10.31
Missouri Lawyers Media, Oct 30, 2009 by Scott Lauck
A federal judge has dismissed part of a customer’s complaint of race discrimination at a Coach store. However, he said the lawsuit’s state law claims can continue, due to an ambiguity that Missouri courts must address.
Victoria Scott, who is black, said that in 2006, a clerk at the Coach store located on the Country Club Plaza required her to show identification before using a credit card but had not made similar requests of white customers.
id badge holder The case is in some ways similar to that of Crystal Gregory et al. v. Dillard’s Inc, in which black shoppers sued the department store over allegations that the store watched them so closely that they were discouraged from buying anything. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals en banc dismissed the case earlier this year, saying the store didn’t actually block any of the shoppers’ purchases.
Based on that precedent, Judge Howard Sachs said in an order issued Monday that Scott’s case must also be dismissed. (However, he added in a footnote that Dillard’s alleged conduct “was distinctly more serious than that alleged here.)
However, as in Gregory, Sachs said the plaintiff could continue with a portion of the lawsuit in state court. Sachs ordered the case be sent back to Jackson County Circuit Court within 20 days.
The 8th Circuit said the Gregory case presented a “novel question” of state law: Whether the Missouri Human Rights Act’s definition of “place of public accommodation” extends to retail stores. In Monday’s order, Sachs said the same reasoning applies in Scott’s case. He noted that state appellate decisions on the application of tolling provisions to the Human Rights Act are “arguably inconsistent,” and that a Missouri court should be the one to decide the issue.
Scott is represented by Raytown attorney Larry Coleman. Coleman said he was studying the Gregory decision, which he said is “one that needs to be dissected and talked about, because the result is almost anachronistic.”
Still, although that case hurt him in one respect, it also put his case back in Jackson County Circuit Court. The case was originally filed in that court last year before Coach removed it to federal court.
“We’re right back where we started,” Coleman said. “No harm, no foul.”
Coach is represented by Jim Foland, of Foland, Wickens, Eisfelder, Roper & Hofer in Kansas City. He could not be reached for comment Thursday.
In the Gregory case, none of the plaintiffs have yet taken advantage of their chance to file their claims in state court. William Rotts, of Rotts & Gibbs in Columbia, said Thursday that the matter is still on appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Rotts filed a reply brief to the high court on Wednesday, he said, and is now waiting to hear if the case will be granted certiorari.
Rotts hadn’t heard of Scott’s case but said he’d be interested in the outcome.
“We’ve had our first casualty of the 8th Circuit’s decision,” he said.
The case is Scott v
10.31
Huddersfield Daily Examiner (Huddersfield, England), Oct 29, 2009
WARWICKSHIRE signed spinner Imran Tahir and batsman Varun Chopra.
Pakistan’s Tahir, 30, will become the club’s overseas player for 2010 subject to final fitness checks on arrival and approval of the appropriate work permits.
Warwickshire director of cricket, Ashley Giles, said: “Imran is a great signing for the Bears. I am sure that Imran will be a valuable addition to the best stretch mark removal cream our attack next summer.”
Chopra joins from Essex on a three-year deal and Giles added: “Varun is a skilled young batsman with scope to develop further and we are delighted that he has chosen to commit his future to Warwickshire.”
10.31
Market Wire, October, 2009
Despite recent reports of an economic recovery, research has demonstrated that credit providers are still showing a reluctance to lend money to consumers. Lending Stream, one of the U.K’s leading providers of payday loans have reacted to this news by offering short-term loans as an alternative to borrowing from high street lenders.
According to research from the-infoshop.com(i), year-on-year decline in consumer credit has slowed to -13.7% in the second quarter of 2009. This is up from a low of -15.4% during the consolidate debt online first quarter of the year. Despite this, lending is continuing to fall year-on-year, as credit providers remain cautious in lending, due to the perceived risk involved.
Among the worst affected products are unsecured personal loans, which have seen a year-on-year decline of 31.8%. In response to this, Lending Stream have reported a sharp increase in the amount of consumers applying for instant cash loans, which can be used as an alternative to unsecured personal loans.
Lending Stream has helped thousands of people across the U.K to gain instant access to funds, in order to solve cash flow problems. The company is committed to offering a responsible, sensible approach to lending, in order to help customers avoid the ‘never ending cycle of debt’, which many fall into when taking out unsecured loans.
New customers are eligible for loans of up to Pounds Sterling 400, with a limit of up to Pounds Sterling 1000 extended to those who have used the service before. Application is made online, through a simple application form which is processed within hours. Before confirming the credit, the company vets applicants through a comprehensive credit checking system. This is to ensure that the candidate is suitable and will be able to repay the loan
10.31
Colorado Springs Business Journal, Oct 30, 2009 by Amy Gillentine
The U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs found itself in an unusual position earlier this year — professors had the chance to study the H1N1 virus up close after a large-scale outbreak quarantined hundreds of cadets.
Scientists from the Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine Epidemiology Consult Service worked with academy staff and discovered that the virus sheds longer than first thought.
Nasal washes indicated the presence of viable virus shedding — meaning the patient was still contagious — a week after the onset of the disease. In fact, 19 percent of those who reported being symptom-free for more than 24 hours were still found to have viable virus shedding, indicating that the virus might persist even after the patient is feeling well and has returned to work.
The results of the study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, could help public health planners to develop protocols for isolation in high-risk settings if the scale or severity of the flu increases.
The outbreak at the academy represented one of the largest recognized clusters at a U.S. college.
Investigators believe this is the only study to examine how long the virus exists after onset of the symptoms.
The outbreak started between July 6 medical answering services and 7, after 1,376 new basic cadet trainees arrived at the academy to start a six-week military training program
10.31
PR Newswire, Oct 28, 2009
Organization offers reduced admission for military couples to marriage conference Nov. 6 – 8 and 20 – 22
PORTLAND, Ore., Oct. 28 /PRNewswire/ — In response to rising suicide and divorce rates within the U.S. military, FamilyLife, a non-profit ministry win back love dedicated to supporting marriages and families, will present its Weekend to RememberA’ marriage conference at a significant discount to military couples in Vancouver, Wash. from Nov. 6 – 8 at the Hilton Vancouver Washington (301 Southwest 6th Street) and in Portland, Ore. from Nov. 20 – 22 at the Red Lion Hotel on the River (909 North Hayden Island Drive). Weekend to Remember is a marriage getaway aimed at strengthening healthy marriages and healing troubled ones in a fun, supportive and non-threatening environment.
While every couple is encouraged to attend, FamilyLife has invited local members of our armed forces and their spouses to attend the conference at a reduced rate in recognition of the sacrifices they make and the subsequent toll their jobs take on their marriages.
“We want to do whatever we can to support military marriages,” said FamilyLife President, CEO and Co-Founder Dr. Dennis Rainey. “We recognize and revere the tremendous responsibility and stress placed on our servicemen and women, and that such a career can truly take a toll on one’s marriage and family.”
FamilyLife’s military marriage initiative comes on the heels of reports of rising suicide rates within the United States military. One of the ways the military has chosen to combat this tragic trend is by encouraging soldiers and their spouses to participate in marriage enrichment programs offered by chaplains at military posts around the country. To provide resources to military marriages worldwide, FamilyLife has set up a dedicated website that offers resources specific to military marriages, as well as a downloadable sample of the HomeBuilders: Making Your Marriage Deployment Ready small group study, at http://www.familylife.com/MilitaryMarriage.
> “Making a marriage work is never easy, and it is difficult for any husband or wife to not ‘bring the office home,’” said Major General (Retired) Robert Dees, executive director of Campus Crusade’s Military Ministry, a FamilyLife partner ministry. “When ‘the office’ is a battlefield, and a couple isn’t equipped with the necessary tools to deal with those experiences, such as separation and the fear of losing one’s life or one’s spouse, the results can be disastrous. In that spirit, FamilyLife and Military Ministry are committed to strengthening the bonds between the heroes who serve and the spouses they love.”
Military couples can attend for a special military rate of $69 per person (a $120 savings per couple)
10.30
National Review, Nov 2, 2009 by Lamar Alexander
TO cut carbon emissions, the House of Representatives has devised a cap-and-trade plan that also mandates a switch to renewable resources–wind, sunshine, and “biomass”–for 20 percent of our energy by 2020. Democrats on the Senate Energy Committee have proposed a similar mandate. Meanwhile, the Obama administration is threatening to cut carbon-dioxide emissions by executive order. The most certain consequence of these proposals is that they will raise prices and send jobs overseas.
I have a better suggestion. Why don’t we build 100 new nuclear reactors over the next 20 years, as we did between 1970 and 1990? We would lead the world in fending off global warming, vastly improve our energy security, create hundreds of thousands of jobs, and provide ourselves with clean, reliable, low-cost power.
It seems an obvious solution, but it’s not happening. There has been a decade of talk about a “nuclear renaissance,” but only in 2007, after Congress finally overhauled the license-application process, was a New Jersey company–NRG Energy Corp.–able to file the first license application in 30 years with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. If they’re lucky and the NRC, which hasn’t reviewed an application in 30 years, is able to meet its goal of getting the review done in four years, they may get a license by 2011 and a reactor up and running by 2017. The NRC now has 21 other applications pending or expected, and the Department of Energy has awarded four of them federal loan guarantees. The hope is that, once the first few reactor designs and the applications for specific construction licenses get through the NRC’s review process, reactors can be built in a reasonable amount of time. It shouldn’t be that hard: The Japanese are completing them in less than four years.
Much of the world is moving ahead. At the U.N. Climate Change Summit last month, Chinese president Hu Jintao said his country will “vigorously” expand its nuclear production. China started looking at reactors only in 2006 but has 132 on the drawing boards already. Russia has decided to double its nuclear capacity. Japan gets 36 percent of its electricity from nuclear and has two new reactors under construction. France gets nearly 80 percent of its electricity from nuclear and has among the cheapest electricity rates in Western Europe.
The nuclear renaissance is well under way. It just hasn’t reached our shores.
Why is it important that we pursue nuclear, which produces 70 sacramento homes percent of our carbon-free electricity today? Because there simply won’t be any other way to meet the energy demands of the 21st century unless we go on burning a billion tons of coal each year.
Renewable solar and wind energy, the president’s solution, is an intermittent source of power: It works only about a third of the time. Until we figure out how to store vast amounts of electricity, wind and solar can provide only part-time power.
Renewable resources are also afflicted with what the Nature Conservancy calls “energy sprawl.” That is, they take up staggering amounts of land. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has proposed using 1,000 square miles of western lands to generate 33,000 megawatts of electricity from new solar installations
10.30
Internet Business News, Oct 19, 2009
INTERNET BUSINESS NEWS-(C)1995-2009 M2 COMMUNICATIONS
Infrastructure software provider Autonomy Corporation plc (LSE: AU) announced today that Gocompare.com, a comparison website, has deployed Autonomy Optimost’s Multivariable Testing (MVT) solution to increase the number of visitors to its car insurance page.
The Autonomy Optimost solution varies the content that new visitors to a website can see and then identifies which design has the most visitors. Gocompare.com reportedly saw a significant increase in the click-through rate to its car insurance page after running the Optimost solution.
Autonomy said its Optimost solution creates, tests and optimises virtually limitless combinations of web copy, offers and layouts that the new jersey auto insurance quotes customer can view in one visit, including marketing elements such as landing pages, registration pages, shopping carts, credit card pages, banner ads, e-mail creatives, web applications and the content type within them.
((Comments on this story may be sent to info@m2.com))
10.30
Muscle & Fitness, Nov, 2009
Delivering a blow on the field is one inflatable boats thing, but to absorb a blow, you have to train your posterior muscles and anterior muscles in a balanced manner. Your hamstrings must be complementary to your quadriceps; your hip flexors have to be strong in addition to the glutes; both your rhomboids and pecs must be strong. It’s a total-body sport, and total-body power is a product of all the muscle groups.
–Minnesota Vikings Head Strength and Conditioning Coach Tom Kanavy
10.30
Business Wire, Oct 30, 2009
STOCKHOLM, Sweden — Regulatory News:
Sanvik AB (STO:SAND):
CONTINUED WEAK DEMAND
- Order intake SEK 17,241 M
- Invoiced sales SEK 16,578 M
- Operating profit SEK 51 M
- Profit after financial items SEK -523 M
- Earnings per share SEK -0.15
- Cash flow SEK 3,630 M
Accounting policies
This interim report was prepared in accordance with IFRS, applying IAS
34, Interim Financial Reporting. The same accounting and valuation
policies were applied as in the most recent annual report, with the
exception of certain new standards and interpretations, which are
applied from 1 January 2009.
Revised IAS 1 Presentation of financial statements entails that items
recognized directly in equity that do not affect transactions with
owners must now be recognized in the income statement under the heading
Other comprehensive income. Sandvik has chosen to present other
comprehensive income as a component in the income statement and not as a
separate statement.
The Sandvik Group’s interim report for the fourth quarter 2009 will be
published on 3 February 2010.
A combined presentation and teleconference will accountants bristol be held on 30 October
2009 at 14.00 CET at Operaterrassen in Stockholm. Information available
at www.sandvik.com/ir.
Sandviken 30 October 2009
Sandvik Aktiebolag (publ)
Lars Pettersson President and CEO
Sandvik discloses the information provided herein pursuant to the
Securities Market Act
10.28
UCLA Journal of Environmental Law & Policy, Winter, 2009 by Steve Owens
I. BACKGROUNDII. CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS IN ARIZONA
office cleaning III. EXECUTIVE ORDER 2005-02 AND THE CLIMATE
CHANGE ADVISORY GROUPIV. EXECUTIVE ORDER 2006-13
V. ARIZONA'S CLEAN CAR GHG STANDARDS
VI. ARIZONA'S RENEWABLE ENERGY STANDARD
VII. THE WESTERN CLIMATE INITIATIVE
VIII. OTHER REGIONAL EFFORTS
A. Arizona-Sonora Climate Change Initiative
B. Southwest Climate Change Initiative
C. The Climate RegistryIX