11 Temmuz 2012 Çarşamba
Security officers protest in 10 cities for better wages www.privateofficer.com
Santa Fe shoplifter pulls gun on Walmart security www.privateofficer.com
Tennessee State University embroiled in grade-fixing scandal www.privateofficer.com
Una-Lam's VP Sales Celebrates 40 Years, and We Give Back to the Community
10 Temmuz 2012 Salı
9 Temmuz 2012 Pazartesi
Former Iowa teacher arrested for contacting teen www.privateofficer.com
The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports (http://bit.ly/OGyt1A) that Michael Kenneth Lyons of Waterloo was arrested Thursday night on suspicion of violating a court order not to contact the 18-year-old student. His wife reported that he called the student.
Police arrested Lyons in November after finding him and the student kissing in a car.
He pleaded guilty in May to sexual exploitation by a school employee and was sentenced to five years in prison. That was suspended to 30 days in jail as long as he abided by certain conditions — including one not to contact the student until May 2017.
He is being held at the Black Hawk County Jail without bond.
Source:wcfcourier.com
Idaho man wins $800,000 discrimination lawsuit www.privateofficer.com
The Times-News reports Ricky Garcia began working for PSI Environmental Systems in Twin Falls in 2005. He left to take another job in 2007, and filed a complaint with the Idaho Human Rights Commission contending that company officials passed him over for raises and told him that Hispanic workers would never be promoted. In February 2009, the commission found PSI had discriminated against Garcia, and late last month a federal jury agreed.
Garcia says he feels relieved and happy after the verdict. PSI district manager Josh Brown said he couldn't comment on the lawsuit and that his company had decided not to discuss the case.
Crane collapes in Dallas kills 2 workers www.privateofficer.com
RICHARDSON, Texas July 9 2012 (AP) - A crane collapse in suburban Dallas has killed two construction workers.It happened in Richardson, on the campus of the University of Texas at Dallas. The university says the crane was being disassembled at the time.
A witness in a nearby campus library told reporters the accident sounded like a loud crash of metal from the sky. He also heard screams.
The weather may have been a factor. A meteorologist with the National Weather Service says a band of thunderstorms moving through the area brought wind gusts in excess of 40 miles an hour.
The crane was being used to construct a large classroom building scheduled to be completed next year.
Scott Harrison: Why Charity Shouldn't Be About Guilt
Several years ago, Scott Harrison had the sudden realization that his life up to that point had been a sham.
This is where Harrison began his story, as he took the stage at the Inc. 500|5000 Conference. Both his personal story and the story of what his non-profit organization charity:water does (bring clean water to the developing world) was one of the most moving talks of the conference so far and had many entrepreneurs in the audience tearful.
That feeling he described, he told the room, was the result of spending years working in the New York City club scene as a promoter.
"Budweiser paid me $2,000 a month to drink Bud," he said. "Bacardi, the same. I was paid to drink. I did drugs and gambled. I realized on that beach that I was the most emotionally, spiritually, and morally bankrupt person I knew."
What'd he do about it?
"While I was hungover during the day, I started reading the Bible. That was an interesting push and pull," he said, laughing.
It was through this spiritual awaking that Harrison decided to clean up his act. He signed up to volunteer with doctors going to Africa to provide free surgeries to underprivileged people with deformities . A year into this volunteering journey, he found the one underlying issue for so many of these deformities that he could do something about: dirty water. This was the birth of charity:water.
Harrison's visual presentation showed graphic, moving images of the devastation caused by dirty, disease-filled water. Children drinking muddy water from bottles. Mothers struggling to carry huge jugs of water. And even though the message was serious, Harrison had a knack for lightening his serious message with a joke here and there.
From an entrepreneurial standpoint, he had an early guiding principle.
"I knew from the beginning that this couldn't be about guilt. You can't guilt people to give," he said. "It had to be about opportunity. I had to find a way to get real people, selfish people like me, to invest in this cause."
Harrison revealed to the crowd the three things he set out to do with this charity--all of which, he says, most charities lack.
1. Find a way to give 100 percent of the profits to the actual cause.
2. Proof: Make it completely transparent where the money goes.
3. Build a brand.
Today, having met those three objectives, the organization has funded 4,200 water projects with over $40 million in donations. He's convinced not only everyday people to donate money, but huge brands like Saks Fifth Avenue to help out in some way. For more information about how you can donate (which Harrison encouraged the crowd to do), check out their website.
Source: http://www.inc.com/staff-blog/scott-harrison-why-charity-shouldnt-be-about-guilt-.html
ECLIPSYS EASTMAN KODAK CO EARTHLINK DST SYSTEMS
Starting up Young? Don't Drop Out
Want to be the next Mark Zuckerberg? Here's one way you shouldn't follow in his footsteps, writes venture capitalist Brad Feld.
College is generally considered a time to expand your horizons, learn to live on your own, have a ton of fun, and even, perhaps, learn a little something. But are your undergraduate years also the best time to getting started on building a business?
The counter-arguments to this idea seem obvious. Students are generally short of money and have no lack of other demands on their time (though, let's be honest, plenty of college kids aren't exactly getting up at the crack of dawn to hit the books or spending every waking hour working). Classes aren't generally directly relevant to entrepreneurship. But at least one expert on starting businesses feels the case for beginning your start-up life in college outweighs the downsides.
Writing on his blog recently, venture capitalist Brad Feld claimed your years getting a degree are the perfect time to start experimenting with starting a business. Why? He quotes a line he heard from a mentor-in-residence at UM Tech Transfer:
"College is like a sandbox if you are an entrepreneur," he writes. "Falling down doesn't hurt much."
This thinking takes the initial objection to college kids starting businesses—that they don’t have many resources—and turns it on its head. Students might not be swimming in cash or connections, but the very fact that they aren’t established yet in full lives with mortgages, kids and car payments is actually a huge advantage, according to Feld, who reflected on the sandbox analogy in his post:
This made me think of a brilliant phrase from Alex White, the CEO of Next Big Sound, in his TechStars Demo Day pitch. I can't remember where in the presentation it was but Jason reminded me that one of Alex's great moments was when he said something like "We don't need to raise much money because we are cheap to keep alive."
Feld also notes that this very sense of not being weighed down with much in the way of responsibilities or expectations is great for creativity and the willingness to fail:
The level of enthusiasm and optimism among the people we met with was phenomenal. Their willingness and interest in learning and trying new stuff was apparent. And their understanding that plenty of things wouldn’t work, but they wouldn’t learn if they didn't try, was front and center.
College for many (although by no means all) of us is a privileged, low-expense time when parents help out with feeding and housing us and our lifestyle expectations are modest. Why not take advantage of the time and freedom that buys you to make some of the initial mistakes and learn some of the valuable lessons entailed in becoming an entrepreneur?
Feld obviously isn't the only member of the start-up community encouraging young people to get their hands dirty early. PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel made a lot of waves earlier this year with his 20 Under 20 program, encouraging students to drop out of school to start businesses with $100,000 he'd invested in their ideas. But Feld is perhaps more unusual in not calling college a waste of time for entrepreneur hopefuls, but essentially a great practice ground for them to hone their skills while they combine study and business.
What do you think, is college a great time to start experimenting with entrepreneurship (check out our Coolest College Start-ups package for inspiration!), or should you just be studying instead?
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/inc/channel/start-up/~3/eLzfOtwjmC4/dont-drop-out-of-college-a-vc-advises.html
QIMONDA posted business economy
8 Temmuz 2012 Pazar
Riot hits quiet South Carolina beach www.privateofficer.com
FOLLY BEACH SC July 8 2012 — They pulled onto the beach in four tour buses with a deejay and a makeshift dance floor and left behind more than 100 bags of trash.Had it not been for that crew of college-age revelers who packed the beach at East 10th Street, Folly Beach would have had a pretty quiet Fourth of July, by most accounts. Instead, 10 Folly officers and five Charleston County sheriff's deputies descended upon what incident reports termed a “riot.”
Fourth of July revelers crowd Folly Beach on Wednesday. Included Media
Melee on Folly BeachThey hauled seven men to the Charleston County jail. Four officers and a deputy suffered injuries while scuffling with the partiers they arrested.
Public Safety Chief Dennis Brown called in an emergency response shortly after 2 p.m., requesting that all units head to the usually quiet surfing spot, according to a police report. The report said the crowd out there had turned violent toward officers who came to check out a complaint about rowdy beach-goers.
Brown sad Thursday that between 3,000 and 4,000 people had crammed into a 75-yard by 30-yard area. Officers don't know what touched off the brawling, but Brown suggested that the combination of heat and excessive drinking likely triggered the melee.
He added that Folly Beach suffers from the limitations of fitting an estimated 60,000 people on busy beach days onto a strip of land only 6 miles long and a half-mile wide.
“It makes for a very large urban community,” he said. And that, in turn, makes for a lot of trash, which he called the greatest concern of the holiday.
“A lot of it made it into the ocean,” Brown said.
Reports detail young men throwing drinks, cans and cups at officers, grappling with them in the sand and chanting and fist-pumping to work their friends into a froth. Seven of those beach-goers left in handcuffs: Daniel Fernell, 25, of Johns Island; Michael Harvey, 19, of Murfreesboro, Tenn.; Alex Presby, 20, of Charlotte; James Restrepo, 22, of Greenville; Adam Shuster, 22, of Myrtle Beach; Daniel Werney, 23, of Charleston; and Stanley Randal Coleman, 23, of an unknown address.
Police arrested the men on various charges, including disorderly conduct, inciting a riot and violating city ordinances.
An officer wrote that he found Fernell waving his arms and yelling. Fernell didn't listen when the officer told him to remain still, the report said, “creating alarm and panic amongst the public.”
One officer told Werney to stop, as Werney prepared to throw a drink at another officer, according to a report.
“When I turned to deal with another subject, Mr. Werney threw a beverage on me instead,” the officer wrote. Werney then attempted to flee and wrestled with the officer, the report said.
Police picked up both Harvey and Presby for chanting and pumping their fists, reports said. Shuster tripped an officer as the officer arrested his friend, according to an arrest report.
When the officer pushed him away, Shuster “became enraged and attempted to physically accost” the officer, the report said. Some of Shuster's friends restrained him.
Another officer confiscated a glass liquor bottle from a woman on the beach and began pouring out the booze inside when Restrepo tried to snatch it, the officer wrote. Restrepo argued with the officer that the bottle belonged to him and fought the officer until a deputy threatened to use his Taser, the report said.
Authorities on Folly Beach responded to 123 calls total on the Wednesday holiday and said that, overall, incidents are down this year. City officials posted signs along Folly Road approaching the beach, warning visitors about rules and regulations on the island.
Officers also passed out trash bags to help reduce the cleanup. After the beach crowd left late Wednesday, city employees joined the mayor and other residents at the once-quiet surf spot on East 10th Street and picked up trash before the annual fireworks display.
Source:post courier
Mich. Deploys Talking Urinal Cakes in DUI Fight www.privateofficer.com
DETROIT MI July 8 2012 (AP) — Michigan hopes to keep drunks off the road with the help from a special message in men's bathrooms featuring an attention-getting woman's voice.Talking urinal-deodorizer cakes have been distributed to Michigan Licensed Beverage Association members in Wayne County, including Detroit, state officials announced. A recorded message will play reminding men who step up to the urinals to call a cab or a friend, if needed, to get home safely.
"Not only do we want to turn some heads and get people talking, we hope everyone takes the message to heart," Michael L. Prince, director of the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning, said in a statement.
Bay, Ottawa and Delta counties also are getting them. The motion-activated messages are part of a statewide Fourth of July education and enforcement effort. The federally funded drunken driving crackdown runs through Sunday. It also includes stepped up patrols in 26 counties involving a number of agencies.
"At first it may be seen as humorous, but the seriousness of the message will stand out and encourage patrons to find a safe ride home," said Michigan Licensed Beverage Association Executive Director Scott T. Ellis.
Talking urinal cakes have been used in other states for similar efforts.
Scott Harrison: Why Charity Shouldn't Be About Guilt
Several years ago, Scott Harrison had the sudden realization that his life up to that point had been a sham.
This is where Harrison began his story, as he took the stage at the Inc. 500|5000 Conference. Both his personal story and the story of what his non-profit organization charity:water does (bring clean water to the developing world) was one of the most moving talks of the conference so far and had many entrepreneurs in the audience tearful.
That feeling he described, he told the room, was the result of spending years working in the New York City club scene as a promoter.
"Budweiser paid me $2,000 a month to drink Bud," he said. "Bacardi, the same. I was paid to drink. I did drugs and gambled. I realized on that beach that I was the most emotionally, spiritually, and morally bankrupt person I knew."
What'd he do about it?
"While I was hungover during the day, I started reading the Bible. That was an interesting push and pull," he said, laughing.
It was through this spiritual awaking that Harrison decided to clean up his act. He signed up to volunteer with doctors going to Africa to provide free surgeries to underprivileged people with deformities . A year into this volunteering journey, he found the one underlying issue for so many of these deformities that he could do something about: dirty water. This was the birth of charity:water.
Harrison's visual presentation showed graphic, moving images of the devastation caused by dirty, disease-filled water. Children drinking muddy water from bottles. Mothers struggling to carry huge jugs of water. And even though the message was serious, Harrison had a knack for lightening his serious message with a joke here and there.
From an entrepreneurial standpoint, he had an early guiding principle.
"I knew from the beginning that this couldn't be about guilt. You can't guilt people to give," he said. "It had to be about opportunity. I had to find a way to get real people, selfish people like me, to invest in this cause."
Harrison revealed to the crowd the three things he set out to do with this charity--all of which, he says, most charities lack.
1. Find a way to give 100 percent of the profits to the actual cause.
2. Proof: Make it completely transparent where the money goes.
3. Build a brand.
Today, having met those three objectives, the organization has funded 4,200 water projects with over $40 million in donations. He's convinced not only everyday people to donate money, but huge brands like Saks Fifth Avenue to help out in some way. For more information about how you can donate (which Harrison encouraged the crowd to do), check out their website.
Source: http://www.inc.com/staff-blog/scott-harrison-why-charity-shouldnt-be-about-guilt-.html
ECLIPSYS EASTMAN KODAK CO EARTHLINK DST SYSTEMS
Starting up Young? Don't Drop Out
Want to be the next Mark Zuckerberg? Here's one way you shouldn't follow in his footsteps, writes venture capitalist Brad Feld.
College is generally considered a time to expand your horizons, learn to live on your own, have a ton of fun, and even, perhaps, learn a little something. But are your undergraduate years also the best time to getting started on building a business?
The counter-arguments to this idea seem obvious. Students are generally short of money and have no lack of other demands on their time (though, let's be honest, plenty of college kids aren't exactly getting up at the crack of dawn to hit the books or spending every waking hour working). Classes aren't generally directly relevant to entrepreneurship. But at least one expert on starting businesses feels the case for beginning your start-up life in college outweighs the downsides.
Writing on his blog recently, venture capitalist Brad Feld claimed your years getting a degree are the perfect time to start experimenting with starting a business. Why? He quotes a line he heard from a mentor-in-residence at UM Tech Transfer:
"College is like a sandbox if you are an entrepreneur," he writes. "Falling down doesn't hurt much."
This thinking takes the initial objection to college kids starting businesses—that they don’t have many resources—and turns it on its head. Students might not be swimming in cash or connections, but the very fact that they aren’t established yet in full lives with mortgages, kids and car payments is actually a huge advantage, according to Feld, who reflected on the sandbox analogy in his post:
This made me think of a brilliant phrase from Alex White, the CEO of Next Big Sound, in his TechStars Demo Day pitch. I can't remember where in the presentation it was but Jason reminded me that one of Alex's great moments was when he said something like "We don't need to raise much money because we are cheap to keep alive."
Feld also notes that this very sense of not being weighed down with much in the way of responsibilities or expectations is great for creativity and the willingness to fail:
The level of enthusiasm and optimism among the people we met with was phenomenal. Their willingness and interest in learning and trying new stuff was apparent. And their understanding that plenty of things wouldn’t work, but they wouldn’t learn if they didn't try, was front and center.
College for many (although by no means all) of us is a privileged, low-expense time when parents help out with feeding and housing us and our lifestyle expectations are modest. Why not take advantage of the time and freedom that buys you to make some of the initial mistakes and learn some of the valuable lessons entailed in becoming an entrepreneur?
Feld obviously isn't the only member of the start-up community encouraging young people to get their hands dirty early. PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel made a lot of waves earlier this year with his 20 Under 20 program, encouraging students to drop out of school to start businesses with $100,000 he'd invested in their ideas. But Feld is perhaps more unusual in not calling college a waste of time for entrepreneur hopefuls, but essentially a great practice ground for them to hone their skills while they combine study and business.
What do you think, is college a great time to start experimenting with entrepreneurship (check out our Coolest College Start-ups package for inspiration!), or should you just be studying instead?
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/inc/channel/start-up/~3/eLzfOtwjmC4/dont-drop-out-of-college-a-vc-advises.html
QIMONDA posted business economy
Una-Lam's VP Sales Celebrates 40 Years, and We Give Back to the Community
Phil is not only a long time Una-Lam employee, but he is a long time Elk and this year he is the New York State Elks Association President. Two weeks ago the Sidney Elks Lodge was inundated with floodwater for the second time in five years. We could think of no better way to honor Phil's service to Una-Lam than to help clean the lodge for him. Yesterday afternoon we hosed mud off the parking lot, removed damaged drywall and insulation, and hauled debris to a dumpster. Below are some photos from the afternoon's festivities.
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| Phil speaks to co-workers at luncheon |
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| Una-Lam President, Craig Van Cott, helps to hose mud off Elks Lodge parking lot |
7 Temmuz 2012 Cumartesi
TSA screening of drinks bought inside terminals upset passengers www.privateofficer.com
DENVER, Colo. July 7 2012– A seemingly new airport security measure is leaving some passengers surprised and upset. Passengers in Colorado say they’ve been asked to hand over drinks they buy inside the airport terminal for additional testing. KJCT-8 News in Grand Junction, CO reports that TSA agents are asking airport patrons to open up their drinks so that they conduct a second round of screenings at their flight gates.
But the TSA insists this isn’t a new far-reaching screening effort.
“In a nutshell, liquid screening at gates is random and it isn’t happening at every airport every day,” TSA employee Bob Burns wrote on the administration’s official blog on July 5. “So other than possibly taking a few moments of your time before boarding your flight, it’s business as usual”
According to Burns,some passengers are testing small samples of passengers drinks before they get on the plane. Here’s how he described the test:
“In case you’re wondering, our officers don’t place the test strips in your beverages/liquids. They simply have the passenger remove the cap/lid and they hold the strip over the opening of the container. Procedures call for moving the test strip to the side and applying the solution from the dropper to test the strip. If the test results are positive TSA will conduct additional testing to make a final assessment.”
Some travelers aren’t buying the TSA’s explanation, saying they think the protocol is overkill.
“Well, you know, I’m always glad that my safety’s a priority. I think testing drinks after they’ve already been bought might be a little extreme,” said Jennifer Smart, an infrequent traveler.
“The water or the juices or anything you buy here in the airport, the TSA’s going to come over and look and check and test it? I mean, it’s just ridiculous,” added experienced flyer Thomas Burgard.
Sarasota airport police lieutenant commits suicide www.privateofficer.com
According to Sheriff's Office reports, Osborn's wife, Cynthia, reported her husband's suicide around 8 p.m.
Deputies found him lying face up on the floor of the master bedroom, between the foot of the bed and a dresser.
He had suffered one gunshot wound to the head, with entry and exit wounds visible on each side. A pistol was found near his feet.
He was pronounced dead several minutes later.
The Sheriff's Office processed the scene for evidence, and assigned a detective.
Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Wendy Rose said it remains an active investigation.
"We're saddened by this and very surprised," said Frederick "Rick" Piccolo, the airport's president and chief executive. "He was an outstanding employee. He always did a great job and cared a great deal about the airport."
Osborn, 65, had worked at the airport for about 20 years, after retiring as detective from the Stamford Police Department — a municipal police department in Connecticut serving a population of more than 122,000.
Osborn rose in rank from officer to lieutenant at the small airport department.
Piccolo said the Sheriff's Office will conduct the investigation.
"It's out of our jurisdiction," he said.
Airport Police Chief Jim Carlino declined to comment, citing the ongoing investigation, and referred all questions to the Sheriff's Office.
Osborn was personally involved in Carlino's hiring.
In 2008, after he was hired by Piccolo and offered an annual salary of $62,000, Carlino conducted his own background investigation, although he said Osborn, whom he had recently promoted, took the lead.
Stamford Police Capt. Brian McElligott worked with Osborn and looked up to him.
"He was an upbeat, positive guy," McElligott said. "He was well-liked and an extremely conscientious police officer."
Osborn retired after serving 20 years at the department, McElligott said.
"He was a role model for the younger guys," he said. "He still has friends at this department."
Source-herald-tribune
Terminally ill-40 year Nashville police veteran denied pension www.privateofficer.com
NASHVILLE, Tenn.July 7 2012- She worked a lifetime to earn a pension. But when a longtime Metro employee retired, she didn't get it.
A NewsChannel 5 investigation raises questions about whether negligence by Metro cost Mavis Combs, and her family, a pension worth an nearly $250,000.
Vickie Spurlock was brought to tears as she remembered her mom's struggle with lung cancer and her struggle with Metro, to get her pension.
"She never dreamed they would treat her this way in the end," she said crying.
Mavis Combs spent nearly 40 years in law enforcement.
For most of those years, she was a secretary with Metro Police Department. She kept working even after being diagnosed with cancer.
"She'd have her chemo and go back to work," Spurlock remembers.
When it got to be too much, Combs finally retired in 2009, at the age of 72, and applied for her pension.
She wanted a lump sum payment to be paid immediately, and even signed papers she believed declared her grandchildren beneficiaries.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked Spurlock, "She made her intentions known?"
"Oh yes," Spurlock responded.
But Metro sent Combs a letter in January 2010, stating it could not begin processing her pension until she provided a copy of her social security card, even though her social security number appeared in her employee file more than 70 times.
"My mom did not have her social security card," Spurlock said. "She was 72. She didn't know where it was."
While Combs family frantically searched for the original social security card, they repeatedly called Metro looking for other options, but the family did not get called back.
"She was in a wheelchair, on oxygen. She did everything she could do," Spurlock remembered. "She told me they want me to die so they can keep my money."
Combs' family finally obtained a printout from the social security office, but after weeks of calling they were still unable to reach the Metro employee handling Comb's pension.
Combs died two days after they got the printout, on February 7, 2010.
Metro denied her pension because she never completed the application process.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates discovered an internal email from the Metro Human Relations Department that proves the employee responsible for processing Combs' pension received numerous calls from the family, that she did not return.
When her supervisors showed her a list of the missed calls, she wrote, "I'm certain I wasn't aware of so many calls."
Our investigation discovered the Metro employee assigned to her case, Pamela McInish, was later forced to resign.
Her personnel file states that she had received poor evaluations for "not returning phone calls and for "causing pensioners not to receive their checks" on time.
Yet she was assigned the pension application of a long-time employee dying of cancer.
Attorney Ray Akers sued Metro on behalf of Combs' family.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates showed him the employee's personnel file.
"It's absurd because this is not the first time this employee has dropped the ball," Akers said. "They knew she was terminally ill. They knew the employee was not returning calls and not being responsive."
But last year a judge threw out the lawsuit because Combs had not completed the appropriate paperwork before she died.
It allows Metro to keep the entire pension.
"I believe they stole her money," Spurlock said.
B.R. Hall is an elected member of the Pension Committee of the Employee Benefit Board. He says Metro should have bent over backward to help Combs and not delayed her case by asking for a social security card.
"The fact that we held it up for that reason is just and injustice," Hall said.
Attorney Ray Akers took it a step further, "I would love to see them step up to the plate and say, 'we messed up and we are sorry and we're going to make this right.'"
The family wants Metro to fulfill Mavis Combs' dying wish.
"You can't even tell where my mom is buried because we don't have the money for a headstone," Spurlock said in tears. "And yet a quarter of a million dollars of my mom's money is sitting there."
Metro said it could not comment on the case because it still under appeal. The judge in the initial case had not seen McInish's personnel file because she was forced out a year later. Metro divided approximately $3000 among her three grandchildren. It was a refund of the amount of money Combs had contributed to the Pension system before 1987.
Ironically, if Combs had been married or had dependent children, Metro would have processed her pension and provided it to them even without her filling out the paperwork.
Metro's current law says if you are not married and do not have dependent children, and you died before filling out all the paperwork, then Metro keeps the pension.
Source:newschannel5.com
Study-Austin police needs to hire 250 police officers www.privateofficer.com
Austin TX July 7 2012 The Austin Police Department is "struggling somewhat" to keep up with calls for service and cases that need investigation, and needs to add about 250 officers by 2017 to keep pace with growth, according to a consultants' study released to city leaders this week.According to the 130-page study by the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington-based research group, the department needs to grow by 257 personnel — 155 officers, 78 detectives and 24 sergeants — by 2017 as the city's population climbs an estimated 12 percent to about 920,000 people. The department currently has 1,637 officers and is authorized to employ 1,718, the study said.
The study said the Police Department's patrol officers are very busy and spend 57 percent of their time responding to one call after another — higher than other departments the group has studied, including those in San Francisco and Memphis, Tenn.
"The large amount of time consumed on calls for service, plus the time spent on self-initiated activities such as traffic stops, leaves little time left to engage the community, solve local crime and disorder problems, or patrol hot spots," the study said. "Without an increase in sector patrol staffing, the projected population growth of 12 percent by 2017 will substantially interfere with the department's ability to respond to residents' calls for police service."
The study, which cost the city about $98,000, was authorized by the City Council in March.
Police Chief Art Acevedo said that while the study shows the department is busy, officers have also been effective in keeping crime rates down.
"Thanks to the efficiencies we've instituted over the last five years, we're still reducing crime even when we're stretched thin," he said.
Deputy City Manager Michael McDonald, who oversees public safety, said that city officials will consider the study's recommendations when making staffing and budgeting decisions in the future but that they are not bound to its findings.
Compared with six other cities researched, including Fort Worth, Seattle and San Francisco, Austin has the third-highest number of officers but also the third-lowest ratio of officers per 1,000 residents.
That ratio is a kind of benchmark among departments across the country to determine staffing; having 2 officers per 1,000 is considered ideal and is also city policy. The city currently has 2.08 officers per 1,000 residents, the study said.
Researchers also recommended that the department add more investigators and detectives to deal with an increasing workload as the city grows. A survey of 350 Austin residents and people who work here indicated a preference that the department should devote more time to solving violent and property crimes.
Most survey respondents reported that they feel safe in Austin, including downtown, in parks and in their neighborhoods.
The study also recommended that Austin use civilian employees in many functions in which uniformed officers currently work, including in the training and technology departments, and in the Real Time Crime Center and Austin Regional Intelligence Center. Researchers identified nearly 30 such positions, which would mean the department would need to add only 228 new officers because of lower costs.
McDonald said that over time, the department has done that in several ways, including using civilian personnel in communications and forensic evidence. But the preference has usually been to hire police, he said.
"When we have had a choice between adding officers and civilians, we've added officers," McDonald said.
The idea for the study came about last fall during budget season. Council members were debating whether to hire 49 more officers to keep pace with the city's standard of 2 officers per 1,000 residents. One member in particular, Bill Spelman, has been critical of that ratio, saying he opposed automatic staffing increases with population growth.
Spelman suggested that instead of hiring officers based solely on population increases, the department should staff itself based on "what they want to achieve," and by targeting specific problems.
Though the council did ultimately hire 49 officers, it also agreed to Spelman's suggestion of a study on how the Police Department could use its resources the most effectively, which led to the report released this week.
Spelman and officials from his office did not return calls for comment.
source-staesman.com
1 Card stores information of all your credit cards www.privateofficer.com
Seattle Wa July 7 2012 Imagine if you had just one credit card that contained all the information of all the credit cards you currently carry in your wallet.A company called Wallaby Financial says it can make that happen with the Wallaby Card.
According to its website, Wallaby keeps track of all the different rewards offers you have on each of your credit cards, and then picks the best card to swipe for maximum rewards or savings.
The card is free for the first six months, then $50 per year after that.
The company says the use of the Wallaby Card does not affect your credit score and you still must make your minimum payments to your existing credit card providers.
Wallaby CEO Matthew Goldman told Mashable.com that he got the idea after filling up his gas tank.
While getting gas one day, he saw an ad on the pump’s display informing him that if he had used another card to pay — one he actually kept in his wallet, but hadn’t thought to swipe — he would have gotten 5% cash back.
Goldman was annoyed, but also inspired. Why, he reasoned, should the consumer even have to think about which card is best to use for any given transaction?
Source:king5.com
5 Temmuz 2012 Perşembe
Brooklyn Lease Negotiations Continue For Walmart, Penney's
Wall Street JournalBy Eliot Brown and Joseph De Avila
The Related Cos. is in advanced lease negotiations with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and J.C. Penney Co. about anchoring a mall in southeast Brooklyn, according to people familiar with the matter.
Wal-Mart has long been considering the site overlooking the Belt Parkway just west of Howard Beach. But talks have intensified in recent months as the company has expanded a publicity campaign and taken steps to mollify potential critics, the people said.
The outlook for the 630,000-square-foot development—which would accomplish Wal-Mart's longtime goal of opening a location in the city—was boosted by J.C. Penney's strong interest. The combination of the two large stores would likely give the project sufficient financial viability to move forward despite the uncertainties that continue to cloud the slowly recovering economy.
J.C. Penney, which was based in Manhattan for about seven decades before moving to Texas, already has stores in all four other boroughs. But Wal-Mart doesn't, and its possible entry into the city has sparked strong opposition from labor unions, community groups and some elected officials.
Hurdles to Wal-Mart's beachhead remain. For starters, Related has yet to finalize a purchase of a portion of the site from the state, the price for which has come under criticism from Wal-Mart opponents.
But the project doesn't require further approval by the City Council, typically a major obstacle for developers. Given a 2009 rezoning, Related is free to build any big-box store on the site once it takes control.
Representatives for Wal-Mart, J.C. Penney and Related declined to comment on lease negotiations. "We still have not signed any leases anywhere in the city," Steven Restivo, a spokesman for Wal-Mart, said last week. "We continue to evaluate opportunities across the five boroughs."
Wal-Mart and J.C. Penney would take around 150,000 square feet each in the planned Gateway Center II mall, according a person familiar with discussions. The project would sit just north of Related's Gateway Center mall, which was completed in 2002 and houses a Target and a Best Buy.
Wal-Mart, which has unsuccessfully sought to break into the New York market in the past, has been investing considerable resources in an attempt to pave the way for an entrance over the objections of a powerful set of unions and elected officials. Two labor groups, the United Food and Commercial Workers and the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, have been particularly aggressive in combating Wal-Mart, which has long been opposed to a unionized work force. They are joined by elected officials including Council Speaker Christine Quinn and community groups worried about the giant discounter's impact on local merchants.
To counter the critics, Wal-Mart has launched a public-relations campaign to tout the retailer's virtues through fliers and newspaper and radio ads.
In the first four months of the year alone, Wal-Mart spent more than $1.7 million on consultants, most of which was directed at firms that do advertising and polling, according to lobbying records.
Earlier this month, the company announced a $4 million donation to a New York City job program at a news conference with Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Wal-Mart also recently signed up as a $150,000 sponsor for a summer concert series hosted by Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz that includes performances by such artists as Queen Latifah.
The sponsorship drew praise from Mr. Markowitz, who has been critical of Wal-Mart in the past. In a statement on Sunday, he said he isn't "philosophically" opposed to Wal-Mart, but declined to comment on Related's plans. He said he believes the retailer should pay "a fair wage" and allow workers to unionize.
The push seems to have created a sense of inevitability among many elected officials, particularly given that the company has said it only intends to take space in stores where City Council approval isn't necessary, making it difficult to block. Earlier this year, Wal-Mart also won some labor support by signing a five-year contract with the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York that guarantees that any of the company's store construction would be done with union labor.
Even Ms. Quinn, a vocal Wal-Mart critic, earlier this year offered to broker a deal between the company and the Hunts Point Terminal produce market. Under the deal, Wal-Mart would have committed to buying at least 5% of its produce from the market, although talks fizzled.
Aides to Ms. Quinn last week downplayed the potential deal and said Ms. Quinn hasn't changed her position on Wal-Mart and that she continues to oppose the company coming to New York.
Critics of the possible Wal-Mart Brooklyn development have recently stepped up efforts to block Related's purchase from the state of a 21-acre piece of the mall site. Related already controls the rest.
Last week, critics released a state memorandum from the Office of General Services that detailed how Related had renegotiated the purchase price for the state-owned land. The price was reduced in 2010 to $14.5 million from the $32.5 million it agreed to pay in 2009.
According to the memo, the price was changed partly because of an appraisal that showed a lower value for the site. Also, Related had been counting on at least $7.5 million in expected government incentives that proved unavailable. The mall is part of a larger 227-acre development that includes low-income housing, retail and parkland.
"The Gateway 2 development will expand on the enormously successful project that has already brought great economic benefits to this area," creating thousands of jobs, said Joanna Rose, a spokeswoman for Related, last week.
The land sale must be approved by state agencies and the state comptroller. A spokesman for the comptroller's office said last week that it hadn't yet received the proposal.
JLo, Anthony Lines Will Continue At Kohl's
Wall Street JournalBy Karen Talley
Singer and actress Jennifer Lopez remains committed to launching a clothing line at Kohl's Corp. with husband Marc Anthony despite recently announced plans to divorce.
Mark Young, Ms. Lopez's publicist, said the Kohl's launch in September "will proceed as planned." Mr. Young called Ms. Lopez's line "distinctive" and said it represents style in an accessible way.
The star couple announced over the weekend plans to split after seven years of marriage, and retail-industry watchers said it is bad timing for the planned apparel rollout. Over the weekend, after the couple's announcement, Kohl's also said the launch would continue and that the lines can stand by themselves.
"The Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony brands have always been positioned as two separate, distinctive collections," a spokeswoman for Kohl's said.
The retailer calls the lines the largest launch of exclusive merchandise in the company's 49-year history. Kohl's has been talking up the lines and planning a big publicity push as the retailer looks for the brands to boost sales.
The lines will encompass virtually every merchandise category that Kohl's carries. The brands will be a move by the department-store chain to step up its so-called aspirational, or higher-quality, offerings.
The products, with Ms. Lopez taking a big hand in the women's offerings and Mr. Anthony involved in the men's, were expected to be promoted around their lifestyles and publicized together.
"These kinds of situations create consumer disappointment and disengagement with the celebrity," said Robert Passikoff, founder of Brands Keys, a brand-consulting firm. "Right now, Kohl's has to go through with it. They have made an investment in the merchandise and the licensing fees."
In good news for Kohl's in terms of the couple shooting for an amicable divorce, they have said they will go through with their Latin talent-search show. "The best thing [Kohl's] can do is sit very quietly and hope there is no more bad news about Marc or Jennifer," Mr. Passikoff said.
New Chairman To Head Zara's Parent Company
by Barbara Barker From WWD Issue 07/19/2011
Inditex will today enter a new era.
The parent company of Zara, Europe’s largest apparel retailer, will today see a change in management when chairman and founder Amancio Ortega, dubbed “the inventor of the Zaravolution,” steps down and hands the reins to Pablo Isla, who had been the group’s chief executive officer and deputy chairman since 2005.
But while the 75-year-old immensely secretive and low-key Ortega may be stepping down, he is hardly out — especially since he still controls the majority of the company’s shares. “Nothing has changed. He still controls the company and he still has a lot to say — and nobody doubts that he will say it,” said Sofía Vázquez, a reporter for La Voz de Galicia, a regional newspaper in the north of Spain, which is the company’s home base.
“Amancio is making another smart move, preparing for the future with similar logic and the same intelligence he has always used to run the company, but I think he’ll remain very close by,” added Linda Heras, international development director of Roberto Verino, a high-end apparel label and geographical neighbor.
Inditex operates 5,154 stores in 78 countries, with net profits of 1.73 billion euros, or $2.29 billion at average exchange, for the 2010 fiscal year on sales of 12.5 billion euros, or $16.5 billion. With eight chains led by Zara, Ortega’s empire has a workforce of roughly 100,000.
Under Isla’s watch, Inditex rolled out more than 2,800 stores with the top priorities being expansion in Asia and Eastern Europe, as well as growing e-commerce.
Pending shareholder approval, Isla will receive a hefty block of shares, worth 13.7 million euros, or $19.6 million at current exchange, as “a welcome gift” from Ortega, a company source confirmed.
About his succession, Isla said, “It is not a drastic move and there won’t be any major changes. I feel enormous responsibility and motivation to strengthen Inditex, and it’s the right moment. The transition will be smooth and very natural.”
Outside Inditex’s corporate inner sanctum, little is known about Ortega except that he’s the richest man in Spain — and the seventh richest (up two notches over last year) in the world, with a net worth of $31 billion, Forbes reported in March. His fortune includes Inditex stock — he has maintained a 59.3 percent stake in the company since it went public in 2001 — and luxury real estate projects in the U.S., Florida in particular, and in such major European cities as London, Paris, Lisbon, Berlin, Madrid and Barcelona. He has additional investments in banks, gas and tourism and owns a horse-jumping circuit and a soccer league.Ortega is not much for fanfare and personal public relations is not in his DNA. He’s been quoted as saying, “Talk about my company, but not about me,” and he rarely appears in public.
One of the few to penetrate company walls is avant-garde Spanish artist Alicia Framis, whose filmed performance “Secret Strike — Inditex” (2006) chronicled a day in the life of Zara. “Inditex employees were very involved in the film,” Framis said. “Everybody wanted to be a part of it — except Amancio Ortega.”
Ortega’s is a rags-to-riches story. In the early Sixties, he came up with the idea of making basic garments like housecoats and underwear cheaper than anyone else. Production took place on his kitchen table, and the first item cut from cardboard patterns was a quilted pink robe with blue piping. In 1975, he opened his first store here, selling bathrobes for about 50 cents each.
Working from the age of 13 in local men’s wear shops, he had little formal education. “I couldn’t work and study at the same time; it’s that simple. My university was my profession. I wanted to be a different kind of impresario, one with a social conscience,” he told Covadonga O’Shea, onetime director of Spain’s prestigious fashion magazine Telva, in an authorized biography published in 2008.
“His success has not changed him,” O’Shea said. “His values are the same; he’s humble, affectionate, generous, and he loves the people he works with.”
Ortega lives with his second wife, Flora Pérez Marcote, in an apartment in La Coruña, an unpretentious seaside town about six miles from Inditex’s headquarters in the industrial zone of Arteixo. He doesn’t speak English and, according to an employee, “he’s approachable and into everything. He lives the product,” she said.
It remains to be seen how involved Ortega will be in the company he founded, now that Isla is taking over. But the next generation of the Ortega family already is involved: The founder’s youngest daughter, Marta Ortega, was last fall brought into company headquarters, and although she has no concrete job, department or title, she’s in on all major decision making. An Inditex spokesman said her arrival and the pending management succession are unrelated, however. “She will continue her training program, a mix of creative and commercial activities, within the group and, logically [as Ortega’s daughter], she’ll have a role but so far she isn’t officially involved in the company. We don’t know anything about her future.”
Prior to Isla’s promotion, Marta Ortega was considered the heir apparent, and she’s been well groomed for it. With a degree in business administration from London’s European Business School, she speaks four languages — including English, French and Italian — and to date has interned for company stores in London and Paris, with office stints in Asia and Barcelona.
In private, she is an accomplished equestrian, taking part in international competitions with rider-boyfriend Sergio Alvarez Moya — and as socially shy as her father.
Una-Lam's VP Sales Celebrates 40 Years, and We Give Back to the Community
Phil is not only a long time Una-Lam employee, but he is a long time Elk and this year he is the New York State Elks Association President. Two weeks ago the Sidney Elks Lodge was inundated with floodwater for the second time in five years. We could think of no better way to honor Phil's service to Una-Lam than to help clean the lodge for him. Yesterday afternoon we hosed mud off the parking lot, removed damaged drywall and insulation, and hauled debris to a dumpster. Below are some photos from the afternoon's festivities.
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| Phil speaks to co-workers at luncheon |
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| Una-Lam President, Craig Van Cott, helps to hose mud off Elks Lodge parking lot |
Choose Glulam by Una-Lam Over Other Engineered Wood
Today is the last in our series examining the advantages of glulam over rival building materials. This week, we focus on other engineered wood products. Sometimes people get confused about the differences between glulam and parallam or laminated veneer lumber (LVL.) Here are some of the reasons you would rather choose glulam by Una-Lam:- Beauty
- Glulam is attractive and can (and we believe, should) be left exposed.
- Bends and Curves
- We specialize in complex, curved projects - just the kind of jobs where parallam and LVLs fall short.
- Any Size Available
- We can manufacture our structural glulam to any size. We've glued beams over 174 feet long and others over 20" wide and 108" deep.
- Pre-Fabricated
- As we mentioned last week, our glulam and connections come pre-fabricated making it quicker, easier and, therefore, cheaper to install.
Now that you're an expert on glulam, we hope you think of Una-Lam for your next project. Our experienced staff is available at 607-369-9341 Monday through Friday 8am to 5pm (Eastern) to help you bring the building of your dreams to life! 