Sunday, November 11, 2012

Great Southern Selling Travel And Insurance Business - www.ktts.com

CREATED Nov. 9, 2012

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. ? Great Southern Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:GSBC) subsidiary Great Southern Bank announced today that separate definitive agreements have been signed to sell Great Southern Travel to Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based Adelman Travel and Great Southern Insurance to St. Louis-based HM, effective Nov. 30, 2012, for both entities. Current Great Southern Travel and Great Southern Insurance employees and offices will become part of each acquirer?s respective operations.? Customers of both entities will not see any disruption in service and can expect even greater offerings and service in the future.

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Great Southern President and CEO Joseph W. Turner said, ?Great Southern Bank has experienced phenomenal growth during the last three years, growing from a primarily southwest Missouri-based bank with 39 banking centers to 107 banking centers in six states.? Banking is and always has been our core business. We have made the decision to strictly focus our resources on that core business. The decision to find buyers for our travel agency and insurance company was not taken lightly.? Both divisions have been very visible parts of our institution for decades and they are highly respected and profitable entities. Our top priority was to find buyers that we knew would take excellent care of our customers and employees and provide even more resources and capabilities. We have exceeded this objective with Adelman Travel and HM.? Adelman Travel is a world-class travel management company that will use their strong position in the travel industry to take travel services to the next level for our current customers and employees.? In the same light, HM is a growing and dynamic insurance company offering a wide range of insurance solutions.?

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Adelman Travel, with more than $400 million in annual revenue, provides business and consumer travel solutions on a global scale. Now in their 27th year in business, Adelman employs 185 people and operates 20 full-service on-site travel centers nationwide and four regional reservation centers.? They are the largest travel agency in Wisconsin and rank in the top 10 of all travel management companies nationwide.?

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?Both companies will bring their core strengths to this union,? said Craig Adelman, the company?s founder, chairman and CEO.? ?Adelman Travel has much to offer Great Southern Travel?s corporate travelers in the way of innovative services and technology solutions.? At the same time, we are excited at the prospect of expanding our vacations division through the experience of Great Southern Travel consultants.? Additionally, our combined purchasing power will directly benefit both our corporate and leisure customers.?

HM was founded in 1991 and is one of the largest privately held insurance brokers in the United States.? HM provides risk management services to clients in all 50 states and around the globe offering Property-Casualty, Employee Benefit, Personal Lines, and Financial services.

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HM CEO Michael F. Shanahan, Jr. said, ?We are very excited about this transaction as it gives us great visibility in the Springfield market and in southwest Missouri.? Joe Turner and his leadership team have built a first class insurance organization that shares our ?client first? philosophy.? We are really looking forward to welcoming their associates, and all of their clients, into the HM Family.?

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These transactions will result in the transfer of assets to HM on Dec. 1, 2012, and to Adelman Travel on Dec. 3, 2012. The combined sales are expected to result in transaction gains totaling approximately $6.8 million, which will be recorded in the fourth quarter of 2012.? In the trailing twelve month period as of Sept. 30, 2012, Great Southern Travel and Great Southern Insurance on a combined basis produced $8.2 million in non-interest income, $7.2 million in non-interest expense and $739,000 in net income, or a diluted earnings per share effect of $0.05.?

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With total assets of $4.1 billion, Great Southern is headquartered in Springfield, Mo., and operates 107 retail banking centers and more than 200 ATMs in Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota and Nebraska. Great Southern Bancorp is a public company and its common stock (ticker: GSBC) is listed on the NASDAQ Global Select stock exchange.

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www.GreatSouthernTravel.com

www.GreatSouthernInsurance.com

www.adelmantravel.com

www.hmrisk.com

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Source: http://www.ktts.com/news/178083841.html

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'Twilight' Tent City Becomes Home To Hundreds Of Fans Before Premiere

More than 2,000 fans are expected to camp out near L.A.'s Nokia Theatre ahead of Monday's 'Breaking Dawn -- Part 2' premiere.
By Kara Warner


Fans camp out before the "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2" premiere in Los Angeles
Photo: Tibrina Hobson/ FilmMagic

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1697110/twilight-tent-city-fans-breaking-dawn-part-2.jhtml

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Saturday, November 10, 2012

Chavez to Obama: forget global wars, fix domestic woes

CARACAS (Reuters) - The U.S. government's chief antagonist in Latin America, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, has advised newly re-elected U.S. President Barack Obama to avoid further entanglement in international conflicts and concentrate on fixing internal problems.

"He should reflect first on his own nation, which has a lot of economic and social problems. It's a divided, socially fractured country with a super-elite exploiting the people," the socialist president said late on Thursday in his first reaction to Obama's victory this week.

The maverick Chavez, who has inherited Fidel Castro's mantle as Latin America's most voluble challenger of U.S. power and policy, said it was time Obama pulled back from global affairs.

"He should dedicate himself to governing his country and forget dividing and invading other nations," added Chavez, who has constantly criticized U.S. involvement in Iraq, Afghanistan and other hot spots around the world.

To the disappointment of the U.S. government, Chavez was re-elected for another six-year term in October, providing a continued platform to implement his self-styled socialist revolution and keep railing against Washington.

The 58-year-old Chavez, a quieter figure these days after a year of debilitating treatment for two bouts of cancer, had backed Obama over Republican challenger Mitt Romney in the White House.

Nevertheless, he does not disguise his disappointment in Obama, accusing him of perpetuating the same aggressive foreign policies as his predecessor, George W. Bush.

Since his October 7 presidential election victory over opposition challenge Henrique Capriles, Chavez has been relatively subdued, only popping up on state television once or twice a week in meetings with ministers.

He has made no major new policy announcements, beyond promising more efficiency in government and a widening of socialist "communes" across Venezuelan society.

Many Venezuelans expect a devaluation of the bolivar currency in coming months - the black market rate is three times the official one - and perhaps more nationalizations in an economy where Chavez has radically increased state ownership.

"I'M NO WOLF"

Speaking at a Cabinet meeting, Chavez made light of nationalization concerns, urging businesses not to fear him.

"Come and invest! Don't believe the fairy tale that we're going to expropriate you," he said in comments on state TV.

Earlier in the week, Chavez plied the same line, espousing a supposed new moderation toward private business that critics scoff at as hypocritical and barely believable.

"It's totally false that I have a plan to expropriate everyone," he said then. "Don't be deceived by that tale of 'here comes the wolf.' Lies. I'm urging you to come and work."

He was less conciliatory in his view of Venezuela's upcoming state elections on December 16, casting them in his Thursday appearance as a continuation of the state's battle against "counter-revolutionary" candidates of "the bourgeoisie."

"We have to keep fighting this ideological confrontation," he urged his candidates for governorships in the 23 states.

The most closely watched vote is in Miranda state, where incumbent governor Capriles aims to hold off a challenge from Elias Jaua, a heavyweight Chavez ally and former vice president.

Should Capriles lose, it would dent his status as Venezuela's main opposition leader and deal another blow to the coalition of anti-Chavez parties already demoralized by their failure to oust him from the presidency.

However, pollster IVAD put Capriles way ahead this week, with 55 percent of voter intentions versus 34 percent for Jaua. The opposition currently holds seven states.

(Additional reporting by Diego Ore; Reporting by Bill Trott)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chavez-obama-forget-global-wars-fix-domestic-woes-134941797.html

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NASA Fires Up Experimental Space Internet For Robot Control

It was probably up and running all of 47 seconds before the obligatory Frist Post arrived.

NASA points out the distinction between this network and the internet:

From NASA: "The core of the DTN suite is the Bundle Protocol (BP), which is roughly equivalent to the Internet Protocol (IP) that serves as the core of the Internet on Earth. While IP assumes a continuous end-to-end data path exists between the user and a remote space system, DTN accounts for disconnections and errors. In DTN, data move through the network "hop-by-hop." While waiting for the next link to become connected, bundles are temporarily stored and then forwarded to the next node when the link becomes available.

It seems they are paying attention to security, planning for compromised networks, and non-trusted segments, and it is designed to include
a number of applications including: sensor networks, mobile devices, use of data mules, military communications which involve stressed disconnected and disrupted networks, along with space-based store-and-forward networks.

That store and forward bit is key, and would be very nice to have here on Earth, if one could find a way to bolt it onto the existing internet. Currently the closest we have is Email and Cellular Text Messages for this type of stuff. Having been cut off from a remote server due to storm damage with only intermittent contact, I can see where it would be nice to have such capability. (To say nothing about political turmoil where governments try to shut down the net.)

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/-2RO6rTI1bA/nasa-fires-up-experimental-space-internet-for-robot-control

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Build Your Business Blog's Mailing List : Apple Daniels

email list building Build Your Business Blog?s Mailing ListOnce you get your business blog up and running, you will want to begin building your email list. Building your email list is not too complicated and it requires using a mailing list management system.

To begin, you will need to have a form on your site where people can register to begin receiving email from you. This will give you permission to begin sending email to them on as regular basis.

Using a mailing list management system, you can send to everyone on your list. Using a mailing list makes your relationship with your readers stronger and deeper than just a casual stop to your blog via an RSS feed or email feed.

It is very important to use your email list wisely. You never want to send information that your specific readers will not want. Do not send an email simply for the sake of sending something out. If you don?t have pertinent information to send, don?t send anything. It?s better than spamming your customers to death; if you start sending stuff just to send it, you will lose readers a lot quicker than not sending anything at all.

So, what do you send then? Information that will benefit your readers is useful to them and pertinent to your business. If you don?t have enough information to send on a weekly basis, then start with once a month. You can build from there as your list grows and as your business grows.

You may find you need to divide your lists up. Perhaps you have regular readers, who are not committed customers yet. Or maybe you have customers to your business, but aren?t regular readers of your business blog yet. Maybe you have a list of affiliate marketers that requires separate information from your regular readers. You may even have a list of readers who are connected to your blog on a more personal level, so you may want to send a more personal message to them.

Whatever the demographic is, sending information to them on a regular basis and that is pertinent to your readers is important. It keeps your readers coming back for more, which in turn helps grow your business.

If you?re wondering where to look for an email management system that?s right for your size blog, here are a couple of suggestions.

Mad Mimi? has a start up plan that allows you to send up to 100 list members for free. It?s a great if you?re just beginning to build your list. You can also upgrade to add more members for a monthly fee at a later date when needed.

Aweber? is an email management system that you can also create sign up forms for your blog or site. It does not offer a free plan, but the monthly fees are reasonable if you have a larger list.

Building your email list begins with your first subscriber. Make sure you have a registration form that is easy to use and an email management program that fits your needs. Then begin building your list one by one, email by email and soon you will begin to see your efforts pay off!

Wishing you growth? and prosperity,

Signature2 Build Your Business Blog?s Mailing List

Source: http://appledaniels.com/build-business-blogs-mailing-list/

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Obama to hold a press conference on Wednesday (Washington Bureau)

Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/261833449?client_source=feed&format=rss

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UN warns of escalating humanitarian need in Syria

(AP) ? The United Nations is warning that the number of people inside Syria needing humanitarian aid could rise sharply from 2.5 million now to 4 million by early next year if the civil war grinds on at its current deadly pace.

John Ging, operations director for the U.N. humanitarian office, said the U.N. is also projecting that a failure to end the fighting will lead to an increase in the number of Syrians fleeing to neighboring countries, from almost 400,000 at present to around 700,000 in early 2013.

Ging spoke in an interview ahead of Friday's fifth Syria Humanitarian Forum in Geneva where between 350 and 400 representatives of governments, international organizations and aid groups will hear reports on the sharply deteriorating humanitarian situation in Syria.

"People need to be aware of just how desperate the situation is inside Syria for the people there, how unbearable it is, and how they are suffering and falling into ever deeper despair and humanitarian need," Ging said. "It's just getting a lot worse very rapidly for the ordinary people."

At the moment, he said, the U.N. and other aid organizations are only able to reach 1.5 million of the 2.5 million people in need of assistance inside Syria ? and one of the reasons is funding.

Ging said the humanitarian program for Syrians still inside the country, and the program for Syrian refugees in camps in Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and other neighboring countries, are both "seriously underfunded," with donors providing less than 50 percent of the amount needed.

As of Nov. 2, the U.N. appeal for $348 million to provide food, water and other humanitarian aid for those inside Syria had received $157 million ? just 45 percent of the requirement. Ging said about half the aid is being delivered to conflict areas and half to those who have fled to safer areas inside the country.

As of Oct. 23, the U.N. refugee agency said its appeal for $488 million to help Syrian refugees was only about a third funded.

"This is putting an unsustainable burden on first and foremost the neighboring states," Ging said in the interview Wednesday before heading to Geneva. "There isn't a fair burden sharing with those countries who have so generously opened their borders and allowed those hundreds of thousands of people to flee. They are carrying the lion's share of the financial cost."

Ging said a key message at Friday's meeting will be an appeal for a broader base of donors to share the financial burden, especially to the wealthy Gulf states.

The big funders currently are the European Union, the United States, Britain, Germany, Russia, Norway, Australia, Canada, Sweden and Switzerland, he said.

There are no major donors from Muslim countries, but Ging said he hopes that will change since he is co-chairing Friday's meeting with the EU, the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

The U.N. will also be making "a big push and a big appeal to convert the rhetoric of concern for the plight of the Syrian people into more concerted and effective political action to end the conflict, because that is what is creating the humanitarian consequences," Ging said.

Peter Maurer, head of the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross, said Wednesday his organization can't cope with some of Syria's humanitarian needs despite its improved operations in the country because of the expanding conflict.

Activists say the 20-month civil war has killed more than 36,000 people and forced hundreds of thousands from their homes.

___

Associated Press Writer John Heilprin contributed to this report from Geneva

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-11-09-Syria-Humanitarian/id-0cee3ddc2fa34fa9852ba50074ecd21d

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Mixed Earnings, Cautious Guidance So Far For Media And ...

Macro concerns have dominated quarterly earnings season but a key message for investors is that individual company fundamentals and performance matters.? This morning News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA), Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR) and Time Warner (NYSE:TWC) are trading higher in a very weak market after reporting good results and affirming guidance.? The same thing happened last week for Scripps Networks Interactive (NYSE:SNI) and Comcast (NASDAQ:CMSCA). On the other hand, Charter Communications (NASDAQ:CHTR), Cablevision (NYSE:CVC), Discovery Communications (NASDAQ:DISCA), and DirecTV (NASDAQ:DTV) all traded down yesterday after reporting disappointing results or lowering guidance.

For some time now, I have pointed out that the cyclical recovery off the 2008/2009 low in media and communication business fundamentals had run its course.? I think this was particularly true for national advertising.? Communications was on a different cycle as concerns about competition and cord-cutting were equally important to the economic crisis.?

The combination of the slowdown in the economy this spring and summer and worries about the fiscal cliff created a difficult setup for earnings this quarter.? The Olympics also had a one-time impact in the September quarter.? Results so far indicate that the economy?s stall did hurt company performance but not in an unusually large way.? Adjusting for the Olympics, national ad trends matched expectations at most companies.? Political advertising kicked in as expected and along with continued strength in auto advertising supported positive trends in local advertising at TV stations.? Radio appears to have lost share of political advertising.

A separate issue for TV networks is the early season ratings.? Broadcast networks are really struggling, while cable nets are doing OK as a group.? Conference calls seem to indicate that the issue is an acceleration in on-demand viewing in addition to an unexpected accelerated loss of market share for broadcast.

Scatter market trends and fourth quarter ad growth guidance seem closely tied to ratings performance.? I would classify the scatter market as OK but uncertain.? Despite seasonal strength, companies are not guiding for a pickup in ad growth from the third quarter.? This is disappointing.? Macro concerns, especially related to the fiscal cliff, seem to be at fault.? Advertising indicators are mixed at best and an increasing number of Wall Street analysts are expressing caution.

Subscriber numbers in communications have been mixed.? Wireless subs and churn look pretty good, especially considering the big new smartphone introductions.? Cable and satellite video ads were better than a year ago but the momentum of improvement in a seasonally strong quarter appears to have waned.? Video subs are still declining even with an apparent recovery in housing.? This is re-igniting cord-cutting concerns.? Broadband subs are still growing nicely.? Importantly, across cable and telco, ARPU trends look good as even in a competitive environment promotions appear modest.

Again, I think the big picture is important, but for investors, individual company trends have increased in importance.? As investors, we do not have to have to own every stock in media and communications.? Furthermore, a look at company fundamentals can color our views on the big picture.
With that in mind here are some brief comments on the major companies that have reported results sin the last few weeks.

AT&T (NYSE:T) reported inline results and reaffirmed guidance.? Wireless trends were strong with good margin performance indicating that attempts to control upgrades are holding despite the Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone 5 and Samsung (PINK:SSNLF) Galaxy 3.? Wireline trends are lagging as they are more sensitive to macroeconomic trends.

No positions in stocks mentioned.

Entermedia is a long/short equity hedge fund focused on media, communications, and related technologies. Steve Birenberg is co-portfolio manager of Entermedia, owns a stake in the Funds? investment management company, and has personal monies invested in the Funds. CBS and Discovery Communications are widely held by Northlake Capital Management, LLC, including in Steve Birenberg?s personal accounts. Steve is sole proprietor of Northlake, a long only registered investment advisor.

The information on this website solely reflects the analysis of or opinion about the performance of securities and financial markets by the writers whose articles appear on the site. The views expressed by the writers are not necessarily the views of Minyanville Media, Inc. or members of its management. Nothing contained on the website is intended to constitute a recommendation or advice addressed to an individual investor or category of investors to purchase, sell or hold any security, or to take any action with respect to the prospective movement of the securities markets or to solicit the purchase or sale of any security. Any investment decisions must be made by the reader either individually or in consultation with his or her investment professional. Minyanville writers and staff may trade or hold positions in securities that are discussed in articles appearing on the website. Writers of articles are required to disclose whether they have a position in any stock or fund discussed in an article, but are not permitted to disclose the size or direction of the position. Nothing on this website is intended to solicit business of any kind for a writer's business or fund. Minyanville management and staff as well as contributing writers will not respond to emails or other communications requesting investment advice.

Copyright 2011 Minyanville Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Source: http://www.minyanville.com/sectors/media/articles/cmcsa-sni-twc-chtr-dtv-media/11/8/2012/id/45661

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Thursday, November 8, 2012

A partnership in 3D | The University of Chicago Library News

A visualization in the Zar Room

Researchers can interact with large data sets and high-performance computers directly from the Zar Room. (Photo by Nicholas Labello)

Partnerships strengthen the Library. And when those partnerships produce cutting-edge digital renderings of brain tumors in a larger-than-life 3-dimensional environment, or 3D renderings from historical stereo cards in the Special Collections Research Center, or visualizations of the output of cosmological and chemical simulations, the entire research and teaching enterprise at the University is strengthened.

Such is the partnership between the Library and the Research Computing Center (RCC). This successful collaboration couples the technical expertise of RCC staff with high-end 3D visualization technology in the Kathleen A. Zar Room at the John Crerar Library. The end result is an initiative that supports innovative research, teaching, and learning opportunities for faculty, staff, and students at UChicago.

Established in late 2011, the RCC provides researchers with high-performance computing, storage, and visualization resources. In addition to providing the fundamental building blocks of computational research, the RCC also offers scientific computing support, consultation with computing specialists, and an ongoing technical workshop and training series. These offerings extend to fields in the humanities, and the biological, physical, and social sciences.

With the rise of Big Data, visualization can make data-analysis more practical. ?Our vision for the Research Computing Center is to create an environment that inspires interdisciplinary science and collaboration, and so becomes the destination for research computing support,? says H. Birali Runesha, the Director of Research Computing. ?Computational research traditionally involves interacting with resources that are remote in both space and time. Calculations are submitted to high-performance computers that may be thousands of miles away, and could run for a long time. By partnering with the Library, we have been able to create an environment where high-end computation and the resulting data can be interacted with directly, in the Kathleen A. Zar Room.?

In creating the Library?s Kathleen A. Zar Room, the importance of 3D visualization and maximizing technology for research was at the forefront of our design initiative. Established in 2008, the Zar Room was designed to contain cutting-edge technology, including stereoscopic 3D projectors that have mesmerized many with displays of 3D images.

By combining the technology in the Zar Room with the expertise of the RCC, researchers have an opportunity to explore how visualization can bring insight and innovation to their research and teaching. One of the first faculty members to take advantage of the Zar Room, Dr. Jonathan Silverstein, used the new technology for an Immersive Virtual Anatomy course taught to College students at UChicago, and simulcast via the AccessGrid to students 3,831 miles away in Cardiff, Wales.

This year, the technologies available in the Zar Room enabled researchers working with Dr. Paul Sereno of the Department of Organismal Biology to build digital 3D reconstructions of dinosaur fossil specimens, and in a recent collaboration between the RCC and Professors John and Stephanie Cacioppo from the Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience, 3D interrogation of X-Ray CT imagery was used to discover and better understand the structure of lesions found in neural tissue.

In addition, the Library and RCC have used the Zar Room as a venue for seminars and workshops related to technology apart from visualization. Examples of such sessions include tutorials on GPU computing, the fundamentals of Unix, Matlab, Python, and Parallel programming with MPI.

Since partnering with the Library, the RCC has made upgrades to the Zar Room including establishing a connection to Midway, the RCC?s High Performance Computing cluster. This downlink enables results from computations running on Midway to be streamed live to the Zar Room for visualization and post-processing, thereby enabling interactive supercomputing and simulation.

For more information about high performance computing, data storage, visualization technology and the Zar Room, faculty may email the RCC at info@rcc.uchicago.edu or call 773-795-2667.

The Kathleen A. Zar Room was created to honor the memory of Kathleen A. Zar, Science Librarian and Assistant Director for the Science Libraries from 1994-2006. It was made possible through the generosity of Kathleen?s husband, Howard Zar; her mother, Margaret Sykora; the John Crerar Foundation; and many friends.

Source: http://news.lib.uchicago.edu/blog/2012/11/07/a-partnership-in-3d/

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Video: Will President Obama Mend Fences?

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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/49724690/

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Crivitz Real Estate Company Bigwoods Realty, LLC Helps Clients ...


Wausaukee, WI -- (SBWIRE) -- 11/07/2012 -- Temperatures are beginning to cool down and beautifully colored fall leaves are making their appearance on trees throughout Wisconsin?s Northwoods area. Meanwhile, hunting enthusiasts are enjoying the readily available whitetail dear and fishermen are taking advantage of fall bass fishing on the Menominee River, making the area the ultimate spot to own a vacation home.

For help finding paradise and the perfect Wisconsin Northwoods real estate, people can turn to Bigwoods Realty, LLC. As real estate experts in ?Up North? vacation properties throughout Marinette County, Oconto County, Forest County and Florence County, Bigwoods Realty, LLC specializes in helping clients find their ideal home, cabin, vacant land, resort and commercial property. The Crivitz real estate company, which recently completed an office remodel and plans of hiring new agents in the near future, also features full real estate services for anyone looking to purchase or sell property.

Whether a person is interested in simply appreciating the gorgeous nature offered across the Northwoods area or wants to partake in the many outdoor sports available, Bigwoods Realty, LLC can help them find the Marinette real estate or Oconto County real estate to meet their needs.

The company?s knowledgeable team is dedicated to helping clients feel comfortable about what can be a stressful decision. Offering extensive market knowledge and superior negotiating skills, Bigwoods Realty, LLC aims to get people the best price for any property they are interested in buying or selling.

Bigwoods Realty, LLC owner and operator Nathan M. Gamlin is an avid outdoorsman and lifelong resident of Marinette County. Gamblin says his goal is to help clients find their ideal property so they can enjoy all that Wisconsin?s Northwoods have to offer.

According to Gamlin, ?I choose to work in real estate because it offers me the opportunity to help people make their dream of owning property in the Northwoods a reality, giving them the chance to enjoy this beautiful area as I have.?

In addition to helping people with all of their real estate needs, Bigwoods Realty, LLC is currently running a special online promotion for hunting enthusiasts. Right now, people can post their hunting stories or pictures on the company?s Facebook page for the chance to win outdoor gear.

To view the wide range of cabins, commercial properties, homes, waterfront properties, vacant land and resort properties available throughout the Northwoods region, people can visit http://bigwoods-realty.com/

About Bigwoods Realty, LLC
Specializing in Wisconsin?s Northwoods area, the real estate experts at Bigwoods Realty, LLC help clients find their ideal ?Up North? vacation property, including cabins, homes, vacant lands, resorts and commercial property. The company also offers full real estate services throughout the Marinette, Oconto, Forest and Florence County areas.

Source: http://www.sbwire.com/press-releases/crivitz-real-estate-company-bigwoods-realty-llc-helps-clients-find-paradise-in-the-northwoods-177910.htm

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WellPoint 3Q profit up, stock down after election

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- WellPoint Inc.'s third-quarter earnings trumped Wall Street expectations but the health insurer's stock sank Wednesday, a day after President Barack Obama's re-election helped secure the future of his health care overhaul.

The overhaul aims to cover millions of uninsured people starting mostly in 2014, which means more business for insurers. But the fees and restrictions it imposes on the sector are expected to squeeze profits, especially for companies like WellPoint that focus a large portion of business on covering individuals and employees of small companies.

Shares of WellPoint and other major health insurers fell at a steeper clip than the 2 percent decline of the Standard & Poor's 500 index in Wednesday afternoon trading.

Citi analyst Carl McDonald said in a research note WellPoint's results would be viewed "quite favorably" without the election's impact.

"There's been an undercurrent of concern among many regarding the potential for bad news out of WellPoint's third quarter earnings, but the trepidation wasn't warranted," McDonald wrote, noting that the insurer easily beat expectations.

WellPoint reported net income of $691.2 million, or $2.15 per share, in the three months that ended Sept. 30. That's up 1 percent from $683.2 million, or $1.90 per share, a year ago.

Excluding investment gains, adjusted earnings were $2.09 per share.

Analysts expected $1.83 per share, according to FactSet.

The insurer's revenue, also excluding investments, was relatively flat at $15.13 billion, and that fell short of analyst expectations for $15.3 billion.

WellPoint said its enrollment slid more than 2 percent to about 33.5 million people compared to last year. The company operates Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in 14 states, including California, New York and Ohio.

WellPoint had not recorded a quarterly increase in earnings compared to the previous year since the first quarter of 2011, and the insurer's performance had frustrated several large shareholders. Chairwoman and CEO Angela Braly abruptly resigned with about a month left in the third quarter, and the company named John Cannon, its executive vice president and general counsel, to serve as interim CEO.

Wednesday's stock decline erased the 5 percent growth shares had seen since Braly left.

For the overhaul, insurers will start paying annual fees in 2014 that total $8 billion that year and rise after that. The law also restricts how much insurers can vary their pricing based on things like age and health, key tools they use to ensure that they have enough money to pay medical claims.

The overhaul also will require them to cover everyone who applies starting in 2014, even those already sick with expensive conditions such as diabetes. Additionally, the law stipulates that insurers spend certain percentages of the premiums they collect on care or pay rebates to customers.

Aside from the fees and restrictions, investors also worry that about online exchanges that will be set up as part of the overhaul to help people compare and buy insurance policies. They're concerned that these exchanges will take customers from the more-profitable employer-sponsored coverage market, Morningstar analyst Matt Coffina said.

The overhaul also stirs worry about Medicare Advantage plans, which are privately run versions of the government's Medicare program for the elderly and disabled. The law cuts funding to these plans, and that could hurt profits in this fast-growing segment.

But Coffina also said he thinks WellPoint is positioned well for the overhaul. He said the company has experience selling individual policies and a well-recognized brand that should help it do business on the exchanges.

WellPoint plans to spend between $200 million and $300 million next year to prepare for the 2014 coverage expansions, and Chief Financial Officer Wayne DeVeydt said he expects strong enrollment growth that year.

Shares of WellPoint dropped 4.6 percent, or $2.81, to $58.39 in afternoon trading Wednesday. Competitor UnitedHealth Group Inc.'s stock fell almost 4 percent, or $2.20, to $54.19. Shares of Humana Inc., which has a large concentration of Medicare Advantage business, dropped 8.2 percent, or $6.26, to $69.90.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wellpoint-3q-profit-stock-down-140536330.html

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