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The Next Big Clip

Saturday
4 September 2010

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Factories Plan To Ramp Up Hiring

Aug 2 at 2:02am by Clip Finder

Source: USA Today

Factories are expected to being ramping up hiring in the second half of the year depsite a slowdown in production demand, in order to spur the jobs market.

The seemingly contradictory trends are occurring because existing workers have been pushed to their limits with overtime. As a result, more workers will  be hired to ease the burden, says Dan Mecksroth, chief economist of researcher Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI.

The forecast for manufacturers the rest of the year could become clearer today when the Institute for Supply Management releases its report on factory activity for July. Economists estimate the industry grew again last month but at a slower pace than early this year, continuing a recent trend.

Another report out today from the majority staff of Congress’ Joint Economic Committee shows factory job gains, in addition to high tech jobs in network security in 2010 largely have been in durable goods such as trucks, metals and machinery, rather than consumer products. The uneven rebound has mostly benefited states such as Indiana, Michigan and Ohio.

Durable goods makers are adding jobs largely because they cut so severely in the recession as carmakers, construction firms and factories virtually stopped ordering metals, machines and other heavy-duty products. Inventories fell so low they had to increase purchases starting last year, igniting a manufacturing rebound.

After slashing nearly 2 million jobs from June 2006 to last December, durable goods makers have added 130,000 jobs this year, the JEC study says. The hiring largely has benefited states that make transportation equipment and metals. Ohio, for example,

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My Take: Job seekers, whether you’re hoping to find work as consumer rights lawyers, CPAs in Denver, or  Texas medical malpractice attorneys in Dallas, you can get help putting your name in front of firms that are hiring.  A good executive search firm will know the ins and outs of every business sector, what they are looking for, the pay scale and odds of your getting hired, whether  you interview for a top slot with a firm of FCRA attorneys or with a Texas car accident law firm.

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Other Resources

Divorce Options

Divorce litigation attorney fees are not cheap.  You may want to consider the services of an  Bergen County divorce mediator, or if you outside New Jersey, consult the online pages for divorce mediators in your local area.

Arizona Foreclosure Search

Phoenix home buyers are taking full advantage of the foreclosure market. While the city may not be experiencing the degree of foreclosures other states like California and Nevada are, Phoenix AZ realtors are jumping the short-sale and quick-sale market by pushing buyers toward homes that have been in default.  These are great bargains for many first-time buyers, but be warned: the process of buying a foreclosure takes time due to wrangling with the banks and sometimes the occupants in the home who haven’t quite moved out yet.

Promotional Gift Baskets

Everyone knows that promotional gifts are important tools for advertising a company and getting its message across to the intended audience. But how exactly does a corporate gift basket help in the promotion of a company?  Custom gourmet gift baskets are not the usual promotional item in many ways, especially in the value and price of these items. Promotional items are usually given out to the public in hopes that the business will be promoted to new, potential clients. Although these promotional items attract potential customers, they may not be ideal gifts to give to long-time clients.  Gourmet Shiva gift baskets are ideal gifts for those long-term clients.

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Dog Training Techniques Critiqued

Aug 2 at 1:01am by Clip Finder

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Source: CNN

Because dogs are descended from wolves, which live in packs where an aggressive alpha male dominates, common consensus says we humans need to dominate our pets to get them to behave. 

This logic has dominated the canine-rearing conversation for more than five years, thanks mostly to National Geographic’s award-winning show, Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan. (See photos of a real-life hotel for dogs.)

But many experts say Millan’s philosophy is based on now-debunked animal studies and that some of his techniques — most famously the alpha roll, in which he pins a dog on its back and holds it by the throat — are downright cruel. Rival trainer Victoria Stilwell has launched a competitive assault on Dog Whisperer by starring on Animal Planet’s It’s Me or the Dog and by spreading her system of positive-reinforcement training virtually and with troops on the ground: this June she launched a podcast (available on positively.com and iTunes) and franchised her methods to a first batch of 20 dog trainers in the U.S., the U.K., Italy and Greece. She uses positivity as a counterpoint to dominance theory and reserves her aggression for the poorly behaving humans.

The debate has its roots in 1940s studies of captive wolves gathered from various places that, when forced to live together, naturally competed for status. Acclaimed animal behaviorist Rudolph Schenkel dubbed the male and female who won out the alpha pair. As it turns out, this research was based on a faulty premise: wolves in the wild, says L. David Mech, founder of the Minnesota-based International Wolf Center, actually live in nuclear families, not randomly assembled units, in which the mother and father are the pack leaders and their offspring’s status is based on birth order. Mech, who used to ascribe to alpha-wolf theory but has reversed course in recent years, says the pack’s hierarchy does not involve anyone fighting to the top of the group, because just like in a human family, the youngsters naturally follow their parents’ lead. (Read “Do We Love Our Dogs More Than People?”)

Says Bonnie Beaver, former president of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA): “We are on record as opposing some of the things Cesar Millan does because they’re wrong.” Likewise, the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior (AVSAB) issued a position statement last year arguing against the aggressive-submissive dichotomy.

It is leadership by showing a good example, not dominance, that AVSAB says owners should strive for in relation to their dogs. The organization’s statement, which does not explicitly name Millan but references his terminology and some of his controversial techniques, argues that dominant-submissive relationships that do occur in nature are a means to allocate resources — a problem that rarely exists between dogs and their owners. (Nor even, AVSAB notes, among feral dogs, which live in small, scavenging groups without alphas controlling access to food and mates.) House pets, on the contrary, bark too much, jump up on you, ignore your commands, growl and nip at you because they have been inadvertently rewarded for this behavior or because they have not been trained to act differently. (See the top 10 animal stories of 2009.)

To be sure, Millan’s approach to retraining is sometimes warm and fuzzy, and he has much common ground with positive-reinforcement trainers like Stilwell. Both trainers strive — as much as possible with a nonspeaking animal — to determine the psychological cause of a pup’s misbehavior. Both encourage people to ignore dogs’ annoying habits so as not to accidentally reward them with attention. Both agree that punishment is only effective during or within half a second after the offending behavior: yell at Butch for peeing in your kitchen after he’s already walked away, and Butch will think he’s in trouble for walking away. Both trainers obviously love animals. (Comment on this story.)

But, AVSAB says, calling a dog’s behavior aggressive, as Millan often does, should be reserved for the most violent animals, and some critics even dislike the quick smacks on the flank he gives to focus a dog’s attention. “Discipline doesn’t come in the form of screaming at your dog, hitting your dog or putting it into an alpha roll,” says Stilwell. “When you do that, instinct tells the dog to shut down, which is mistaken for calming, but really you’re making the dog more insecure.”

Men are by nature pack animals, and perhaps it’s them who need to be trained too.  Unless we’re talking about attack dogs, most domestic dogs are not born aggressive.  Men, and women too, have been accused of training dogs to fight for years.  Any Monmouth County fraud attorney or Denver wrongful death attorneys can tell you the horror stories they’ve encountered in situations where dogs were mistreated to the point of aggression and out of fear attacked and even killed humans, or they were trained by their owners to act that way.

Such insecurity can have unintended consequences. For one thing, rather than submit, your pets might lash out at you. “They may react with aggression, not because they are trying to be dominant but because the human threatening them makes them afraid,” AVSAB says. For another, even if a dog looks subdued, you don’t know what’s going on inside. “Fear increases cortisol,” says AVMA’s Beaver, a professor at Texas A&M’s College of Veterinary Medicine. “Long-term fear increases it significantly and can lead to long-term health problems associated with stress” — a point that Stilwell, in her melodious British accent, likes to point out to her clients on TV.

Take the example of Atlanta couple Louie Newman and Judy Griffin, who already had two Lhasa apsos when they adopted a rescue poodle named Manny. Not only did Manny pick fights with the other dogs, he also would attack Newman whenever he went near his wife or even tried to hand her the remote control. Newman and Griffin thought Manny wanted to control everyone, but Stilwell told them he was just trying to figure out his status in the household. “She said he was always tense. He didn’t ever blink. I would’ve never thought to check if my dog blinked,” says Newman, a recording executive in Nashville, who learned to relax when approaching Manny and to court him with treats. “He was really insecure. Who would have thought that? He acted like he owned the house.”

Of course, letting Manny’s whims rule the roost was one of the couple’s big mistakes. The question is to what extent they, or any dog owner, should put him in his place. With Stilwell gearing up for her third American TV season and Millan in the middle of his sixth, the answer may be a lot simpler and less dramatic than producers would have us think. “All I have to be is one position higher than that dog,” says Beaver. “I raise him to see me as a leader. Not an alpha, a leader.”

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My Take: Avoiding dog bites has always been my main motivation for staying away from all dogs I do not know or trust.  But as much as I respect their ability to bite or even turn aggressive, I also believe they are no more aggressive than their owners train or treat them to be.

True, a DWI lawyer Monmouth County  or Denver CO construction law lawyers would know very little about the countless stories of wrongful death cases involving dogs and humans.  Dogs in the city where I live are chained up in junk yards, taught to fear every living thing that comes near them and God forbid what happens when their owners die and they wind up in shelters or worse, lose on the streets. 

Other Resources:
Portland Legal
Portland OR injury attorneys can help you if you’ve been involved in an accident involving a dog or some other act of nature. A Portland OR car accident lawyer of course is a whole other breed of attorney all together.  Either way, know who you’re dealing with before you hire either kind of an attorney, ask for at least three references, get a list of set fees and do your homework before you sign a retainer.

Canada DWI?
If you’ve been arrested for a DWI in Toronto Canada, you are almost guaranteed to have to stand trial and plead, and that means hiring an Impaired driving lawyer Toronto, a DWI attorney, or a Toronto criminal lawyer.  The laws in Canada are different from those in the states, so don’t think your expertise with DWIs here at home will help you up north

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Retirement Savings Calculated

Jul 31 at 3:03pm by Clip Finder

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Source: Long Beach Press Telegram

Like many people out there you probably worry about how much money you’ll have to spend in retirement.

 Financial planners and academics have wrestled with this question for decades and come up with a kaleidoscope of strategies and formulas. A popular one says you can safely spend 4 percent of your savings the first year in retirement, increasing the amount each year to account for inflation.

But such simplistic formulas depend on many variables and don’t work for everyone. I came up with a more satisfactory answer in one day by tweaking and expanding an expense-tracking spreadsheet I’ve used for years.

 This answer takes into account my personal circumstances and goals, with the added benefit that the numbers can be updated at any time for more accurate projections. (I suggest updating every year.)   

 A lot depends on your job prior to retirement of course, and how much you made.  That means whether you work as a Middlesex County drunk driving lawyer , the owner of an iPod repair company, an Ocean County criminal attorney, or a Texas wrongful death lawyer ,

 You may need to modify my method to suit your situation and goals. But the basic concepts apply to everyone. If nothing else, this exercise will force you to take stock of your finances.

 With patience and basic math skills, you can do what I suggest with pencil and paper. But it’s much easier and faster – and more effective – to use a computer spreadsheet program that lets you see right away how changing one number affects many others. Explaining how these programs work – I use Microsoft Excel, but any basic program will do – is beyond the scope of this column. You can find tutorials in bookstores and libraries.

 Tallying all your savings, both retirement and non-retirement accounts (let’s say they total $600,000). Don’t count annuities and pensions that cannot be converted to cash and don’t count your home equity until or unless you cash it in and have another place to live.

 Next, create not one but four columns for the money you expect to spend over the next year. The first one will be for day-to-day needs such as food, utilities, insurance and taxes; the second for “ordinary wants” such as eating out or renting movies; the third for “special” wants such as a European vacation, and the fourth for occasional needs, such as replacing an aging car in three years.

 Add all projected expenses – say they are $30,000, $15,000, $0 and $0 respectively for the next year, totaling $45,000 – and subtract them from the $600,000, leaving $555,000.

 

From that $555,000, you’ll need to keep some money – say, $30,000 – liquid and safe for daily transactions and emergencies. At today’s paltry rates, the $30,000 will earn little or no interest.

 

That still leaves you $525,000, for which you will assume an investment return. I suggest starting at 5 percent, based on a conservative portfolio, to see whether that’s enough.

 

With a 5 percent return, you’ll make $26,250 on your $525,000. Add to it any other anticipated income, such as pensions and Social Security benefits, annuities or a part-time job. Say this other annual income adds up to $30,000, leaving you with $611,250 after one year ($555,000 plus $26,250 plus $30,000).

 

Repeat the process for all the years you anticipate living in retirement to see when or whether you run out of money. Remember to increase your projected spending each year to account for inflation.

 

Potential problems? Some years you may want or need to spend more. Investment returns may be less than projected. If you must cut back on spending, start with the “special” wants. If cutting spending is not enough, you may need to shoot for higher investment returns – which means taking on greater risk – and/or increase income by working longer.

 

Send questions or comments to Humberto Cruz or c/o Tribune Media Services, 2225 Kenmore Ave., Buffalo, N.Y. 14207. Personal replies are not possible.

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My Take:  I’d be willing to bet that if I was working as a NYC wrongful death lawyer , a Houston work injury lawyer , a Bronx construction accidents lawyer  or even ran my own iPod repair service , no calculator in the world could predict for me what I would need to live on in 30 years.  The economy is so unstable, foreign governments are so much a part of the big financial picture for Americans now, and mother nature her self all have way more control of this issue than I do.  I think the best way to plan is to save and stay healthy, that way you can work until you feel like and can afford to watch golf or play it. 

Other Resources:
Stay Secure
Roseville security guard services  are not that expensive and they can provide some much needed relief for you if your business requires 24/7 surveillance.  Sacramento CA armed security guard referral services can help you locate a solid company with fully vetted security personnel.  Know them before you hire them!

The Beauty Bar
Looking for a reputable California breast implant surgeon?  Perhaps you’re considering consulting an  Oakland California (CA) tummy tuck surgeon to get rid of the “baby fat.”  Be sure to check with the California board of certified plastic surgeons first so you know if your potential surgeon has had any wrongful death suits against him or her.

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Technology Isn’t Creating Bonds

Jul 30 at 10:10pm by Clip Finder

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Source:  TIME

With all of the technology at our disposal that aims to make us more connected, research shows we are more disconnected than ever.

In a Duke University study, researchers found that from 1985 to 2004, the percentage of people who said there was no one with whom they discussed important matters tripled, to 25%; the same study found that overall, Americans had one-third fewer friends and confidants than they did two decades ago.

Another recent study, by researchers at the University of Michigan, found that college students today have significantly less empathy – the ability to understand and share the feelings of another – than students of generations past did. The reason, psychologists speculate, may have something to do with our increasing reliance on digital communication and other forms of new media.

It’s possible that instead of fostering real friendships off-line, e-mail and social networking may take the place of them – and the distance inherent in screen-only interactions may breed feelings of isolation or a tendency to care less about other people. After all, if you don’t feel like dealing with a friend’s problem online, all you have to do is log off.

The problem is, as empathy wanes, so does trust. And without trust, you can’t have a cohesive society. Consider the findings of a new study co-authored by Kevin Rockmann of George Mason University and Gregory Northcraft, a professor of executive leadership at the University of Illinois who specializes in workplace collaboration. Northcraft says high-tech communications like e-mail and (to a lesser extent) videoconferencing – which are sometimes known as “lean communication” because they have fewer cues like eye contact and posture for people to rely on – strip away the personal interaction needed to breed trust. In a business setting – as in all other social relationships outside the workplace – trust is a necessary condition for effective cooperation within a group. “Technology has made us much more efficient but much less effective,” said Northcraft in a statement. “Something is being gained, but something is being lost. The something gained is time, and the something lost is the quality of relationships. And quality of relationships matters.” (See photos of vintage computers.)

In Rockmann and Northcraft’s study, 200 students were divided into teams and asked to manage two complicated projects: one having to do with nuclear disarmament; the other, price fixing. Some groups communicated via e-mail, some via videoconference and others face to face. In the end, those who met in person showed the most trust and most effective cooperation; those using e-mail were the least able to work together and get the job done. (Let’s hope they weren’t the ones working on disarmament.)

Northcraft thinks this is because real-life meetings, during which participants can see how engaged their colleagues are, breed more trust. Over e-mail, meanwhile, confirmation of hard work gets lost, which tends to encourage mutual slacking off. “If I don’t think you are taking a task seriously, then I won’t either,” Northcraft says. “And e-mail doesn’t allow us to verify that you are taking it seriously.”

So even if a colleague is working hard, his e-mail correspondent doesn’t know it and is thus less likely to work hard himself. In the study, the groups who met by videoconference did better than the e-mailers, who tended to shirk their responsibilities – suggesting that visual cues are key for trust.

“We all know how inefficient meetings are, and we all know the limitations of e-mail,” says Northcraft. “You have to have both.” So despite the capacity for mobile communicating, he advises businesses to make sure employees get together often enough to “recharge” their relationships and develop enough trust to last during periods of lean communication.

The same is true of relationships with family and friends, Northcraft says. It’s not enough to stay in touch by text or e-mail or Facebook. Now and then, alas, you have to pick up the phone or make a personal visit to Mom and Dad.

These days kids know more about how to find the best SEO services or data delivery than they do about interpersonal relationships.  In fact, they probably know how to download everything from high-tech collocation Los Angeles software to applications for graphics programs, but couldn’t tell you a thing about their best friends’ favorite place to go camping.  Camping?  What’s that?

For employees, the bad news is that your daily deluge of e-mail isn’t going away, and neither are those endless meetings. But the good news is that hard data on the benefits of face time may be enough to persuade HR to fund your trip to a regional office. Summer might be a good time to build some trust with those colleagues up in Maine.

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My Take:  My son wants to be an air cargo handling guy, or possible open up his own SEO services company.  He’s working now for a Collocation New York, but also has a part time job at a local air cargo company loading planes. He’s a master at CD duplication and understands everything there is to know about off-site racks and data storage and downtime, but ask him to make me a DVD copy of my work so I have some back up at home, and he just won’t get around to it.

 

Other Resources:

The Tooth Dr.

Looking for a safe, well respected Virginia dental services provider? Take the pain out of searching for a good Virginia dentist by visiting the reliable folks at 1-800 Dentist.  Link to the site here.

 

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Anne Rice Quits Ditches Church

Jul 30 at 6:06pm by Clip Finder

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Source:  USA Today

Anne Rice, the famous novelist for New Orleans who’s son is gay, has announced she will no longer consider herself a “Christian,” although she remains a firm devotee of Christ, because the faith’s denouncement of homosexuality. 

Rice and her son shared their thoughts openly: 

“For those who care, and I understand if you don’t: Today I quit being a Christian. I’m out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being “Christian” or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to “belong” to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I’ve tried. I’ve failed. I’m an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.”

Rice writes about contemporary characters living in worlds of chaos, especially spiritual chaos within the realm of a technologically shifting world, where data recovery on self and searching are key.  Not data solutions for business, but data on the brain and the soul’s imprint.

The mother of novelist Christopher Rice, who is gay, goes on to say:

I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen.

In a USA TODAY profile of Anne and Christopher, Rice talked about growing up Catholic, drifting away as a teen and marrying an atheist. After the death of a young daughter, she began writing her vampire books,…about lost souls looking for answers, so in a sense I was always on this journey back. I do get people saying, “How can you be such a fool to believe in God?” I sense many are young Goth kids who feel abandoned. I just say, look, you’re looking for the same things that I was, transcendence and redemption. I found what my characters were looking for.

Even now, as she tosses off organized religion, Rice posts that she’s still… an optimistic believer in a universe created and sustained by a loving God … Christ is infinitely more important than Christianity and always will be, no matter what Christianity is, has been, or might become.

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My Take: All I’ve got to say is hallelujah! I’ve got nothing but respect for Rice for doing this.  It’s time more so-called “Christians” with fame and fortune reconsider their ties to a faith that promotes wars and hatred against anyone who doesn’t fall in to the so-called Christian mold.

I don’t care if you make lockpicks or run a home based candle business, or have a million-company that manufacturers cell phones, if you all yourself a Christian you should promote love and tolerance. 

The Christian church uses so many social lock out tools aimed at keeping young, gay men and women away from faith and worship.  This makes about as much sense as burning Scentsy wickless candles in the rain.  Why ostracize people when your faith is supposed to promote the teachings of Jesus on love and compassion?

Other Resources:
Construction Law 101
Looking for a San Diego real estate lawyer to help you negotiate a settlement on a contracted home build gone bad? A good San Diego construction lawyer can help you navigate all of the ins and outs of the industry and save you time and money trying to negotiate with the construction company on your own.

Family Law
Wellington FL injury attorneys and West Palm Beach Florida family attorneys are ready to provide you with legal representation if you need it. For a concise listing of Florida attorneys click here.

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Report Indicates Economic Retraction

Jul 30 at 3:03pm by Clip Finder

 

Source:  Los Angeles photoTimes

The findings of a recent government report suggest that the U.S. economy slowed sharply in the spring and points to a protracted recovery and unemployment.

The nation’s economy grew at a modest 2.4% annual rate in the April-to-June period, the Commerce Department said in its first estimate of gross domestic product for the second quarter.

That compares with a GDP growth of 3.7% in the first quarter – a figure adjusted up from 2.7% reported earlier. But Commerce officials revised down the growth in the fourth quarter of last year, to 5% from 5.6%, as it did for prior quarters, painting an overall picture of a deeper recession than previous data suggest.

The latest slowdown in real GDP — the total value of goods and services produced inside U.S. borders after adjusting for inflation — was widely expected by analysts. The data confirmed a recent softening of consumer spending, and a much weaker trade balance in the second quarter offset continued strong gains in business spending for equipment and software.

Data also reveal a slowdown business expenditures on operational costs, including spending on collocation services for offsite data storage, investments in upgrades for call answering service providers, and community marketing programs.

Many analysts have forecast even slower GDP growth for the second half of this year, taking into account the increasingly smaller support that the economy is getting from government stimulus and a restocking of companies’ inventories that had been slashed during the recession. Some government programs have expired, such as the first-time homebuyers’ tax credit, which has set back the housing market. And anemic job growth and the debt crisis in Europe have roiled financial markets, adding to consumers’ jitters about spending and businesses’ cautiousness about hiring and investments.

“The post-recession rebound is history. We don’t foresee a double-dip, but we do expect growth to slow even more markedly, to a 1.6% annualized rate in the second half of the year,” said Bart van Ark, chief economist at the Conference Board, a New York-based research group, in a statement Friday. “Such a slower pace is unlikely to sustain strong profit growth, and would also weigh on employment and wages.”

Economists at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute argued that the latest GDP report was more reason for the federal government to provide additional stimulus to keep the recovery on track and ease the pain for millions of unemployed workers.

“Contrary to the often-made claim that the near-term economic future is ‘uncertain,’ today’s report provides near certainty that very high unemployment rates will — absent aggressive action by policymakers — plague the economy for years to come,” said Josh Bivens, an EPI economist.

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My Take:  You know things are bad when smokeless cigarettes, clothing and toys are taking a beating at the cash register. But electronic cigarette products and other optional retail items don’t tell the story of recovery near as well as reports of small businesses holding back on expenditures for growth, whether that’s investment in services provided by offsite data collocation providers, in-house answering services, warehouse expansion or even upgrades on telecommunications equipment.   The bottom line is, when small business pulls back, the rest of the economy goes right along with it.

Other Resources:
Hiring the Legal Experts
Hiring a Riverside CA personal injury law firm is not a straightforward task.  When you think about what it takes for the best Los Angeles criminal attorneys it’s understandable that hiring one would be complicated.  But it doesn’t have to remain a mystery.  Click here to find out more about how to hire an attorney with confidence.

Retirement Minded?
If you’re 50 or older, chances are you’re one of the people for which all the baby boomer info out there is targeted.  You are likely meeting with senior financial planning folks to discuss your ability to retired in comfort, thinking about geographic possibilities for new digs, or making decisions about career changes at mid- to late-life cycles.  Click here to link to a pretty laid back site with all kinds of resources for boomers, from dealing withmenopause to vacationing with aging parents.

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One in Five Californians Needs Counseling

Jul 29 at 10:10pm by Clip Finder

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Source: Los Angeles Times

Almost 5 million California adults say they are in need of mental health assistance according to ta report from UCLA.

However, only one in three people who perceive a need for mental health services or are in serious distress have seen a professional for treatment, the survey found.

The survey was conducted among more than 44,000 adults as part of the 2005 California Health Interview Survey, administered through the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. Since the survey was conducted, the recession probably has contributed to worsening mental health for even more people, said the lead author of the study, David Grant.

The survey showed that lack of health insurance coverage was a major reason why people didn’t seek help — a situation that may be rectified somewhat by state and national mental health parity laws now in effect that require insurers to cover mental health conditions similarly to the way they cover physical conditions. (The final phase of the federal law went into effect on July 1.) However, stigma continues to be a barrier to mental health services. The survey found that men, people 65 and older, Latinos and Asians were less likely to seek help because of the stigma associated with mental or emotional problems. But being poor is the biggest barrier to care.

According to the survey:

  • Women were nearly twice as likely as men to say they needed help because they felt sad, anxious or nervous (22.7% compared to 14.3%).
  • Adults under age 65 were twice as likely to perceive the need for help (20.2% compared to 9.2%).
  • The poorest adults were more than five times as likely to report symptoms of serious psychological distress compared to those living well above the federal poverty level.

“The findings also demonstrate a crucial need for continued efforts to expand mental-health services and to meet threats to such services caused by the ongoing state budget crisis in Sacramento; reduced state funding for local mental health programs and public insurance programs could be devastating to hundreds of thousands of Californians with mental health needs,” the authors wrote.

Mental health services always seems to be a big target when it comes to trimming state and local budgets. Lawmakers can get away with it, of course, because the stigma surrounding mental illness prevents people from protesting such cuts. Given the number of people in pain, according to this survey, it may be time for Californians to overcome the perceived stigma and demand expanded public funding and insurance coverage of mental health care. 

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My Take:  The findings of this report do not surprise me in the least.  I know a lot of people who say they would attend regular counseling sessions and even give up the high-cost of rock concert tickets or sell their cars for cash if they thought they could get their hands on the right mediation to help them cope with anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts.

Let’s face it, when you don’t have enough money to keep the bills paid and live relatively at ease, everything is expensive and that includes movie theater tickets, clothes, shoes, food, transportation and the basics.  What happens when your 18-year old comes home and says he wants to go to an expensive academy truck driving school NY?  If you don’t have the money to pay for the basics, how do manage the cost of sending a kid to truck driving school?

 You might sell damaged car parts at a swap meet or you could teach ballet at the local YMCA.  It doesn’t matter.  Stress and anxiety do not discriminate against race, color or creed.  But there is truth to the claim that more well off individuals have less of a need for counseling because they have money to help them work out the little things.    

Other Resources:
Look Your Best
Looking for a good Crestview FL plastic surgeon? Considering a Panama City Florida face lift?  Check this video out first and find out what you need to know before you have cosmetic surgery.

Denver Legal
Denver divorce lawyers are a different animal from other lawyers. If you’ve worked with personal injury attorneys Denver CO, you have had the experience of one side of the states laws and regulations.  Denver divorce is a whole other legal animal.  For a little background on Colorado’s divorce laws, click here.

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NASA Company Lays Off 1,300 Plus Workers

Jul 28 at 4:04am by Clip Finder

NASA_logo

Source:  Associated Press
In preparation for the termination of the Space Shuttle Program, a NASA contractor has announced the layoffs of more than 1,300 space shuttle workers.

Layoff notices were issued to 1,394 USA employees in all, company spokesperson Kari Fluegel told SPACE.com. The layoffs take effect Oct. 1 and were announced earlier this month by USA officials.

“Our workforce has known for several years that the Space Shuttle Program has been scheduled to end, but layoffs are always difficult for everyone involved,” said Virginia Barnes, USA president and chief executive, said in a July 6 statement. “We are committed to making this transition as smooth as possible.”

Shuttle program ending

The Houston-based United Space Alliance is a partnership between Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin that has operated the space shuttle fleet for NASA since 1995.

Fluegel said 902 layoff notices were issued to USA workers in Florida, which is home to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral that serves as both launch site and home port for the agency’s three shuttles. Another 478 layoffs were issued for Texas, which is home to NASA’s shuttle mission operations, with 14 more in Alabama, where NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center is based.

About one-third of those receiving layoffs in each division nominated themselves for the cutbacks, Fluegel said.

NASA’s space shuttle fleet is set to retire next year after 30 years of launching astronauts into low-Earth orbit. The shuttles began flying in 1981 and have flown on 132 missions so far.

Two final shuttle missions are currently scheduled (in November and February, respectively) to complete the International Space Station, which has been under construction since 1998 by a consortium of 16 countries. Congress is discussing the possible addition of a third and final shuttle mission. If approved, that extra flight would likely launch next summer, NASA officials have said.

Fluegel said that if the extra shuttle flight is approved, it will not affect the impending Oct. 1 layoffs. But there could be repercussions for more layoffs ahead.

“This plan wouldn’t be affected at all, but it would affect the timing, obviously, of when we would do layoffs, and how we’d do layoffs, next year,” Fluegel said.

Debate on commercial spaceships

NASA is retiring its three space shuttles (Atlantis, Discovery and Endeavour) to make way for a new plan that aims to send astronauts to an asteroid by 2025, and then on to Mars. That new plan replaces the agency’s previous Constellation program, which sought to return astronauts to the moon in the 2020s.

President Barack Obama proposed cancelling the Constellation program, which included new rockets and spacecraft to launch astronauts. That plan would set aside $6 billion over five years to support the development of new commercial spaceships that could ferry astronauts into space.

Draft NASA authorization bills under review in both the Senate and House of Representatives, however, would cut the amount for commercial crew services, if approved.

NASA’s next space shuttle to fly will be Discovery, which is slated to launch Nov. 1 to deliver a storage room and robot assistant called Robonaut 2 to the $100 billion International Space Station.

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My Take: New York sexual harassment lawyers can’t do much to help these guys and girls out. Doubtful too that New York employment lawyers could either.  Once the money runs out for space exploration, workers pretty much reach the end of the line. But, as the say, this current economic downturn has forced a lot of careered individuals out of their comfort zones.  People are having to reinvent themselves at 40, 50 and even older, trying to find a new way to make a living as the tech world changes how we do business and the training for keeping up with that technology gets more and more expensive to latch on to.

I have a girlfriend who worked for 20 years as an executive travel agent. Her job went south after 911.  She took a year on unemployment and then moved to Southern California, where she now runs a pretty successful San Diego wedding design company.  She is a top source for San Diego CA wedding chair covers, flowers, decorations and other items you need for weddings and special events.  I know someone else who was laid off from his tax accountancy firm and now works as a trainer for a pretty good New York defensive driving course.  He teaches safety courses online and off and helps people prepare for their driving tests.  He loves it.  He says it’s better than his old job because he gets to be outdoors and makes his own hours.

Other Resources:
Room Below?
If you’re looking for a Denver Colorado basement refinishing expert, consider the ElkStone basement finishers.  These guys are considered to be among the best basement refinishing Colorado companies and basement remodeling contractors because they deliver high quality craftsmanship at a competitive prices.

Spanish Sun
Costa Del Sol real estate in Spain’s southern region is among the most spectacular in the world.  You can rent villas in Marbella, one of the area’s most popular cities, for about the same price you would rent one in France.  Check out this video for a taste of what you could be enjoying. Click here to watch.

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Boy Buried In Sand Is Rescued

Jul 28 at 4:04am by Clip Finder

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Source: Los Angeles Times

An 11-year-old in Manhattan Beach was rescued after being buried for five minutes under the sand the broken sand tunnel he was building.  

The boy, visiting the beach at 8th Street with family members Sunday afternoon, was on his hands and knees about six feet down in a hole he was digging diagonally toward another hole his cousin was digging, said Battalion Chief Dave Shenbaum of the Manhattan Beach Fire Department.

The boy was trying to connect the two holes into a tunnel when he was buried by an avalanche of sand.

“He had about six feet of sand above him coming down on him,” Shenbaum said.

When the boy’s cousin looked up and didn’t see him, she asked a man playing on the beach with his son for help. The man, realizing that the boy was probably buried, called others to help him.

“About 20 other beach-goers started to dig frantically,” Shenbaum said.

Lifeguards joined the efforts, officials said, and the boy was pulled free after five minutes, unconscious and unresponsive. Rescuers performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, and “in a very short period of time, he started to breathe on his own,” Shenbaum said.

“He was seconds away from death,” said Shenbaum, who arrived with paramedics. “The great part of this story is that you had beach patrons and bystanders working together with county lifeguards … to dig this kid out and save his life.”

Often patrons, not patrol will save the lives of near-drowning vicitims because they are usually first to spot them due to crowds.  The implications, say officials, are that, whether you’re a professional DWI lawyer California City or a banker, everyone should know basic CPR.

The time factor was so crucial that if beach-goers had simply called paramedics and waited without doing anything, “he would have been dead,” Shenbaum said.

The boy was taken to Harbor- UCLA Medical Center, where he was alert and answering questions, officials said.

“The county beaches have an ordinance where it’s illegal to dig these types of holes to prevent just these types of accidents,” Shenbaum said. “They do a very good job of preventing them, which is why you don’t hear about many of them.”

While most beach-goers build sandcastles and small holes, those digging several feet down are generally cautioned by lifeguards to stop. The same goes for people burying themselves feet-first in the sand.

“The problem with the sand is it’s so dense,” Shenbaum said. “You remove one bucket of sand and two buckets fall into its place.” 

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My Take:  This story scares the bejezua outta me!  I have an 11-year old boy who absolutely loves to bury himself on the beach and I worry about this kind of thing happening to him all the time.  He’s not much of a swimmer, yet, and doesn’t seem to want to surf.  He’s more into basketball and other team sports where you wear sports pads and the logos on the wall padding say Subway and Yum Yum Donuts.

I wonder if this happened on a fancy beach where the Hollywood elite live if anyone would have noticed  I can imagine them walking around in their Laguna beach jeans all into their own stuff to notice someone in trouble on the sand.  That city is famous for wannabees who walk around in their Mek denim and soak up the whistles from the guys on the dolly truck and work benches.  

Other Resources:

PA Legal
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 Working for Trips
Want to travel to exotic places but short on cash?  You can volunteer overseas with any one of the many organizations out there who need helpers on their village and city projects, such as restoring water flow in Guatemala or building chicken coops in Kenya.  If you think you’re the type to volunteer Africa style, or work on your vacation, you can save big bucks, learn a great deal about the culture you’re visiting and make a difference along the way.  

 

 

 

 

 

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Hen Sitting Becomes A Business

Jul 28 at 3:03am by Clip Finder

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SOURCE:   CNN Money

You’ve heard of cat-sitters, dog-sitters and, of course, babysitters. But chicken-sitters?

Two backyard farmers have stepped up to meet an unusual need in Portland Oregan: hen sitting for vacationing owners, and we don’t mean on the eggs.

In May, Rhonda Piasecki, 43, and Sharon Rowland, 35, launched Just Us Hens, which they believe is the nation’s first chicken-sitting service. The business partners, who each boast a full roost of laying hens (four for Piasenki; eight for Rowland), met last year working at Portland’s Urban Farm Store.

“At the store, you’d just talk people’s ears off about chickens,” says Piasecki, who is also a drummer for Klickitat, a local jazz-rock band.

But the seed the store sells started to aggravate Piasecki’s asthma, right around the same time that Rowland decided she wanted to spend more time with her 3-year-old, chicken-loving son Sterling. A friend suggested that Piasecki become a “chicken consultant,” while Rowland’s husband floated the idea of seeking out hen-sitting gigs.

So the women teamed up to offer a slate of services: $15 per visit for hen sitting, $25 for hen health house calls and $50 an hour for consultations on urban agriculture. In late May, they launched a blog, followed by a full website in early July. They also publicized their services at Portland’s online chicken chat group, PDXBackyardChix, which has more than 1,000 members.

The fledgling company has only a handful of customers. But as word passes through Portland’s substantial population of urban hen keepers, they hope Just Us Hens will take off.

There’s certainly an audience for it. Chickens are all the rage in Portland, where longstanding city regulations allow residents to keep up to three of them — but no roosters — without a permit. Even Mayor Sam Adams has a brood: three hens, all named Alma. (Adams let his chief of staff’s daughter, Alma, pick the names.) Hundreds of chicken enthusiasts will turn out on Saturday for Portland’s seventh annual Tour de Coops, a self-guided stroll through 25 backyard hen houses, including the mayor’s own.

One of Just Us Hens’ first customers was Renee Wrede, a nurse in Southwest Portland who worried about what would become of her new flock when she and her family took a beach vacation. Rowland signed on to watch “the girls”: two barred Plymouth Rock hens, one Ameraucana, one Blue Laced Red Wyandotte and one Welsumer.

During daily visits, Rowland fussed over Poppy, Hyacinth and the other chickens, holding and petting each one. After she fed and watered them, she emailed Wrede to report on how the birds were faring in her absence.

Wrede was thrilled and says the service exceeded her expectations.

“We do have a house-sitter, but she has no idea about chickens,” Wrede explains. Rowland, on the other hand, was hard-working expert: “She even scooped the poop!”

The proprietors of Just Us Hens pride themselves on creative problem-solving. “We welcome weird situations,” Rowland says.

Piasecki has developed a homegrown solution for a common poultry problem: hens plucking their own feathers. She located a chicken-loving seamstress in Arkansas, who she claims is the nation’s best source for chicken aprons. The aprons run $7.50 apiece and can be draped over the chickens’ problem areas. “They fit perfectly!” she says.

Just Us Hens isn’t the only chicken-related business to take flight in recent years. Katy Skinner, of Yacolt, Wash., runs The City Chicken, an online clearinghouse of chicken-keeping wisdom.

She’s seen entrepreneurs make money selling prefabricated coops or coop blueprints, as well as giving classes and lectures. But hen-sitting? Even for a seasoned chicken guru, that’s something new.

“This is the first I’ve heard of a hen-sitting service,” she says. “I hope they get a lot of business!” 

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My Take:  I’ve got friends who, since losing their full time jobs in the last few years have started all kinds of small businesses to survive, selling imprinted school T shirts, running Key West fishing charters and providing in-home cold laser therapy for injuries and beauty treatments, like pedicures and manicures.

Apparently there’s a big market for promotional products freelance sales reps, although I don’t know if that’s something a couple of urban farmers would relate to, anymore than I guess they’d be interested in providing laser treatment in homes.  But maybe running Key West Florida sport fishing trips wouldn’t be that far off the mark.

Either way, I think it’s great that these two ladies saw a need for something and are willing to provide it.  I hope the chicken craze never ends.  It’s awesome to have fresh eggs for breakfast and hens make great pets! 

Other Resources:

Number Crunchers
A good Bergen County tax preparer  can work for you as a skilled negotiator if you have tax problems.   Your  Bergen County CPA is able to provide skilled representation for you in cases involving the IRS or State, and the sooner you have a qualified CPA working for you the better your chances of a positive outcome.

Cover Yourself
Lowcost auto insurance quotes are not as hard to find as you may think.  If you are looking for a car insurance quote you might want to start with this video. It tells you everything you need to know ahead of time before accepting a quote.  Click here and watch.

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