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Budget Balanced in California by Senate

Bafed — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:50:50 +0000

Cited: Associated Press

At the end of July, California State Senate finally approved a plan to close its $26 billion budget deficit after weeks of fiscal gloom there is a glimmer of hope. This budget was a complex package of 31 bills had been debated by the Assembly who was struggling to secure enough votes to pass several other measures. If any of the measures failed, it could have jeopardized the entire deal that would have sunk California further into fiscal chaos.

California Senate image caption: State Senator George Runner, R-Lancaster, leans against one of the columns in the Senate chamber as he listens to the debate over one of the state budget measures at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., Friday, July 24, 2009. Lawmakers worked overnight voting on a package of bills worked out between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Legislative leaders to resolve the state’s $26.3 billion budget deficit. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

Senators started their session Thursday evening and worked through the early-morning hours today to get enough votes to pass the more controversial measures, including three that took or borrowed billions of dollars from cities and counties. Senate leader Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said lawmakers could take pride in dealing with difficult budget decisions during an unprecedented economic collapse.

“And California is still standing,” he said moments after the final vote. The compromise plan before the 80-member Assembly and 40-member state Senate was announced by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Democratic and Republican leaders of each house. It eliminates nearly 60 percent of the deficit with spending cuts to core state services such as education, state parks and prisons.

The rest is reached by one-time raids on local government funding and accounting maneuvers, such as deferring state employee paychecks by one day for a savings on paper of $1.2 billion. Both legislative houses quickly passed a key bill with cuts to higher education, college grants, health programs, welfare, in-home supportive services and state prisons. But measures aimed at filling the rest of the deficit proved more difficult. Some required two-thirds approval, meaning they needed support from a handful of Republicans, the minority party in each house.

Legislative leaders have acknowledged the solution is imperfect and cuts deeply into basic programs, including education, prisons, health care and welfare. But they say it is vital to address the state’s cash-flow crisis. California’s budget shortfall represents nearly 30 percent of its $92 billion general fund. The revision under consideration would bring total spending down to about $88 billion, returning spending to 2005 levels.

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The nation’s most populous state has been hammered by the national recession, leading to a steep plunge in income, sales, property and capital gains taxes. The cash crisis and the lack of a balanced budget have forced the state to issue IOUs to thousands of state contractors and vendors. Closing the shortfall is expected to allow the state to obtain short-term loans, eventually ending the need for IOUs.

The rapid decline in tax revenue and Republicans’ insistence on no tax increases left the state with few options.

The attempt to take or borrow nearly $5 billion from cities and counties over two years was proving to be one of the most difficult issues. Several big-city mayors criticized the raids and said at least 130 local governments have agreed to sue the state to block the transfer of some money.

Under the budget package, the state would borrow $2 billion from local governments’ property tax revenue and repay it with interest within three years. It would take another $1 billion in redevelopment money and $1 billion in local transportation funds.

“We want to share in the sacrifice, but we’re not going to allow this proposal and this budget to be balanced on the backs of our cities, particularly in the way that it has,” Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said.

Facing withering criticism from counties and cities, the legislative leaders agreed to alter part of the plan, committing to repay the transportation money over 10 years rather than take it outright.

“Some of my counties, where they have rural roads, this money is all they have,” said Sen. Lois Wolk, a Democrat from Davis who opposed the raid on transportation money, which passed with the bare majority needed.

One provision authorizing an expansion of oil drilling off the coast in exchange for royalties was criticized by many as the Democratic lawmakers. The lawmakers believe this will invite legal challenges because it is nothing more than an end run around the public-review process. Reforms to welfare and social service programs were included in the budget package that Republicans do believe will save the state money in the years ahead.

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My Take: I have one question for the state of California, what happened? When former Pres. Ronald Reagan was governor, I remember a news broadcasts that stated California was no longer in the red with their budget. I know that was a while ago but what happened in the interim?

I guess those lawmakers got a little bit spend crazy over last few years. That is typical of those lawmakers, they decide they need a pay raise or a new desk they just signed papers and go for it. As you can guess, I don’t have much of a good opinion of many politicians. As a rumor goes, the first thing they do when they start their new annual session is to vote for pay raise. This seems a little crazy because they are now asking city, county and state employees take pay cut.

Then again, they work so hard to earn their pay raise, you know? Not! The ones who should get the pay raises are the police officers, firefighters and teachers. Police officers and firefighters put their lives on the line every day they go to work and some teachers as well. That’s my opinion anyway!

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Real Estate Prices Stabilizing in San Fernando Valley

Bafed — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:35:20 +0000

Cited: DailyNews

The decline of June’s median cost was the smallest in 18 months. San Fernando Valley home prices fell 13% in June from the previous year, the smallest decline a year and a half that proves prices are beginning to stabilize according to a trade association. This could be the balance in the market that analysts have been predicting.

The median price of a previously owned home was $375,000 last month, compared with $431,000 in June 2008, said the Southland Regional Association of Realtors. The $56,000 drop is the smallest decrease since the median fell 12 percent to $537,000 in December 2007 from $613,000 a year earlier. The median also rose 7 percent, or $25,000, from $350,000 in May. The median has increased on a monthly basis for three of the last four months.

The May-to-June increase indicates that prices have found a floor, said Jim Link, chief executive officer of the Van Nuys-based association. “I honestly think we hit the (price) bottom early this year or late last year and have since been treading water,” Link said. “To me, it’s a sign that this declining market may not be on the decline anymore.”

Link said that properties selling at or below the median are attracting multiple offers, which also helps boost the list price. There were 775 home sales in June, 15.5 percent more than the 671 a year ago. There were 67 more sales last month than May’s total of 708.

Sales activity has also moved into higher price ranges, Link said. Last month the number of active listings plunged 52 percent to 3,359 properties from 6,935 properties a year ago. That represents a 3.3 month supply at the current sales pace, a level last seen in the boom market in the early part of the decade. Realtor Ana Maria Colon, the association’s president, lamented the lack of supply.

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“Personally, because there are so few listings, I cannot find anything for a bunch of my buyers,” she said in a statement. Link said the sales are also being constrained because lenders are still cautious about issuing mortgages.

“The demand appears to be there to absorb the volume without killing a market that appears to be turning around,” he said.

The report also showed that:

In the condominium market, the median price fell 23 percent to $226,000 from $295,000 a year ago. But it increased 22 percent, or $41,000, from $185,000 in May.
Sales increased to 236 in June from 230 a year ago. There were 10 more sales in June than in May.
In the Santa Clarita Valley, the median house price fell 9 percent to $410,000 from $450,000 a year ago. It increased $10,000 from May.
Home sales fell 12 percent to 202 in June from 229 a year ago. They increased by 6 percent from May.
The condominium median price fell 18 percent to $232,500 from $285,000 a year ago. It fell 3 percent from $240,000 in May.
Sales increased 19 percent to 89 in June from 75 a year ago. They increased 31 percent from 68 in May.

It is feared that another wave of foreclosures will hit the market soon. Last month, San Diego-based MDA DataQuick reported a 14% increase in defaults in Los Angeles County in the second quarter to 24,622 from 21,632 the year before. This is the first step in the foreclosure process. Link also stated that the banks management of the foreclosure supply should be in an orderly fashion and things should be all right.

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My Take: This is one sign that the economy is beginning to recover. Homes are priced at below market rates all over country and people are beginning to buy. On one hand, the recession has allowed those who could not afford a home purchase one and on the other, it has caused those who wish to sell a home to take a loss. This is just the way things balance out.

Those who own homes are experts at playing a balancing game. Not only do they have to balance their finances, they also have to balance repairs and other bills, such as pest control. They could always purchase their own pest control products as part of this balancing act. However, sometimes that Catchmaster fly ribbon is not enough to get rid of certain pests. You need roach killer for roaches and ant bait for ants and then you have those pesky termites.

The most important balancing act with a home is the mortgage. You cannot play the game of “rob Peter to pay Paul” where a mortgage is concerned. You may have to tighten those belts a little bit to get by, but it can be done. If you find that you are having problems with your mortgage, go to your lender and ask questions to find out what you can do to alleviate the problem.

Otherwise, you will find yourself packing and moving into an apartment or worse, a trailer. This is not something that you want to experience if you own your own home. You want to keep that home! Do the right thing before it becomes the wrong thing.

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Hollywood Invades Comic-Con

Bafed — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 03:12:14 +0000

Cited: Hollywood Reporter

The biggest event in the comic book kingdom is the Comic-Con! With the pale comic book collectors, all the hard-core geeks, Jedi Knight costumes, costumed zombies and Oscar winners including Denzel Washington, Peter Jackson and James Cameron as well as perennial attendee Kevin Smith dissented on San Diego for the 40th edition of the Comic-Con last month.

What began in 1970 with 300 comics aficionados gathering at the city’s U.S. Grant Hotel has mushroomed into one of the largest promotional bazaars on Hollywood’s calendar. From movie distributors eager to sneak genre wares to super-receptive audiences, it eclipses trade events like exhibitors’ conference ShoWest, and this year — for the first time, as far as TV networks and cable channels are concerned — it will upstage the annual summer Television Critics Association press tour show-and-tell, which takes place in September, by offering a first look at the fall season.

Attracting 125,000 attendees, Comic-Con saw its $75 four-day passes sell out two months earlier than ever before. This week, they were commanding twice that price on Craigslist. The Hollywood invasion, escalating steadily in recent years, has been greeted with mixed reactions from longtime participants.

As fans began gathering Wednesday night, one man admitted: “A lot of people bemoan all the Hollywood stuff, but I don’t care. I love that stuff.” Meanwhile, a young woman who has attended for the past nine years complained: “I’m sick of the crowds. I used to come for all four days, but now I’m only coming for one.”

COMICS GETTING SHORT SHRIFT?

Is all the attention being paid to movies and TV shows muscling aside Comic-Con’s original purpose, described in its mission statement as “creating awareness of, and appreciation for, comics and related popular art forms?”

Organizers of the annual conclave say no.

“Anybody who thinks there’s a lack of comics isn’t doing a lot of looking,” Comic-Con director of marketing and public relations David Glanzer says. Estimating that 20,000-30,000 will attend events in the convention center’s cavernous Hall H — where the big movie presentations take place — during the four days, he adds, “That leaves 100,000 people who have little to do with Hollywood.”

On Thursday afternoon, as Cameron unveiled footage from “Avatar” in Hall H, competing events in surrounding rooms included an appearance by Brian Herbert, son of “Dune” author Frank Herbert; DC Comics artist Tom Nguyen, offering a demonstration of how to ink comics; and comic publisher Oni Press, previewing its coming attractions.

Still, the big-ticket film and TV items draw the bulk of the media — 3,000 journalists are credentialed this year — whose snap judgments ricochet throughout the Web via blog and tweet.

Eager to promote genre-inspired movies, filmmakers began to discover Comic-Con during the early ’90s. Francis Ford Coppola was among the pioneers when he made the trek to promote 1992’s “Bram Stoker’s Dracula.” By 2004, Comic-Con expanded into Hall H, and the next year the Hollywood contingent ranged from indie stalwarts like Smith to mainstream producers like Joel Silver along with everyone from filmmaker Bryan Singer to actress Natalie Portman.

3D IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Thursday’s kickoff day provided a particularly heavy film lineup, with an emphasis on 3D movies. For the first time, Hall H was outfitted with 3D projection equipment so Disney could show eye-popping footage from Robert Zemeckis’ “Disney’s A Christmas Carol,” Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” and “Tron: Legacy,” followed by Fox and Cameron unveiling “Avatar.” Summit also took the stage to tub-thump its “Twilight” sequel “New Moon” while taking advantage of the captive audience to focus eyeballs on its animated movie “Astro Boy.”

Glanzer insists, though, that the convention didn’t purposely frontload movie titles. “We try to program as it comes in,” he says. “We look for diversity of programming.” It all amounts to a pop culture Rubik’s cube because “there are so many variables.” The other hanging question, at least as far as the movie hullabaloo is concerned, is whether any of it really matters.

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Last year, when Summit arrived at Comic-Con with a little movie called “Twilight,” an army of teenage girls, the likes of which never had been seen there before, showed up to squeal in delight. “Twilight” went on to gross $191 million domestically after its November release. But in that case it appears Comic-Con was the beneficiary of the already building frenzy surrounding the film, rather than the fuse that ignited the explosion.

Conversely, fans roared their approval last year when director Zack Snyder promised to color faithfully within the lines of celebrated graphic novel “Watchmen” as he adapted it for the big screen. That appeared to translate into a solid first weekend for the movie, which bowed in March to $55.2 million. But the appeal failed to reach much beyond the graphic-novel cognoscenti as its second weekend dropped nearly 68 percent and the movie stalled at $107.5 million domestically.

While other movies, like “Iron Man 2,” also will make a bid for attention during the weekend, the focus quickly will shift to the small screen.

OPPORTUNITY FOR BROADCASTERS

Television’s presence at Comic-Con has been building since 2004, when ABC launched “Lost” by previewing its pilot in a large hall that was only half-full. Cut to 2007, when NBC’s “Heroes,” having completed its first season, made its second visit to the convention. Fans lined up early for a look at the show’s creators and cast and went crazy when it was announced that Smith would direct the first episode of spinoff “Heroes: Origins.” (That plan would be scuttled because of the Writers Guild of America strike.)

As far as TV is concerned, this year’s convention has taken on increased importance as broadcasters ramp up for fall with several new and returning genre-driven shows.

With such new series as ABC’s “FlashForward,” “Eastwick” and midseason show “V,” Fox’s “Human Target” and the CW’s “Vampire Diaries,” Comic-Con represents a key marketing opportunity. As ratings slide for such returning dramas as “Heroes,” NBC’s “Chuck” and “Lost,” it could help recharge fan interest.

There’s also a greater range of genres on view than ever before. After last year’s successful showcase for CBS’ geek-centric sitcom “The Big Bang Theory” (which is returning this year), the ABC family sitcom “The Middle” is being screened, with Warner Bros. promoting the event as “Mom-a-Con,” a gambit that has convention veterans rolling their eyes. USA Network, meanwhile, has scheduled panel presentations for such procedurals as “Psych” and “Burn Notice.”

But how much does Comic-Con really help a show?

Last year, Heroes” hosted a full screening of its premiere episode and fielded most members of the cast. Fan reaction generally was positive, but the show dropped sharply in the ratings when it returned.

This time, NBC Universal hesitated to book a “Heroes” event, then added a more modest-size panel at the Hilton. On the other hand, after “Bang” made its Comic-Con debut last year, the show came back strong and became a full-fledged hit for CBS.

In general, however, the marketing potential — and peril, should a panel or screening go poorly — seems more pronounced for new shows seeking to get on fans’ radar than for returning series. The key event this go-round is expected to be the final-season panel for “Lost.” Presented in Hall H, Saturday morning’s panel will be a produced show rather than a mere Q&A. News announcements are expected.

The Comic-Con could very well be a bigger news-breaking event than ever before with the Television Critics Association press tour on the scene because several networks planned to make announcements during panel presentations and did. Bands even get a chance to question actors before the TCA critics and journalists did. One thing is sure, turning the pop culture power over to the people is exactly what Comic-Con 2009 did.

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My Take: The Comic-Con is one of the most enjoyable events in a comic book kingdom and everyone should get a chance to go. I have not been able to go in about 10 years and I miss it. You see some of the most amazing things at that convention and can get some of the most wonderful deals from other collectors.

Ira member one year, spandex was one of the most popular pieces of costumes, it was ridiculous. However, I saw one character dressed up in stretch jeans that looked fantastic. She was dressed up as one of the biker babes, not sure what comic book that is. She wore those genes very well and they looked great. You couldn’t pay me to wear stretch denim, sorry.

One year, I got to meet Julie Newmar! She is just as elegant in person as she is on the screen. I even had my picture taken with Spiderman! Although, I do not think it was the real Spiderman. The people at the convention are absolutely amazing. The ones that organize the convention must be insane by the time the convention is over. It is hard to imagine what they do to create such an event.

I also remember one year, one of the attendees went into labor on the convention floor. A lot of conventions have people who were there for their selves and do not care about anybody else. The people attending the Comic-Con came to her rescue. The funny thing of it is, the lady said she had only just sent out baby shower invitations and now she was going to have to send out announcements. These are the kind of people I would not mind sending reunion invites to, at some point in the future.

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New Knee Increases Mobility in Older Patients

Bafed — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 02:57:55 +0000

Cited: MedPage Today

Duke University has conducted a new study that helped researchers discovered that a total knee arthroplasty (TKA) received by older patients with art osteoarthritis in the knee have resulted in significant improvement of mobility and physical functioning, long-term, compared to patients who did not receive a TKA.

Published in the July 2009 issue of Medical Care, the study examined physical functioning and gauged outcomes in a national sample of Americans aged 65 and older for up to four years-a longer period than previous TKA studies. Relative to the untreated comparison group, recipients of total knee replacements experienced significant improvement in function, including a 17.5% increase in mobility, a 39.3% improvement in motor skills; and a 46.9% decrease in limitations in activities of daily living such as bathing and dressing oneself.

The number of total knee replacements performed in the United States has increased dramatically since 1990; currently 581,000 such procedures are performed every year. This number is expected to increase markedly as Baby Boomers age.

“In this era of cost-cutting, policymakers have underscored the importance of evaluating treatments in terms of effectiveness and benefits to patients,” says lead author Frank Sloan, Ph.D., McMahon professor of health policy and management and professor of economics at Duke University. “Our findings show that knee replacements are effective in treating patients with advanced osteoarthritis, contributing to reduced disability and improved quality of life for these individuals. Such findings are extremely important for the broader context of discussions about healthcare reform, cost-containment, device quality, and patient safety.”

For the study, Duke researchers identified 2272 patients diagnosed with osteoarthritis of the lower leg using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) linked to Medicare claims from 1994 through 2006. Of that group, 516 underwent TKA procedures and 1756 did not. Researchers used propensity score matching to generate 515 pairs of treated and untreated individuals who were matched on relevant, measurable factors such as baseline functional status, other health conditions, socioeconomic characteristics, and time before TKA or diagnosis.

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Among the patients who underwent TKA, baseline physical functioning measures were taken at an interview before and closest to surgery. For the comparison group, these measures were taken from an interview preceding and closest in time to the year of their first diagnosis with osteoarthritis of the lower leg. Each pair was followed for up to four years, and their resulting physical abilities were compared.

The study’s mobility, gross motor skills, large muscle activities, and limitations in activities of daily living indices accounted for a wide breadth of physical activities, including getting in and out of bed; the ability to bathe and dress oneself; sitting for two hours; getting up from a chair; stooping, kneeling, and crouching; walking across the room, one block, and several blocks; climbing one flight and several flights of stairs; and pushing and pulling a large object.

The study comes at a time when Congress and the nation’s healthcare agencies are looking for ways to identify diagnostics and therapies that offer the greatest value to patients and the healthcare system. Representatives Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-NJ) and Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) have introduced legislation to establish a federally-funded registry of patients who have received artificial hips or knees, providing researchers and policymakers with an ongoing source of data about patient outcomes with such devices and related surgical procedures.

According to Sloan, total knee replacement has repeatedly been shown to offer clinical benefits for patients with osteoarthritis, a major risk factor for disability in the United States. Recently, a team at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Boston University School of Public Health confirmed that, for older adults with advanced osteoarthritis, total knee replacement also appears to be a cost-effective procedure across all patient risk groups.

“We know that the inability to perform activities of daily living is highly predictive of nursing home admittance, as patients can no longer care for themselves,” says Sloan. “TKA offers the potential for extending independence and therefore delays the need for assisted living.”

The study was written up by David Ruiz Jr., MA, and Alyssa Platt, MA at the Duke University and supported by a grant from the Institute for Health Technology Studies (InHealth).

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My Take: I know something about this one subject. I have not had the surgery myself, and hopefully I will not need it, however my mother has had the surgery twice. My mother has been disabled since she was two years old. An accident killed the growing nerve in one of her legs and she has had several surgeries on that leg for most of her youth and teenage years.

At the age of 15, she was told that she would never walk without the brace on her leg. That was in 1934. When she got home, she took that brace off and threw it into the garbage can five minutes before they picked up the garbage. The only time she ever wore brace after that was when she had her knee replaced. She was also told she would never be able to work standing on her feet. Needless to say, most of the jobs my mother is held throughout her life were jobs that she had to do on her feet. Can you guess that my mother is a very stubborn woman?

Eventually, the normal wear and tear on her leg began to get to her and she aged. When she finally set aside her stubbornness and went to a doctor, her knee joint had about a quarter of an inch left. The doctor was very curious as to how she was walking with so little over joint left. That was 30 years ago and she has had a second TKA since then as well as a hip replacement.

However, that first TKA brought about a miracle to my mother. When she awoke from the anesthetic, she said that something was wrong, but she was unable to figure out what was. The doctors began to worry that there was a complication. When they began to examine her leg for possible problems she exclaimed, “I know what’s wrong!” It was the simple fact that she was no longer in any pain. Needless to say, the doctors were very relieved that there were no problems with the knee. She had to have the knee replaced about 20 years later, even though they told her that first one would only last about a year or two. Of course, technology has improved enough to where she has not had to have it replaced again.

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44 Arrested in New Jersey Corruption Case

Bafed — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 02:39:32 +0000

Cited: Associated Press

Officials in New Jersey openly condemn clinical corruption after more than 40 people are arrested, among them are elected officeholders and rabbis. These people were arrested during an investigation where some are accused of laundering tens of millions of dollars as well as black-market trafficking of organs and fake Gucci handbags of all things. More than 130 public officials have pleaded guilty or been convicted of corruption since 2001 in New Jersey. This was quite an unusual number of arrests even for New Jersey.

“New Jersey’s corruption problem is one of the worst, if not the worst, in the nation,” said Ed Kahrer, who heads the FBI’s white-collar and public corruption division. “Corruption is a cancer that is destroying the core values of this state.”

Gov. Jon Corzine said: “The scale of corruption we’re seeing as this unfolds is simply outrageous and cannot be tolerated.” The arrests were headline news in Israel on Friday morning, with the front pages of all three of the country’s mass-circulation dailies featuring pictures of bearded ultra-Orthodox Jews being led away by law enforcement officials. Micky Rosenfeld, a spokesman for Israel’s national police force, said Friday that Israeli police were not involved in the investigation. He would not comment further.

Federal prosecutors in the U.S. said the investigation focused on a money laundering network that operated between Brooklyn, N.Y.; Deal, N.J.; and Israel. The network is alleged to have laundered tens of millions of dollars through Jewish charities controlled by rabbis in New York and New Jersey.

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Prosecutors then used an informant in that investigation to help them go after corrupt politicians. The informant - a real estate developer charged with bank fraud three years ago - posed as a crooked businessman and paid a string of public officials tens of thousands of dollars in bribes to get approvals for buildings and other projects in New Jersey, authorities said.

Among the 44 people arrested were the mayors of Hoboken, Ridgefield and Secaucus, Jersey City’s deputy mayor, and two state assemblymen. A member of the governor’s cabinet resigned after agents searched his home, though he was not arrested. All but one of the officeholders are Democrats.

Also, five rabbis from New York and New Jersey - two of whom lead congregations - were accused of laundering millions of dollars, some of it from the sale of counterfeit goods and bankruptcy fraud, authorities said. Others arrested included building and fire inspectors, city planning officials and utilities officials, all of them accused of using their positions to further the corruption.

The politicians arrested were not accused of any involvement in the money laundering or the trafficking in human organs and counterfeit handbags. Hours after FBI agents seized documents from his home and office, New Jersey Community Affairs Commissioner Joseph Doria resigned. Federal officials would not say whether he would be charged. Doria did not return calls for comment.

Authorities did not identify the informant, described in court papers as a person “charged in a federal criminal complaint with bank fraud in or about May 2006.” But the date matches up with an investigation that led to charges against Solomon Dwek, the son of a Deal rabbi.

The younger Dwek was charged at the time in connection with a bounced $25 million check he deposited in a bank’s drive-through window. He has denied the charges. Dwek’s lawyer did not immediately return a call for a comment.

Most of the defendants facing corruption charges were released on bail. The money-laundering defendants faced bail between $300,000 and $3 million, and most were ordered to submit to electronic monitoring. Among those ensnared by the informant was Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano III, prosecutors said. The 32-year-old Cammarano, who won a runoff election last month, was accused of accepting money from the developer at a Hoboken diner.

“There’s the people who were with us, and that’s you guys,” the complaint quotes Cammarano saying. “There’s the people who climbed on board in the runoff. They can get in line. … And then there are the people who were against us the whole way. … They get ground into powder.”

Joseph Hayden, Cammarano’s attorney stated that his client is “innocent of these charges and intends to fight them with all his strength until he proves himself innocent.” This comment was made after Cammarano was accused of taking bribes in the amount of $25,000.

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My Take: Another black mark on politics. I could never work in politics. You have to be almost perfect in everything you do and say. You have to be a “Boy Scout” even if you were a female. Shame on you if you made this mistake as a kid, because it will come back to hot you as a politician.

These guys should just sell notes for cash and then honest about it. Real estate notes are one of the best ways to make money and it is honest, at least most of the time is. Maybe their parents forgot to tell them that “honesty is the best policy”.

I doubt that there is even an honest politician in the whole country. If there is, he is not very popular because he cannot get anything done. The way our society is today, a politician needs to be able to lie, cheat and even steal to get things done in Washington. What does that say about our country? Not anything good!

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Honesty in Divorce?

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Justice for All

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Apparel Companies Now Focusing on Technology

Bafed — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 02:21:29 +0000

Cited: Apparel News

Retailers and manufacturers are still looking to technology despite their constrained budgets and consolidation on the retail front. This means that technology companies have been holding their own during this recession. Vendors, retailers and brands have made a number of deals in recent weeks; however, executives in the technology industry do not describe this as business as usual but because of the companies being forced to reevaluate all aspects of their business.

Apparel companies are taking a more “holistic approach,” investing in products that provide value and durability, explained Bob McKee, industry strategy director for Minneapolis-based Lawson Software. Lawson this week announced it will outfit Norcross, Ga.–based Alternative Apparel with its business-intelligence and sales-planning software.

Other recent deals include Wet Seal partnering with SAS for a business-intelligence system that helps map out size profiling, Billabong signing on for New Generation Computing’s PLM and sourcing applications, and Urban Outfitters using Merkle’s business analytics system to help its multi-channel marketing efforts.

The companies that are looking for technology are focused, McKee said. “Most of the organizations out there looking are serious about technology, and there is a fair amount looking. There are new requirements for controlling business now. The task of turning inventory into cash is paramount right now.”

Ray Hein, executive vice president of PLM supplier Centric Software, added that there is also a group of “hide out in the bomb shelter and wait ’til it’s over” companies.

“It’s easy to understand this thinking, but we truly believe it’s shortsighted and in fact think that it’s a path to failure. Then, on the other hand, you’ve got the companies who realize they’ve got to invest and improve their efficiencies, control their costs, gain visibility, achieve compliance management—all of the capabilities that we deliver—now, more than ever,” he said.

Hein said Centric has closed on a significant amount of business during the first half of the year in addition to add-on business from existing clients.

“We think these achievements are due to three factors—our ability to deliver enterprise-level impact; our significant new product offerings that have brought truly unique capabilities to the marketplace; and our ability and focus on bringing rapid value to customers, usually within six to 12 months.”

Retailers and manufacturers are seeing value in products such as PLM and business-intelligence applications as well as any product that helps improve speed to market.

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“The truth is, manufacturing is not coming back to the U.S,” acknowledged Roxy Starr, chief information officer for Malibu, Calif.–based Shapely Shadow Inc., which develops and markets FastFit360.com, a visual-collaboration tool for fit sessions and other design scenarios. “Technology is the only way to grow and speed up our process communicating in multiple languages,” she said. “Technology is the key to job growth.”

The apparel industry has a history of adapting technology at a slower rate than other industries, but concepts such as “SaaS” (software as a service), which is hosted over the Internet, have lowered the barriers to entry. SaaS applications are significantly less costly, quicker to implement and easier to learn.

Atlanta-based merchandising-software provider Predictix has been able to grow during tough times due in part to its SaaS model.

“It changes the stakes,” said Executive Vice President Rafael Gonzalez Caloni. “Traditionally, you would have these very long bake-offs where the stakes are high, and then you’re talking about another year [of implementation] after you made your decision.”

The system, Predictix, helps manage allocation, pricing, forecasting, markdowns and replenishment retailers and 1/5^th to 1/10^th the cost of traditional systems. Shapely Shadow’s FastFit is similar and is offered as an SaaS basis that allows clients to pay on a monthly payment plan. Starr also confirmed that the company is growing as a result of this. The system that allows designers and production staffers to collaborate is FastFit. This allows everyone to view sample on a model or body form so they can provide feedback on how to garment fits. It gives the user the ability to zoom in and turn subjects to view all aspects of their.

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My Take: It seems the days of the local tailor or seamstresses are almost over. I am sure that there will always be a need for a tailor or seamstress at some point, probably for wedding dresses and fittings of similar design. A bride would definitely want her wedding dress to fit before she sends out the marriage announcements.

However, what makes me unhappy is that the jobs are not going to be in America. This country has gotten too used to outsourcing the jobs that Americans need. In the future, there will be less jobs needed because of birth rate has basically stabilize as far as I know. That means less birth announcements will be needed in the future. Nevertheless, what about the present? What are people going to do for jobs now?

People who want to buy custom-made baby headbands for their infants will just have to find something else that is a little cheaper. Why, because they do not have the job that pays them enough to afford it. They will just have to settle for wholesale baby headbands. I know this example may sound strange, but it is the only one I could think of at the time I was writing this.

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Spiral knots date back from 2,500 B.C. and were a microcosm for other designs in nature etc. for e.g. seashells, the galaxy etc. These were used as adornments in the Celtic Iron Age. In battle the ancient Celtic warrior’s only defense was his shield. The Celtic warrior had many superstitions and would adorn their shields according to what they believed would protect them from harm. This is where the Warrior Shield comes from. The symbols on the Warrior Shield are a combination of an ancient shield and some other famous carvings. The intertwining detail is a symbol of re-birth and the continuity of life. It also shows the two warriors locked together in combat in which one of them will die. You can easily find Celtic Irish jewelry online with a simple search.

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Heart and Lungs Keeps Rhythm with Music

Bafed — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 01:25:03 +0000

Cited: MedPage Today

According to a controlled clinical trial that may give new insight to musical therapies, cardiovascular and breathing rates consistently fall into step with musical rhythms and crescendos. Researchers have discovered that the same music had the same cardiovascular effects on all subjects in a clinical trial. The conventional view of music was that it was an intensely personal medium and had no effect on bodily systems.

Taking advantage of these interactions may open the way to standardized treatments for blood pressure control and rehabilitation, Luciano Bernardi, MD, of Pavia University in Pavia, Italy, and colleagues wrote in the June 30 issue of Circulation.

However, Joep Perk, MD, of Oskarshamn District Hospital in Sweden, sounded a note of caution.

Explain to interested patients that music is known to impact blood pressure and stress levels in particular.

Note that the study revealed similar synchrony between musical amplitude and cardiovascular variables regardless of musical training or reported emotional response.

Given the small study size and inclusion of only classical music and young people, “I don’t think we can yet say the results represent strong evidence-based medicine,” he said on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. Since the evidence for a link between stress and cardiovascular health is strong, the best role for music may be in relaxation therapies, Dr. Perk said in a prepared statement.

Some prior studies have shown that soothing sounds, such as waves on a beach, and rhythmically homogenous music can reduce stress and lower blood pressure, respiration, and heart rate. But Dr. Bernardi’s group said it saw greater possibilities for autonomic control — to induce a desired pace rather than simply reduce it from baseline. Their study included 24 healthy, white participants (average age 25). Half were experienced choir singers, while the rest had no prior music training.

After five minutes of baseline recordings while participants were lying down with their eyes closed and headphones on, they listened in random order to the following range of compositions:

The well-known orchestral adagio from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony
The emotional and lyrical operatic aria “Nessun dorma” from Puccini’s “Turandot”
A so-called “Intellectual” piece of solo singing from Bach, the cantata “Gott soll allein mein Herze haben” (BMW 169)
The aria “Va pensiero” from Verdi’s opera “Nabucco”
The drinking song “Libiam Nei Lieti Calici” from Verdi’s “La Traviata”
Two minutes of silence

Most of the participants reported no particular emotional response to or definite preference for particular compositions. None reported strong emotions or “chills” from listening to the music. However, there appeared to be a subconscious autonomic response. The researchers saw consistent cardiovascular effects that dynamically corresponded to the composition both in degree and timing.

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“Almost every music crescendo or emphasis induced progressive skin vasoconstriction along with increases in blood pressures and heart rate,” they wrote.

The most rapid responses were in the interval between R waves on the electrocardiogram and in the middle cerebral artery flow velocity, followed by systolic and diastolic blood pressures and skin vasomotion. By contrast, the period of silence and baseline measurement periods were marked by only minor changes with progressive skin vasodilation and reductions in heart rate and blood pressure.

The individual musical composition with the strongest correlations to cardiovascular changes was Puccini’s “Nessun dorma,” which showed progressive arousal during the series of increasing crescendos.

The orchestral Beethoven adagio, which also includes several crescendos of progressively increasing intensity, showed significant but lesser correlations with cardiovascular variables.

The Bach cantata produced minor relaxation in participants’ cardiovascular measures, possibly because the “high but short peaks in the music envelope” were too close together to elicit responses, the researchers suggested.

The musicians and nonmusicians showed no differences in overall response. Interestingly, despite different emotional overtones, the two Verdi arias have rhythmic “phrases” timed close to the circulatory oscillation frequency — Mayer waves of blood pressure — of six cycles per minute. Because this 10-second period arises from the autonomic modulation of the cardiovascular system, researchers have tried to modulate it through yoga, prayers, and other methods to slow respiration.

“Va pensiero” showed peak coherence with cardiovascular responses at between 0.08 and 0.09 Hz, “the same rhythm as the musical phrase, 0.087 Hz, which indicates that while listening to the central part of the track, the subjects synchronized their Mayer waves with the rhythm of the music.”

The aria “Libiam nei lieti calici,” showed similar “entrainment” of cardiovascular variables at its 0.110 Hz frequency (9.04-second period, P<0.0001). However, “this synchronization did not appear to be linked to respiration, which suggests an effect directly mediated by the autonomic nervous system,” Dr. Bernardi’s group said. Respiration increased briefly in amplitude during musical crescendos with overall regularization of rhythm and a tracking in respiratory power, but not end-tidal carbon dioxide.

The researchers said these findings have “considerable implications for the use of music as a therapeutic tool.” The main reason: despite popular belief in a personal, emotional response to music, all the participants responded similarly.

“Our findings suggest that music is sensed and processed at a subconscious level, closely mirrored by autonomic cardiovascular responses,” they concluded.

“These results have clear implications for the practice of music therapy: If music induces similar physiological effects in different subjects, standard therapeutic interventions should be possible.”

Because of the similarities of all participants in the clinical trial, the researchers are cautioning against generalizing the findings. They still believe that there could be potential in using music as a therapeutic tool for patients.

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My Take: “Music soothes the savage beast!” I have no idea who said it, but it is very true. Music has always been something that influences people, not only physically but emotionally as well. So why did not be able to help people who are ill?

History has shown that music has been has had an effect on how people react to different situations. The music has been blamed for riots throughout the centuries because it got people riled up. If they can get people riled up it should be able to do the exact opposite and calm them down.

Music usually makes people feel better. Otherwise, why would they play music in elevators or in doctors’ waiting rooms? It is to make people relax. Music has always had the ability to relieve stress, why can it not have the ability to alleviate health problems. It only makes sense to me.

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Sports Nutritional Supplements

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No Heavy Breathing for Spacewalker

Bafed — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 04:36:48 +0000

Cited: Reuters

Chris Cassidy, the elite Navy diver-turned-astronaut, got some advice from Nassau on his first spacewalk when they cut it short breathe easy. Apparently, near the end of his spacewalk eight carbon dioxide, a byproduct of breathing, started to build up in Cassidy’s suit. The Endeavor astronaut and his partner David Wolf were replacing batteries and solar power system aboard the international space station when the canister of lithium hydroxide began to malfunction. The poisonous gas, carbon dioxide, is supposed to be removed from the sealed spacesuit by the canister of lithium hydroxide.

Engineers believe Cassidy’s enthusiastic and strenuous start to his outing led to a failure of the canister later in the spacewalk. Cassidy was never in any danger, as the spacewalk was canceled before the carbon dioxide levels came anywhere close to being a concern.

“There’s a feature with how the lithium hydroxide works where if you go out and have a very high metabolic rate at the very beginning then the canister doesn’t work as well for the duration,” space station flight director Holly Ridings said. “Chris is a Navy SEAL,” Ridings said, referring to the U.S. Navy’s Special Forces who operate on sea, air and land. “He’s in great shape and so we really just needed to tell him, ‘Hey, we know you can do this really well and really fast, but we need the (canister) to work right, so just slow down a little and take your time.’ He took that with good humor,” Ridings said.

Cassidy and crewmate Tom Marshburn were scheduled for an extended 7 1/2-hour spacewalk a couple of days later to finish replacing batteries in the solar power system aboard the International Space Station. At the end of that week, a Russian cargo ship blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with more than 2,700 pounds (1,215 kg) of equipment and supplies, as well as 1,800 pounds (810 kg) of fuel for the station’s steering thrusters.

The outing, by shuttle Endeavour’s lead spacewalker David Wolf and rookie astronaut Chris Cassidy, was called off shortly before 4 p.m. (2000 GMT) as the astronauts were replacing batteries in the station’s solar power system.

Two of four batteries were installed when Mission Control told the crew to head back to the airlock. They had been spacewalking for about six hours when Cassidy’s suit began having problems. Sensors showed a buildup of carbon dioxide. The gas, a byproduct of breathing, typically is chemically removed by a canister of lithium hydroxide.

“It seems like the canister itself is experiencing some problems,” astronaut Aki Hoshide radioed to the Endeavour crew from Mission Control in Houston.

“It’s not an imminent failure,” Hoshide added. “We just wanted to make sure that you guys are back in the airlock.” The spacewalk was the third of five planned during shuttle Endeavour’s ongoing mission at the space station. The vessel is scheduled to dock at the orbital outpost the day after the shuttle Endeavour crew departs.

For those who would like to breathe easier . . . A tee shirt is a shirt that is pulled on over the head to cover most of a person’s torso. A basic T-shirt is usually buttonless, collarless, and pocketless, with a round neck and short sleeves. The short-sleeve version of the T-shirt has sleeves that extend over the shoulder but not completely to the elbow. T-shirts are typically made of cotton or polyester fibers or a combination of both, knitted together in a jersey stitch that gives a T-shirt its distinctive soft texture. T-shirts, like music T shirts, can be decorated with text and/or pictures, and are sometimes used to advertise like graffiti tee shirts. A shirt, made in a similar fashion with similar materials, that is either longer or shorter is not usually considered to be a T-shirt. The T-shirt is one of the most comfortable pieces of clothing that is worn by everybody, including astronauts.

FUEL TANK FOAM TEST PASSED

In addition, tests on the fuel tank earmarked for NASA’s next space shuttle launch in August show no problem with how the insulating foam is bonded to the tank, an agency spokesman stated. The test result could clear a hurdle for NASA’s next shuttle launch.

NASA ordered tests of the fuel tank scheduled for use during the shuttle Discovery’s launch to station after an unusually large amount of foam fell off the shuttle Endeavour’s tank during its launch last week.

NASA has been fastidious about in-flight debris since losing the shuttle Columbia in 2003. A piece of foam that fell off Columbia’s tank during launch smashed into the ship’s wing, breaching a heat-resistant panel. The shuttle broke apart as it flew through the atmosphere for landing 16 days later, killing all seven astronauts aboard.

Most of the foam shed during Endeavour’s climb into orbit on July 15 fell off so late during ascent that there was not enough atmospheric force for free-flying debris to slam into the ship and cause damage. NASA, however, wants to be sure that whatever problem triggered the foam loss on Endeavour does not reoccur, especially while the shuttle is in the early phases of launch when debris impacts could do harm.

Engineers believe a bonding problem may have triggered the foam loss on Endeavour’s tank. Tests at the shuttle tank manufacturing plant outside New Orleans show normal adhesion of the foam on Discovery’s fuel tank, said Steve Roy, a spokesman with the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, which oversees shuttle fuel tank production.

“That’s what we expected to see and that’s what we saw,” Roy told Reuters.

NASA believes that additional samples from Discovery’s tank foam may aid in discovering the problem with further testing. This means that the issue has not been resolved. NASA will continue to search for the cause of the Endeavor’s foam loss.

“We have not determined the root cause yet,” Roy said.

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My Take: I think it is funny that NASA tells an astronaut to breathe easy when there is something wrong with their breathing apparatus. Thank goodness, those astronauts are trained to relax in extreme situations. Someone told me that and I would probably start breathing harder. With all the gear that those guys have to wear, it is a wonder that they can even move.

They must have to wear flame resistant coveralls under that suit as well as flame resistant underwear. I understand they even wear a diaper when they are doing a spacewalk. That makes sense, since they cannot just go into the nearest bathroom and take care of it. I just wonder if those coveralls are made by Carhartt. They do make the best flame resistant clothing.

As for their fuel tank repairs, they definitely do not want another disaster up there. The last one cost this country too much and I do not mean financially. It will be a great day when this country finally gets it safe enough for the average citizen to travel into space. Of course, I will be too old when that day arrives and my dream of going to space will remain just that, a dream.

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Other Resources

Out of This World Payroll

A good payroll preparation service provides integrated payroll and human resource solutions for managing today’s businesses. With a client-focused work ethic, it should maintained a 95% or better client satisfaction rating and be recognized as the preferred service provider for those businesses wanting more than the mediocre service levels that have become the norm within the industry. It should also provide online payroll services for easy access by the clients.

Astronaut Driver Training

Every astronaut is taught how to “pilot” a shuttlecraft. Just as every driver should be taught how to “pilot” a vehicle on the road. Whether that be a motorcycle driving course NY only drivers education high school course, every driver should be trained properly. The DMV in NY certifies an academy driving school NY before it will recognize the credit for attendance. With that certification, the DMV can restore points toward driving record and authorize discounts for insurance.

An astronaut is taught how to avoid collisions during a flight and a defensive driving course can teach a driver to do the same. There is even a NJ defensive driving online class available now for people who cannot actually go to a classroom. Safety courses are extremely important for both astronauts and drivers.

2010 Sees Rising Unemployment and Slow Recovery

Bafed — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 04:26:05 +0000

Cited: Apparel News

California and LA County’s will see the number of people without jobs increase through 2010 as the economy slowly begins to equalize. One of the hardest hit industries is the apparel and retail industries because consumers are keeping a fistful. This industry will also continue to shed jobs according to one economic report written by Kyser Center For Economic Research. The same report has predicted that California will hit bottom by the end of 2009 and that any recovery in 2010 slow.

“Job losses will continue in construction, manufacturing, retailing, leisure and hospitality services,” said Jack Kyser, founding economist of the Kyser Center for Economic Research, which unveiled its “2009–2010 Mid-Year Economic Forecast & Industry Outlook” report on July 22.

Apparel and retail

Employment will continue to decline in the apparel and textile manufacturing sectors in Los Angeles County. The apparel and textile industry currently employs about 85,800 people in Los Angeles County, an 8.4% drop from 2008. By 2010, only 80,200 people are expected to be working in the industry, a 7% drop from this year.

However, the wholesale sector, which employs many of the salespeople in the California Market Center and other showroom buildings, should hold steady and even inch up slightly this year to 21,100 people, compared with 20,800 last year, according to the LAEDC.

“It is going to be tough going, and then you have the unknown about CIT,” Kyser said, referring to the precarious financial situation of CIT Corp., the largest factor for the apparel and retail sector, which nearly declared bankruptcy recently.

Retailers will also have a rough road to travel for the rest of this year. Retailing began to slow down in late 2007 with the collapse of the housing market. Taxable retail sales in 2009 are expected to drop 9% in Los Angeles County and 12% in Orange County.

Several retailers, such as Mervyns, Gottschalks and Eddie Bauer, have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy or closed. There are estimates that in 2009, approximately 10% of retailers across the country will restructure, file for bankruptcy protection or liquidate.

“You are going to continue to see a lot of stores shut down, a lot of the independents,” Kyser said. “You still have retail-space landlords who don’t get that it is tough out there. Smaller chains will either downsize or completely shut down because you have way too much retail capacity.”

For those who are having financial business problems . . . Merchants who need a small business loan, at one time, had no alternative to traditional bank loans except for outrageously expensive factoring-type short-term financing. These “factoring” companies were thriving at the merchant’s expense because they had no real competition when it came to providing a traditional business loan or commercial loan. You need a lender that will provide small business financing and unsecured term loans and small business loans via short-term working capital financing to Visa and MasterCard credit card merchant account holders at a reasonable rate that can give you a small business cash advance when you need it.

More job loss

While the unemployment rate in California will average 11.6% this year, it will inch up to 12.6% next year as companies remain reluctant to hire workers until they are confident the economic recovery is not a temporary event.

Los Angeles County will see its ranks of the unemployed grow as manufacturing, retailing, construction, and administration and support services see job losses that will contribute to an average 11.7% unemployment rate this year and 12.8% next year.

“Businesses have been through a lot,” Kyser said. “There is a lot of uncertainty out there. You have the issue of the state budget and what is going to happen to that, and you have state employees taking three unpaid furlough days a month, which cuts into people’s spending power. Employers are also watching health-care reform at the national level and environmental issues at the state level.”

International trade, which saw a steep decline this year, will see only a modest recovery in 2010, according to the LAEDC. Container traffic during the first half of this year was down 15.7% at the Port of Los Angeles and 27.4% at the Port of Long Beach.

Tourism, which saw rigorous growth that sparked a flurry of new hotels in town, is seeing anemic visitor numbers, which will continue to slide this year. The LAEDC report noted that business travel is down, with firms either cancelling functions or sending fewer people to trade shows. International travel is also down, as the economies of other countries are struggling. Consequently, hotels have suffered. During the first five months of 2009, the hotel occupancy rate in Los Angeles County was 66.2%, compared with 76.3% for the same period last year.

New-home construction will dip again this year, according to the report. In 2009, only 6,495 new units will get started, a 75 percent decline from the 2006 peak of 26,348 units. The county also has an oversupply of condos and apartments.

“In certain areas—like Long Beach, Pasadena and downtown Los Angeles—you have way too much supply,” Kyser said. “What you have in downtown Los Angeles is a 5 -year to a 10-year supply.”

On the plus side, job growth will be seen in health-care services, which generates jobs year after year, as well as rising employment at private schools. With federal stimulus money coming in, jobs should be added for public and private construction projects.

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My Take: I suppose the fashion industry is just like any other industry in America. They rely on the consumer to make profit. However, the consumer is also their employees. By laying off employees, they also run the chance of losing a customer. Why can business owners not realize this?

I also mentioned in a previous article, about the economics that many business owners do not utilize. That is the idea that if they lower their prices, they will increase their sales. Business owners can see this when they put on a weekly sale. They sell more of that particular item than they do any other item in their store. So, my question is why can they not have a sale of all items with lower prices?

I know, it is too simple, right. An idea that would bring in customers and increase sales that is very simple. I was taught this in my business economics class over 20 years ago. I cannot understand how it could not be useful in these rough economic times.

Let us take an example, a business that offers office products. Every business needs pens, pencils, note pads that are commonly referred to as office supplies. These same businesses also need office furniture and may even need office space planning specialists. Now, big companies like Staples, probably would not agree with this theory. However, if a smaller company would offer the same products that Staples does at a lower price, they could conceivably sell more than Staples does.

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Other Resources

Employment Problems

If you feel that you are the victim of inequality at work, you are not alone. Did you lose that promotion to someone less qualified? Is your boss prejudiced toward you because of your age, race, sex, or religion? Is a co-worker stalking you? Does your boss often make awkward sexual advances toward you? Whatever the case, our New York Employment Lawyers will be happy to represent you. Sexual harassment in the workplace is no laughing matter. Many employees choose to do nothing about it because they are afraid that they might lose their job. Do not let your boss or co-workers push you around, be proactive and take the first step by contacting a Long Island sexual harassment attorney. That will provide legal help and counsel.

Loan Modifications

Are you lost with the myriad of information that is available to you? Do you have unanswered questions about Arizona foreclosures? Would you like someone to be completely honest with you about what is really possible with Mesa AZ foreclosures? Then you need to contact a trained experts who will contact you to answer all of your questions. Someone who will guarantee no sales, no pushy people, just friendly, knowledgeable, compassionate professionals to answer your questions!

Security Employment

The U.S. 9/11 Commission Act of 2007 requires The Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) to establish a system to screen 100 percent of cargo transported on passenger planes by 2010. TSA has placed the Rapiscan 620DV X-ray screening system and the Rapiscan MVXR5000 baggage and airport cargo screeners on its list of candidate technologies which may be used by airlines, air cargo carriers, freight forwarders, IACs and other companies to comply with TSA’s new screening regulations for airport cargo security. Many airports now used an upright metal detector at check-in points for passengers as part of their security. They do still need additional security personnel to check passengers individually. This personnel may also need to use a multi zone metal detector while on the job.

Windows 7 OS Price Cut

Bafed — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 04:10:30 +0000

Cited: Reuters

Microsoft is cutting the price of its new standard home-user version Windows 7 operating system by 8% then the compatible version of its Vista system because of the slow spending on technology. The reason that Microsoft is doing this is an attempt to tempt consumers before the Holiday season begins. In fact, it has recently been advertising low-priced PCs against more expensive Apple computers in the same endeavor

The new operating system, which Microsoft hopes will be a bigger hit than the poorly received Vista, will be generally released on October 22. It will be available on pre-order from U.S. stores such as Best Buy Co Inc , online retailer Amazon.com Inc and the company’s own website from Friday.

Microsoft did not detail how much it would charge PC makers such as Hewlett-Packard Co , Dell Inc and Acer Inc <2353.TW> for preloading Windows 7 on their machines, which is how most customers will come to use the operating system. The price Microsoft charges manufacturers is becoming a thorny point, as both sides look to maximize their share of profits as PC sales dip and prices are driven down.

The software giant said it would sell the Home Premium upgrade version of Windows 7 — which most nonbusiness customers already using Windows will want — for $49.99 from Friday until July 11 in the United States. The discs would be shipped after general release.

After July 11, the pre-order price will be $119.99, 8 percent less than the current $129.99 price tag for the comparable version of Vista, which cost $159.99 at launch in early 2007. The Professional upgrade version of Windows 7 — aimed at small companies using multiple computers — went on sale July 11 at $99.99, then at $199.99 afterward. The comparable Vista version is the same price.

Prices for the full retail versions of the software — for customers who want to install the system from scratch rather than upgrade their existing Windows system — are also being reduced or held. Microsoft will sell the full Home Premium version of Windows 7 for $199.99, 17% less than the comparable Vista version. Full versions of the more advanced Professional and Ultimate editions will be unchanged at $299.99 and $319.99, respectively.

For new and established online businesses . . . You want to have the best equipment possible, and just like a cell phone dealer offering free cell phones or a satellite TV company offering free dishes, you should have to pay for it. As you can get free, pre-programmed, multi-application free credit card terminals, not only will you quickly process credit and debit cards in 2-4 seconds, but you can also be able to accept a check just like a credit card. Remember, these credit card terminals are free!

To further tempt buyers, Microsoft said it was making a free upgrade option available to computer makers, meaning that customers who buy a PC or laptop with all but the most basic Vista versions from Friday should be able to get a free upgrade to the equivalent Windows 7 version.

How that offer is made available to customers is up to the individual PC makers. Both Microsoft and the manufacturers are hoping such an offer will avoid a sudden drop-off in already falling PC sales by persuading customers not to hold off on purchases until Windows 7 is launched.

Because the upgrade option means Microsoft is essentially selling two operating systems for the price of one, the company is deferring half the revenue from Vista sales over the next several months. As a result, it said it would defer about $200 million to $300 million revenue from its fiscal fourth quarter, ending June 30, to later quarters, recognizing it either when a customer takes advantage of the upgrade, or at the end of the program on January 31, 2010. The move has no effect on cash flow.

In contrast to the Vista operating system, which was released in different language versions over several months, Microsoft said Windows 7 would be available in 14 languages on October 22 and a further 21 on October 31.

Versions for sale in Europe will not have Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 web browser included, due to the company’s recent decision to detach it in the face of a pending European Commission antitrust ruling on charges that Microsoft does not allow fair competition among browsers by including its own on its operating systems. However, Microsoft said it will make IE8 available as a separate package for no extra charge. Customers can also install a competing browser.

Microsoft said on it will only offer full versions of Windows 7 in Europe rather than both full and upgrade versions. For a short time, it is offering the Home Premium version for 49 Euros ($68) and the Professional version for 99 Euros ($138). Microsoft also said the packaging of discs for the operating system was being reduced and would use recyclable plastic. (1 euro = $1.39)

NASDAQ did show Microsoft shares up 1.3% at $23.75 in trading in June. This is a good sign for the company. It seems that with Windows 7 operating system coming out, Microsoft is getting a better image.

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My Take: It is about time they got rid of Vista! I consider myself when the smart computer users that never got Vista. I have listened to friends and coworkers complain about problems with their system and Vista. Vista did follow the history of Windows XP with problems when it first came out. At least, with XP the problems were resolved. With Vista, the problems seem to be endless.

Businesses that use data centers may want to investigate Windows 7 operating system to make sure that it will cause problems similar to Vista. I have heard that there is a Chicago data center that may be able to answer some of these questions. No business can afford to lose their data in these hard economic times.

I do think that Windows 7 will be better than Vista, anything is better than Vista. I recently had a chance to buy myself a laptop at a very reasonable rate but I did not because it had Vista as the operating system. If they would have been able to put Windows XP on it, I would have thought it. However, Windows XP was not available anymore for this type of purchase. I would have had to put out extra cash and installed it myself.

I understand that Windows plans to completely do away with any and all updates for Windows XP and Windows XP Pro. This I believe is a bad move by Microsoft. Too many businesses and consumers have XP on their systems and cannot afford the extra expense of purchasing Windows 7 even at a reduced rate. I believe that they should keep up with updates for Windows XP until the majority of consumers are using whatever the current operating system is.

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Other Resources

Product Promotions

A company that offers an entire page of technical information designed to help you decide if the product you are looking for is the right one for your promotional needs is what you need. They should be able to provide charts and tables filled with information regarding everything from customized packaging to picking the right size trash liner to figuring out the relative weight per thousand of poly and plastic tubing. They should be able to provide commercial promotional bags as well as organza bags that you can utilize in your company promotions.

Mortgage Assistance

Making use of the most aggressive and most competitive lenders available in today’s marketplace should be what all commercial loan brokers do. They should constantly be informed as to the internal forces within the lending institutions that create the temporary pricing disparities. When you work with commercial mortgage foreclosure professionals to expertly handle all aspects of the transaction you want to make sure that they are the best. From identifying the best lender, negotiating the optimal loan terms and micro managing the entire loan process, the transaction management team should be the best in the business to insure the smoothest and quickest execution for your transaction.