Moms Making Money

It can be very tough to manage a household as a single mother, especially if you have more than one child, and your ex is behind on child support payments. The main categories that should be included in the household budget are housing, food, bills, loans, insurance, school and childcare. Medical and dental costs, transport, clothes, and entertainment are part of the budget as well. It is important to know where the money is going at all times. This way, you can set boundaries within the budget and details surrounding each category. If you aren’t usually able to do this, you need to get organized. Start by examining three months of household finances and costs. You can do this by using credit card and banking statements. Make sure you always keep these. If you can establish how much money is going toward each category, then you can find out if and where overspending is occurring.

If you follow up on your spending month by month, you will be able to determine the average amount that is being spent on each category. This way, you can establish if you exceed the average in certain categories and whether you should adjust your budget in any way. Many single mothers tend to overlook savings options within the budget. Somehow the notion of saving is lost. This should be corrected - creating a savings category within the budget can serve as an emergency fund for the family, providing an alternative to credit cards and other ways of dealing with emergency or unplanned expenses that may arise.

When you establish a budget, there is no harm in making adjustments from month to month to ensure that you are not exceeding your limits or, for example, spending more on entertainment than medical care. Comprehensive medical insurance is very expensive; this is why single moms often cover the minimum required payments. This is not a wise thing to do. God forbid, of course, but anything could happen. If you only have minimum coverage, you are likely to be refused health care if your child becomes victim to some sort of illness you weren’t prepared for. If you don’t have the money to pay for medical care, you will put it on a credit card and then have to return the money at over twenty percent interest.

Continued on the next page

It can be very tough to manage a household as a single mother, especially if you have more than one child, and your ex is behind on child support payments. The main categories that should be included in the household budget are housing, food, bills, loans, insurance, school and childcare. Medical and dental costs, transport, clothes, and entertainment are part of the budget as well. It is important to know where the money is going at all times. This way, you can set boundaries within the budget and details surrounding each category. If you aren’t usually able to do this, you need to get organized. Start by examining three months of household finances and costs. You can do this by using credit card and banking statements. Make sure you always keep these. If you can establish how much money is going toward each category, then you can find out if and where overspending is occurring.

If you follow up on your spending month by month, you will be able to determine the average amount that is being spent on each category. This way, you can establish if you exceed the average in certain categories and whether you should adjust your budget in any way. Many single mothers tend to overlook savings options within the budget. Somehow the notion of saving is lost. This should be corrected - creating a savings category within the budget can serve as an emergency fund for the family, providing an alternative to credit cards and other ways of dealing with emergency or unplanned expenses that may arise.

When you establish a budget, there is no harm in making adjustments from month to month to ensure that you are not exceeding your limits or, for example, spending more on entertainment than medical care. Comprehensive medical insurance is very expensive; this is why single moms often cover the minimum required payments. This is not a wise thing to do. God forbid, of course, but anything could happen. If you only have minimum coverage, you are likely to be refused health care if your child becomes victim to some sort of illness you weren’t prepared for. If you don’t have the money to pay for medical care, you will put it on a credit card and then have to return the money at over twenty percent interest.

Continued on the next page



Surface Encounters proudly guarantees purchaser satisfaction and selling price putting in granite assurance. “I’m at all times skeptical going with new organisations, but your employees has produced me a believer!” - Steve, Indianapolis

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Granite can be a naturally shaped stone that is definitely quarried from deep inside the earth, harvested, minimize, polished, sealed and set up in properties to add elegance, elegance and style. Considering it's a all natural item, no two slabs are precisely alike. Granite is offered in numerous colours from your numerous minerals which can be located inside the rock. Due to the fact it arrives from all over the planet, different areas and environmental issues allow it to be special.

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The Columbus, Ohio Grand Opening of Surface Encounters options an artwork gallery showroom of Granite, Marble, Quartz and Engineered Stone counter tops. Shop Supervisor, Scott Donnelly unlocked the doors in the showroom at 4717 Roberts Road, just west from the I-270 Beltway. The Surface Encounters production course of action utilizes precision, automated know-how throughout the fabrication on the customer's personalized counter the best, these kinds of as: a laser measuring alignment that programs the diamond-tipped sculpturing blades. Surface Encounters' course of action comprises computer-driven program that perpetuates the stone's organic veins. Every Surface Encounter keep has at the very least one registered, interior designer to assist you in constructing the completed venture you may be looking for. The craftsmanship continues through the

House owners are determining to remodel rather than promote their homes in today’s market place
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Surface Encounters Macomb store manager, Sal Dellacasa, says there are several factors individuals are picking granite for their countertop requirements. “Granite countertops add splendor and elegance to a kitchen. Granite is available in a number of vibrant colors and rich textures and its strength and sturdiness is unmatched by any other surface encounters normal stone or synthetic countertop substance.”

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Making Money Program

Founded in 2009 by Amanda Steinberg, DailyWorth is often a day-to-day electronic mail newsletter that includes data on personal literacy and bucks management skewed in the direction of a female audience. DailyWorth’s topics range from ways to organize your finances to tax tips to conserving information. And DailyWorth has an extraordinary editorial staff to make content material. MP Dunleavey, previously a particular finance columnist with all the New york Instances and currently a contributor with Money magazine, is top DailyWorth’s editorial staff.

Inspite of unions’ prolonged hatred of Scott Walker, the new governor is shifting to deal with the two the signs or symptoms in the condition in addition to the illness itself-the public-sector union scheme which has molested Wisconsin’s taxpayers and their kids by gaming the process. Unions like Wisconsin’s teachers’ union [WEAC] (which was Wisconsin’s biggest-spending lobby in 2009) are extraordinarily adept at repairing the strategy by means of shelling out millions to elect politicians who, in turn, reward the unions on the expense for the taxpayers.

the Wisconsin battle, when as compared to private-sector negotiations is about: one) the Scope of Bargaining, two) Union “Income” Security [Right-to-Work vs. Forced Dues], three) regardless of whether Wisconsin need to be the unions’ dues assortment agency [payroll deduction of dues], and 4) regardless of whether public-sector unions should really be ‘recertified’ by keeping elections each 12 months.

place the images on the web to indicate our projects staff at msnbc.com, and photographer Jim Seida said, why do not we just publish it as a slide indicate? I was skeptical at first - would that crimp the writing? - but within the end I used to be advocating executing it this way once the picture team was skeptical. I considered much more consumers would study by means of it this way, and it could be worth an experiment.”


commercial fishing boats primarily based in Crescent Metropolis set to sea previous evening once the tsunami alert was very first broadcast. It really is a lot easier to trip out tremendous waves at sea than at the dock. Now many of these boats are operating low on fuel, but they are unable to return to port even while the surges proceed, claimed Chris Renner, owner of C. Renner Petroleum Co. in Crescent City, which serves the fleet


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Making Money Internet

On Monday evening, I watched my foremost, The Previous Word host Lawrence O’Donnell.
While O’Donnell laudably experimented with to focus the audience’s awareness onand hopefully previous, Charlie Sheen trainwreck interview, courtesy of the tragic undertow that threatens to pull Sheen underneath for superior, I used to be overtaken, not by the pulling on the thread, and also the voracious audience he serves. It didn’t make me depressing, it manufactured me angry.

On the subject of celebrities, we are able to be a heartless nation, basking in their misfortunes like nude sunbathers at Schadenfreude Seashore. The impulse is understandable, to some diploma. It might be grating to pay attention to complaints from persons who benefit from privileges that many of us can’t even consider. When you cannot muster up some compassion for Charlie Sheen, who would make more dough for a day’s do the job than many of us will make inside of a decade’s time, I guess I cannot blame you.



Using the speedy pace of activities on the web in addition to the details revolution sparked through the World wide web, it’s particularly uncomplicated for your solutions sector to consider it’s exceptional: repeatedly breaking new ground and accomplishing elements that nobody has ever executed earlier than.

But you can find other types of business enterprise which have currently undergone some of the same exact radical shifts, and have just as excellent a stake within the foreseeable future.

Get healthcare, for example.

We commonly consider of it being a enormous, lumbering beast, but in truth, medication has undergone a series of revolutions in the previous 200 years which might be at least equal to all those we see in technological innovation and info.

Less understandable, but nevertheless within just the norms of human nature, may be the impulse to rubberneck, to slow down and consider the carnage of Charlie spectacle of Sheen’s unraveling, but of your blithe interviewer Sheen’s daily life as we pass it from the proper lane of our everyday lives. To get truthful, it can be challenging for customers to discern the big difference involving a run-of-the-mill focus whore, and an honest-to-goodness, circling the drain tragedy-to-be. On its personal merits, a quote like “I Am On a Drug. It’s Named Charlie Sheen” is sheer genius, and we can not all be anticipated to get the full measure of someone’s lifestyle any time we listen to one thing amusing.

Quick forward to 2011 and I'm looking to investigate will mean of staying a bit more business-like about my hobbies (mainly new music). From the end of January I had manned up and began to advertise my weblogs. I had created several totally different blogs, which have been contributed to by buddies and colleagues. I promoted these activities by using Facebook and Twitter.


2nd: the minor abomination the Gang of 5 about the Supream Court gave us a 12 months or so ago (Citizens Inebriated) in fact consists of slightly bouncing betty of its individual that can rather well go off with the faces of Govs Wanker, Sacitch, Krysty, and J.O. Daniels. As this ruling prolonged the idea of “personhood” to the two businesses and unions, to strive to deny them any correct to run in the legal framework that they had been organized underneath deprives these “persons” from the freedoms of speech, association and movement. Which suggests (the moment once more, quoting law school trained family members) that possibly the courts need to uphold these rights for the unions (as individual “persons” as assured from the Federal (and most state) constitutions, or they've to declare that these attempts at stripping or limiting union rights need to use to main firms, also.

Of all the smartphone makers whose names are not Apple, HTC is the most impressive. An upstart company from Taiwan, it has done a great job of building iconic hardware using commodity platforms. It has developed branding and messaging that’s edgy, cool and fun.

More importantly, it was the first company to embrace the idea of developing a user experience layer in order to differentiate itself from the commodity OS-based hardware devices that would flood the market. So, it came up with HTC Sense. A lot of credit for this unique sensibility should go to Horace Luke, HTC’s chief innovation officer, who has been the lightening rod behind the company’s design philosophy.

Perhaps that’s why I’m amazed he allowed HTC to release the abominations that are being called HTC’s Facebook phones. These are essentially nothing but regular HTC devices with a dedicated button for Facebook, which provides:

one-touch access to your friends and family. With a simple touch of the Facebook button, your network is immediately privy to the song you’re listening to, the new restaurant you’re checking out or interesting website you’ve stumbled upon.

These aren’t really Facebook phones, which are a whole different beast, and will be game changers when they come to market. If you want to know what a real Facebook Phone will look like – let’s just say it won’t be anything like HTC ChaCha or HTC Salsa. Kevin Tofel pointed out, “aside from the dedicated hardware button, many of the Facebook integrations are already available in widgets or natively in Android.” As I wrote earlier, a real Facebook phone will be a phone that embeds Facebook services in the very core of the phone and uses a Facebook user experience layer.

What these phones seem to be is a marketing gimmick cooked up by the marketing department at HTC and not the innovators. I can guarantee you Apple would never pull a cheesy move like this. Remember the long-forgotten days when Motorola introduced an iTunes phone? Well, we saw how that worked out.

This move by HTC reminds me of the late-90s, when the Internet mania was in full swing. Many companies were jostling for pole position and ended up paying a lot of money to PC makers to place their Internet access software or browser software on the desktop. Others went so far as to bake these Internet software/services into their devices via dedicated buttons. PC makers made those moves by sacrificing the needs of their primary customers and letting the greed get the better of them.

This time around, the situation is entirely different. Hardware makers are leveraging hot Internet brands to differentiate themselves and sell their increasingly commoditized hardware. By building a Facebook button, HTC is essentially trying to anoint Facebook as the social network of choice.

What happens if Facebook becomes less popular and something else pops up? Will HTC make a phone dedicated to that service? Will we soon see a Twitter button, an Angry Birds button, and a Bing button? Or all of them? Will HTC soon be selling hundreds of different models, each with dedicated button? If yes, how will they bring them to market?

The sad part is, now that HTC has gone ahead and done this, it’s almost a certainty that others are going to copy them and start rolling out phones with dedicated buttons. It won’t be good for the overall smartphone market.

The idea of dedicated buttons goes against the very design philosophy behind smartphone platforms. I believe smartphones are blank canvases meant to be hyper-personalized by average Joes and Janes, who download the apps they want and make the device fit their life. I am sorry, HTC; I don’t want you or anyone else making a choice for me via dedicated buttons.

App of the Day: TuneUp

If you’re like me, then you have a music library that’s ungainly and a tad unorganized. For some odd reason, many of the tunes you’ve gathered over the years have missing tags or cover art. Until recently, I had a tough time trying to clean it all up. Then I discovered TuneUp, which works on both Macs and PCs. It’s like sending your expensive shirts for French laundry, except for music. It fixes everything. The free version has advertising, while the premium service costs $29.95, with a yearly renewal fee of $19.95.

What to Read on the Web

• Data Center Knowledge: 2011 – Year of the SSD


• Dan Ramsden: The long tail’s value to the vital few


• Garr Reynolds: Before success comes the courage to fail

In his New York Times column complaining about Huffington Post and the new economics of content competition, I think David Carr makes two understandable but fundamentally fallacious assumptions about news and media: that the value in journalism is in content and that making content must be work. Because that's the way it used to be.

In their op-ed the next day in the New York Times complaining about copyright losing its hardness, Scott Turow, Paul Aiken, and James Shapiro extend the error to entertainment, assuming that content is entertainment and content is what content makers make.

Not necessarily.

Pull back to view the true value of these things: information, knowledge, enlightenment, amusement, experience, engagement. Content can be and has been a vessel to deliver their worth. But it is not the only one. That is the lesson of the internet -- indeed, of Huffington Post itself. I have argued that the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, the BBC, and other media should have but never would have started the Huffington Post because they, like the gentlemen above, still see content as value in itself and further believe that content is their own franchise (granted by their control of the means of production and distribution). So the benefits of content cannot come from others -- bloggers, commenters, citizens, amateurs -- as new wine in new casks. They instead want to put their old wine in the new skins (witness The Daily).

That is why old media people are missing new opportunities. It's not about the content (stupid). It's about the value.

We can be informed now by many means: by our neighbors telling us what they know, enabled to do so by the net, at a marginal cost of zero, doing so not because it is work (and work must be paid) but because this is what neighbors do for each other. We can be entertained by many means: by clever people making songs and shows and telling stories because they love doing so and because they are compensated in attention rather than royalties (and that attention may well lead to money when they can finally detour around the gauntlet of old media's closed ways to find audiences on their own).

Why do people write on Huffington Post? Because they can. Because they give a shit. Because they like the attention and conversation. Because they couldn't before. Why do they sing their songs on YouTube? Same reasons.

Is there still a role for the journalist, the professional, the artist in this? Perhaps. I think so. That's why I am teaching journalism school. But I'm not necessarily teaching them to make content. That is now only one of many, many ways to meet the goals of adding value to information, time, and society. Some of my entrepreneurial journalism students are, for example, creating businesses that will use data to impart information; they will add value by gathering and analyzing it and making it possible for you to find the intersecting points that matter to you. Other of my students are creating platforms for you to get more value out of your own data. Others are creating platforms for people to connect around interests and make and find their own value. Others are finding new ways to sustain reporting and the making of content. They are all valid if they bring value.

If you concentrate on the value, not the form -- content -- then the possibilities explode.

Turow et al shut down the idea that opening up information can yield greater value that protecting it. Sharers are...

... abetted by a handful of law professors and other experts who have made careers of fashioning counterintuitive arguments holding that copyright impedes creativity and progress. Their theory is that if we severely weaken copyright protections, innovation will truly flourish. It's a seductive thought, but it ignores centuries of scientific and technological progress based on the principle that a creative person should have some assurance of being rewarded for his innovative work.

No, I'd say rather that there are more ways to open up value. If Wikipedia were copyrighted by a publisher, it never would have become Wikipedia because it would be owned, not shared. We now have a new means to collect value rather than merely to own content.

I remember at the DLD conference a few years ago when Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales defended himself from a ninja-knife-wielding Jason Calacanis over paying people to contribute to online resources. Calacanis, like Carr, called it work. Wales instead likened it to a pickup game of basketball. Viewed from a distance, basketball certainly looks like work; they sweat enough. So why don't we demand that they be paid? Why aren't we lamenting the loss of a marketplace for their value? Because that's not where the value is. It's in the fun.

Granted, what's done with that fun -- how it is exploited -- is relevant. If I start charging admission to watch you play basketball -- it is great content, after all -- or if I put sponsors' banners on the court -- you did draw an audience -- you might want a cut. If you can get it -- if you can show that there aren't a million competitors for court time in an open marketplace -- great! But what if the gate or the ads merely support my ability to provide free court time to you or free uniforms to your town-team kids? The economics are not necessarily sweat = work = product = pay. Neither is it any longer true that owning the expensive means of production and distribution assures a return on that investment. There are other expressions of value.

The truth is that Huffington Post recognizes the value of professionalism. I've lately recalled Arianna Huffington talking with Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger in London a few years ago when he -- with native irony, in front of his reporters -- asked why the hell she was hiring reporters, who are a pain in the ass to manage and expensive to boot. Because their stories get more traffic, she said. They add value. That's why she has editors and curators. They add value. That's why she has technologists who make the Huffington Post such a social experience. They enable value.

That's what I'm teaching my entrepreneurial students: add value. And be efficient: take advantage of the free exchange that is already happening -- the free and open platforms and the information that now easily passes on them. Then put your precious resources where you most add value. Do that before you even think of extracting value. There are the new economics of what we used to think of as content.

Source: http://removeripoffreports.net/ online reputation management

The best in online reputation management

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The Case Against <b>News</b>, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of <b>...</b>

I was surprised to learn, then, that someone even more anti-news than me got to present his arguments at TED. A few of his arguments are silly, and more are poorly documented. But the best parts of the paper that inspired the TED talk ...

Snow Fairy to miss World Cup for Sheema tilt - Horse Racing <b>News</b> <b>...</b>

DUAL Oaks heroine Snow Fairy is set to bypass the Dubai World Cup and instead take her chance in the Dubai Sheema Classic at Meydan on March 26.

Robert Reich: The Real <b>News</b> on Jobs

On our current trajectory, the unemployment rate will continue to decline. But so will the pay and benefits of most Americans. The real story isn't about jobs, it's about the ever decreasing standard of living for the middle class.

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The Case Against <b>News</b>, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of <b>...</b>

I was surprised to learn, then, that someone even more anti-news than me got to present his arguments at TED. A few of his arguments are silly, and more are poorly documented. But the best parts of the paper that inspired the TED talk ...

Snow Fairy to miss World Cup for Sheema tilt - Horse Racing <b>News</b> <b>...</b>

DUAL Oaks heroine Snow Fairy is set to bypass the Dubai World Cup and instead take her chance in the Dubai Sheema Classic at Meydan on March 26.

Robert Reich: The Real <b>News</b> on Jobs

On our current trajectory, the unemployment rate will continue to decline. But so will the pay and benefits of most Americans. The real story isn't about jobs, it's about the ever decreasing standard of living for the middle class.

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The Case Against <b>News</b>, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of <b>...</b>

I was surprised to learn, then, that someone even more anti-news than me got to present his arguments at TED. A few of his arguments are silly, and more are poorly documented. But the best parts of the paper that inspired the TED talk ...

Snow Fairy to miss World Cup for Sheema tilt - Horse Racing <b>News</b> <b>...</b>

DUAL Oaks heroine Snow Fairy is set to bypass the Dubai World Cup and instead take her chance in the Dubai Sheema Classic at Meydan on March 26.

Robert Reich: The Real <b>News</b> on Jobs

On our current trajectory, the unemployment rate will continue to decline. But so will the pay and benefits of most Americans. The real story isn't about jobs, it's about the ever decreasing standard of living for the middle class.

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The Case Against <b>News</b>, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of <b>...</b>

I was surprised to learn, then, that someone even more anti-news than me got to present his arguments at TED. A few of his arguments are silly, and more are poorly documented. But the best parts of the paper that inspired the TED talk ...

Snow Fairy to miss World Cup for Sheema tilt - Horse Racing <b>News</b> <b>...</b>

DUAL Oaks heroine Snow Fairy is set to bypass the Dubai World Cup and instead take her chance in the Dubai Sheema Classic at Meydan on March 26.

Robert Reich: The Real <b>News</b> on Jobs

On our current trajectory, the unemployment rate will continue to decline. But so will the pay and benefits of most Americans. The real story isn't about jobs, it's about the ever decreasing standard of living for the middle class.

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The Case Against <b>News</b>, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of <b>...</b>

I was surprised to learn, then, that someone even more anti-news than me got to present his arguments at TED. A few of his arguments are silly, and more are poorly documented. But the best parts of the paper that inspired the TED talk ...

Snow Fairy to miss World Cup for Sheema tilt - Horse Racing <b>News</b> <b>...</b>

DUAL Oaks heroine Snow Fairy is set to bypass the Dubai World Cup and instead take her chance in the Dubai Sheema Classic at Meydan on March 26.

Robert Reich: The Real <b>News</b> on Jobs

On our current trajectory, the unemployment rate will continue to decline. But so will the pay and benefits of most Americans. The real story isn't about jobs, it's about the ever decreasing standard of living for the middle class.

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The Case Against <b>News</b>, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of <b>...</b>

I was surprised to learn, then, that someone even more anti-news than me got to present his arguments at TED. A few of his arguments are silly, and more are poorly documented. But the best parts of the paper that inspired the TED talk ...

Snow Fairy to miss World Cup for Sheema tilt - Horse Racing <b>News</b> <b>...</b>

DUAL Oaks heroine Snow Fairy is set to bypass the Dubai World Cup and instead take her chance in the Dubai Sheema Classic at Meydan on March 26.

Robert Reich: The Real <b>News</b> on Jobs

On our current trajectory, the unemployment rate will continue to decline. But so will the pay and benefits of most Americans. The real story isn't about jobs, it's about the ever decreasing standard of living for the middle class.

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The Case Against <b>News</b>, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of <b>...</b>

I was surprised to learn, then, that someone even more anti-news than me got to present his arguments at TED. A few of his arguments are silly, and more are poorly documented. But the best parts of the paper that inspired the TED talk ...

Snow Fairy to miss World Cup for Sheema tilt - Horse Racing <b>News</b> <b>...</b>

DUAL Oaks heroine Snow Fairy is set to bypass the Dubai World Cup and instead take her chance in the Dubai Sheema Classic at Meydan on March 26.

Robert Reich: The Real <b>News</b> on Jobs

On our current trajectory, the unemployment rate will continue to decline. But so will the pay and benefits of most Americans. The real story isn't about jobs, it's about the ever decreasing standard of living for the middle class.

bench craft company

The Case Against <b>News</b>, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of <b>...</b>

I was surprised to learn, then, that someone even more anti-news than me got to present his arguments at TED. A few of his arguments are silly, and more are poorly documented. But the best parts of the paper that inspired the TED talk ...

Snow Fairy to miss World Cup for Sheema tilt - Horse Racing <b>News</b> <b>...</b>

DUAL Oaks heroine Snow Fairy is set to bypass the Dubai World Cup and instead take her chance in the Dubai Sheema Classic at Meydan on March 26.

Robert Reich: The Real <b>News</b> on Jobs

On our current trajectory, the unemployment rate will continue to decline. But so will the pay and benefits of most Americans. The real story isn't about jobs, it's about the ever decreasing standard of living for the middle class.

bench craft company

The Case Against <b>News</b>, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of <b>...</b>

I was surprised to learn, then, that someone even more anti-news than me got to present his arguments at TED. A few of his arguments are silly, and more are poorly documented. But the best parts of the paper that inspired the TED talk ...

Snow Fairy to miss World Cup for Sheema tilt - Horse Racing <b>News</b> <b>...</b>

DUAL Oaks heroine Snow Fairy is set to bypass the Dubai World Cup and instead take her chance in the Dubai Sheema Classic at Meydan on March 26.

Robert Reich: The Real <b>News</b> on Jobs

On our current trajectory, the unemployment rate will continue to decline. But so will the pay and benefits of most Americans. The real story isn't about jobs, it's about the ever decreasing standard of living for the middle class.

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DUAL Oaks heroine Snow Fairy is set to bypass the Dubai World Cup and instead take her chance in the Dubai Sheema Classic at Meydan on March 26.

Robert Reich: The Real <b>News</b> on Jobs

On our current trajectory, the unemployment rate will continue to decline. But so will the pay and benefits of most Americans. The real story isn't about jobs, it's about the ever decreasing standard of living for the middle class.

Making Money Without

It was a nice idea. Today the unemployment rate is hovering above 9 percent—better than it would have been without the stimulus, most experts agree, but still painfully high. Why didn’t we get more for our money?

While liberals and conservatives alike blame the stimulus itself—It wasn’t big enough! It was never going to work!—the problem may have more to do with how the money was spent. It’s not enough just to inject money into infrastructure, because not all transportation funding is created equal—or at least, it doesn’t create jobs at an equal rate. As any infrastructure policy wonk can tell you, money spent on fixing up existing systems or building mass transit delivers more jobs, and faster, than building new highways. With their wallets bulging with their federal allowance, the states were allowed to spend $26.6 billion of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act money however they saw fit.

A new study shows that most states didn’t end up making the most of the windfall. The report by the transportation research group Smart Growth America found that states spent more than a third of the money on building new roads—rather than working on public transportation and fixing up existing roads and bridges. The result of the indiscriminate spending? States missed out on potentially thousands of new jobs—and bridges, roads, and overpasses around the country are still crumbling. Meanwhile, the states that did put dollars toward public transportation were richly rewarded: Each dollar used on transit was 75 percent more effective at putting people to work than a dollar used for highway work.

The government meant to get the biggest bang for its buck, with “shovel-ready projects.” But building miles of new roads requires planning, land acquisition, and other lengthy steps that put fewer workers on the job immediately.

Mandel Ngan / Getty Images

The government, of course, meant to get the biggest bang for its buck. The stimulus bill forced states to spend their allocated cash quickly, which was intended to get them to fund maintenance needs—“shovel-ready projects”—that had already been identified. Building miles of new roads, on the other hand, requires planning, land acquisition, and other lengthy steps that put fewer workers on the job immediately.

Some states did that. Sue Minter, Vermont’s deputy transportation secretary, says a longstanding “fix-it-first” policy for infrastructure and bipartisan collaboration shaped Vermont’s decisions about how to use the funds. The state spent all of its highway money on system maintenance, with a small amount going to mass transit. (Minter, a Democrat, was a member of the state legislature at the time.) “This shot of money into our economy was very, very significant. It’s part of the reason we have a relatively low unemployment rate,” she says. Only 5.8 percent of Vermont residents are out of work, one of the nation’s lowest rates. State research shows that ARRA funding employed 11,000 people—a small number overall, but a significant one in a small state. Minter says the maintenance was important for keeping economic growth, particularly in tourism, strong.

Other states, however, took a different tack. Arkansas used 81 percent of its money for new projects and none on transit; it also has a higher unemployment rate than Vermont. And unlike other states near the bottom of the list, just 38 percent of its roads are in good condition, according to a report by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, a trade organization.

Of all the interesting new tech that seems poised to garner a lot of buzz in 2011, near field communication (NFC), is probably the most exciting. If it takes off, it will transform the ways we communicate, share, and make payments with digital devices. This will likely take years to happen, but the groundwork is being laid right now. And RFinity is one of those companies at the forefront.

While Google and Apple are responsible for generating much of the buzz about NFC at the moment, the technology goes far beyond simply having the right type of chip in your mobile device. For example, how do you handle different types of data transfers being made from one device to another? And how to you ensure that they happen as quickly as possible? And most importantly, how do you ensure that they happen securely? Those are the things that RFinity is thinking about.

The company has just raised $4 million from Horizons Ventures in Hong Kong. And the space has gotten so red hot, in fact, that we hear they’re already out raising another round.

And it’s an easy bet for investors to make not only because of the space, but because of where the project originated: The U.S. Department of Energy. Specifically, RFinity was born when a bunch of infrastructure security experts working for the government were assigned to find all the vulnerabilities in cell phones. Through software they came up with, they were able to quite easily eavesdrop, manipulate SMS messages, and even compromise LAN security. Then they set out to figure out a way to stop people from doing those very things. That work led directly to RFinity.

Work originally began in the person-to-person and person-to-vendor sales space by way of mobile applications that route transactions through RFinity’s own secure servers. But now that NFC appears ready, RFinity is making sure they’re ready for it. The idea is that their technology could cut out the middle man here: themselves.

Obviously, the company isn’t going to share all the details on how they secure NFC transfers. But the basic overview is that they verify an incoming NFC signal and ask for a user’s permission before taking any action. Further, if the action is a transaction, it requires a PIN, just as you might do an ATM withdrawal. That’s all pretty standard. But the key is one-time-use transaction codes that RFinity creates on the fly along with complex cryptographic signatures. These ensure that an transaction is secure since it means that every transaction can only happen once. Even if those numbers were intercepted by a hacker, they would be useless beyond the one-time payment.

And even if your phone is lost or stolen, a thief couldn’t do anything without your PIN. And you can remotely shut down your NFC capabilities via RFinity. It’s enough to make me wish I could throw out all my credit cards right now. “Today’s identification and transaction systems are based on what? A magnetic strip on the back of a card, based on a 1950’s technology that relies on a base station to read the information embedded as a series of simple magnetic markers in plastic tape,” writes Josh Jones-Dilworth, who is working with the company to bring them to market.

Again, NFC as a technology is great and potentially game-changing. But the software is still needed to make it actually work. And some of the big guys began realizing that early on as companies like PayPal, Bank of America, and even Subway have been testing out different things with RFinity for some time. In fact, RFinity has actually been doing field tests of the software end of their technology since 2009 in places like Idaho, well before most people in the U.S. had ever thought about NFC.

But now people are starting to care. And soon, they could be caring a lot more. NFC is already built-in to Google’s new Nexus S device — and the company has put out a call for developers to start using the tech. Rumors have the next iteration of the iPhone gaining the technology as well. In other words, I suspect we may be seeing acquisition rumors starting to fly around RFinity in about six months or so. Provided their technology proves up to the NFC challenge, of course.

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Money Making Secrets

Facebook finally put out a press release on PR Newswire officially setting the record straight on $1.5 billion in funding. The overseas clientele of Goldman Sachs bought $1 billion, and the bank plus Digital Sky Technologies together invested another $500 million.

The blogosphere will doubtlessly explode with posts about why and how the numbers seem to have changed from what was originally reported by The New York Times on January 2. I don’t think the size of the deal selling to Goldman’s clientele shrank from $1.5 billion to $1 billion because of U.S. investors got shut out of the deal, although that’s a clever idea.

I think the discrepancy more likely has to do with the nature of off-the-record scoops, like the one that started the media frenzy in the first place.  Rarely do the early leaks of secrets ever turn out to be accurate. Don’t mistake this as dissing any of the previous coverage of $500 million in direct investment and $1.5 billion from Goldman clientele. Like the release says, Facebook chose to limit the overseas offering to $1 billion, after the bank offered the choice of a range from $375 million to $1.5 billion.

The release consists of one straightforward factual paragraph, a quote from Facebook Chief Financial Officer David Ebersman and then a set of four questions and answers about the deal — all of it appears below, except for the boilerplate at the tail end. The fact that this official statement came out today indicates that the deal has closed. Read on for the release:

Facebook Raises $1.5 Billion

Facebook Receives $1 Billion from Goldman Sachs Overseas Offering; Digital Sky Technologies and Goldman Sachs Also Recently Made $500 Million Direct Investment

Investment Values Facebook at $50 Billion

PALO ALTO, Calif., Jan. 21, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Facebook today announced it has raised U.S.$1.5 billion at a valuation of approximately $50 billion.

The transaction consisted of two parts. Today, Goldman Sachs completed an oversubscribed offering to its non-U.S. clients in a fund that invested $1 billion in Facebook Class A common stock. In December, Digital Sky Technologies (DST), The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., and funds managed by Goldman Sachs invested $500 million in Facebook Class A common stock at the same valuation.

“Our business continues to perform well, and we are pleased to be able to bolster our cash position with this new financing,” said David Ebersman, Facebook’s chief financial officer. “With this investment completed, we now have greater financial flexibility to explore whatever opportunities lie ahead.”

The investment generated a significant number of questions from interested parties and Facebook has addressed the most common ones below.

Why did Facebook raise this money?

DST and Goldman Sachs approached Facebook to express their interest in making an investment, and Facebook decided it was an attractive opportunity to bolster its cash reserves and increase its financial flexibility with limited dilution to existing shareholders.

Why did Facebook choose to raise $1 billion in the overseas offering?

Under the transaction’s terms, Facebook had the option to accept between $375 million and $1.5 billion from the Goldman Sachs overseas offering, at the discretion of Facebook. While the offering was oversubscribed, Facebook made a business decision to limit the offering to $1 billion.

What are Facebook’s plans for the proceeds of this transaction?

There are no immediate plans for these funds. Facebook will continue investing to build and expand its operations.

Does this investment mean that Facebook will have more than 500 shareholders?

Even before the investment from Goldman Sachs, Facebook had expected to pass 500 shareholders at some point in 2011, and therefore expects to start filing public financial reports no later than April 30, 2012.

It’s great to see that the social network will indeed begin making financial disclosures to the public by the end of April; and the release doesn’t say anything about whether or when an  initial public offering might happen.

Why do you think the total size of the transaction changed from the originally reported $1.5 billion coming from overseas clients of Goldman Sachs to the currently announced $1 billion?

Life is anything but a beach for "Real Housewives of Atlanta" stars Nene and Greg Leakes.  Greg's 34-year-old son, Damian Leakes, is now spilling the beans about his stepmama and Greg.  And it ain't pretty.

 

Read on for the divorce details Nene doesn't want you to know...

Who needs enemies when you've got family like this?  Greg's son, Damian, and Nene's step-son, has been threatening to air out his parents' dirty laundry for a while now. 

Damian recently told Radar that Greg and Nene are on the verge of making their divorce happen, despite Nene telling press and media that reports of their split are untrue.  She claims they are just going through a rough patch but she has not moved on to another man and they are very much still together, even though we can't remember the last time we saw her wearing her wedding ring.

But it gets worse.  Damian says once Greg married Nene after meeting her at the gentlemen's club, he kicked all his kids out of the house!

"Once he met her he kicked us out of the house," Damian said, "the young siblings went to my mom's, and he just ran off to start a whole new life literally in front of our faces."

The kids have never been acknowledged on the show.  And now, Greg is demanding Nene to pay him back a whopping $300,000 he allegedly spent to make her a star-uh.  Not sure if that includes all the body sculpting she recently got done.

Damian says, "Nothing has been filed, but lawyers have been retained," Damian said.

"Gregg is also trying to get $300,000 back, but NeNe doesn't want to give him anything.

"She (NeNe) wants to keep the house and move on with her life. They're trying to portray it as 'we're not getting divorced' and they're trying to work it out right now, but that's not the case."

Damian said, "She wants to keep the house and move on with her life. They're trying to portray it as 'we're not getting divorced' and they're trying to work it out right now, but that's not the case."

And about where all the couple's so-called money came from: 

"That's pretty much what the kids are trying to figure out because we never knew that that kind of money was available or within reach to put into that kind of project," Damian said.

"At the time when the show started was when we all started really bumping heads with NeNe and Greg.

Damian claimed the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on NeNe was used to portray "a lifestyle."

"You have to keep up with the Joneses, so to speak," Damian said.

On where all that money went:

"He [Gregg] feels like he put her where she is... he feels that she wouldn't be anywhere if he didn't give her the money to put her where she needs to be.

"He feels like he made her because he gave her a lifestyle everyone wanted to see. She feels like he should have supported her and had her back. NeNe does have a selfish quality and so does Gregg and eventually over time they're going to butt heads like what they're doing now.

"They're both stubborn. No one wants to give up anything. Everyone wants to say it's you're fault.

"My dad has always wanted to -- even if he didn't have it -- live the good life. And when they got together it was a monster being created. And this is what happens when the monster grows three heads.

We haven't verified this is his actual Twitter account yet, but it's looking like it is.  Here's what he said back in August when he was trying to sell this story to our homies over at Allhiphop:

 

@allhiphopcom got sum REAL dirt on my stepmom nene leakes. On my dad greg too. Tried 2 spare em but fuck it

This greg son. Tired of da leakes name being dogged out. We bout to expose greg AND nene. Stay tuned

8:12 PM Aug 24th, 2010 via mobile web .There are ALOT of secrets! This is Greg leakes son. The REAL leakes family is tired of the b.s.! Time to expose the TRUTH!

Wow.  Let the Splitsville drama continue...

Source

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Making Easy Money

• Amar'e Stoudemire's dreams just came true: He recently posed for Vogue’s April issue! [Page Six/NYP]

• Joseph Calvin Klein designer Francisco Costa: "[Calvin] is just great. He's a genius. He has a legacy of work, a huge body of work. You cannot compare really because he is just unique. And it's not fair because he has 35 years to back him up. It's very tempting and an easy thing to just bring back the archives. That challenges me. I find that most difficult. I find it insulting to the house and insulting to myself. For me to take it forward — that is Calvin — to look forward. So for me to look back and just copy something, then I am not doing my job." [Vogue UK]

• Garance Doré recently moved into a prewar Greenwich Village loft with boyfriend Scott “The Sartorialist” Schuman, explaining, “I don’t make sacrifices. There is no, ‘I leave everything for my man.’ I just do things when they make me feel good and they feel right." [NYT]

• Critical shopper Jon Caramanica on Soho’s new Fiorentini + Baker store: “From a distance, you could be forgiven for thinking they were sets of twins, or maybe the whole Duggar clan, 19 siblings and counting. There is not much variation to be had on the women’s side. Colors: black, or maybe a muted earth tone. (There was one chalky lavender option; it looked lonely.)” [NYT]

That’s the way Winston Churchill, whose 1939 words we borrowed for our headline this week, were he asked about America, might answer that question today.  In foreign affairs we have spent much of the past two years trying to reset our relationships with the rest, or much of the rest, of the world.  So far we have little, perhaps nothing, to show for it other than the alienation of some old friends and no new friends.

Domestically (according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office) we’ll overspend to the tune of $1.5 trillion this year, on top of the $1.3 trillion we overspent last year.  At the rate we’re going, we’ll add more to our debt during President Obama’s first term than all the debt accumulated by all of his predecessors combined, according to Michael Boskin, professor of economics at Stanford University.

Does the Administration want to see real economic growth in the country?  Of course.  Obama can’t retain the White House without a strong economic turnaround. Has he been pursuing policies to achieve that goal? Hardly. Quite the contrary.  His Administration is spending much more effort stoking the fiscal fire than dousing it. The President has largely ignored the recommendations of his own Debt and Deficit Commission, making it easy for those Republicans and Democrats who oppose the commission’s recommendations to have rendered the report dead on arrival.  There is a growing expectation among analysts and economists including Douglas Holtz-Eakin, the former director of the Congressional Budget Office that U.S. debt will lose its AAA credit rating within the next three years.

And while we have written, at great length, about the sad state of the federal fisc, the financial condition of the many states is worse.  At least the federal government can, in a pinch, print money to meet its obligations.  The states, collectively, seem to be a train wreck waiting to happen.

In a recent essay we referenced the below the radar, stopgap, partial bailout of the states by the nation’s taxpayers who ponied up approximately $40 billion in advances (loans by the federal government) to pay for state unemployment benefits.  Certainly, easing the burden of the unemployed while they seek new employment has merit, but there are considerable data to suggest that, at some point, continued funding for the unemployed prolongs unemployment as many workers use the continued benefits to hold out for a job more to their liking.  Almost every state faces substantial budget shortfalls.  The economic stimulus money that flowed to the states has run out.  Meanwhile, few states have done anything to trim their often-bloated budgets, largely because the stimulus money shielded them from the need to practice any semblance of frugality.

As the Economic Policy Journal put it, the US Treasury has been conducting a shadow bailout of at least 32 states. According to the Journal, over 60% of Americans receiving state unemployment benefits have been getting these payments because the US government stepped in to cover the commitments the states are in no position to cover.

The mounting crises couldn’t come at a worse time for the states.  Their voters have just sent over 60 new representatives to Congress to rein in spending and cut the deficit and they are in no mood to bail out the states.

The $40 billion in unemployment benefits advanced to the states by the feds is, of course, just a small part of the $3 trillion in estimated unfunded liabilities that now reside at the state and local level.  Some argue that this state debt is long term and infrastructure related and has not been incurred to cover operating expenses. They argue that most of the liabilities related to public employee pension programs were adequately funded while times were good and the economy was booming.  But, to paraphrase the vernacular of the street, bad stuff happens and the obligations don’t go away just because the economy takes a breather.

While some states have, in fact, been mindful of the need to balance obligations with realistic projections of income, some have recklessly committed themselves to pension obligations without taking responsible steps to fund those commitments.  Some of the worst offenders are Illinois, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Kentucky, Kansas, and California.

It’s clearly not a pretty picture, but just how bad is bad? It’s tempting to answer, “Well, it depends on who you ask.” Meredith Whitney, a prominent independent analyst who accurately forecast the housing meltdown and the mess in which we now find ourselves has predicted 50 to 100 sizeable municipal defaults amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars. Kenneth Rogoff, the Harvard economics professor who co-authored “This Time It’s Different,” a tongue-in-cheek title to a very serious book that describes how world leaders have, throughout history, rationalized excessive debt, warns that a major municipal default would have dire international consequences.  Others, however, seem undeterred. Bill Gross, co-chief investment officer at Pimco, the leading fixed income investment management firm, has, according to federal filings, put cash into five of its muni-bond funds.

As is so often the case, prudence is in the eye of the holder.  The devil, or in this case, the assumptions one makes about future returns, is in the details.  Unrealistically high return-on-investment assumptions for state and local pension funds have been used to justify often lavish benefits, while more realistic assumptions would at least temper the commitments to which cities and states obligate themselves.

Courtney A. Collins, an assistant professor of economics at the Stetson School of Business at Mercer University, and Andrew J. Rettenmaier, Executive Associate Director at the Private Enterprise Research Center at Texas A&M University and a senior fellow with the National Center for Policy Analysis have concluded that the liabilities of most state and local pension plans are seriously understated.  Collins says most governments use a return on investment assumption of around 8% to value their pension plan liabilities. That kind of ambitious assumption, when it isn’t achieved, as is generally the case in an economic downturn, encourages governments that have halted contributions to plans or suffered investment losses to invest in riskier securities that pay higher rates, she said.  A more realistic rate of return assumption would be that of a federally guaranteed investment, such as a Treasury bond, at 4%, she opined. As a result, the taxpayers’ role as insurer of last resort may be much greater than anticipated.

Then there are all the other retirement benefits such as health insurance, dental and vision insurance, and prescription drug plans.  Unlike pension plans, most of these nonpension benefit plans are completely unfunded according to Collins and Rettenmaier.

The Pew Center on the States reports that nonpension unfunded liabilities were about $537 billion in 2008. However the Collins and Rettenmaier estimates of the total unfunded liabilities of state and local governments for pensions and nonpension benefits total $1.03 trillion. And when these unfunded liabilities are recalculated using the more conservative assumptions, the total unfunded accrued liability is much higher.

Collins and Rettenmaier analyzed 153 state and local pension plans, representing more than 85 percent of liabilities for state and local pensions and other benefits, and recalculated their liabilities using a lower rate of return assumption than these governments typically use.  Their calculations show:

• Unfunded pension liabilities are approximately $2.5 trillion, compared to the reported amount of $493 billion.


• Unfunded liabilities for health and other benefits are $558 billion, compared to the reported $537 billion.

Thus, total unfunded liabilities for all benefit plans are an estimated $3.1 trillion — nearly three times higher than the government plans report.

We do not believe there is a painless way out of the mess our national, state and local politicians have created for us.  Sooner or later we’ll have to face up to the fact that there are no “untouchables” in these budgets other than, perhaps, the debt service incurred to those who have loaned money to the government.  The conservative Republicans and so-called Blue Dog Democrats are going to be villainized by the liberal press if they hold firm on serious debt and deficit reduction.  We’ll wager, however, that today’s villains might just turn out to be tomorrow’s heroes.

by Hal Gershowitz and Stephen Porter

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Small Business <b>News</b>: Happy Valentine&#39;s Day!

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Pilot <b>News</b>: Rachel Bilson Officially Joins &#39;Hart of Dixie,&#39; Rob <b>...</b>

Rachel Bilson is officially reteaming with 'The O.C.' creator Josh Schwartz in The CW pilot 'Hart of Dixie.' According to The Hollywood Reporter, Bil.

CBS <b>News</b>&#39; Lara Logan Sexually Assaulted in Egypt - Celebrity <b>News</b> <b>...</b>

The foreign correspondent was the victim of a "brutal and sustained" attack.

Small Business <b>News</b>: Happy Valentine&#39;s Day!

Valentine's Day is here. Talk about a recognizable brand! But what can this day of love teach you about improving your business by building better customer.

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Pilot <b>News</b>: Rachel Bilson Officially Joins &#39;Hart of Dixie,&#39; Rob <b>...</b>

Rachel Bilson is officially reteaming with 'The O.C.' creator Josh Schwartz in The CW pilot 'Hart of Dixie.' According to The Hollywood Reporter, Bil.

CBS <b>News</b>&#39; Lara Logan Sexually Assaulted in Egypt - Celebrity <b>News</b> <b>...</b>

The foreign correspondent was the victim of a "brutal and sustained" attack.

Small Business <b>News</b>: Happy Valentine&#39;s Day!

Valentine's Day is here. Talk about a recognizable brand! But what can this day of love teach you about improving your business by building better customer.

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Pilot <b>News</b>: Rachel Bilson Officially Joins &#39;Hart of Dixie,&#39; Rob <b>...</b>

Rachel Bilson is officially reteaming with 'The O.C.' creator Josh Schwartz in The CW pilot 'Hart of Dixie.' According to The Hollywood Reporter, Bil.

CBS <b>News</b>&#39; Lara Logan Sexually Assaulted in Egypt - Celebrity <b>News</b> <b>...</b>

The foreign correspondent was the victim of a "brutal and sustained" attack.

Small Business <b>News</b>: Happy Valentine&#39;s Day!

Valentine's Day is here. Talk about a recognizable brand! But what can this day of love teach you about improving your business by building better customer.

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Pilot <b>News</b>: Rachel Bilson Officially Joins &#39;Hart of Dixie,&#39; Rob <b>...</b>

Rachel Bilson is officially reteaming with 'The O.C.' creator Josh Schwartz in The CW pilot 'Hart of Dixie.' According to The Hollywood Reporter, Bil.

CBS <b>News</b>&#39; Lara Logan Sexually Assaulted in Egypt - Celebrity <b>News</b> <b>...</b>

The foreign correspondent was the victim of a "brutal and sustained" attack.

Small Business <b>News</b>: Happy Valentine&#39;s Day!

Valentine's Day is here. Talk about a recognizable brand! But what can this day of love teach you about improving your business by building better customer.

bench craft company reviews

Pilot <b>News</b>: Rachel Bilson Officially Joins &#39;Hart of Dixie,&#39; Rob <b>...</b>

Rachel Bilson is officially reteaming with 'The O.C.' creator Josh Schwartz in The CW pilot 'Hart of Dixie.' According to The Hollywood Reporter, Bil.

CBS <b>News</b>&#39; Lara Logan Sexually Assaulted in Egypt - Celebrity <b>News</b> <b>...</b>

The foreign correspondent was the victim of a "brutal and sustained" attack.

Small Business <b>News</b>: Happy Valentine&#39;s Day!

Valentine's Day is here. Talk about a recognizable brand! But what can this day of love teach you about improving your business by building better customer.

bench craft company me

Pilot <b>News</b>: Rachel Bilson Officially Joins &#39;Hart of Dixie,&#39; Rob <b>...</b>

Rachel Bilson is officially reteaming with 'The O.C.' creator Josh Schwartz in The CW pilot 'Hart of Dixie.' According to The Hollywood Reporter, Bil.

CBS <b>News</b>&#39; Lara Logan Sexually Assaulted in Egypt - Celebrity <b>News</b> <b>...</b>

The foreign correspondent was the victim of a "brutal and sustained" attack.

Small Business <b>News</b>: Happy Valentine&#39;s Day!

Valentine's Day is here. Talk about a recognizable brand! But what can this day of love teach you about improving your business by building better customer.

bench craft company credit card

Pilot <b>News</b>: Rachel Bilson Officially Joins &#39;Hart of Dixie,&#39; Rob <b>...</b>

Rachel Bilson is officially reteaming with 'The O.C.' creator Josh Schwartz in The CW pilot 'Hart of Dixie.' According to The Hollywood Reporter, Bil.

CBS <b>News</b>&#39; Lara Logan Sexually Assaulted in Egypt - Celebrity <b>News</b> <b>...</b>

The foreign correspondent was the victim of a "brutal and sustained" attack.

Small Business <b>News</b>: Happy Valentine&#39;s Day!

Valentine's Day is here. Talk about a recognizable brand! But what can this day of love teach you about improving your business by building better customer.