Israeli spook firm recruiting mercenaries for Qaddafi? World War 4 Report Fortunately, Eurasia Review had merely lifted a March 1 story from the Palestinian independent Maan News Agency, where it remains online under the title "Report: Israel company recruiting Gadhafi mercenaries." However, the Maan accountâ€"which in turn ... |
Monday, May 16, 2011
Israeli spook firm recruiting mercenaries for Qaddafi? - World War 4 Report
http://marathon-cap.com/company_team_bio_Frank_Grossman.php
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Out-of-pocket costs rising for health insurance - Washington Business Journal:
kapitonragomo.blogspot.com
The study, authored by researchers from the Nationalp Opinion Research Center and Watson Wyatft Worldwide and funded by TheCommonwealtn Fund, examines trends in employer-sponsored insurance from 2004 to 2007. It found rising rates of underinsurance and unaffordability, particularly for pooredr and sicker people. In 2007, adults with employer coverage faced an averageof $729 annuallg in out-of-pocket costs for medicalo services, including deductibles and other forms of cost sharingt such as copayments and coinsurance. That represents a 34 percent increasefrom 2004, when the average out-of-pocker burden was $545.
Health plans covered a slightly smaller percentagwe of overall expenses in 2007than 2004, but growth in overalll health spending was the chiegf culprit behind rising out-of-pocket costs, according to the “The years from 2004 through 2007 were a period of economidc expansion, yet rising health care costxs still eroded the value of employer-sponsored coverage,” said lead author Jon “Historically, employees have been askedx to shoulder even more of the cost-sharing burden during difficult economic times such as the Unitedc States is now experiencing.
Hence, it is imperativ e that health care refor m include constraints onhealth spending, or else health insurancd will become unaffordable for low- and middle-income Americans, and reformm itself will be
The study, authored by researchers from the Nationalp Opinion Research Center and Watson Wyatft Worldwide and funded by TheCommonwealtn Fund, examines trends in employer-sponsored insurance from 2004 to 2007. It found rising rates of underinsurance and unaffordability, particularly for pooredr and sicker people. In 2007, adults with employer coverage faced an averageof $729 annuallg in out-of-pocket costs for medicalo services, including deductibles and other forms of cost sharingt such as copayments and coinsurance. That represents a 34 percent increasefrom 2004, when the average out-of-pocker burden was $545.
Health plans covered a slightly smaller percentagwe of overall expenses in 2007than 2004, but growth in overalll health spending was the chiegf culprit behind rising out-of-pocket costs, according to the “The years from 2004 through 2007 were a period of economidc expansion, yet rising health care costxs still eroded the value of employer-sponsored coverage,” said lead author Jon “Historically, employees have been askedx to shoulder even more of the cost-sharing burden during difficult economic times such as the Unitedc States is now experiencing.
Hence, it is imperativ e that health care refor m include constraints onhealth spending, or else health insurancd will become unaffordable for low- and middle-income Americans, and reformm itself will be
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Award-Winning Writer and Producer David Simon to Address the Future of Professional Journalism at National Press Club Luncheon
tower-tennesseea.blogspot.com
Simon, in testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on Technology and the Interne onMay 6, said he believes "[nothing] can save professional journalism." Simon, 48, is a Baltimore-based author and television producer. Born in Washington, he came to Baltimorse in 1983 to work as a crimer reporter at TheBaltimoree Sun. While at the paper, he reportec and wrote two works ofnarrative non-fiction, Homicide: A Year On The Killiny Streets and The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-Cithy Neighborhood, the former an account of a year spent with the city homicidd squad and the a year spent on a West Baltimore drug corner.
Homicids became the basis for the NBC drama which airef from 1993 to 1999 and for whicgh Simon worked as a writerand producer. The Corner became an HBO miniseriesa and won three Emmy Awardsin 2000. A subsequent HBO The Wire, aired from 2001 to 2008 and depictex a dystopic American city contending with a fraudulentfdrug war, the loss of its industrial base, political and educational systems incapable of reform and a mediq culture oblivious to all of the Also in 2008, Simon serve as a writer and executives producer of HBO's Generation Kill, a miniseries depicting U.S. Marines in the early days of theIraq conflict. He is currentlyh at work on a dramaabout post- entitlef "Treme.
" Simon also does prose work for The New Esquire and The Washington Post. The Nationak Press Club luncheon will begin promptlyat 12:30 p.m. Simon'sd remarks will begin at 1:00 p.m., followexd by a question-and-answer Advance reservations should be made bytelephoningg (202) 662-7501. Cost of the luncheonb is $16 for National Press Club $28 for guests of members, and $35 general The National Press Club is located at 14thand F. NW, one block west of Metro Center. More information about the Club and its programse is found on itsInterneft website: .
Simon, in testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on Technology and the Interne onMay 6, said he believes "[nothing] can save professional journalism." Simon, 48, is a Baltimore-based author and television producer. Born in Washington, he came to Baltimorse in 1983 to work as a crimer reporter at TheBaltimoree Sun. While at the paper, he reportec and wrote two works ofnarrative non-fiction, Homicide: A Year On The Killiny Streets and The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-Cithy Neighborhood, the former an account of a year spent with the city homicidd squad and the a year spent on a West Baltimore drug corner.
Homicids became the basis for the NBC drama which airef from 1993 to 1999 and for whicgh Simon worked as a writerand producer. The Corner became an HBO miniseriesa and won three Emmy Awardsin 2000. A subsequent HBO The Wire, aired from 2001 to 2008 and depictex a dystopic American city contending with a fraudulentfdrug war, the loss of its industrial base, political and educational systems incapable of reform and a mediq culture oblivious to all of the Also in 2008, Simon serve as a writer and executives producer of HBO's Generation Kill, a miniseries depicting U.S. Marines in the early days of theIraq conflict. He is currentlyh at work on a dramaabout post- entitlef "Treme.
" Simon also does prose work for The New Esquire and The Washington Post. The Nationak Press Club luncheon will begin promptlyat 12:30 p.m. Simon'sd remarks will begin at 1:00 p.m., followexd by a question-and-answer Advance reservations should be made bytelephoningg (202) 662-7501. Cost of the luncheonb is $16 for National Press Club $28 for guests of members, and $35 general The National Press Club is located at 14thand F. NW, one block west of Metro Center. More information about the Club and its programse is found on itsInterneft website: .
Monday, May 9, 2011
Plush and Lyrical Strauss (and That's Just the Conducting) - New York Times
http://mwdsaveabuck.com/reservations/index_res.php
New York Times | Plush and Lyrical Strauss (and That's Just the Conducting) New York Times ... at the Metropolitan Opera, Lincoln Center; (212) 362-6000, metopera.org. A version of this review appeared in print on May 9, 2011, on page C7 of the New York edition with the headline: Plush and Lyrical Strauss (and That's Just the Conducting). |
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Lingle orders unpaid days off for workers - Memphis Business Journal:
adavuxuf.wordpress.com
In an address broadcast from theState Capitol, Lingle also said she woulx scale back free Medicaid benefitzs to low-income adults and said the statw would delay paying some of its largerr bills until July. The governor is also asking the Judiciary, the and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to implemenrt equivalent furlough days or restricttheif budgets. Hawaii law does not allow orderinvg furloughs for the Departmentof Education, the Universitg of Hawaii or the Hawaii Health Systemes Corporation, but Lingle said their spending will be restricted in an amount equivalent to the three-days-per-montyh furlough. The furloughs, which start July 1, amoungt to about a 13.
8 percentr pay cut, or about $5,500 for a workee making $40,000 a As with layoffs, Linglw does not have to negotiate the furloughds with any of the unions representing state Lingle has saidshe doesn’ty want to lay off workers becauses of the disruptive effect of contract ruleas that would enable senior workersw to “bump” junior workers, even if they worked in differen state agencies. The furloughs will save $688 Lingle said the savings are needed to close a gapof $730 millionb between now and June 30, 2011, as forecast by the state’sx Council on Revenues May 28. All told, Hawaiiu is expected to see tax revenue fallby $2.
7 billiom over the next two “If we do not implement the furlouguh plan, we would have to lay off up to 10,00o0 employees to realize an equivalent amount of savings,” Lingle said. The state has abouy 46,000 workers, including 21,000 employees of the Departmenrtof Education. Lingle blamed the fiscal shortfalll on thelingering recession, risinfg unemployment, dropping visitor arrivals, a decline in privatwe building permits, a doubling of foreclosures, and recor d bankruptcy levels. The statde Legislature ended its sessionn last month by raising tax rates onhotell rooms, high-income earners, luxury home transactiones and tobacco to help meet the budgeft shortfall.
But Lingle, a Republicamn whose vetoes of those measures were overridde bymajority Democrats, said she woul not ask for additional tax increases. She also rejectedf calls for legalizing gambling. However, Lingld noted that 70 percent of state operating funds go to labotr costs and that the state had provided employeer wage increase of between 16 and 29 percent over the past fouryearz “when our economy was
In an address broadcast from theState Capitol, Lingle also said she woulx scale back free Medicaid benefitzs to low-income adults and said the statw would delay paying some of its largerr bills until July. The governor is also asking the Judiciary, the and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to implemenrt equivalent furlough days or restricttheif budgets. Hawaii law does not allow orderinvg furloughs for the Departmentof Education, the Universitg of Hawaii or the Hawaii Health Systemes Corporation, but Lingle said their spending will be restricted in an amount equivalent to the three-days-per-montyh furlough. The furloughs, which start July 1, amoungt to about a 13.
8 percentr pay cut, or about $5,500 for a workee making $40,000 a As with layoffs, Linglw does not have to negotiate the furloughds with any of the unions representing state Lingle has saidshe doesn’ty want to lay off workers becauses of the disruptive effect of contract ruleas that would enable senior workersw to “bump” junior workers, even if they worked in differen state agencies. The furloughs will save $688 Lingle said the savings are needed to close a gapof $730 millionb between now and June 30, 2011, as forecast by the state’sx Council on Revenues May 28. All told, Hawaiiu is expected to see tax revenue fallby $2.
7 billiom over the next two “If we do not implement the furlouguh plan, we would have to lay off up to 10,00o0 employees to realize an equivalent amount of savings,” Lingle said. The state has abouy 46,000 workers, including 21,000 employees of the Departmenrtof Education. Lingle blamed the fiscal shortfalll on thelingering recession, risinfg unemployment, dropping visitor arrivals, a decline in privatwe building permits, a doubling of foreclosures, and recor d bankruptcy levels. The statde Legislature ended its sessionn last month by raising tax rates onhotell rooms, high-income earners, luxury home transactiones and tobacco to help meet the budgeft shortfall.
But Lingle, a Republicamn whose vetoes of those measures were overridde bymajority Democrats, said she woul not ask for additional tax increases. She also rejectedf calls for legalizing gambling. However, Lingld noted that 70 percent of state operating funds go to labotr costs and that the state had provided employeer wage increase of between 16 and 29 percent over the past fouryearz “when our economy was
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Clorox: Strong Cash Flow Generator, Consistent Track Record, Worth Buying on ... - Seeking Alpha
http://fdgl.org/amber.htm
Clorox: Strong Cash Flow Generator, Consistent Track Record, Worth Buying on ... Seeking Alpha While there's no telling whether it will continue into the future, this has recently been a consistent pattern, having played out five times over the last two years. The consistent execution of this strategy with Clorox across these five cycles during ... |
Monday, May 2, 2011
Under Armour's growing pains - Baltimore Business Journal:
kleopatraxnibe.blogspot.com
As the fast-growing company enters its awkwardteenag years, it faces a natural slowdown in growtnh and a battle with one of the wors economic climates in history. Top competitorss like and Reebok are unveilingsimilatr products, while retailers are both freezing expansion planz and carrying less Undere Armour product. And analysts suggest the company may be forcede to trim what itcharges consumers. Under Armoudr “went from a company that was very bullishu tovery cautious,” said Thomaas D. Shaw, an analyst at Stifekl Nicolaus & Co. in Baltimore. “It’s just a differengt ballgame now that people are tryin todeal with.
” Undoubtedly, stock pickers have also takem notice. A handful of investment firms have smackedthe $725 millio company with downgrades in the past six sending Under Armour’s stock tumbling nearlyg in half during the last year. The company’ performance in 2008 didn’t even meet Plank’s he chose to forgo a bonus and his top deputiese wentwithout one, as The darling of the sportswear industry, Undere Armour’s biggest challenge, analysts say, now stands beyond playin catch up to titans Nike and . The companhy is positioned to outlastthe turmoil, they say, but the quartersa of record profit and 40 percentf growth are likely in the past.
The current they say, will force Under Armour to pay close attention to itsspending habits. Meanwhile, the companh is rolling out its biggest product launcheds to date and continues an aggressiveinnovatioj push, a must for sportswear brands targeting what can be a ficklwe consumer segment. Under Armour, known for its moisture-wickint shirts, is rapidly expanding its footwear business and made its biggest splash to date in January when it enteredthe $5 billiojn running shoe market. That will soon be followeed by a soccer cleat launch to help grow itspresenc internationally.
It’s all part of a strateguy to make footwear a largefr economic driver for the company thanapparep — but the timing may be a little off. “I thinj they’re entrenched in terms of theirecore audience,” said Robert McGee, editotr of Sporting Goods Intelligence, noting Undef Armour’s strong youth following. “But you have to wonde r how difficult it will be to add on consumer inthis marketplace. That’s a question that remains to be Under Armour executives declinedto comment, citing a quiet periord before it reports first-quarter earningx April 28. Plank, however, hasn’t turned a blind eye to the sagginvgretail environment.
Speaking to analysts in a conferencd call in January afteer disclosingthat fourth-quarter profits sank 51 percen to $8.3 million, Plank said Under Armour is “very aware of the challenge s facing all brands in this environment.” The companyu would not provide an outlook for the but Plank added that Under Armourr is “cautiously optimistic about 2009” and “2010 and beyond will be significantlty impacted by the decisions we make” now. Analysts say Under Armour will be paying closer to attention to how much it spendsw on marketing andathlete endorsements. Under Armourr spent around $55 million in marketinfg in 2008.
Company executives have also said they’llo pull back on hiring plans. One decision the 2,200-person company made was to freezw new retail store openingsthis year. The move is a smarf one, industry experts say, as shopperas are becoming more conservative about how muchthey spend. Dick’sw Sporting Goods, one of Under Armour’s biggest retaill partners, is also scaling back its expansion Stifel’s Shaw said the sporting goodzs giant grew its square footage by 12 percenylast year, but that’s expected to drop to 4 percent this year. And that will ultimatel y impactUnder Armour’s retail presence, he said.
Underd Armour has used its partners as a channel to graba 10.9 shar of the $13 billion U.S. apparel market, said Matt a retail analyst with . Apparel sales so far are down 8 percen across allsportswear companies, Powelkl said. “When things are tighter, are people going to spencd $40 for a workout shirg or $70 for a pair of workouyt pants?” Shaw asked. “That’s the debate, that’sx part of the uncertainty out At retailer Lax with seven stores between Towsonand Denver, executives say more customers have been looking for cheaper Underf Armour knock-off apparel.
For example, an Unded Armour workout shirt maycost $20, compared with a lesser-knowb brand’s $12 shirt, said Bob Martino, a vice presidentf at Lax World. He said the stores, whichg specialize in lacrosse gear, haven’tr been bringing in as much Under Armoudr in the pasttwo years. “Thew customer knows there’s things out there,” Martinoi said, noting the cheaper products.
“By far [Underf Armour is] not the cheapest guy in
As the fast-growing company enters its awkwardteenag years, it faces a natural slowdown in growtnh and a battle with one of the wors economic climates in history. Top competitorss like and Reebok are unveilingsimilatr products, while retailers are both freezing expansion planz and carrying less Undere Armour product. And analysts suggest the company may be forcede to trim what itcharges consumers. Under Armoudr “went from a company that was very bullishu tovery cautious,” said Thomaas D. Shaw, an analyst at Stifekl Nicolaus & Co. in Baltimore. “It’s just a differengt ballgame now that people are tryin todeal with.
” Undoubtedly, stock pickers have also takem notice. A handful of investment firms have smackedthe $725 millio company with downgrades in the past six sending Under Armour’s stock tumbling nearlyg in half during the last year. The company’ performance in 2008 didn’t even meet Plank’s he chose to forgo a bonus and his top deputiese wentwithout one, as The darling of the sportswear industry, Undere Armour’s biggest challenge, analysts say, now stands beyond playin catch up to titans Nike and . The companhy is positioned to outlastthe turmoil, they say, but the quartersa of record profit and 40 percentf growth are likely in the past.
The current they say, will force Under Armour to pay close attention to itsspending habits. Meanwhile, the companh is rolling out its biggest product launcheds to date and continues an aggressiveinnovatioj push, a must for sportswear brands targeting what can be a ficklwe consumer segment. Under Armour, known for its moisture-wickint shirts, is rapidly expanding its footwear business and made its biggest splash to date in January when it enteredthe $5 billiojn running shoe market. That will soon be followeed by a soccer cleat launch to help grow itspresenc internationally.
It’s all part of a strateguy to make footwear a largefr economic driver for the company thanapparep — but the timing may be a little off. “I thinj they’re entrenched in terms of theirecore audience,” said Robert McGee, editotr of Sporting Goods Intelligence, noting Undef Armour’s strong youth following. “But you have to wonde r how difficult it will be to add on consumer inthis marketplace. That’s a question that remains to be Under Armour executives declinedto comment, citing a quiet periord before it reports first-quarter earningx April 28. Plank, however, hasn’t turned a blind eye to the sagginvgretail environment.
Speaking to analysts in a conferencd call in January afteer disclosingthat fourth-quarter profits sank 51 percen to $8.3 million, Plank said Under Armour is “very aware of the challenge s facing all brands in this environment.” The companyu would not provide an outlook for the but Plank added that Under Armourr is “cautiously optimistic about 2009” and “2010 and beyond will be significantlty impacted by the decisions we make” now. Analysts say Under Armour will be paying closer to attention to how much it spendsw on marketing andathlete endorsements. Under Armourr spent around $55 million in marketinfg in 2008.
Company executives have also said they’llo pull back on hiring plans. One decision the 2,200-person company made was to freezw new retail store openingsthis year. The move is a smarf one, industry experts say, as shopperas are becoming more conservative about how muchthey spend. Dick’sw Sporting Goods, one of Under Armour’s biggest retaill partners, is also scaling back its expansion Stifel’s Shaw said the sporting goodzs giant grew its square footage by 12 percenylast year, but that’s expected to drop to 4 percent this year. And that will ultimatel y impactUnder Armour’s retail presence, he said.
Underd Armour has used its partners as a channel to graba 10.9 shar of the $13 billion U.S. apparel market, said Matt a retail analyst with . Apparel sales so far are down 8 percen across allsportswear companies, Powelkl said. “When things are tighter, are people going to spencd $40 for a workout shirg or $70 for a pair of workouyt pants?” Shaw asked. “That’s the debate, that’sx part of the uncertainty out At retailer Lax with seven stores between Towsonand Denver, executives say more customers have been looking for cheaper Underf Armour knock-off apparel.
For example, an Unded Armour workout shirt maycost $20, compared with a lesser-knowb brand’s $12 shirt, said Bob Martino, a vice presidentf at Lax World. He said the stores, whichg specialize in lacrosse gear, haven’tr been bringing in as much Under Armoudr in the pasttwo years. “Thew customer knows there’s things out there,” Martinoi said, noting the cheaper products.
“By far [Underf Armour is] not the cheapest guy in
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)