The Social Security numbers of some of the nation?s most highly decorated Army war heroes from Iraq and Afghanistan were posted this week by a civilian contractor on a publicly available website.
The Army has launched an investigation to find out how the privacy of its heroes was violated.
Of more than 500 names and profiles on the site, 31 contain Social Security numbers. Six are Medal of Honor recipients, two of whom are alive. There are also Social Security numbers for 25 soldiers who earned the Distinguished Service Cross, 22 of whom are living.
Army spokesman George Wright told The Washington Times on Friday the service has launched an investigation to determine how the Army data was handled. He said the contractor was contacted and told to remove the site.
?We take this matter seriously,? Mr. Wright said.
By Friday evening, The Times could still access the Web address for the list of heroes, their accomplishments in battle, and, in 31 cases, the Social Security numbers.
The site was discovered by a veteran doing research on war heroes.
Former ArmyStaff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta earned the Medal of Honor, presented by President Obama, for saving the lives of comrades in Afghanistan on Oct. 25, 2007. He left the Army last year and is attending college.
The Times provided him a copy of his data on the website.
?My reaction is ?What a bummer!?? he said in an email. ?Our Socials are not public information for a reason. I don?t know why someone would make them public.?
1st Sgt. Leroy Petry is the Army?s lone Medal of Honor recipient on active duty. A Ranger, he was awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism during a firefight in Afghanistan.
Contracted by The Times and shown the data, Sgt. Petry said he immediately contracted Army Special Operations Command.
?It?s disappointing. You always have the fear of fraud,? he said. ?The bigger question is how did they get it and is the person who released it being held responsible.?
Doug Sterner, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, has been urging the Pentagon to set up a database of citations for valor in the war on terror. He is the curator of the Hall of Valor website on MilitaryTimes.com.
What struck Mr. Sterner is how complete the database is. ?It?s an impressive piece of work,? he told The Times. ?This is the single most complete and accurate compilation of Army awards I have found since World War II.?
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An Iraqi woman stands in rubble at the scene of a car bomb attack in the town of Taji, about 12 miles (20 kilometers) north of Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, Sept. 30, 2012. A rapid-fire series of explosions in Baghdad while Iraqis were going to work on Sunday morning, killed and wounded scores of people, police said. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
An Iraqi woman stands in rubble at the scene of a car bomb attack in the town of Taji, about 12 miles (20 kilometers) north of Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, Sept. 30, 2012. A rapid-fire series of explosions in Baghdad while Iraqis were going to work on Sunday morning, killed and wounded scores of people, police said. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
Iraqis inspect the scene of a car bomb attack in the town of Taji, about 12 miles (20 kilometers) north of Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, Sept. 30, 2012. A rapid-fire series of explosions in Baghdad while Iraqis were going to work on Sunday morning, killed and wounded scores of people, police said. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
An Iraqi boy stands at the scene of a car bomb attack in the town of Taji, about 12 miles (20 kilometers) north of Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, Sept. 30, 2012. A rapid-fire series of explosions in Baghdad while Iraqis were going to work on Sunday morning, killed and wounded scores of people, police said. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
Iraqis inspect the scene of a car bomb attack in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, Sept. 30, 2012. A rapid-fire series of explosions in Baghdad while Iraqis were going to work on Sunday morning, killed and wounded scores of people, police said. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)
Iraqis stand in rubble at the scene of a car bomb attack in the town of Taji, about 12 miles (20 kilometers) north of Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, Sept. 30, 2012. A rapid-fire series of explosions in Baghdad while Iraqis were going to work on Sunday morning, killed and wounded scores of people, police said. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
BAGHDAD (AP) ? Bombs striking Shiite neighborhoods, security forces and other targets across Iraq killed at least 26 people Sunday, officials said, in the latest instance of coordinated violence to take a sectarian bent and undermine confidence in the beleaguered government.
The deadliest attack came in the town of Taji, a former al-Qaida stronghold just north of Baghdad, where three explosive-rigged cars went off within minutes of each other. Police said eight people died and 28 were injured in the back-to-back blasts that began around 7:15 a.m.
In all, at least 94 people were wounded in the wave of attacks that stretched from the restive but oil-rich city of Kirkuk in Iraq's north to the southern Shiite town of Kut.
Spokesmen for the government and Baghdad's military command could not immediately be reached for comment, and no one claimed responsibility for the violence immediately.
Car bombs however are a hallmark of al-Qaida in Iraq. The Sunni militant network has vowed to take back areas of the country, like Taji, from which it was pushed before U.S. troops withdrew last December.
Shiite lawmaker Hakim al-Zamili, a member of parliament's security and defense committee, said the attacks were a sign al-Qaida "is still in business." He said a deadly weekend prison break in Tikrit in which many al-Qaida-linked convicts escaped, likely boosted the terror network's morale and spurred Sunday's assault.
"Al-Qaida leaders have no intention of leaving this country or letting Iraqis live in peace," al-Zamili said. "Thus, we should expect more attacks in the near future. The situation in Iraq is still unstable ... and repetition of such attacks shows that our security forces are still unqualified to deal with the terrorists," he added.
Shortly after the Taji attacks, police said a suicide bomber set off his explosives-packed car in the Shiite neighborhood of Shula in northwest Baghdad. One person was killed and seven wounded. Police could not immediately identify the target.
"So many people were hurt. A leg of a person was amputated," lamented Shula resident Naeem Frieh. "What have those innocent people done to deserve this?"
And in Baghdad's bustling Karradah neighborhood, a parked car laden with explosives went off next to a police patrol, killing a police officer and a civilian, other officials said. Eight other people were injured. The blast was followed minutes later by another parked car bomb as people gathered, killing three civilians and injuring 12 others, they added. Secondary bomb blasts targeting those coming to help the wounded are a common insurgent tactic.
An Associated Press cameraman was knocked to the ground in the second explosion and an AP photographer was slightly injured.
Elsewhere in the country, another suicide bomber drove a minibus into a security checkpoint in Kut, located 160 kilometers (100 miles) southeast of Baghdad. Three police officers were killed and five wounded, Maj. Gen. Hussein Abdul-Hadi Mahbob said.
And in Iraq's north, another policeman was killed when security forces were trying to defuse a car bomb parked on the main highway between the cities of Kirkuk and Tuz Khormato, said Kirkuk police chief Brig. Gen. Sarhad Qadir. A second policeman was wounded in the blast, Qadir said. Kirkuk is about 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of Baghdad.
In mid-morning, another parked car bomb went off next to a bus carrying Iranian pilgrims in the town of Madain, killing three Iraqis and injuring 11 others including seven Iranians, another police officer and health official said. Madain is a mainly Sunni area located 20 kilometers (12 miles) southeast of Baghdad.
In the town of Balad Ruz, 75 kilometers (45 miles) northeast of Baghdad, a parked car bomb targeted a passing police patrol, killing two policemen and injuring seven others, a police officer and health official said. And in the nearby town of Khan Bani Saad, 15 kilometers (nine miles) northeast of Baghdad, yet another parked car bomb exploded near a market and killed one civilian and injured nine others, they added.
Two Iraqi soldiers were killed in the town of Tarmiyah, 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Baghdad, when their patrol hit a roadside bomb, another police officer and health official said. Six other people, including four civilians were wounded.
Health officials in Taji, Tarmiyah and Baghdad confirmed the casualties. All officials spoke anonymously as they were not authorized to release information.
Earlier this summer, the Iraqi wing of al-Qaida, also called the Islamic State of Iraq, launched a campaign dubbed "Breaking the Walls," which aimed at retaking strongholds from which it was driven by the American military. At its peak, al-Qaida in Iraq brutalized its victims with publicized beheadings, suicide bombings and roadside bombs that targeted the Shiite government, the U.S. military and Iraqi civilians.
In an attempt to goad Shiite militias to respond, Al-Qaida bombed the revered al-Askari Shiite shrine in Samarra in 2006 ? an attack that launched Iraq's descent into more than three years of sectarian fighting. But the Iraqi wing of al-Qaida was shunned by the worldwide terror network's central leadership, which chided it for killing civilians.
The insurgency made a series of other missteps ? imposing overly strict Islamic discipline and alienating tribal leaders ? that undercut its support in Iraq's Sunni communities and helped lead to the widespread defection of fighters to groups allied with the U.S. As a result, the flow of funding, arms and fighters slowed to a trickle, and al-Qaida in Iraq has struggled to command much power.
Violence has dropped since the height of Iraq's bloodshed a few years ago, but Iraqi forces have failed to stop the attacks that continue to claim lives almost daily.
_____
Associated Press writer Sameer N. Yacoub contributed to this report from Baghdad.
Thereis no denying that online marketing tools have had major impacts in the online business world, thanks to the continued use of the internet. In some quarters, it is believed that online marketing will replace the use of offline marketing. Even then, a combination of both offline and online marketing can increase the performance of ?.
Thereis no denying that online marketing tools have had major impacts in the online business world, thanks to the continued use of the internet. In some quarters, it is believed that online marketing will replace the use of offline marketing. Even then, a combination of both offline and online marketing can increase the performance of your business significantly. Given the unending competition, it is imperative for a business owner to arm himself with effective marketing tools in order to connect with their target customers in the best way possible. Here arethe top five marketing tools that can take your marketing campaigns to new heights.
Pay per click advertising. Pay per click advertising is without a doubt one of the best marketing tools that guarantee immediate results, thanks to its unique characteristics. It is also the most lucrative and effective way of providing your website with instant traffic. Alongside that, the other outstanding feature that makes this tool stand out is its flexibility and ease of control. Having this marketing tool in your arsenal gives you an upper hand since you are able to control how much you spend in an attempt to increase traffic to your website. Most importantly, you can target your customers from any corner of the world.
Target link building. The trick to starting an effective link building campaign is to know the quality of your website. The major advantage of link building is that it helps your web pages rank high in major search engines, thereby increasing traffic to your website. Since you want to be seen and recognized by potential clients, link building is an effective way of establishing your reputation and creating your own online brand. Even though it is a very effective tool, it can fail to deliver desirable results if not well used.
Brochures and flyers. These are marketing tool that any business can not do without. However, effective brochures and flyers must be visually attractive and must contain a link to the company?s website. The beauty is that flyers are cheap and easy to design. Even though brochures are a little expensive, their marketing power is worth the price. They are also easy to design and use.
Catalogues. Catalogues are primarily used to display website details in a marketing campaign. Since most of them are printed to the highest quality standards, most clients and potential customers tend to keep them for quite long. And since they are used mainly for direct marketing, many people choose to do their shopping by the use of catalogues. This explains why they are still effective marketing tools.
Custom printed stickers. The popularity of stickers is increasing every single day, at least if the number of businesses using them are anything to by. This is because printers are affordable and very versatile; they can be designed in different shapes, colours and materials. Customized stickers are very effective in promoting products or services of a given business, thereby helping in increasing profitability.
Online marketing tools are superior because they increase production and profitability while spending less money. Offline tools, on the other hand, are preferred given their long history and immediate results. Whether you are introducing a new brand in the market or promoting your existing ones, the above listed marketing tools are necessary instruments for effective marketing.
Reasons That Prove The Superiority of Content Marketing over Link Building
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KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan officials are battling to convince nervous Chinese investors to restart work at a landmark $3 billion mine project and not to worry unduly about insurgent rocket attacks to salvage one of the country's big hopes of economic independence.
Western donors have focused on Aynak, the largest foreign investment project in its history which could help the country, now reliant on development aid, find its feet after most foreign combat troops leave in 2014.
But the giant Aynak copper deposit, among the world's largest, is situated in Logar province, one of the country's most dangerous, southeast of Kabul and insurgents aiming to wreck the government's flagship project have stepped up attacks.
After decades of war, many Afghans are resigned to the daily threat of roadside bombs and crossfire between NATO and insurgents. Civilian casualties hit a three-year high in August.
Most Chinese staff at the site, however, appear to have been spooked by Taliban attacks and left the country, with only a skeleton crew remaining to watch over equipment.
Afghan officials point out that the insurgents have not yet killed any Chinese workers.
"We had meetings with them (the Chinese investors) and assured them these rocket attacks happen anywhere and they are not the direct targets. We had repeatedly meetings with them but could not make them confident," Sardar Mohammad Sultani, acting deputy Minister of the Interior, told Reuters in his office.
"They left before any harm (was done to them). This was their own idea... It's up to them if want to return or not," said Sultani, in charge of the security force protecting the mine.
A spokesman for the consortium running Aynak, China Metallurgical Group (MCC) and Jiangxi Copper , confirmed some workers had been sent home indefinitely. It said unspecified "conditions" promised by the Afghan government in their contract had not been met.
He declined to link their departure to attacks, but said the government was working to improve security as the Afghan-NATO coalition targets insurgent strongholds in the east.
"The timing of those workers returning to Afghanistan will depend on conditions," the MCC spokesman told Reuters.
The project has been underway since 2007, with the Chinese companies overseeing the project about to start the final stage of construction, expected to take at least three years.
Even if work resumed tomorrow, it would be almost 2016 before any copper is extracted. Once fully operational, the mine could generate annual income of close to half a billion dollars, based on current copper prices.
International aid is already expected to fall short of the $6 billion a year required to promote economic growth, and a further $4.1 billion a year needed to secure pay the bill for the 350,000-strong security forces as NATO draws down.
So far, $4 billion a year through to 2015 has been promised.
TALIBAN THREAT
The Taliban say blocking the Aynak project has become one of their priorities, even as NATO claims a nine percent reduction in militant attacks.
"All government offices are corrupt and we don't believe that the money will benefit our nation, but will all be looted," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said by telephone.
"If they (the Chinese operators) get permission from us, their lives may be spared," he said, although the Taliban frequently exaggerate their reach and abilities.
The government-run Afghan force created this year to protect oil and mining assets -- when President Hamid Karzai banned private security firms -- is having difficulty protecting Aynak.
Despite increasing to more than 2,000 the number of security personnel at the site and installing extra checkpoints and wider security perimeters, rockets attacks have continued.
Afghan officials say they are doing all they can.
"We launched many operations. We detained a number of insurgents and killed a lot more. But our efforts haven't reached any conclusion," deputy minister Sultani said.
In a rare visit to Kabul this month by a top Chinese leader, bilateral deals on security were signed, including an agreement for police to be trained, funded and equipped with help from Beijing.
The government did not say whether the Chinese program was aimed at boosting security around China's oil and mining assets.
"This problem (insurgent attacks) exists all over the country. We are trying our best to clean the Aynak copper area from insurgents," Sultani added.
The threat is so severe that villages have warned the Afghan rights and anti-corruption monitor Integrity Watch Afghanistan (IWA) to stay away as they can no longer guarantee their safety.
IWA reported there are four armed groups operating in the Aynak area, some aiming to stop the project.
And the attacks are becoming more deadly. At the start of September, an assault on the protection unit killed 15 Afghan policemen, spreading fear among local and visiting workers.
"There are new groups who are more brutal and make it difficult for us to go. There is one new group in particular that is quite opposed to the development of the mine," said the IWA's mining expert Javed Noorani.
Noorani said that most Chinese workers had been repatriated.
CHINESE SLUMP
Safety may not be the only reason.
Beijing officials may intend to delay the project amid China's worst economic slowdown in years, which has caused global copper prices to tumble and hit Aynak's investors hard.
Metallurgical Corp of China, which has a majority share in the mine, swung into the red in first six months of 2012. Net losses stood at 186.13 million yuan ($29 million), compared to net profits of 1,969.03 million yuan in the first half of 2011.
Jiangxi Copper performed slightly better, but profits in the first half of 2012 slid by 38 percent, compared to a 12 percent decline in global copper prices over the past year.
Social, environmental and economic concerns linked to the development of the mine also remain, Noorani added, including disruptions to water supply and displacement of villagers.
Some officials at the Ministry of Mines say China may be waiting for new mining laws to be passed by parliament to renegotiate the terms of the deal.
Proposals to draft new legislation have been backed by Western donors and the World Bank. But some cabinet members blocked proposed legislation in July, saying it failed to protect national interests from foreign exploitation.
A new proposal has been redrafted and is expected to be discussed in parliament within weeks.
Wrangling over the legislation is already holding up progress finalizing an investment deal with an India-led consortium at the Hajigak iron ore deposit in central Bamiyan province, worth up to $11 billion.
The government said last year oil and mining could contribute up $1.5 billion in revenue by 2016, but there is little prospect of achieving such figures while the legal framework is in limbo.
Ministry of Mines senior geologist and adviser Atiq Sediqi said the future of the industry depended on the legislation.
"If the mining law is not approved, no one will come to invest in the mining sector in Afghanistan and the revenue forecast by the government from the development of the country's mineral resources will become a myth," Sediqi said last week.
($=6.3459 yuan)
(Additional reporting by Polly Yam in HONG KONG; Editing by Rob Taylor and Ron Popeski)
Who said vegetarian had to be boring? If you enjoy your meals meatless or you just want to try a few vegetarian dishes to spice up your dinnertime routine, you?ll enjoy Vegetarian Times. Vegetarian Times features some of the most popular vegetarian recipes in the country. You won?t lack for variety with the recipes included in this magazine. You can make your diet a little healthier by adding just one or two vegetarian meals a week and this magazine will show you some tasty recipes that won?t leave you asking, ?Where?s the Beef??
With features that include using food from your garden to after-school snacks, each issue of Vegetarian Times is filled to the brim with healthy and tasty ideas that will save you time and help you feed your family healthy and nutritious snacks and meals.
Are you short on time? No worries, you?ll find a lot of recipes that take 30 minutes or less to prepare. If you are of the adventurous variety, you?ll find vegetarian dishes from around the world. Learn to cook and try a new cultural dish in your own kitchen!
Getting ready to celebrate a holiday party or host a dinner and want to please your non-vegetarian friends too? You?ll find tips and specialty recipes so that everyone?s taste buds are satisfied.
Vegetarian Times is available in print of via download to your computer and Android Phone. Take your digital copy with you to the grocery store and remember to grab all of the ingredients for that new dish you want to try.
Want more? How about these similar digital magazines....
LONDON -- Energy companies should not drill for crude oil in Arctic waters because the environmental risks are too high, Total SA Chief Executive Officer Christophe de Margerie told the Financial Times?on Wednesday.
The newspaper, which operated behind a pay wall, described de Margerie's comments as the first time a major oil company has publicly criticized offshore exploration in the Arctic.
The risk of an oil spill in such an environmentally sensitive area was simply too high, according to de Margerie.
"Oil on Greenland would be a disaster. A leak would do too much damage to the image of the company," he said.
Earlier this month, Gazprom OAO delayed the start of oil production at its Prirazlomnoye field, the first Russian Arctic offshore oil deposit to be developed, due to safety concerns.
A report from the National Snow and Ice Data Center shows the Arctic's melting ice is resulting in the lowest sea ice levels since satellites started tracking the measurements in 1979. NBC's Brian Williams reports.
The Arctic is seen as a key source in the next decade for Russia, the world's largest oil producer.
Plans to drill for crude in the Arctic have raised concerns among environmental activists, who launched protests last month at the offshore platform that operates the Gazprom project.
Shell admits Arctic drilling defeat, for now
Earlier this month Royal Dutch Shell PLC had to abandon hope of drilling into oil reservoirs in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska after its containment dome was damaged during tests.
Environmentalists pointed to those setbacks as more evidence that offshore drilling in the Arctic is too risky.
Sen. Mark Begich, (D-AK), discusses what a delay in Arctic drilling means for the future of oil prices and exploration in the U.S.
"Letting Shell do top-hole drilling and other preparatory activities when they are clearly not ready to respond to an oil spill is like telling a drunk driver that as long as he stays off the freeway everything should be OK," said Rebecca Noblin, Alaska director of the Center for Biological Diversity, after Shell won approval to carry out additional preliminary drilling off Alaska -- this time in the Beaufort Sea.
More environment news on NBCNews.com
The remoteness, the extreme cold and the threat from ice floes crushing equipment pile more costs on top of those imposed by restrictions on drilling during hunting and breeding seasons and requirements for expensive emergency equipment to be on standby.
And industry executives acknowledge that the economics of Arctic exploration is also shaky.
NYT: China joins nations seeking treasure in warming Arctic
Nevertheless, Shell and other international oil and gas companies are moving into the Arctic because of increasing resource nationalism and dwindling production in their traditional heartlands of the Middle East, South America, the United States, the North Sea and elsewhere.
Persistently high oil prices are also making the huge engineering challenges of working in such a hostile environment look more worthwhile. In addition, the climate change that burning hydrocarbons contributes to has pushed back the ice, opening up access to, and markets for, the hydrocarbons there.
Arctic sea ice reaches new low, shattering record set 3 weeks earlier
The prize of success could be huge. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that some 30 percent of the world's undiscovered natural gas and 13 percent of its oil is waiting to be exploited in the Arctic.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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The Health Insurance Tax (HIT) on fully-insured premium markets imposed by Obamacare could raise $87 billion over the next ten years and also cost between 125,000 and 249,000 jobs by 2021, according to a study.
?Although the tax is formally structured as a fee on health insurers, recent analysis has determined that virtually all of the tax burden will be passed on to the purchasers of insurance,? says the study by the National Federation for Independent Business Research Foundation.
?The cost of health insurance is still a top ranking if not number one issue that?s probably the most unidentifiable per budget year,??Amanda Austin, director of federal public policy at NFIB, told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
?They just don?t know what it?s going to be at renewal, what new costs are going to be borne out in their premium,? she said. ?And that?s the aggravation year in and year out, that they never seem to go down, they only seem to go up, and this will potentially only aggravate the overall cost factor.?
Small businesses and the self-employed comprise 87 percent of the fully-insured market. The NFIB study estimates the tax will raise the cost of employer-sponsored insurance by 2-3 percent, a cumulative cost of nearly $5,000 per family.
?It just seems to me as a small business owner that tax cuts always have a sunset, like the Bush tax cuts? I?ve never heard of anyone say a tax increase is expiring at the end of the year. They seem like they?re built in forever,? small business owner John Culler shared with The DC News Foundation.
Culler owns a small marketing and communications firm in West Virginia with 11 employees. Culler explained that he spends an average of $13,000 a year for family coverage for each employee. He said providing health insurance is both a good recruitment tool and the right thing to do.
?We?ve always felt it was the right thing to do,? he said, though now, ?It just keeps getting harder and harder.?
A coalition of small business advocates and interest groups have joined forces to get the tax repealed. Recently, there has been movement on Capitol Hill with a bipartisan bill with over 220 cosponsors in Congress.
?We want action next year, if not lame duck,? Austin told TheDC News Foundation.
?Business owners understand what this tax is and understand that it?s going to impact their premium and therefore they want their voice to be heard on it.?
?It was a bit of an irritation for us that small business and individuals, which are the main purchasers of fully insured plans, which is where the industry bares the risk, they?re absorbing most of it,? Austin said, recalling when the tax was being considered for the bill that would ultimately become the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
?We were very concerned about this because as an advocate for the business community, we know very well pass-through taxes and how these things are easily borne out to the end user,? Austin added.
She said about the result, ?this is a tax on business? how exactly did we arrive at this when we were trying to lower the cost for small business??
Most of the fitness apps out there for iOS have three basic functions: They track your performance, integrate with your playlists to give you some music to listen to and offer the ability to share what you've done on Facebook or Twitter. Ease Into 5K adds another layer to that formula: A ready-made training plan that builds from a relatively easy workout up to the target distance of 5 kilometers, or roughly 3 miles.
You could describe the 64th Primetime Emmys in many ways, but predictable wouldn't be one of them. An awards ceremony that tends to hand out trophies to the same (usually deserving) shows and actors year after year got a little punchy this time, delivering at least a few big upsets and some genuinely funny gags along the way.
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Elkhorn - Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said in an interview Saturday that the GOP has 10 times the amount of money in the bank ready to be spent on the presidential campaign compared with what the Democrats have.
Citing financial figures compiled by the GOP staff, Priebus said: "This was a great week. The RNC has $77 million in the bank and the Democrats have $7 million."
Priebus also predicted that Mitt Romney would become the first Republican presidential candidate to win in Wisconsin since 1984. He declined to say by how much he thought Romney would win by in the state.
"As long as get our 10 electoral votes and don't have a recount, I'm happy," said Priebus, the former chair of the state GOP.
He made the statements before speaking at the GOP First District Fall Fest at the Wiswell Center on the Walworth County Fairgrounds. The annual event had been scheduled to be outdoors.
Scheduled speakers included Priebus; former Gov. Tommy Thompson, who is running for the U.S. Senate; and Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch
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Details: Ombudsman is seeking Georgia certified teaching candidates for a Full Time Special Education Teaching positions at our centers located in Athens, GA for the 2012-2013 school year. ?Ombudsman Educational Services (OES) is a division of Educational Services of America (ESA), the nation?s leading provider of K-12 alternative and special education schools and programs. Based in Nashville, Tenn., ESA partners with more than 240 public school districts in 22 states to operate more than 170 schools and programs.?Ombudsman is accredited by AdvancED and provides students with an approach and an environment that are different from a traditional classroom setting. Students receive computer-assisted personalized instruction, individualized attention with a low student-to-instructor ratio and the freedom to work at their own pace.?Middle and high school students who have dropped out or are on the verge of dropping out of school often benefit from the one-on-one attention from Ombudsman. Instructors work with each at-risk student individually to determine his or her abilities, challenges and personal needs. Ombudsman instructors help students identify and overcome academic obstacles as well as family, personal and emotional issues that impact their success. At Ombudsman, each student has the potential to graduate and succeed in life.???Ombudsman is an Equal Opportunity Employer Latest CareerBuilder Jobs: Government, US ? 30 mile radius
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The Wall Street Journal recently rattled off a variety of statistics regarding the performance of the replacement officials.? The metrics chosen, however, are grossly superficial, inherently misleading, and in one instance factually incorrect.
(Please, Florio, tell us what you really think.)
First, the ?audit? reviews the issue of replay review.? Coaches have thrown the red flag 29 times, an 11 percent increase over last year.? But only 31 percent of the calls have been overturned ? down from 52 percent in 2011 and 42 percent in 2010.? The article then claims that a ?challenge call sends the play to an upstairs booth, where it?s reviewed by an official who isn?t a replacement.?
With that statement alone, the entire article should be ignored.? Anyone who watches any amount of NFL football knows that, when the red challenge flag is thrown, the decision is made on the field by a referee.? And since the referee is now a replacement, the ?audit? ignores the reality that the percentage of calls overturned could be skewed by the fact that the replacement referee who reviews the call may be getting it wrong, too.? (The ?audit? also offers no stats at all regarding replays initiated by the booth, a procedure that applies in the final two minutes of each half, after any scoring play, and after any turnover.)
Second, the ?audit? says that, on average, the games are six minutes slower.? While explaining that the difference is not ?apocalyptic? (what a relief), it ignores the reality that one or two games that last a ridiculously long time make the entire system look bad.? That?s happening this year, all too often.
Third, the ?audit? looks at the number of flags thrown.? Through two weeks, the yellow flag has flown 470 times.? It?s a difference of 11 from last year.? (The article doesn?t say whether it?s 11 more or 11 less.)? Throwing around terms like ?consistency,? this portion of the ?audit? creates the false impression that, if the total number of flags are the same, the replacements must be doing an equivalent job.
Anyone with a functioning brain should be offended by that one.? Comparing raw data on the number of penalties sheds no light on whether the right decisions are being made.? The ?audit? tells us nothing about flags that were mistakenly thrown ? or about penalties that mistakenly weren?t called.
Fourth, the ?audit? claims that the replacements ?punish,? with an increase in pass interference and holding calls, along with a spike in personal fouls from four to 21.? (It?s a little hard to believe that through two weeks of the 2011 season there were only four personal fouls called.)? This glosses over the fact that the replacements aren?t calling illegal contact with receivers (a rule that doesn?t exist at lower levels of the sport), and that defensive backs apparently are continuing the forbidden pushing, pulling, and/or shoving after the ball is in the air ? which is when pass interference can be called.
Also, the increase in holding penalties could be a product of the fact that holding can be called on every play.? Astute officials call holding only when it occurs in the vicinity of the ball carrier; stuff away from the play doesn?t matter, and rarely is called by the regular officials.? Replacements may be calling it beyond the area of the man with the football.
Fifth, the ?audit? claims that the replacements are ignoring certain types of penalties, like illegal shift and illegal man downfield.? Again, this kind of basic ?analysis? tells us nothing.? Maybe teams are engaged in fewer illegal shifts.? Or maybe they?re sending fewer illegal linemen down the field.
All told, it was a useless exercise that makes the replacements look better than they really are.? And it?s hard not to wonder whether the Wall Street Journal came up with the various categories on their own, or whether the NFL instigated the exercise.? (Indeed, unless someone at the Journal did all of the counting of penalties by hand, the raw data could have come from only one place.)
Here are the two primary truths that this trumped-up ?audit? ignores.? First, the only way to know how the replacements are performing is to review the play-by-play grades that are generated by the league based on a review of coaching tape, and to compare those grade to the grades from the first two weeks of 2011.? After the first week of games, during which the replacements looked the part, acted the part, and sounded the part, the aftermath resulted in multiple sources telling PFT that the average officiating errors per game exceeded 30.? In contrast, the regular officials had average mistakes in the single digits.
Second, the replacement officials in Week Two failed the eyeball test.? So regardless of meaningless stats like those in the Journal article or relevant numbers like the actual grades generated by the league office, when the product coming through the TV looks and sounds different, people notice.
Then again, people still don?t care.? And until the NFL feels a pinch to the bottom line, the NFL won?t care, either.
Frustration and depression are part of our daily life.Some time they badly influenced our life.We can't complete rid to them but it is chance to minimize frustration.
Set simple goals in our daily work.
Use simple ways to achieve our target.
Don't be panic,every thing can be possible in this world.
Eat healthy and drink maximum water.
Avoid bad company and also bad habits like smoking,drinking etc.
Do exercise daily,at least morning walk necessary.
Be happy and keep other happy.
I am currently in the ?thinking stage? for better ways to maximize the space of our lower level. We have a bowling ally?narrow open floor plan and it is time to do some better space planning. One of our never-ending problems seems to be storage solutions! You might remember that a few weeks ago I shared with you ?5 Ways to Create a Kid-friendly Living Room?but one of the main items left out of the mix was CREATIVE STORAGE!?We all know that if you want to keep your family/living room looking chic, organized, clutter-free and functional, then you need stylish storage solutions. But how do you go about containing the never-ending problem of toys, books, gaming devices, DVD?s, etc.? Maybe the answers lie in built-in bookshelves, multi-purpose furniture, and storage baskets!
Built-in bookshelves make the most of empty wall space and can work miracles in hiding clutter! Consider using base cabinets for the bottom of your built-ins in order to store the more unsightly items. Open shelving on top are great for housing books and decorative accessories.
Contemporary Family Room design by San Francisco General ContractorFR James Construction
Often times our flat-screen televisions are the main focal point in the room. Creating built-ins around your flat screen beautifies this focal point while providing ample storage for electronic devices, board games, and toys.
Contemporary Family Room design by Richmond Interior Designer Seaside Interiors LLC
Of course, custom built-ins can quickly become cost-prohibitive for many of us. Fortunately, the DIY community always has a cheaper solution! Consider buying several ready-made bookshelves and creating a ?built-in bookshelf? using molding and painter?s caulk. Just a Girl gives a great step by step tutorial on how to create your own built-in bookshelves from Ikea Billy bookcases.?I am so hoping that we can create some built-in shelving this next year!
Just a Girl
Built-in benches and window seats with hidden storage are fantastic options to consider when space planning your family/living room.
Traditional Family Room design by New York General ContractorS.A.N Design Group, Inc.
Instead of adding a sofa to an open wall, consider building a storage bench that can also function as additional seating. We have a great space to implement this idea in my current dining room, perhaps soon to be seating area.
Traditional Family Room design by Los Angeles Interior DesignerJoni Koenig Interiors
Coffee Tables and ottomans are another area that you can sneak in extra storage! Make your ottoman work harder and smarter for you by finding those with removable tops.
Contemporary Family Room design by San Francisco General ContractorMascheroni Construction
If a new ottoman isn?t in the budget, create a family friendly coffee table that is ready for game night. Store board games beneath your table and coat the top with chalkboard paint for some added whimsy! So cute!
Baskets are my all-time favorite ?go-to? solution for clutter control! I use baskets in every room in my home to organize and disguise unsightly messes. Seriously, I cannot think of one room or closet in my home that doesn?t contain a basket! (I might be slightly addicted to pretty storage containers. )In the bookcase below, all of those pretty matching containers could be hiding legos, puzzle pieces, card games, children?s magazines, craft supplies, and even play-doh! Granted, I typically keep those items more easily accessible for my kiddos but if you are tight on space and don?t want to sacrifice beauty it can certainly be done.
BHG
A wall of baskets hides a plethora of family fun. If you?re not able to devote an entire wall in your family room to basket storage, try incorporating baskets on book shelves, beneath end tables, and beneath coffee tables. Both of my end tables and our coffee table have basket storage hiding books and toys.
Eclectic Family Room design by Los Angeles ArchitectFarmhouse Studio
These baskets under the coffee table are on wheels for easy toy and book access!
Lori May Interiors
So how do you contain clutter in your family/living room? I?d love to hear your tips in the comments!
Sure the XF1's nice to look at, but the real star of Fujifilm's 2012 Photokina lineup has to be the X-E1. The X-Pro1's little sibling offers up most of the functionality of its bigger, pricier brother -- save for its inclusion just an electronic viewfinder -- into a body that's roughly a third smaller. That said, this is hardly a compact mirrorless -- the X-E1's still got a bit of girth and weight to it, compared to some of the smaller entries in the field. Still, it feels nice in the hand and isn't likely to weigh down your shooting -- particularly for those accustom to using a larger DSLR. It's also worth pointing out, right off the bat, that the retro-styled interchangeable lens camera is significantly cheaper, running you $700 less than the X-Pro-1.
Flip the camera over and you get a 2.8-inch 460k-dot LCD. Just above the display is a devoted button that will pop up the retractable flash directly above. The X-E1 will be hitting stores in November, carrying a $1,000 price tag. Buy a kit with a lens and you'll still come in $300 under the X-Pro1's $1,700 price tag, making for a full-featured and great looking little mirrorless for a lot less money.
DALLAS (AP) ? Six years after entering the NFL as the third player taken in the draft, Vince Young finds himself without a team and with just a fraction of the money he received from a contract that guaranteed him $26 million.
The question is, where did it all go?
In an increasingly caustic war of words, attorneys have been arguing for months over whether Young is an out-of-control spender who put himself deeply in the hole or simply a victim of inexperienced advisers, one of whom was his own uncle.
Either way, the quarterback whose future seemed unlimited after he led Texas to a Rose Bowl victory in 2006 is now back home in Houston and in a tenuous financial condition.
"I would just say that Vince needs a job," said Trey Dolezal, Young's attorney, when asked to give a general assessment of his client's finances.
Young was cut by the Buffalo Bills, his third NFL team, in August. He was trying to make the Bills as a backup, the same role he filled with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2011.
The fall has been a dizzying one for the player who twice made the Pro Bowl with the Tennessee Titans. Young sent out a tweet thanking the Bills and their fans after he was released but hasn't spoken to the media since. He declined a request to be interviewed for this story.
Even in pro sports, where tales of squandered wealth abound, Young's plight is "pretty dramatic," said Kenneth Shropshire, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business who has written and lectured extensively on the business of sports.
"You'd think it would be hard to blow that much money," Shropshire said.
Young is suing his former agent, Major Adams, and a North Carolina financial planner, Ronnie Peoples, alleging that they misappropriated $5.5 million. In some instances, the pair forged his signature or impersonated him on the phone or in emails, according to the lawsuit, filed in Houston in June.
The suit was filed five days after a New York lender notified Young that a loan of nearly $1.9 million obtained in his name during the NFL lockout in 2011 was in default. Young is now seeking to stop the lender, Pro Player Funding LLC, from enforcing a judgment of nearly $1.7 million, claiming he wasn't involved in obtaining the loan and that the proceeds went to Adams and Peoples.
"They conspired to take Vince's money," Dolezal said. "It's that simple."
Young was the first client of a company, (hash)1 Next Level Sports and Entertainment Inc., formed by Adams, a Houston criminal defense attorney, and the quarterback's uncle, Keith Young, a former middle school teacher.
Young's problem was "he was just very young ... and allowing these people to have too much control over his life and his name," Dolezal said.
That notion is vigorously disputed by attorneys for Adams and Peoples, who say Young has nobody to blame but himself.
"This is a person scrambling helplessly and pointing in all directions to blame others to get out of debt," said Charles Peckham, Adams' attorney.
Adams twice wrote checks to himself from Young's accounts, but both times were out of necessity, including once when the agent was required to use personal funds to charter a plane for the quarterback after he missed a team flight, Peckham said.
Peoples has filed a countersuit in which he castigates Young for allowing his uncle to serve as his business manager despite having no expertise in that field.
Peoples claims in the countersuit that every decision he made was approved by Keith Young. And he calls Vince Young's unwillingness to accept responsibility "a common occurrence ... as (former Titans coach) Jeff Fisher, (Texas coach) Mack Brown, numerous NFL executives, coaches, teammates, scouts, girlfriends and illegitimate children will attest."
Peoples' attorney, David Chaumette, said he has documents to support the strongly-worded filing.
"You'll find there was a lot of money being spent in a bunch of different directions," Chaumette said.
A working phone number for Keith Young could not be located. Court records do not show that he has an attorney.
According to public records, Vince Young was one of at least 10 NFL players who turned to Pro Player Funding for cash during the lockout. Loan documents show he borrowed the $1.9 million at 20 percent interest, with $619,122 in interest paid up front, and agreed that a judgment could be entered if he missed a payment.
Young authorized $1 million in payments to Pro Player directly from his Eagles salary during the 2011 season, and his accountant was working this year to have a similar arrangement with the Bills, according to court records. However, when a payment due in May was never made, the loan went into default.
In challenging the loan's validity, Young claims he didn't "knowingly execute" any of the loan documents. Anything he signed was "without the corresponding documents attached and without knowledge as to what the signatures pages referred," one of his court filings states.
Pro Player says its case is supported by the fact that Young's signatures were notarized and that emails show he was involved in making sure the lender received repayment directly from the Eagles.
"Call me if this is not 100 percent clear," Young's accountant wrote him in August 2011 in an email explaining the arrangement. "We want to make certain you know exactly what is going on at all times, especially when you're signing your name to something."
Young also contends that Pro Player's efforts to serve him and the Bills with legal papers during training camp, which included a threat to contact the local sheriff, "played a role" in the Bills' decision to release him.
"I wasn't in the room when they (the Bills) made a decision, but what would you think? It certainly wouldn't help me if I'm the owner or the head coach knowing all this is going on with Vince and then he goes out and plays poorly," Dolezal said.
Bills coach Chan Gailey declined comment when asked if Young's off-the-field issues had anything to do with his release.
___
AP Sports Writer John Wawrow in Orchard Park, N.Y., contributed to this report.
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Who said vegetarian had to be boring? If you enjoy your meals meatless or you just want to try a few vegetarian dishes to spice up your dinnertime
routine, you?ll enjoy Vegetarian Times. Vegetarian Times features some of the most popular vegetarian recipes in the country. You won?t lack for variety with the recipes included in this magazine. You can make your diet a little healthier by adding just one or two vegetarian meals a week and this magazine will show you some tasty recipes that won?t leave you asking, ?Where?s the Beef??
Today, 07:30 AM
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Contemporary Family Room design
Traditional Family Room design
Traditional Family Room design
Contemporary Family Room design
)In the bookcase below, all of those pretty matching containers could be hiding legos, puzzle pieces, card games, children?s magazines, craft supplies, and even play-doh! Granted, I typically keep those items more easily accessible for my kiddos but if you are tight on space and don?t want to sacrifice beauty it can certainly be done.
BHG
Eclectic Family Room design
Lori May Interiors
