Robo-readers: the new teachers' helper in the U.S.

(Reuters) - American high school students are terrible writers, and one education reform group thinks it has an answer: robots.

Or, more accurately, robo-readers - computers programmed to scan student essays and spit out a grade.

The theory is that teachers would assign more writing if they didn't have to read it. And the more writing students do, the better at it they'll become - even if the primary audience for their prose is a string of algorithms.

That sounds logical to Mark Shermis, dean of the College of Education at the University of Akron. He's helping to supervise a contest, set up by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, that promises $100,000 in prize money to programmers who write the best automated grading software.

"If you're a high school teacher and you give a writing assignment, you're walking home with 150 essays," Shermis said. "You're going to need some help."

But help from a robo-reader?

"Wow," said Thomas Jehn, director of the Harvard College Writing Program. He paused a moment.

"It's horrifying," he said at last.

Automated essay grading was first proposed in the 1960s, but computers back then were not up to the task. In the late 1990s, as technology improved, several textbook and testing companies jumped into the field.

Today, computers are used to grade essays on South Dakota's student writing assessments and a handful of other high-stakes exams, including the TOEFL test of English fluency, taken by foreign students.

But machines do not grade essays on either the SAT or the ACT, the two primary college entrance exams. And American teachers by and large have been reluctant to turn their students' homework assignments over to robo-graders.

The Hewlett contest aims to change that by demonstrating that computers can grade as perceptively as English teachers - only much more quickly and without all that depressing red ink.

Automated essay scoring is "nonjudgmental," Shermis said. "And it can be done 24/7. If students finish an essay at 10 p.m., they get feedback at 10:01."

Take, for instance, the Intelligent Essay Assessor, a web-based tool marketed by Pearson Education, Inc. Within seconds, it can analyze an essay for spelling, grammar, organization and other traits and prompt students to make revisions. The program scans for key words and analyzes semantic patterns, and Pearson boasts it "can 'understand' the meaning of text much the same as a human reader."

Jehn, the Harvard writing instructor, isn't so sure.

He argues that the best way to teach good writing is to help students wrestle with ideas; misspellings and syntax errors in early drafts should be ignored in favor of talking through the thesis. "Try to find the idea that's percolating," he said. "Then start looking for whether the commas are in the right place." No computer, he said, can do that.

What's more, Jehn said he worries that students will give up striving to craft a beautiful metaphor or insightful analogy if they know their essays will not be read, but scanned for a split second by a computer program.

"I like to know I'm writing for a real flesh-and-blood reader who is excited by the words on the page," Jehn said. "I'm sure children feel the same way."

Even supporters of robo-grading acknowledge its limitations.

A prankster could outwit many scoring programs by jumbling key phrases in a nonsensical order. An essay about Christopher Columbus might ramble on about Queen Isabella sailing with 1492 soldiers to the Island of Ferdinand -- and still be rated as solidly on topic, Shermis said.

Computers also have a hard time dealing with experimental prose. They favor conformity over creativity.

"They hate poetry," said David Williamson, senior research director at the nonprofit Educational Testing Service, which received a patent in late 2010 for an Automatic Essay Scoring System.

But Williamson argues that automated graders aren't meant to identify the next James Joyce. They don't judge artistic merit; they measure how effectively a writer communicates basic ideas. That's a skill many U.S. students lack. Just one in four high-school seniors was rated proficient on the most recent national writing assessment.

The Hewlett Foundation kicked off its robo-grading contest by testing several programs already on the market. Results won't be released for several weeks, but Hewlett officials said they did very well.

Hewlett then challenged amateurs to come up with their own algorithms.

The contest, hosted on the data science website Kaggle.com, has drawn hundreds of competitors from all walks of life. They have until April 30 to write programs that will judge essays studded with awkward phrases such as, "I slouch my bag on to my shoulder" or "When I got my stitches some parts hurted."

The goal is to get the computer to give each essay the same score a human grader would.

Martin O'Leary, a glacier scientist at the University of Michigan, has been working on the contest for weeks.

Poring over thousands of sample essays, he discovered that human graders generally don't give students extra points for using sophisticated vocabulary. So he scrapped plans to have his computer scan the essays for rare words.

Instead, he has his robo-grader count punctuation marks. "The number of commas is a very strong predictor of score," O'Leary said. "It's kind of weird. But the more, the better."

As he digs into the data, O'Leary has run into a dismaying truth: The human graders he's trying to match are inconsistent. They disagree with one another on the merits of a given essay. They award scores that seem random. Indeed, studies have shown that human readers are influenced by factors that should be irrelevant, such as how neatly a student writes.

"The reality is, humans are not very good at doing this," said Steve Graham, a Vanderbilt University professor who has researched essay grading techniques. "It's inevitable," he said, that robo-graders will soon take over.

O'Leary won't mind when that day comes. He tests his program against student prose that has already been graded by a teacher. When the scores diverge, O'Leary reads the essay to find out why.

"More often than not," he said, "I agree with the computer."

(Editing by Jonathan Weber and Philip Barbara)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/robo-readers-teachers-helper-u-170036348.html

saints bounty program toulouse france the situation tim tebow jets katy perry part of me video photoshop cs6 beta cate blanchett

Things Grandparents Know | Tips and Tricks

Baby boomers seem gifted with perpetual youth. But they are also people of passion. From the moment this generation arrived on this earth, they seemed to be bringing a mission and a different vision for society than had existed before. This sense of knowledge and of vision accounts for the incredible drive baby boomers have shown throughout their adult lives which have resulted in changes to society so profound that life in America today only faintly resembles how we lived in the 50s and 60s.

Each era of life has brought its own challenges to baby boomers. As parents, baby boomers were committed to having a different kind of relationship with their children. They are more hands on, participatory and interactive with children in a much greater way than generations before. In a very real way, baby boomers parents sought to be both parent and best friends to their children. The outcome has not always been positive but you do see a sense of family unity and emulation of parents in children of boomers that is even more committed than the family model of the past because baby boomers viewed parenting as a mission and job one of their lives.

As baby boomers move out of the parenting role, at least in terms of having youngsters at home, they now have an opportunity to define in their own terms what it means to be a grandparent. Becoming grandma and grandpa may be a bit difficult for a generation that has always fought the coming of aging and resisted even adulthood much less old age. But if baby boomers embrace the concept of being the kindly and wise old grandparent and filling that role in the lives of their children and grandchildren, they can have an influence on another generation beyond them to pass along their insights and guidance in ways that only grandparents can do.

Children see grandma and grandpa in a different light. Naturally they love them and love the opportunity to visit their grandparents if for no other reason than grandma always has cookies for them. But sitting on granddads knee and hearing his stories or just enjoying his love and teasing is part of growing up that children cherish long into their adult years. And it is a time that even baby boomers can embrace and thoroughly enjoy.

There was a great book out not long ago named ?If I knew being a grandparent was this much fun, I would have done it first.? This amusing concept reflects that the joy of being grandpa and grandma to your children?s children is fulfilling in ways that even surpass the important role baby boomers had as parents. Children listen to their grandparents because they are wise and old and it gives them a sense of security to see that it?s possible to go through life successfully and still be full of life and fun even when old age is upon us. That is why children intuitively know that there are things grandparents know that they want to learn while on granddads lap and they cherish the lessons they are taught from a revered elder.

It?s good when baby boomers embrace this new role. Just as when boomers embraced parenthood, they threw themselves into the challenge with a passion that changed the definition of parenting for the better. So too, baby boomers can bring their passion, their sense of deep commitment and their love of family to the role of grandparent and give their grandchildren the gift of a wonderful grandma and grandpa who not only always had love and fun for them but also always seemed to know the right answer.

Look to your time with your grandkids as a time to pass along the wisdom that 50-60 years of life has given you. While children need the guidance and knowledge of their parents, the role of teacher, disciplinarian and rules maker sometimes clouds the parent relationship. That is why grandchildren are open to hearing what grandma or grandpa has to say because the relationship is more clear cut and they see their grandparents as fountains of wisdom always given in love.

There is more content available on french furniture there?s loads of points not outlined in this article, find those details at Author?s web blog to locate more.

Source: http://tipsatricks.com/things-grandparents-know

joba chamberlain new york mega millions mega millions winning numbers jetblue jetblue michelle malkin total recall

Maryland Team Completes Most Extensive Face Transplant Yet

An anonymous reader writes "A 37-YEAR-OLD man injured in a 1997 gun incident has been given a new face, teeth, tongue and jaw in what doctors say is the most extensive face transplant ever performed. The transplant was performed at the University of Maryland Medical Center. The first full face transplant was performed in France in 2005, on a woman who was mauled by her dog. In a review of the first 17 cases since then, it was found that the overall survival rate after face transplant was 88%, with only two deaths."

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/g-wJnzgbHjg/maryland-team-completes-most-extensive-face-transplant-yet

diners drive ins and dives jeff who lives at home 49ers news saint louis university ashley judd role models leprechaun

Harnessing The Power Of Email: 3 Strategies For Financial ...

[Editor's Note: This is the second installment in a series from the financial industry's leading e-marketing experts on how banks and credit unions can maximize the email channel. You can read the first article, "Why I Never Got Your Email," here.]

By Margie Church at Pinpoint Direct Marketing

While financial intuitions have rushed into the digital world building new apps and launching mobile websites, many have overlooked a fundamental tool in their marketing mix: email. If your financial institution still promises ?we will never send you email,? it?s time to stop. All the familiar concerns ? spam filters, privacy laws, phishing scams, etc. ? can be tackled. Email is simply too powerful and too effective to ignore.

Email has emerged as one of the most powerful tools in the financial marketer?s arsenal, a vital component of any cross-channel marketing strategy. Here are three strategies to help you find success and confidence with email marketing.

1. Create a Solid Plan

Start every campaign with a good understanding of the offer, the target market, and the mix of channels to be used. Define how hot, warm, and cold leads will be addressed. And don?t forget to Involve client services early to avoid confusion once the promotion is launched.

Studies have shown a consumer must be exposed to a relevant message at least three times over a seven-day period in order for the message to stick. Email is one of the most cost-efficient ways to increase message frequency and reach.

Use MCIF or similar data information systems to target your message. Choose data points that identify consumers most likely to respond to targeted and timely offers. Depending on the campaign?s goals, filter your email list according to credit scores, customers with/without a particular product, those nearing the end of their term, age, marital status, or those who?ve never tried a similar service at your financial institution.

Data allows you to tailor the message and make it more personal. Here are a few examples illustrating how to personalize your emails, depending on the campaign:

• Use the recipient?s first name in the salutation, and whenever you can in the body copy wherever it makes sense.
• Present pre-qualified or pre-approved offers stating the amount or rate they?re personally being offered based on their credit score.
• Show a payment example based on their actual, unique offer.
• Provide a personalized URL (PURL) to accept the offer immediately.
• Include a real employee?s contact name, direct-dial phone number, and branch location.
• Use images that speak uniquely to the targeted market segment and product being promoted.
• Tailor the copy to appeal to a particular lifestyle or circumstance. Just be cautious with this. You don?t want to overdo it, or come off as a phony.

Irritating customers with unwanted email is always a potential concern. However, as long as the bank or credit union exercises good judgment about frequency and relevance of emails, consumers? underlying concerns should be eliminated.

2. Craft a High-Quality Message

If the email campaign is part of a wider marketing initiative, it should always match the look, feel and tone of your other materials, and reflect your financial institution?s branding guidelines. Repetition in execution aids consumer recall.

As a stand-alone communication, keep the message short and clear. Provide enough information to get the job done, and resist the desire to throw in anything that might steer the reader away from your desired response.

Above all, don?t forget the call to action. One of the biggest advantages of email marketing is having consumers affixed to either a computer or smartphone where they can take immediate action.

Whenever possible, use hyperlinks to a personalized URL (PURL) for customer responses.

How does a PURL help? A PURL is a landing page personalized with the recipient?s name and relevant information (a ?Personalized URL,? or PURL). The goal of a PURL is to make it easy and seamless for recipients to say ?yes? to whatever offer is being extended. The landing page seals the deal, moving warm leads (those who simply visited a web page) to hot leads (those who click the Submit/Apply button). With your online forms, keep the amount of new information you ask for to an absolute minimum. Otherwise, respondents will roll their eyes while wondering why they need to repeat things you already know (e.g., their name).

Once the Submit/Apply button is pressed, a respondent should immediately be queued with a loan officer, call center, or other service representative for follow-up.

The financial institution can access real-time reports on the number of reads on the email, submissions on the PURL, and who visited the PURL but didn?t submit. Think of these people as online shoppers who had items in their cart (they took the time to visit the PURL) but for whatever reason, didn?t press submit (buy). Deciding in advance how best to handle these warm leads can make a huge impact on converting some of them to hot leads. Prep the customer service staff with adequate information about the campaign, and instructions on how to handle every lead.

By creating relevant, timely, and personal communications, clients will recognize that your emails aren?t a waste of time, read rates will increase, and their relationship with your financial institution will strengthen.

3. Master the Mechanics

If you?ve gotten this far, you?ve done most of the heavy lifting, and you only have a few more hurdles left to clear.

Avoiding Spam Traps. Now you have to scan your entire email to make sure you?re not using spammy language. Look at the everything including the subject line to spot words, phrases, and characters that can cause problems. ?Free,? ?cheap,? ?pre-approved,? ?sale,? ?apply now,? ?apply online,? and ?cash? are common triggers for spam filters.

The subject line should include the bank or credit union?s name and salient topic cues. State your business. Don?t be cute. And don?t try disguising troublesome words with funky symbols or intentional misspellings ? like ?ca$h.? Those are big red flags for spam filters.

Over time, as your financial institution?s email IP address becomes more and more trustworthy, you?ll have to worry less and less about how potentially spammy words are used in your emails.

Images. Make the headline visible as text so the offer can be read whether graphics are downloaded or not. Unless a customer adds your financial institution?s email address to their safe sender list, images aren?t going to automatically load.

Timing. When to send the emails should be based on the offer and the target audience?s profile. Consider what time of day they?re likely to be able to respond, and give them adequate time to take action. Track and monitor response rates over time to identify day/time patterns and sleuth out what works.

Punctuation. Remember that many punctuation symbols may not be readable by all email programs. Here?s a good list from SalesNexus and another one from WordPress you can use to check your subject lines and body copy. If you want to be ultra-cautious, just stick with the basics: periods, commas, colons, quotes and apostrophes ? the kind of punctuation seen in regular correspondence between two people.

Volume. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will choke your emails off if you try sending a bunch of bulk messages from a new IP address, or one that hasn?t been used often. If the recipient?s ISP doesn?t recognize your sending IP as trustworthy, a lot of the email campaign is likely to end up snagged as spam.

To address this issue, you need to break large lists into smaller batches. This will help ?warm up? recipients? ISPs to your bulk sender IP address. Email campaigns are more likely to fly under an ISP?s radar if batches are limited to under 10,000 addresses each. You can send a batch every hour or so until the list is complete. A good rule of thumb is to practice a lower send rate for at least 30 days, and then ramp up. Doing this gives receiving ISPs ample time to determine how a sending IP address is behaving.

Vendor vs. In-house. Most financial institutions choose between a full-service bulk email service provider and purchasing their own in-house platform. Those new to email marketing should definitely look for a service provider that can help in the areas specifically outlined in this article. Before contracting a service provider, be certain they?re on the recommended lists (often called white listed) for the top email providers, such as Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, AOL, etc.

---

Pinpoint Direct Marketing creates data-driven, electronic and print marketing campaigns for the financial industry. Its customized campaigns achieve excellent results without premium costs. Learn more about Pinpoint Direct Marketing at www.PDMKT.com.

This article &copy 2012 by The Financial Brand and may not be reproduced.

Related Articles From The Financial Brand:

More stories about: Featured, Online, email, Pinpoint Direct Marketing, PURLs

Source: http://thefinancialbrand.com/23118/3-email-strategies-for-bank-credit-union-marketers/

country music awards new earth light year light year michelle rounds michelle rounds cabin in the woods

CyanogenMod 9 nightlies now available for LG Optimus LTE, AT&T Nitro HD

Good news for anyone looking to get a taste of Ice Cream Sandwich on some of LG's latest hardware -- CyanogenMod 9 nightlies are now rolling out for the (GSM) LG Optimus LTE and its AT&T-branded counterpart, the Nitro HD. With its 720p display and 1.5GHz dual-core OMAP chip, vanilla Android 4.0 should feel right at home on the Nitro HD and Optimus LTE. We're sure owners of rooted devices will be eager to try out the latest builds of the popular custom firmware as they appear.

A word of warning, though -- CM9 nightly builds are early, experimental builds which may contain bugs, missing features or other undesirables. That's the price you pay for running a bleeding edge custom ROM based on the latest version of Android. If you understand what you're getting into, then you'll find download info over at the source link.

Source: CyanogenMod; via: +Ricardo Cerquiera

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/zUc6FzmcAw8/story01.htm

invisible children garbage pail kids st bonaventure ncaa tournament 2012 peyton manning 49ers andy pettitte tyler clementi

Soooo- how about if you read some of my ideas?

Here are some ideas that I am craving but not sure if it would work LOL. Hopefully it would.

Ideas:
1. She's the daughter of a rich couple while her Momma served their family. Then one morning her Momma no longer woke up. The family decided to take her under their wing, paying for her education. She insisted on working for everything and the rich couple finally decided they'd accept it. She was 10 then and the rich girl was the same age, over the summer they became playmates and every summer the rich family would spend their vacation in their summer house in her town and she serves them. The when she was 15, the rich daughter didn't come back for that summer. 2 years later, she's 17 and a hopeful news of her summer best friend will be paying a visit. Without her parents this time and instead she would be accompanied by her high school friends who are rich as well. Will the rich daughter still notice her presence or just treat her as a mere servant?

2. She was the typical debutante, her parents raised her to be one of the finest women while he (can be a girl and friendship forms) works a few jobs to support his/her art (either music or drawing or writing). What will happen once their paths cross? (This can be have either an 1800s setting or a present time setting).

3. Two cousins who were born in New York are forced to spend a few days before Halloween in the small town their parents grew up, there they realized the have always been a descendant of witches.

4. They are email pals and one summer they've decided to finally meet personally. The decided to spend the break in Florida and can't wait for the adventure they'd experience. (This can be girlxboy or girlxgirl)

5. Any other realistic or paranormal ideas you'd want to RP of course (I'm open for discussions and suggestions Love!) :)

My pet peeves:
1. Totally ignoring our RP just because you prefer your other RPs
2. Making a writer's block an excuse- if you don't have any idea or is bored with RP might as well say it directly! I have no time to wait on someone who's not interested.
3. Uber and massive grammar fails- seriously! I can let a few typos pass but not incorrect grammar in every sentence.
4. Leaving our RP without saying why or even bothering to send a PM that you'll leave.
5. GOD MODDING! Again I am open for discussions if you have an idea, PM me and we can work on that scene or setting!
6. Leaving every decision up to me. That's why it's called a partnership! Suggest and stop acting like you are fine with anything! Suggest and defer my ideas if you think you dont like them.
7. Passive partners- nuff said.

PM me! :3

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/jBI1vE-yiP8/viewtopic.php

kim jong ill dead wedding crashers next iron chef next iron chef aquamarine iraq war iraq war

2012 CANADIAN MUSIC & BROADCAST INDUSTRY AWARDS ...

2012 CANADIAN MUSIC & BROADCAST INDUSTRY AWARDS WINNERS

Independent Record Store of the Year
Winner: Zulu Records, Vancouver

Digital Music Service of the Year
Winner: iTunes

Mass Merchant/Specialty Retailer of the Year
Winner: Amazon.ca

Canadian Independent Distributor of? the Year
Winner: Fontana North Distribution

Retail Chain of the Year
Winner: HMV Canada

Station of the Year (News/Talk/Sports)
Winner: 680 News, Toronto

Station of the Year (Multicultural)
Winner: CHIN, Toronto

Station of the Year (Country)
Winner: Country 105, Calgary

Promotion of the Year
Winner: Win A Baby, HOT 89.9 ? Ottawa

Casino/Specialty Venue of the Year
Winner: Niagara Fallsview Casino ? Niagara Falls

Recording Studio of the Year
Winner: MetalWorks Recording and Mastering ? Toronto

Music Director of the Year Small Market
Winner: Dustin Collins, 99.9 SUN FM, Kelowna

Program Director of the Year (Small Market)
Winner: Mark Burley, 99.9 SUN FM, Kelowna

Station of the Year (Small Market)
Winner: K-Rock, Kingston

Station of the Year (Medium Market)
Winner: HTZ FM, St. Catharines

Program Director of the Year (Medium Market)
Winner: Brad Gibb, FM96, London

Music Director of the Year (Major Market)
Winner: Lisa Grossi, CHUM FM, Toronto

On-Air Talent of the Year
Winner: Garner Andrews, SONIC 102.9, Edmonton

Music Director of the Year (Medium Market)
Winner: Paul Morris, HTZ-FM, St. Catharines

Station of the Year (HOT AC)
Winner: CHUM FM, Toronto

Station of the Year (MAINSTREAM AC)
Winner: 98.1 CHFI, Toronto

Station of the Year (CHR)
Winner: The Beat 94.5, Vancouver

Station of the Year (CLASSIC GOLD)
Winner: Boom 97.3, Toronto

Station of the Year (ROCK)
Winner: 102.1 The Edge, Toronto

Club Venue of the Year
Winner: Commodore Ballroom ? Vancouver

Festival of the Year
Winner: Osheaga ? Montreal

Booking Agency of the Year
Winner: The Agency Group

Promoter of the Year
Winner: Live Nation Entertainment

Management Company of the Year
Winner: Coalition Entertainment ? Toronto

Canadian Independent Label of the Year
Winner: Arts & Crafts

Major Label of the Year
Winner: Universal Music Canada

Performing Arts Centre of the Year (capacity under 1,500)
Winner: Queen Elizabeth Theatre ? Toronto

Performing Arts Centre of the Year (capacity over 1,500)
Winner: Massey Hall ? Toronto

The Air Canada Centre Major Facility of the Year (capacity under 8,000)
Winner: K-Rock Centre ? Kingston

The ?Air Canada Centre? Major Facility of the Year (over 8,000)
Winner: John Labatt Centre ? London

Program Director of the Year (Major Market)
Winner: Al Ford, Sonic 102.9, Edmonton

Music Publisher of the Year
Winner: Universal Music Publishing

Allan Slaight Humanitarian Spirit Award
Presented to: Chantal Kreviazuk and Raine Maida

Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame
Inductees: Daniel Lanois and Riley O?Connor

Canadian Radio Industry Hall of Fame & Allan Waters Broadcast Lifetime Achievement Award
Presented to: John Derringer

The Rosalie Award
Presented to: Maureen Bulley, Creative Director, Rogers Radio, Toronto

The Allan Waters Young Broadcaster of the Year
Presented to: Brittany King, On-Air Host/Social Media Administrator, KOOL-FM, Victoria

BDS Cutting Edge Award
Winner: CJJR JR93, Vancouver

Nielsen Emerging Artist Award
Winner: Alyssa Reid

Galaxie Rising Stars Award
Winner: Rich Aucoin

Source: http://www.cmw.net/awards/2012-canadian-music-broadcast-industry-awards-winners/

lauren alaina lowes best buy black friday frys ad

Kim Kardashian Speaks Candidly About Marriage/Divorce On Leno (VIDEO)

Kim Kardashian Speaks Candidly About Marriage/Divorce On Leno (VIDEO)

Kim Kardashian made an appearance on Jay Leno’s talks show, where she opened up about her marriage and divorce drama. The reality TV star revealed [...]

Kim Kardashian Speaks Candidly About Marriage/Divorce On Leno (VIDEO) Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/stupidcelebrities/~3/qfMJkpyZSTg/

tony blankley steelers pittsburgh steelers charles barkley beyonce troy polamalu james harrison

Mali rebels advance in north, mutineers seek president

BAMAKO, March 23?(Reuters) - Tuareg rebels in northern Mali pushed south to occupy positions vacated by government forces, sources said, as mutinous soldiers in the distant capital sought to complete a coup by arresting the president.

The MNLA rebels were approaching towns in the desert north, apparently taking advantage of the confusion created by a coup attempt in the capital Bamako by low-ranking soldiers angry at the government's handling of the uprising.

By late on Wednesday, the mutinous soldiers had over-run the presidential palace, were in control of state television and roamed the streets of Bamako. But President Amadou Toumani Toure's whereabouts were still unconfirmed, officials said.

Mali, which was flooded with men and weapons after Libya's civil war, was being rocked by crises - including the Tuareg-led rebellion, a growing Islamist threat and a food crisis - well before the soldiers mutinied.

A Malian officer in the northern town of Kidal said rebels had occupied the military camp in Anefis, 100 km (60 miles) to the southwest, after government forces withdrew.

"The army has pulled back to Gao," a source in Timbuktu, another main town in the north, told Reuters, asking not to be named. "There is no longer any military leadership. (The rebels) will take the towns in the north," he said.

The MNLA rebels, whose numbers have been swollen by Malian Tuareg returning from the ranks of Libya's army, have been fighting since mid-January for an independent north. They have pushed government soldiers out of remote towns but had not yet threatened the regional capitals of Kidal, Timbuktu and Gao.

Rebels pledged on Thursday to take advantage of the chaos as senior civilian and military officials in northern regions were arrested by mutinous soldiers.

Sporadic gunfire rang out in Bamako late on Thursday and the streets were largely deserted but mutinous soldiers moved around the capital on trucks, motorcycles and on foot.

PROTECTED

The exact whereabouts of Toure, who has overseen a decade of relative stability, are unknown but officials in his camp and diplomats said they believed he was being protected by a pocket of loyalist soldiers.

Mutinous soldiers said they would launch an attack on the parachute regiment they believe is protecting the president.

"We will finish it this evening," said one soldier at an abandoned fuel station in the city.

Toure, 63, a former paratrooper who seized power in 1991, had gained the nickname "Soldier of Democracy" in his West African state and had been preparing to cede power in April after an election.

Mali's neighbors, the United Nations and world powers from Paris to Washington called for a return to constitutional rule. The regional decision-making body ECOWAS Commission said it would not recognize the junta.

The 7,000-strong army has for weeks sought better weapons to fight the rebels.

Captain Amadou Sanogo, president of the newly formed National Committee for the Return of Democracy and the Restoration of the State (CNRDR), said the poor handling of the crisis in the north was mostly to blame for the coup.

Speaking to pan-African television station Africable, Sanogo, who said he received training from U.S. Marines and intelligence, pledged not to remain in power but refused to give a?timeframe?for restoring civilian rule.

"Three months, 6 months, 9 months, it will depend on the structure that we put in place for me to go back to being a soldier. Someone else will do the rest," Sanogo said.

"We have come asking for decent living conditions and to be treated well ... we will fight for this," he added.

Restoring state authority to the north was the priority, he said. But, amid reports of arrests of ministers and other senior government officials, Sanogo implied that those detained would face trial for alleged crimes.

"We are not killers. I am not a killer. But the moment was right and everyone will have to face charges before the appropriate authority," he said.

(Writing by David Lewis and Bate Felix; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mali-rebels-advance-north-mutineers-seek-president-004451750.html

doobie brothers jennie garth peter facinelli chicago bears

Business Finance Commercial Lending - Investment Nasdaq Market

Private loan income creditors know their business and so are quite willing to confiscate a property even if a single loan payment is missed. Due to the lower loan-to-value ratio utilized by hard money lenders, they can foreclose at any time but still earn huge profits. Investors need to be certain they are able to accomplish the project then sell or refinance the home in time to settle hard income lenders fees. Hard income lending fills a crucial gap in solid estate loaning. Without hard money lending, many properties would remain in stasis and drag down the property values of these geographic areas. Often commercial banks are not providing loans to lend income to investors with many real estate projects.

Hard income financing, also called asset-based lending, can be a facility common in solid estate and construction characterized by short-term, high-interest cheap loans and relaxed underwriting standards. Hard money loaning is typically utilized by investors aiming to obtain a blighted property and rehabilitate it to raise its rate. Hard money creditors will most likely loan the investor the funds necessary to both pick the property and also to complete its rehabilitation. The creditworthiness of the investor is mostly less important as opposed to rate from the property, hence the definition of asset-based loaning.

Real-estate personal loans for back taxation can be a fantastic replacement for more expensive factoring solutions (inventory, equipment, resources)Most of the time the borrowers have an excellent piece of property collateral that could wind up being financed to supply ample working capital for his or her financial status. Loans for back income taxes increase capital is certainly one of many key variables inside turnaround of economic options. Because real estate property gives a blend of good rates of return plus a tangible security, the best projects to get financed through private investors have been in real estate arena. They are frequently structured just as real estate home mortgages with private investor being the lender plus a real estate property investor being the borrower.

Hard Income Home mortgages are usually more expensive than traditional sub-prime mortgages. However all mortgages are certainly not necessarily regarded as being an increased cost mortgage. Generally a hardcore income loan carries additional risk a borrower recognizes. Many are often only willing to create hard money loans in substitution for an incredibly high rate of interest. The private home mortgages give you a good security with a private investor in the form of the true property collateral. If your borrower obtaining the income defaults around the payment in the loan, the non-public investor can foreclose, repossess the property and recover his money by having a resale from the property.

Commercial hard cash is comparable to traditional hard money, but may be more expensive as the risk is higher on investment home or non-owner active properties. Commercial Hard money lenders may not be susceptible to exactly the same consumer loan measures as a residential mortgage might be inside the state the mortgage is disseminated. Commercial hard money lenders tend to be short-term and for that reason interchangeably referred to as bridge loans or bridge financing . Commercial hard income lenders charge exorbitant fees and incredibly high aprs the industry major disadvantage to hard money lenders. Up to 18 per cent will be the normal interest charged on loan value which can vary with 3-6 points on the top side. This will make hard money loans the last step choice for investors which is generally utilized for a short period of your time.

Acquire hard money lending loans hard money lenders Los Angeles , then visit www.hardmoneyloanslenders.com for top advice on California bridge loans for LA investors.

Related Posts:

Source: http://nasdaqreportnews.com/2012/03/22/business-finance-commercial-lending/

sarah vowell fire in reno kelly ripa reno wildfire reno wildfire osu osu

Concrete Patio Decks ? Tips On The Various Styles Available ...

Patio decks are a part of a building which is also open to the sky, and the term ?patio? comes from Latin American and Spanish architecture terminology. These days a patio deck is an outdoor area connected to your house, and is sometimes partly covered by it, and these are popular spots for homeowners to hold a barbeque or other outdoor dining event. Patio decks have changed in design over time, from a simple design with traditional railings to works of art with accessories and decorative additions made from various materials including wood and metals.

Patio deck plans made from concrete are an excellent place to relax in the company of family and friends, whatever the weather. Whether you are relaxing or entertaining, patio decks make things a lot easier for you. The pace of life these days is hectic, and this can mean that you have very little time for getting together with family, neighbors and friends. The times you do have are therefore often more casual than they used to be. A barbeque supper relaxing on your patio deck can be just the thing after a hard day?s work, so what better home extension could you have?

There are various styles of concrete patio decks available to attract your interest these days. You can even have concrete these days which imitates the look of natural stone, and even brick and flagstone effects. The increasing cost of such an extension has put many people off the idea in the past, however new and more advanced technology has meant that you don?t have to worry any more. Your visitors won?t know the difference, thanks to the authentic looks which can be achieved by patterns stamped into the concrete.

Patio decks made of concrete can be very simple to install, child?s play even. A pre-prepared form is laid out in whatever shape you like, and the concrete poured into it. The slab should be at least four inches thick, and the ground underneath needs to be well excavated first, with layers of gravel or crushed stone on top of that. Individual pieces of stone don?t have the same versatility.

The concrete actually takes quite a long time to dry completely, up to four or five days in fact, before you can use it. All that is left after this is to complete the look of your patio decks with additions, and there are all kinds of things you can do here, especially if you have a flair for interior design.

Hence consider the beauty and usage of adding well designed and concrete patio decks to your house, enjoy the sun and the breeze through the wind chimes, and enhance your life! Discover other important tips regarding patio deck designs and patio deck plans at: http://patiodecktips.faq-guide.com/

Source: http://obviousarticles.com/home-improvement/remodeling/concrete-patio-decks-tips-on-the-various-styles-available

stop online piracy act

Count Phone Numbers, Not Calories! | Cupid's Pulse: Celebrity ...

By Daniela Agurcia

Instead of wasting your time cooking and working to manage your weight, let The Fresh Diet take care of your culinary needs while you manage your social calendar.? The Fresh Diet can help you lose weight by offering fresh, healthy, calorie-controlled meals delivered daily straight to your door.

The Fresh Diet is the perfect way for you to slim down while giving you some free time to go on that date you?ve kept putting off or that girls night out you?ve been meaning to have with your BFFS.

Tons of celebrities such as Jennifer Aniston and Sandra Bullock have subscribed to The Fresh Diet and have loved it.? Look as good as some of our A-lister celebs, and lose 10 pounds this month with The Fresh Diet itself.? Let The Fresh Diet do all the work, while you go out and meet new people.

Exclusive Discount: Receive 3 days free with the purchase of a 31 day plan at $29.99 per day. ?The promo code is: singlmar29.

Visit www.TheFreshDiet.com for more information.

Connect With Cupid...

---

Comments

Source: http://www.cupidspulse.com/the-fresh-diet-singles-lose-weight/

david garrard bethenny frankel houston weather miguel cabrera dancing with the stars michael bay ninja turtles laron landry

Embroidery- Keep Upgrading Your Knowledge

Although I'm an accomplished sewer, I still like to take classes from time to time. This helps me learn new techniques, like embroidery machine appliqu? and placement for larger designs, and lets me socialize with others who love fiber arts, from the very beginner to the pro. It's fun. And, even more importantly, it can be challenging.

I am currently taking an online class on making purses and all the little items that can help to keep the purse organized. While the instructor gives us patterns to follow, the main goal is to ultimately design our own purse that works perfectly for us. As with most things, I'm trying to be an over-achiever! I want a purse that will hold my tiny amount of purse items, my small netbook, and my huge camera. This purse must be no larger than an average wallet and weigh next to nothing. Hey, I'm sure it can be done!

In actuality, I'm designing one big bag that resembles an elongated, relaxed duffle bag.

It will have a compartment for my netbook and removable pouches for both my camera and my purse items. Most importantly, it will have a sling-type shoulder strap that I can wear across my body to redistribute the weight to both shoulders.

While the bag itself is larger than what I want, and I'm afraid I'll look conspicuous while carrying it, it will perform the duties I've set for it quite admirably. While a purse in considered to be a fashion accessory, I'm choosing to reclassify it as a tool. And, tools are supposed to help us. Since I wouldn't use a screwdriver to bang in a nail, it seems silly to expect my purse to function in ways it wasn't designed for.

Now that I've decided on my design and have the particulars drawn out, I'm getting more artistic with it! The design process is mechanical and technical.

Now, I want to make it pretty!

A few years ago, that would have meant using the few decorative stitches built into my sewing machine. Fun, but tedious; boring after a while. Now, though, I've got the whole wide world of machine embroidery at hand! I don't think there is anything I can't do with the variety of embroidery designs available these days.

I've got all the embroidery supplies on hand to create fabulous free-standing lace tidbits to add to the pockets and zipper areas. I can use machine embroidery designs specifically for appliqu? to decorate the outside pockets and strap. And, I can even make a complete wallet, eyeglass case or e-Reader pouch with the wonderful embroidery designs that create a complete project in-the-hoop! I even have free embroidery designs that I can use and then send pictures to the generous designer so she can show what can be done with her designs. It's a lovely way to say thank you for the free designs.

One of the other online classes I've taken showed me how to reposition my hoop/project to do larger designs than my machine can do. Because of this, I will even be using some fabulous machine embroidery designs that are much like the decorative stitches on my sewing machine. But, these designs are much more intricate and stitch so much quicker than I can do on my own. And, unlike my sewing machine's stitches, these embroidery designs are multi-color, which allows me to really show off the beauty of my machine embroidery thread!

It's a fabulous time to be a fiber artist! There are so many embroidery design services available, so many creative people teaching, and so many options for our creative endeavors! The options are so many and varied that my bag will probably stand up on its own when I'm done with it! But, with all the machine embroidery, it will be fabulous!

Source: http://lifestyle.ezinemark.com/embroidery-keep-upgrading-your-knowledge-18dd931c58e.html

detroit lions

Top commander in Afghanistan says mission on track

[unable to retrieve full-text content]WASHINGTON (AP) ? The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan says efforts to hand over security to the Afghans and wind down the decade-plus war are on track despite anger over a U.S. soldier's alleged massacre of Afghan civilians and the burning of Qurans.

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-03-20-US-Afghanistan-Congress/id-8123b90f6a6940ddb199eac75383c5fb

tori spelling brian williams patrice o neal patrice o neal paulina gretzky paulina gretzky wayne gretzky

Realtors Push Back Against Zillow and MLS Listing Syndicators ...

Geoffrey Schiering weighs in on the MLS listing syndication war between aggregators such as Zillow, Trulia and Realtor.com and MLS Boards in multiple markets including the recent dropping of Diverse Solutions from Denver?s MetroList approved 3rd Party IDX Vendor List:

Realtors have finally started to push back against the questionable practices of the real estate listing aggregators (or "syndicators"), Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com and others. For years, these deep-pocketed online media corporations have been growing exponentially at the expense of the professional real estate community. The aggregators take the intellectual property of individual Realtors, mix it with other content, re-brand the property as their own, and then sell related advertising rights back to the Realtors who they took the property from in the first place. And in the process they create substantial confusion in the public marketplace of real estate buyers and sellers. Realtors have begun to realize that this is harming the real estate industry, and a "real estate syndication war" is heating up.

MLS listings definitely contain copyrighted material. Specifically, the property descriptions and photographs in the MLS listings belong to the individual real estate agents who wrote the descriptions or took the photographs. Copyright subsists from the moment of creation. Whether or not those copyrights are formally registered with the Library of Congress, they are copyrighted materials.

So how have the listing aggregators been allowed royalty-free publishing rights to copyrighted materials? Well, the individual real estate agents and real estate brokers who create MLS listings are members of local associations of Realtors. The Realtors associations publish the "Multiple Listing Service" (MLS) for their local communities. And the Realtors associations have, until recently, given unrestricted permission Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com and others to republish the MLS listing feeds.

But last month the Associations of Realtors in San Diego and in Denver took bold steps to attempt to protect the integrity of their MLS data vis-?-vis the syndicators. First Denver MetroList announced that it would no longer provide an MLS data feed to Diverse Solutions, an MLS listing distributor that was recently acquired by Zillow. Then the San Diego Association of Realtors modified its MLS data stream to allow listing agents to input "Advertising Remarks" which include the names, website addresses, and phone numbers of the listing agents. In the next two months the large syndicators must display the Advertising Remarks alongside the San Diego real estate listings on their sites. Any syndicators who refuse to make the change within the next 30 days will be cut off from the San Diego Realtors MLS.

The move by the San Diego Realtors (Sandicor) is a particularly positive step. A big problem with the MLS aggregators system is that they tend to mislead the public regarding the identity of the listing agent. In most cases the agents who are displayed alongside the syndicated listings have no relationship to the property, and may have little or no knowledge of the neighborhood. The "recommended" agents are usually just advertisers on the syndicators? websites. This poses a serious likelihood of confusion with the public, and the San Diego Association of Realtors is working to fix that.

The MLS has been, and will continue to be, critical to well-functioning real estate markets. Individual agents and real estate brokers pay a hefty monthly fee to belong to their local boards of Realtors. Access to the MLS, both for receiving and for distributing information about homes for sale, has always been a big reason for Realtor membership. It is the way that professional Realtors exchange information about properties in their markets. And, with the help of IDX (Internet Data Exchange) and RETS (Real Estate Transaction Standard) technology, the MLS has become a direct source of information to the public. The MLS, either directly or through its member Realtors, matches buyers and sellers in an efficient, open marketplace.

So isn?t it a good thing when the MLS data is republished by Trulia, Realtor.com, or Zillow? Won?t sellers just get more exposure with buyers and buyers have an easier time finding properties for sale? It would be great if it were that simple, but the answer is NO. It is not better.

Syndicators Mislead The Public

Another big problem is that the local MLS is not the only place that syndicators such as Zillow get information. The syndicators grab information from a variety of online sources. And not all the information is accurate or up-to-date. As a result, the public is being confused and often misled. Realtors are losing credibility with a public who no longer knows who or what to believe.

I?ve personally published a "house for sale" advertisement on Craigslist (a home that was not on the MLS), and in less than 24 hours the property description and photos that I?d posted on Craigslist were being displayed alongside my local San Diego MLS listings on Zillow. Anyone can publish anything on Craigslist, whether it?s real, fake, exaggerated, or a downright scam. And when Zillow displays unverified, junk information right alongside MLS listings, the public assumes that the junk is just as accurate as the MLS data.

Outdated information on Zillow, Trulia, and similar sites is also harmful. I regularly receive inquires from prospective buyers who?ve seen this or that property for sale on Zillow. When I look it up I find that the property is in escrow, or was recently sold, or was sold literally years earlier. Occasionally there are property addresses that don?t even exist. And when people get the truth they are often skeptical. If it was on Zillow, they wrongly assume, it must be correct.

The Realtors associations that publish MLS listings have strict standards, and those standards are meant to protect the public and to protect the reputations of member Realtors. The listings must contain accurate information and measurements. The listings may not have any misleading sales language or cross-promotions with other businesses. San Diego MLS Listings must be removed from the MLS within 48 hours after an offer is accepted from a potential buyer. Short sales and foreclosures with accepted offers awaiting bank approval must be re-categorized in "Contingent" status rather than remain on the MLS as an active "for sale" listing. There is a whole book of rules that Realtors must follow with regard to MLS listings and advertising. Yet the rules don?t apply to the listing aggregators. Public beware.

Local Real Estate Sites More Accurate

Fortunately the public does have access to legitimate MLS listing information. Individual Realtors and real estate brokers have access to MLS data feeds. The individual agents and local real estate brokers publish those MLS data feeds directly to their websites with the help of IDX and RETS service providers. The information on these individual agent and local brokerage websites is almost always more timely and accurate than the information found on Zillow or Trulia. Realtors who do not comply with the MLS listing rules on their websites can lose their Realtor membership and MLS service. There has been no such incentive for the listing aggregators.

The MLS listing syndicators can expect increased resistance from other local associations of Realtors. The syndicators have been profiting from the work of Realtors by selling advertising placement to the Realtors themselves. The syndicated websites tend to confuse the public regarding the identity of the listing agents. The MLS listings published by the syndicators are mixed in with inaccurate and unreliable data that the syndicators gather from other sources. As a result, the reputations of Realtors and the Realtor Multiple Listing Services are compromised. In the real estate business, reputation and reliability are critical factors in every Realtor?s career. Realtors and the public at large should be concerned, and support efforts to bring the listing aggregators under more reasonable control.

19
MAR

Share

Source: http://www.ultimateidx.com/blog/realtors-push-back-against-zillow-and-mls-listing-syndicators/

junior dos santos

To Create a Work at Home Internet Business Online | isoftghana.com

In this article today, we will create a work at home business that focuses on the Internet and online rejoice. There are many different companies that you can focus on what we will and should be given in a company that you want to look for a look.
There are many ways for you when creating a work at home business, focusing on the Internet and online. One of the best resources to help you find information about it is, to www.affiliateprograms.com. You want to spend much time visiting this site because you have many different affiliate programs you can find many market categories. Some of the categories they have, that we sell are the finance and investment, food and beverage, automotive and health and fitness. Take your time to read because each affiliate program is its website and a brief description of what they do list and want to visit. If you plan to spend much time promoting a particular website and program, you should make sure it?s worth. Even with all these programs, in particular, you should see how much you selling each of these will look like this. You will probably find several programs that seem interesting to see in such a way that pays them peaks your interest and well and head for the occasion.
Regarding fair warning for what seems to be opportunities on the Web for other things, there are many different websites that promise to make money through either taking surveys or through posting on free forums for several hours a day. It sounded good and many people have signed and they found a lot of time and money wasted at the end when they try these so-called ?opportunities. Remember to listen to your gut when you think about it. There are many work at home scams out there so make sure your time reading about what the different sites have to offer.

Another company working a large house that has an online discussion can be eBay. This is emphasized by a number of articles on this site, but it is a great tool for you to start your career. You can learn to write sales copy for your auctions and how to properly promote yourself. If you take lessons from eBay and other Internet marketing areas, are you ready for just about everything there is to fight outside.

Hopefully this article on creating a work at home business that focuses on the Internet and online benefit you. When we designed this article and written, we want to know what they are doing to look for in a particular company and why. It is important to know what they look and what to avoid.

?

Source: http://www.isoftghana.com/to-create-a-work-at-home-internet-business-online.html

ohio issue 2 ohio issue 2 mississippi personhood mississippi personhood issue 2 ohio issue 2 ohio election results 2011

How The New York Times Co. became a small business | Georgia ...

Perhaps for as long as the federal government has reported which of its contracts have been awarded to small businesses, critics have charged that many of those contracts have actually gone to large companies ? often very large companies.

Recently, the American Small Business League, perhaps the loudest of those critics, tried to outline the scope of diversion. The association issued a report that studied the 100 companies that won the most federal small-business contract dollars in 2011 and found that at least 72 of them either had too many employees or too much revenue to be? eligible for government assistance to small business. (S.B.A. size standards vary by industry and sector, but generally a company must have fewer than 500 employees or less than $7 million to be considered small.)

The federal government, the world?s largest buyer of goods and service, is obliged by law to try to direct 23 percent of its purchases to small businesses, though there are no penalties for failure. The government hasn?t reached that goal in years, and while recording a deal with a bigger business as a small-business contract ? whether by mistake or by fraud ? does not necessarily mean that a small company has been denied an opportunity, it does exaggerate the government?s contracting achievement. In the view of Elliott Rosenfeld, of the league, said that in turn undermined the case for stronger enforcement of contracting rules. And by inflating an agency?s sense of achievement, it could weaken the agency?s drive to award more contracts to small businesses.

S.B.A. officials, for their part, insist the league?s analysis is premature. This summer, the S.B.A. will release its own report on the government?s contracting efforts in 2011, said a spokeswoman, Hayley Meadvin, after spending months reviewing the records. ?By the time we release our fiscal year report, we have corrected these mistakes,? she said. ?We spend a lot time making sure our data is as clean as can be.?

Moreover, the league has been prone to sweeping accusations. The group called this latest report, for instance, ?strong evidence that large companies are the fraudulent recipients of the majority of federal small-business contracts every year.? But even if improperly coded contracts are as pervasive as the association claims, is it necessarily the result of fraud?

The Agenda decided to look at one large company, mentioned incidentally in the report, that won small business contracts in 2011, to try to find out: The New York Times Company. The Times was not among the league?s list of 100; it was identified as one of 55 well-known corporations that received small-business contracts last year when it sold $56,821 worth of newspapers to the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. ? 500 daily subscriptions for the 28 weeks school is in session, according to Carol D?Andrea, The Times?s circulation manager for sales to schools and colleges.

In the government?s record of the West Point transaction, known as a contact action report, The Times is described as having $3 billion in revenue ? and 10 employees. (Both figures were wrong: in 2011, the company?s revenue was $2.3 billion and the work force totaled 7,273 employees, according to the most recent annual report.) In a field labeled ?Contracting Officer?s Business Size Selection,? the document describes The Times as a ?small business.? Under government size standards, newspaper publishers must have fewer than 500 employees to be considered small.

Our inquiry began with a call to West Point. The contracting officer who approved the deal, Kathleen Judson, said in a brief interview that she had not designated The New York Times as a small business. ?The only way that could have happened is that it must have been prepopulated,? she said. ?Sometimes the fields come through on the contract action report prepropulated. I know The New York Times is a large company.?

Here?s where it starts to get complicated ? and government officials contacted by The Agenda offered little help in clearing up the confusion. S.B.A. officials spoke authoritatively about the agency?s efforts to correct contracting records, but referred our questions about how those records are created to the General Services Administration, which oversees the procurement infrastructure used across the government. The G.S.A.?s deputy press secretary, Adam Elkington, initially sent us to the Army for answers, then later promised to find us a colleague who could answer basic contracting questions. (He never did.) A spokesman for West Point, Frank DeMaro, wrote down our questions but did not answer them. Eventually, Daniel Elkins, a spokesman for the Army?s Mission and Installation Contracting Command at Fort Sam Houston, in Texas, fielded some of our queries.

This is what we know: every entity selling to the government must sign up with the G.S.A.?s Central Contractor Registration with a unique identification number, known as a DUNS number, from Dun & Bradstreet. The vendor supplies its annual revenue and employee headcount for the entire organization, which the S.B.A. uses to determine whether the entity is a small business. What complicates things is that companies must register each legal division, or any office with a separate location or address separately. The New York Times currently has at least three active contractor registrations. One of these was set up by Ms. D?Andrea and her colleagues in The Times?s Education Sales department in order, she said, to sell the subscriptions to West Point.

The Times is not identified as a small business in the Education Sales department?s registration. It turns out, though, that West Point did not use this registration to pay The Times. Instead, the contract refers to the DUNS number used by another registered Times Company entity, this one made by the TimesCenter, an event hall at the company?s headquarters on Eighth Avenue. In that registration, The Times did identify itself as a small business.

A Times Company spokeswoman, Eileen Murphy, said by e-mail that the employees who initially registered the TimesCenter were no longer employed there. But, she said, when the TimesCenter first opened, ?it was operated as an independent business, separate from The New York Times Company. It is possible that the small-business designation was one that fit at the time, but again, we do not know for sure.? Ms. Murphy said she did not know whether the TimesCenter was independently owned at the time or just operated as if it were. Today, she said, it is operated as part of The New York Times. Nor could she say whether, or why, a Times employee entered the inaccurate revenue and headcount figures.

At West Point, neither Ms. Judson or Mr. DeMaro have explained why Ms. Judson used the registration from the TimesCenter rather than the one from the Education Sales department. (In an e-mail, the Army?s Mr. Elkins said ?multiple actions between the N.Y. Times registration of DUNS numbers and contracting officer actions makes it difficult to identify the exact sequence of events.?) But Ms. Meadvin of the S.B.A. disputed the claim that the business size field was automatically filled in, saying, ?to our knowledge? it is ?the only field that is manually entered.? Mr. Elkington of the G.S.A. did not respond to our request seeking clarification.

In any event, government contracting officers like Ms. Judson are not supposed to rely on information from the Central Contractor Registration to determine whether a business is small ? the registration record says as much at the very top. Instead, they are obligated to verify size, or any other claims a company makes, with a separate database known as the Online Representations and Certifications Application, or ORCA ? which imports size information from the Central Contractor Registration. (Filling out this form, Ms. D?Andrea said, ?is worse than filling out your taxes. Just the password is 16 digits and you can?t have repeating letters and numbers.?)

However, while the Education Sales department submitted an ORCA form ? and did not claim small-business status ? the TimesCenter, the entity on the contract, never did complete the form. According to Mr. Elkins of the Army, ?Before the contracts were awarded, the contracting officer observed that there were no Online Representations and Certifications Application records for The New York Times.? The officer then tried to verify The Times?s size, Mr. Elkins said, by turning to yet another database, the Dynamic Small Business Search maintained by the S.B.A., ?using the DUNS that was initially provided by The N.Y. Times.? But, said Mr. Elkins, ?this procedure was improper and led to the miscoded award; the Army should have asked for this information from the N.Y. Times, rather than relying upon the D.S.B. search engine.?

But if a record for a Times entity existed in the Dynamic Small Business database last year, it is gone now, and this explanation raises additional questions. Which DUNS number did The Times provide to the Army ? the one that ended up on the contract, from the TimesCenter, or one from the education sales department? Moreover, if Ms. Judson knew The Times was in fact a large business, why would she conduct a Dynamic Small Business search in the first place? Finally, the actions described here suggest Ms. Judson did in fact have to manually enter the vendor?s business size in the contract, as the S.B.A. has maintained. (Mr. Elkins has not responded to requests for further explanation.)

As it happens, three other federal agencies have used the TimesCenter registration as the basis for contracts in recent years ? apparently erroneously, since these agencies were buying newspaper ads, not renting out an event space ? and in most of those contract action reports, The Times is described as ?other than small.? And yet, for one contract with the Securities and Exchange Commission, The Times was again deemed a small business. The contract officer in that instance referred the Agenda to the S.E.C. press office to set up an interview, which a spokesman has thus far declined to do.

And that?s as far as we have been able to get. We still can?t say with certainty how The Times ended up with a small-business contract. What we did find was a record-keeping system so complex that it invites confusion and error from all parties. ?We hear from our small-business members that navigating the federal marketplace is extremely confusing and complex,? said Molly Brogan, a spokeswoman for the National Small Business Association, an advocacy group based in Washington. ?Perhaps some level of simplification ? along with enhanced oversight and repercussions for those that knowingly miscode a large business as small ? would alleviate some of these issues.?

Things may improve this year, when the G.S.A. is to merge the two separate contractor databases into one as part of a bigger move to consolidate all of the different systems ? nine of them! ? that constitute the government?s ?Integrated Acquisition Environment.? According to Ms. Meadvin, the S.B.A. believes that eventually the system will operate the way the people at West Point seem to believe it already does: business size representations from ORCA will be among the data automatically entered into the contract action report.

But for now, small-business advocates bemoan a system that allows everyone involved to evade responsibility for their actions. ?The ?pass the blame? game you?ve seen from the S.B.A. and the Army is highly indicative of a lack of accountability by the federal employees whose duty it is to ensure that the contracting process is handled professionally and fairly,? said Mr. Rosenfeld of the league. ?The erroneous entry into C.C.R. by The Times is also an example of how a large company?s negligence can contribute to the problem.

?Contract error and mismanagement amounts to tens of billions of dollars? worth of contracts a year being diverted away from small business,? he added. ?With such faulty standards of oversight, accountability and transparency, we wonder how easy it must be to hide fraud in the federal contracting process.?

? by ROBB MANDELBAUM, The New York Times, Mar. 15, 2012; this article appears at http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/15/how-the-new-york-times-became-a-small-business.

Source: http://gtpac.org/2012/03/how-the-new-york-times-co-became-a-small-business/

bruce arians

SXSW 2012: Small Business Owners Losing Money From Festival

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-03-16-Food-Pink%20Slime-Taste%20Test/id-60fbd467f51c41c392936cfe4e11d676

turducken power rangers jungle fury power rangers jungle fury ufc 139 fight card