inventory #: 150392)


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Posted in Purchasing - Procurement 30+ days ago.
This job brought to you by eQuest
Type: Full-Time
Location: Cherry Hill, New Jersey
Founded in 1886, American Water is the largest and most geographically diverse publicly traded U.S. water and wastewater utility company. With headquarters in Voorhees, N.J., the company employs 6,800 dedicated professionals who provide regulated and market-based drinking water, wastewater and other related services to an estimated 15 million people in 47 states and Ontario, Canada. To learn more about American Water and additional career opportunities, visit www.amwater.com.
Primary Role
The Senior Buyer position manages the sourcing of IT related services, licenses agreements, and hardware spend while continuously identifying and implementing opportunities to lower total cost of ownership. This position supports a fast paced agile IT organization, with a focus on building internal applications and enhancing current operating platforms with next generation technology to include machine learning and artificial intelligence. Activities include leading cross functional project teams, executing sourcing strategies, driving supplier relationship management, and negotiating terms and conditions.
Key Accountabilities
Knowledge / Skills
• Analytical problem solving skills to produce best product/service at lowest total cost of ownership within required time frames.
• Business acumen to analyze commercial business, procurement issues and risk management issues with continuous improvement mindset.
• Knowledge of sourcing strategies, and methodologies related to service and construction procurement.
• Ability to communicate effectively verbally and in written presentation form.
• Ability work in a collaborative team environment within Supply Chain and stakeholders.
• Knowledge of SAP (Preferred)
• Extensive knowledge and experience in Microsoft Office Products
• Experience negotiating complex IT agreements for Software licenses, cloud / Software as a Service, and IT consulting services
• Ability to work on multiple assignments effectively in an agile environment
• Knowledge of relevant supply markets and understanding of sources of supply market intelligence.
• Experience analyzing industry trends and conditions to inform sourcing strategies
• Knowledge and ability to utilize e procurement tools effectively
• SAP knowledge a plus
Work Environment
Indoor office environment
Experience / Education
• Minimum 6 years' total work experience (4 years for Buyer level)
• Minimum 4 years' of procurement or category management experience (2 years for Buyer level)
• Utility procurement experience a plus
• Experience working in matrixed organizations
• Bachelor's degree in Business, Supply Chain, Finance, Engineering or related disciplines or equivalent combination of education and experience.
Travel Requirements
Certifications & Licenses
Join American Water. We care about water. It's what we do.®
American Water is firmly committed to Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and prohibits employment discrimination for employees and applicants based on his or her age, race, color, pregnancy, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, marital status, citizenship, or because he or she is an individual with a disability, protected veteran or other status protected by federal, state, and local laws.


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[Not working] Pinch to zoom with touch screen
Leomate last edited by
There's bug that Vivaldi cannot recognize multi touch zoom gesture. I have check all browser and only Vivaldi have that problem. Tested in my touchscreen laptop with windows 10 64bit
felixc2015 last edited by
Same for me. I purchased an Asus T100HA, Win 10, 64 bits. The handling of zoom is problematic. The pinch does not work, and double-tapping a paragraph does not zoom in it. Using the touch to change the zoom from the bar in the lower right cursor is sorta too much or nothing. Other than that Vivaldi works nicely on this hybrid tablet/notebook. Although Edge is nicely integrated in the tablet mode, I prefer using Vivaldi.
Are there plans to put energy in supporting some of the Win10 mobile features?
Vivaldi is quite unfinished. The protocols to make it fully compatible with touch screens are not all written yet.


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Hey Guys,
So the other day I was really feelin in the mood for somethin different. Since I've been wearing skirts and dresses non stop this summer I thought pants and a tee were in order. I immediately thought of this british flag shirt that I bought a few months ago. I had still never worn it and I thought today was the perfect day to break it out. I love how the sleeves have the cut out details on them. I didn't want anything to distract from the shirt, which is why I choose black tights. I keep getting a rocker vibe from this t-shirt everytime I look at it.
In my head I was also doing a little tribute to Amy Winehouse. She was one of my fav artists from the moment I first heard her voice and I always had faith in her and hoped she would pull it together. I was so upset when I heard about her death. This outfit made me think of her just because of the flag. Since I was thinking of Amy I had to wear my hair up in a mini beehive style and wear cat eyes. You can't see my makeup because of my glasses but trust me the cat eyes are there. I'll try and remember to do better with more closeups next time to show the details.
T-Shirt: Ideeli
Tights: Old Navy
Shoes: Target
Necklace: Forever 21
Love you Amy...
1983 - 2011


text: Chess Club Chess Club takes advantage of the beautiful summer day on Baker Lawn. GlobeMed Students enjoy GlobeMed's 5th Annual Benefit Dinner Banquet. Dartmouth Aires The Aires perform in the A Cappella Showcase during New Student Orientation. Middle Eastern Dance Club Members of the Middle Eastern Dance Club perform in Common Ground. PreviousNext


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DISABLED children will be able to enjoy a host of summer activities thanks to a £4,000 donation.
Gary Robinson, a member of Havant's Round Table and managing director of Aura Gas, found out about the work carried out by the Havant and Waterlooville branch of the national charity KIDS.
The KIDS Havant Young People's Project, which supports disabled children in the area, was in jeopardy of closing due to council cuts.
Mr Robinson arranged for Aura Gas to make the £4,000 donation, ensuring that the club stays open for another year.
The money will provide some of the service users with family days out and enjoy the summer weather.
KIDS is a national charity that cares for over 8,000 disabled children and young people up and down the country.


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Dr Syeda Saira Hamid
Undeniably, a leading quality education system along a spiritual and cultural heritage: schools, colleges and universities produce qualified and civilized people with advanced knowledge, skills and values to enhance the growth and development of a country. According to OECD Rapport (2010), the most effective way to raise educational quality is to modify initial teacher education and recruitment, and to develop new means to train teachers who are already in-service.
Currently, teacher training around the world is part of higher education. Consequently, it is imperative to develop synergies between pre-university, university and research levels, according to the evolution concerning teaching, learning and evaluation strategies. Universities should be involved into the process of developing the entire educational system and of emphasizing the benefits of education in society.
In the context of life long learning, Continuing Professional Development(CPD) is meant for expressing continuity and coherence among different stages of a career. According to Euridice Rapports (2008), these type of training levels vary from one country to another: is always considered a right but varies between obligation and option. while CPD is a professional duty in France, the Netherlands, Sweden and Iceland, participation in it is in practice optional. In Spain, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia and Slovakia, CPD is optional, but clearly linked to career advancement and salary increases. In Spain and Luxembourg, teachers who enrol for a certain amount of training are eligible for a salary bonus.
Quality education of any state helps a lot in bringing up the nation to excel on the globe. Unluckily, Pakistan has a scarcity of teachers in schools and the available human resources are not qualified enough to cope with the high standards of the global education system. Quality education has a tremendous influence on a civilization's spirit which holds anincredible part in sustainable development. It rather acts as a defence system of a country. Undoubtedly, quality teachers are a major ingrediant in the mechanism of quality education. As someone said "Good Teachers make good Schools, good schools make good learners and good learners make a good nation." There is a growing consensus that "effective professional development" can improve teacher quality, yet it is very important to note that many researches do not support the consensus; putting a question mark on – "effective". International researchers agree on the main features of professional development which are: i) Engages teachers for a long period of time inspite of workshops that last only few days. ii)Focuses on combining content and pedagogy. iii) Follows the teaching process in real classroom situations. iv) Opportunities for practice at their work places, follow up, feedback and reflection on learnt activities. The question is how much of our budget do we have in hand for such activities? Or why not develop a low-cost local sustainable system for these activities?
The rule is simple and very clear, that when a foundation is weak, one is likely to collapse. The army does not train a common person for the country's defence, it has its own system of recruitment and special academies, for the making of a loyal soldier and a patriotic officer. Then how can CPD alone prepare a devoted teacher? Why is teacher education not taken as seriously as the armed forces?
Why are we unable to make good teachers from the very beginning on solid foundations? Now the Punjab government School Education Department is taking pains only to plan in-service teacher trainings in the form of new CPD program, and has quitely slaughtered the pre-service teacher education. It has been done by stopping the admissions in B.Ed. (Honors) i.e, 4- years program in all the Government Elementary Teachers Training Colleges (GCETs) that were designed with a mandate for both, pre-service and in-service teacher education. Earlier, faculty of the twenty (20) GCETs was fully trained with the latest collaborative learning pedagogy under the Pre-STEP USAID project to teach the said 4-years B.Ed/BSc. ED (Honors) programs.
The ban has also vetoed the cheapest source of getting a professional degree at district level along moral growth, spiritual maturity of future teachers. This has especially put females of remote areas at a disadvantage. Certainly, GCETS were performing as linked bridges orsynergies between pre-university, university and research levels. Hence, there is a sincere need to focus and revisit the root causes of this problem at local levels, otherwise, ill-advisedly, we keep treating cancer with mere pain killers and allow it to become more severe. We do not have more time for further experimentation in a profession that creates all other professions. Research based factual-framework at local levels for quality teacher education, including both pre-service and in-service, should be developed and followed to solve the issue on a permanent basis. We cannot afford to think otherwise.
– The writer is focal person Govt College for Elementary Teachers for Women, Islamabad.


text: I want a new phone, but honestly, I don't want 4G. Unless the price is what 3G is now, I'm out. I guess what I'm wondering is will all the new dual core phones be 4G only? My data use is sporadic. I may use 1gig this month and 7 next month. I really don't want to be forced into having a plan that I need to worry about my data use in order to have a new bad ass phone. I do want a new phone soon though.


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Based on the aggregated intelligence of 170,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, Australian mining giant BHP Billiton
With that in mind, let's take a closer look at BHP's business and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.
BHP facts
Headquarters (founded)
Melbourne, Australia (1885)
Market Cap
$204.64 billion
Diversified metals and mining
Trailing-12-Month Revenue
$53.3 billion
CEO Marius Kloppers (since 2007)
CFO Alexandre Vanselow (since 2006)
Return on Equity (average, past 3 years)
$12.75 billion / $15.76 billion
Dividend Yield
Rio Tinto
Teck Resources
Sources: Capital IQ (a division of Standard & Poor's) and Motley Fool CAPS.
On CAPS, 97% of the 2,675 members who have rated BHP believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include All-Stars latimerburned and 3DeeFool, both of whom are ranked in the top 15% of our community.
Just last month , latimerburned highlighted BHP as a solid opportunity for patient Fools:
They probably underperform through the [PotashCorp
(NYSE: POT)] deal but long term this is a buy. Good inflation fighter with all their metals and minerals. Great management. Shareholder friendly. Low debt level. Decent dividend.
To be sure, PotashCorp continues to talk with other potential bidders in an attempt to thwart BHP's takeover plans. Of course, even without the acquisition, BHP's portfolio of low-cost, high-quality assets remains one of the most attractive, not to mention stable, you'll ever find. As one of the world's most diversified miners (across countries and products), BHP's returns on invested capital tend to be less volatile than those of other highly rated metal producers like Rio Tinto, Vale, Freeport, and Teck.
So although BHP currently trades at a forward P/E premium to those same foes, CAPS member 3DeeFool believes its ultradiversified nature can still give investors plenty of peace of mind:
Given an inflationary outlook, it would seem that commodity prices are set to rise. BHP is probably the most diversified resource company out there, and producing pretty much any commodity out there (and extremely geographically diversified). The [PotashCorp] bid further, while expensive, extends their reach into fertilizer and food production (but I'm not so certain how beneficial it will be to the bottom-line, at least in the short term).
What do you think about BHP, or any other stock for that matter? If you want to retire rich, you need to put together the best portfolio you can. Owning exceptional stocks is a surefire way to secure your financial future, and on Motley Fool CAPS, thousands of investors are working every day to find them. CAPS is 100% free, so get started!
Fool contributor Brian Pacampara owns no position in any of the companies mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days.
True to its name, The Motley Fool is made up of a motley assortment of writers and analysts, each with a unique perspective; sometimes we agree, sometimes we disagree, but we all believe in the power of learning from each other through our Foolish community. The Fool's disclosure policy always gets a perfect score.