HIRING A COPYWRITER: YOUR 5-POINT CHECKLIST | wordwallah

Here are some tips to ensure your outsourced copywriting projects run smoothly and achieve their objectives

1.?? Choosing the right writer
It?s often difficult to find a copywriter who is suitable and available, particularly if your projects vary in their requirements of skill and experience. For example, a writer who only has magazine experience probably won?t be suitable for writing website content. If you want to save yourself a lot of time ? choose someone who works with a pool of other writers with differing skills and experience. That way you only need one point of contact ? if they?re busy on another project or they don?t have the specific skills/experience for a particular job, they can organise an alternative writer for you.

2.?? Briefing the writer
Providing your writer with a clear brief will save you unnecessary copy revisions and keep your costs down. Points to include are:

• your target audience
• what message you want to convey
• what tone you want to speak to your reader in
• what response you ideally want the reader to make
• your schedule

3.?? Setting the schedule
Copywriters need time to develop the ideas and words, so set a realistic schedule to allow for research and the creative process. Also, don?t expect the first draft to be perfect ? allow for one or two revisions so your writer can refine the content.

4.?? The agreement
The agreement should include:

• the project size
• number of revisions included
• schedule
• agreed fee (this can be a flat fee or hourly rate).

Also check what?s not included. Many writers charge extra for face-to-face meetings, research time, and weekend or rush work. Most writers charge 35?50% of the total project fee upfront. And if you have sensitive or proprietary information, don?t hesitate to have your writer sign a non-disclosure agreement.

5.?? Providing background information
Provide as much background information as possible up-front. This can save you and the writer considerable time. And if they still need more information, they can always come back to you.

Grammar time: Contractions

Using an apostrophe in a word generally indicates that one or more letters have been left out, e.g. it?s, you?re and didn?t.

?It?s? is a contraction of ?it is? or ?it has?. However, the possessive of it is its, with no apostrophe. Examples: ?It?s a great project? but ?the film reached its climax?.

?You?re? is a contraction of ?you are?. The possessive is your. Examples: ?You?re the boss?, ?Your food is in the oven?.

Source: http://wordwallah.com/newsletters/archives/363

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Australia legal challenge to Japan whaling moves closer

Japan and China in clash over worlds oldest person title

Nepal News.Net - Saturday 29th December, 2012

China and Japan - the two Asian giants which are constantly struggling over territory, politics and economic dominance -seem to have found another topic to fight about - who's the world's oldest ...

Dancing cop stops holiday traffic in Rhode Island

Times of India - Saturday 29th December, 2012

PROVIDENCE: Officer Tony Lepore is a holiday tradition in , the state that issued the first jail sentence for speeding 108 years ago. Since 1984, he has entertained drivers, pedestrians and gawkers ...

India Without reforms free speech remains a distant dream

Human Rights Watch - Saturday 29th December, 2012

While public protests led to the suspension of the police officials responsible for arresting the two young women, these incidents highlight the need for both legal and police reform in India. Laws ...

India Rape Victim?s Death Demands Action

Human Rights Watch - Saturday 29th December, 2012

This murderous gang rape is a sobering reminder of the pervasive sexual violence that women and girls across India suffer. The government needs to act now to prevent sexual assault, aggressively ...

Russia sees no chance of Assad stepping down

General Sources - Saturday 29th December, 2012

Enlarge Photo AFP/AFP - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrives for talks with peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi in Moscow on December 29, 2012. Russia acknowledged that Syria's President ...

Candles lit for Delhi rape victim

BBC - Saturday 29th December, 2012

Candlelit vigils have been held across India to mourn a woman who has died after being gang-raped in Delhi. Thousands of people gathered in the Indian capital to express their grief and demand ...

VIDEO Japan PM Abe visits Fukushima

BBC - Saturday 29th December, 2012

Japan's newly elected Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has visited the Fukushima nuclear plant, which was damaged by an earthquake and tsunami last year. Mr Abe said the process of dismantling the ...

Syria doomed to hell without political deal Peace envoy

Times of India - Saturday 29th December, 2012

U.N.-Arab League peace mediator for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi (left) with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov attend a joint news conference in Moscow December 29, 2012. (Reuters ...

Workers Struggles Asia Australia and the Pacific

wsws.org - Saturday 29th December, 2012

In two disputes, police and factory security guards left at least two striking workers unconscious and others seriously injured when they beat the workers with electric batons and threw rocks at ...

Indian teen kills self after pressed to drop rape case

Daily Nation - Saturday 29th December, 2012

A 17-year-old Indian girl who was gang-raped committed suicide after police pressured her to drop the case and marry one of her attackers, police and a relative said on ...

Indian gang-rape victim dies in Singapore hospital

Daily Nation - Saturday 29th December, 2012

PHOTO | PUNIT PARANJPE Indian members of NGO 'Aastha' hold placards during a protest in Mumbai on December 27, 2012, for better safety for women following the rape of a student in the ...

India Rape DeathSix men could face the death penalty Asia News

National Turk - Saturday 29th December, 2012

The men could face the death penalty if convicted, in a case that has triggered protests across India. The 23-year-old victim was savagely beaten and raped for almost an hour before being thrown ...

Source: http://www.nepalnews.net/index.php/sid/211673798/scat/bf053b50c46383e0

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9 die as tour bus crashes on icy Oregon highway

Emergency personnel respond to the scene of a multiple-fatality accident after a tour bus careened through a guardrail along an icy highway and fell several hundred feet down a steep embankment, authorities said, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012 about 15 miles east of Pendleton, Ore. The charter bus carrying about 40 people lost control around 10:30 a.m. on the snow- and ice-covered lanes of Interstate 84, according to the Oregon State Police. (AP Photo/East Oregonian, Tim Trainor)

Emergency personnel respond to the scene of a multiple-fatality accident after a tour bus careened through a guardrail along an icy highway and fell several hundred feet down a steep embankment, authorities said, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012 about 15 miles east of Pendleton, Ore. The charter bus carrying about 40 people lost control around 10:30 a.m. on the snow- and ice-covered lanes of Interstate 84, according to the Oregon State Police. (AP Photo/East Oregonian, Tim Trainor)

Map locates Vancouver-bound tour bus that crashed in Oregon, killing nine people.

Emergency personnel respond to the scene of a multiple fatality accident where a tour bus careened through a guardrail along an icy Oregon highway and fell several hundred feet down a steep embankment, authorities said, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012 about 15 miles east of Pendleton, Ore. The charter bus carrying about 40 people lost control around 10:30 a.m. on the snow- and ice-covered lanes of Interstate 84, according to the Oregon State Police. (AP Photo/East Oregonian, Tim Trainor)

Emergency personnel respond to the scene of a multiple fatality accident where a tour bus careened through a guardrail along an icy Oregon highway and several hundred feet down a steep embankment, authorities said, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012 about 15 miles east of Pendleton, Ore. The charter bus carrying about 40 people lost control around 10:30 a.m. on the snow- and ice-covered lanes of Interstate 84, according to the Oregon State Police. (AP Photo/East Oregonian, Tim Trainor)

Emergency personnel respond to the scene of a multiple-fatality accident where a tour bus careened through a guardrail along an icy highway and several hundred feet down a steep embankment, authorities said, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012 about 15 miles east of Pendleton, Ore. The charter bus carrying about 40 people lost control around 10:30 a.m. on the snow- and ice-covered lanes of Interstate 84, according to the Oregon State Police. (AP Photo/East Oregonian, Tim Trainor)

PENDLETON, Ore. (AP) ? The stretch of rural Oregon interstate where a tour bus crashed through a guardrail and plummeted 100 feet down a steep embankment is so notorious that state transportation officials have published a specific advisory warning of its dangers.

Nine people were killed and more than two dozen injured when the charter bus veered out of control around 10:30 a.m. Sunday on snow- and ice-covered lanes of Interstate 84 in eastern Oregon, according to Oregon State Police.

The bus crashed near the start of a 7-mile section of road winding down a hill. It came to rest at the bottom of a snowy slope, landing beaten and battered but upright with little or no debris visible around the crash site.

The East Oregonian said it spoke with two South Korean passengers, ages 16 and 17. Both said through a translator that they were seated near the rear of the bus when it swerved a few times, hit the guardrail and flipped. They described breaking glass and seeing passengers pinned by their seats as the bus slid down the hill. Both said that they feared for their lives.

The paper said that the teens, one of whom injured a knee and the other suffered a broken collarbone, were staying at a hotel arranged by the Red Cross.

More than a dozen rescue workers descended the hill and used ropes to help retrieve people from the wreckage in freezing weather. The bus driver was among the survivors, but had not yet spoken to police because of the severity of the injuries the driver had suffered.

Lt. Gregg Hastings said the bus crashed along the west end of the Blue Mountains, and west of an area called Deadman Pass. The area is well known locally for its hazards, and the state transportation department advises truck drivers that "some of the most changeable and severe weather conditions in the Northwest" can lead to slick conditions and poor visibility. Drivers are urged to use "extreme caution and defensive driving techniques," and warned that snow and black ice are common in the fall through the spring.

The bus had been carrying about 40 people. St. Anthony Hospital in Pendleton treated 26 of them, said hospital spokesman Larry Blanc. Five of those treated at St. Anthony were transported to other facilities.

Blanc did not elaborate on the nature of the injuries but told the Oregonian that the hospital brought in additional staff to handle the rush of patients and did a lot of X-ray imaging.

I-84 is a major east-west highway through Oregon that follows the Columbia River Gorge.

Umatilla County Emergency Manager Jack Remillard said the bus was owned by Mi Joo travel in Vancouver, B.C., and state police said the bus was en route from Las Vegas to Vancouver.

A woman who answered the phone at a listing for the company confirmed with The Associated Press that it owned the bus and said it was on a tour of the Western U.S. She declined to give her name.

A bus safety website run by the U.S. Department of Transportation said Mi Joo Tour & Travel has six buses, none of which have been involved in any accidents in at least the past two years.

The bus crash was the second fatal accident in Oregon on Sunday morning. A 69-year-old man died in a rollover accident on I-84, about 30 miles west of where the bus accident took place.

A spokesman for the American Bus Association said buses carry more than 700 million passengers a year in the United States.

"The industry as a whole is a very safe industry," said Dan Ronan of the Washington, D.C.,-based group. "There are only a handful of accidents every year. Comparatively speaking, we're the safest form of surface transportation."

Sunday's Oregon bus crash comes more than two months after another chartered tour bus veered off a highway in October in northern Arizona, killing the driver and injuring dozens of passengers who were mostly tourists from Asia and Europe. Authorities say the driver likely had a medical episode.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-12-31-Tour%20Bus%20Crash/id-c6390fccf79a4f229857324b1a1dd13a

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Key Tips To Further Personal Development - ProjectPB ? The ...

Improving your character and personality are vital to any program of self improvement. It helps you become a more grounded, educated person who fulfills any goal you puts your mind to. This article will give you many ideas for working on your self improvement. Try to improve slowly, and you?ll be able better understand who you are.

To grow in your own development, you must first acknowledge areas in which you are weak. You will want to learn all you can, once you realize that you have only scratched the surface of all there is to be known. Once this idea gets instilled in your mind, you will want to know, understand and learn new things, therefore, improving yourself.

You can?t change unless you make a directed, continuous effort to do so. You have to determine exactly what you want and consciously decide to work toward it.

TIP! Failure at some task can seem like a devastating injury to your self confidence. However, failure should be a way that you can learn.

Seek out other like-minded individuals. This will reinforce the aspects of your personality that you are seeking to develop, while allowing you to distance yourself from toxic individuals in your life.

You must determine what you would like to achieve in your life. Once you?ve done this, get out there and do it. Sitting and thinking about the life you want will not get you that life. You need to step up and pursue your goals to make them really happen.

Ultimate happiness may lie in assuming a manageable amount of risk. When you take risks, you may end up feeling like you?ve failed or been rejected. But if you just stay in your comfort zone, you will eventually become dissatisfied. It takes courage to take risks, but doing so can help make you happier for the future.

TIP! It takes willpower to increase the goodness of your life, so if you spread that to others, you can get some too. You should only be positive in your wishes for others.

Make the most of your work time to accomplish more. The easy way to do this is to simply take more breaks during your work day. This might seem counterproductive, but having constant breaks will help you recharge and unwind, so that you will get a lot more things done when you go back to working.

In order to have a lifestyle that you love, set goals that you are sure that you can accomplish. Identify your weaknesses and strive to overcome them so you can become a stronger, better person.

Try talking to the pastor at your church, or a therapist; it can help. These people are experienced and will know what to do in your situation. These impartial listeners can provide a sympathetic ear or help you deal with troublesome areas of your life. If you speak to a professional you will feel much happier and healthier.

TIP! It?s nearly impossible to become the greatest of champions without a great coach to guide you. It?s important that every champion has a fantastic coach or mentor.

A great tip for personal development is to make sure that you place value on what you consider to be the best. You should always strive to do your best in all aspects of your life.

It is important to have an accurate understanding of the distance you must travel to become the person you ultimately want to be. This first step can start you on the way to reaching your goals. If you are unwilling to make this commitment, you are unlikely to reach your full potential.

Instead of talking up all of your trophies and accomplishments, ask other people about their notable achievements and proudest moments. This will help you to find some of the amazing things that people can accomplish, and help you to respect them more.

TIP! One interesting trait the might be worth developing is called ?sexual capital.? This doesn?t mean you need to use your sexuality as a means of getting the results you desire.

Stress is one of the biggest enemies of happiness. When our minds are stressed, our mental and physical bodies are harmed. In order to reach your goals, the stress in your mind must be destroyed. Take some time off regularly to relax and reflect. Having this time every day can make you more peaceful and happy with yourself.

The condition in which you keep your body can significantly impact your mental state. Exercise regularly and eat a nutritious diet. Keep in mind that a healthy body and mind go well together.

Knowing what you want out of life and how to get there are great tools for personal development. Use these goals as a way to measure your successes.

TIP! Though it is important to speak your mind, it is equally valuable to listen when others do so. This holds true in many areas of your life, including personal development.

No matter what you are aiming for in terms of personal development, you need to keep track of the progress you make. Take heed of the advice provided here so that you can determine how this should occur. Keep a diary that chronicles your self improvement exploits, and you will notice that you are changing in no time.

You may have already looked all over for Goal Setting information. It is fortunate that you found this informative article. You should now be well informed and prepared to tackle anything involving the subject. Read the tips above a few more times to really let it sink in, and keep this article by your side.

Source: http://www.projectpb.net/blog/index.php/personal_development/key-tips-to-further-personal-development-2/

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Employer wins relief from U.S. contraceptives mandate

(Reuters) - A divided federal appeals court has temporarily barred the U.S. government from requiring an Illinois company to obtain insurance coverage for contraceptives, as mandated under the 2010 healthcare overhaul, after the owners objected on religious grounds.

More than 40 lawsuits are challenging a requirement in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that requires most for-profit companies to offer workers insurance coverage for contraceptive drugs and devices and other birth control methods.

Friday's 2-1 order by a panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago in favor of Cyril and Jane Korte was the second by a federal appeals court to temporarily halt enforcement against people who said it violated their faith, said Edward White, a lawyer for the Roman Catholic couple.

The 7th Circuit suggested that the couple's legal challenge might eventually prevail.

Its order came two days after U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor declined to block the provision's enforcement against companies controlled by the family of Oklahoma City billionaire David Green.

The U.S. Department of Justice, which had defended the contraceptives provision, did not immediately respond on Saturday to a request for comment.

The Kortes, who own the construction firm Korte & Luitjohan Contractors, had sought to drop a health insurance plan for 20 non-unionized workers that included coverage for contraception, and substitute a different plan consistent with their faith.

But the Obama administration's healthcare law did not allow the change, and the Kortes said that violated the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act, or RFRA.

In issuing an injunction, the 7th Circuit majority said the Kortes had established a reasonable likelihood of success on the merits of their RFRA claim, and that the government had not yet justified the apparent "substantial burden" on their religious exercise.

The court also said the couple had established irreparable harm, because absent an injunction they would have to choose between maintaining insurance coverage they considered inappropriate or facing substantial financial penalties.

"Business owners who are objecting to the mandate are not objecting to people using contraceptives, but that they have to arrange for and pay for it," White, a lawyer with the American Center for Law and Justice, said in a phone interview. "The federal government shouldn't tell business owners they have to contract to buy what they see as immoral services and goods."

Judges Joel Flaum and Diane Sykes comprised the 7th Circuit majority.

Judge Ilana Rovner dissented. She said the Kortes were "multiple steps" removed from the contraceptives services because it was their company paying for the coverage, and because it would be a worker, her doctor and the insurer involved in the decisions about the services and their funding.

The Kortes' case is expected to continue in the 7th Circuit.

Neither the 7th Circuit nor Sotomayor ruled on the merits of their respective cases. The legal standard for obtaining an injunction from the Supreme Court is much higher.

The case is Korte et al v. Sebelius, 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 12-3841.

(This story is corrected in paragraph 3 to make clear that injunction is second by a federal appeals court, not first)

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/employer-wins-relief-u-contraceptives-mandate-024547441--finance.html

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Israel indicts ex-minister Lieberman

FILE - In this Tuesday, April 17, 2012 file photo, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman leaves a press conference after meeting with Cyprus foreign minister Erato Kozakou Marcoullis, unseen, at Foreign house in Nicosia, Cyprus. Lieberman was formally indicted on Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012 on charges of breach of trust and fraud, allegations that could hurt his political future if he is convicted. (AP Photo - Petros Karadjias)

JERUSALEM (AP) ? Israel's Justice Ministry filed its indictment against former Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman in a Jerusalem court on Sunday, charging him with breach of trust and fraud in a case that could further harm his political career.

Lieberman is accused of trying to advance the career of a former diplomat after the envoy relayed information to him about a criminal investigation into the former Cabinet minister's business dealings.

On Dec. 13, the Justice Ministry released a draft indictment to both Lieberman and the press. On Sunday, an amended version of that draft was filed in the Jerusalem Magistrates Court after prosecutors received testimony suggesting he was more deeply involved than previously thought in trying to promote the diplomat.

The actual charges remained unchanged.

Lieberman, who denies any wrongdoing, resigned his Cabinet post earlier this month after he was informed of the pending charges, though he remains a member of parliament. He did not appear in court on Sunday and had no comment on the indictment.

The diplomat he tried to promote, former ambassador to Belarus Zeev Ben-Aryeh, reached a plea bargain with the state in the case earlier this year.

The indictment did not address the main suspicions against Lieberman that were the focus of a years-long investigation. Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein ultimately decided that prosecutors did not have a strong enough case to charge Lieberman with illicitly receiving millions of dollars from businessmen and laundering the cash through straw companies in eastern Europe.

While he was charged with lesser offenses, Lieberman's political future could be compromised if the court that hears the case decides to convict him of a crime that carries what is known in Israeli law as "moral turpitude." Lawmakers convicted of such crimes must resign immediately from parliament, then are barred from re-entering politics for seven years.

Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu party is running on a joint list with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud in the Jan. 22 election, and he is expected to be re-elected to parliament. Political commentators had viewed the hookup as grooming him to become a future prime minister. Lieberman takes a hard line on concessions to the Palestinians and perceives Israel's large Arab minority as a threat to the Jewish state.

In other political news, Israel's Supreme Court unanimously rejected an election committee's attempt to disqualify an Arab lawmaker from running for parliament again next month because she took part in a flotilla that tried to breach Israel's naval blockade of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

The lawmaker, Hanin Zoabi, enraged many Israelis in 2010 by joining the Turkish-led Mavi Marmara flotilla, which was stormed by Israeli naval commandos who clashed with pro-Palestinian activists, killing nine. The Israeli military says the soldiers acted in self-defense after being attacked on the deck.

Zoabi was nearly assaulted in parliament by another lawmaker and subsequently was stripped of some of her parliamentary privileges.

Earlier this month, an Israeli elections committee voted to disqualify her from running in next month's election. She appealed that decision to the Supreme Court, which overturned it, as it has rejected the committee's attempts in previous years to bar other Arab candidates from running.

"I welcome the ruling," Zoabi said. "I hope this ruling will put an end to the political witchhunt."

Lawmaker Danny Danon, who collected thousands of signatures demanding that Zoabi's candidacy be disqualified, accused the court of "backing the Marmara terrorist rather than naval commando fighters."

The court said in its ruling that it would release its reason for overturning the decision at a later date. Under Israel's election law, the court had to issue its ruling by Sunday.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://enews.earthlink.net/article/int?guid=20121230/e9df9add-fb19-4d3a-af33-03bad4d63bb7

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Kickstarter phenom Ouya starts shipping game consoles for devs ...

Ouya, an open $99 gaming console built off of Android, raised $8.6 million on Kickstarter. And now it?s shipping 1,200 consoles to developers, who can begin to create games for the system using Ouya?s SDK.

Despite concerns that Kickstarter wonder Ouya, an Android-based TV gaming console,?might not deliver, the project is hitting its deadlines with the release on Friday of 1,200 developer consoles.

Ouya announced that the development kits were being shipped to developers, who can also access the Ouya SDK (ODK) online under a free Apache license.

The release of the hardware and software should give developers time to prepare games for the platform, which is expected to be released to the public around March. That?s still the milestone that everyone will be watching but the signs look good for Ouya to make it there.

An early look at the Ouya UI

The company has been under a lot of scrutiny since it debuted as a Kickstarter project in July. The $99 console, built off the Android platform, raised $8.6 million from more than 63,000 backers. That has raised expectations and also concerns about whether the system is for real and can deliver as promised. We chatted with CEO and?founder Julie Uhrman shortly after the launch ? she assured us that it wasn?t rocket science putting Ouya together and that she was confident Ouya will hit the market by this spring.

The developer console still has plenty of bugs, Ouya has warned developers, and the triggers and D-pad on the controller are not final. Developers will also get a look at an early version of the console UI.

Following a recent CNN report that most of the biggest Kickstarter projects were shipping late, it?s nice to see that Ouya is keeping to its promise. We still don?t know what the quality and experience is like and what the game library will ultimately be. And as Kickstarter has pointed out, it?s not always important that projects ship on time if the end result suffers. But this thing looks like it?s for real.

Here?s a look at an unboxing video provided by Ouya:

Source: http://gigaom.com/2012/12/28/kickstarter-phenom-ouya-starts-shipping-game-consoles-for-devs/

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Va. Tech ends tough season with Russell Bowl win

Virginia Tech players take the stage with their trophy after defeating Rutgers 13-10 in overtime of an NCAA college football Russell Athletic Bowl game on Friday, Dec. 28, 2012, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/Brian Blanco)

Virginia Tech players take the stage with their trophy after defeating Rutgers 13-10 in overtime of an NCAA college football Russell Athletic Bowl game on Friday, Dec. 28, 2012, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/Brian Blanco)

Virginia Tech kicker Cody Journell (89) gets the hold from quarterback Trey Gresh (12) while booting the go-ahead field goal in overtime in front of Rutgers defensive back Logan Ryan (11) during an NCAA college football Russell Athletic Bowl game on Friday, Dec. 28, 2012, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/Brian Blanco)

Virginia Tech head coach Frank Beamer looks on from the sidelines during the third quarter of an NCAA college football Russell Athletic Bowl game against Rutgers, Friday, Dec. 28, 2012, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/Brian Blanco)

Rutgers kicker Nick Borgese (93) and tight end D.C. Jefferson (10) watch Borgese's field goal-attempt go wide right in overtime during an NCAA college football Russell Athletic Bowl game against Virginia Tech, Friday, Dec. 28, 2012, in Orlando, Fla. Virginia Tech won 13-10. (AP Photo/Brian Blanco)

Virginia Tech cornerbacks Kyle Fuller (17) and Antone Exum (1) look on as Rutgers kicker Nick Borgese (93) and tight ends D.C. Jefferson (10) and Paul Carrezola (89) react while watching Fuller's field goal-attempt go wide right in overtime at an NCAA college football Russell Athletic Bowl game on Friday, Dec. 28, 2012, in Orlando, Fla. Virginia Tech won 13-10. (AP Photo/Brian Blanco)

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) ? Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer was candid this week in acknowledging that a lackluster 6-6 regular season was not the standard that the Hokies had grown accustomed to.

It took one of their best finishes of the season, but no matter what people remember about this year's team, they will be recalled as winners.

Cody Journell kicked a 22-yard field goal on the first possession of overtime to help the Hokies beat Rutgers 13-10 in the Russell Athletic Bowl on Friday night.

The victory helped the Hokies avoid their first losing season since 1992 ? an accomplishment that will definitely give them a boost going into an offseason that could include some changes in the coaching staff.

"It's kind of like nothing comes easy for us," Beamer said. "It is work, but we got a bunch of guys that will hang out, and we're not always ready, but we kind of hang on and keep working at it. ... We could have shut it down, and these guys never did."

He avoided any questions about possible staff shake-ups that may be coming in the coming weeks.

"We are going to enjoy this win," he said. "These guys worked hard for this win tonight. It wasn't easy. We are going to enjoy this win and talk about our game with Rutgers."

Rutgers (9-4) had a chance to tie it in overtime, but Nick Borgese missed a 42-yard field-goal attempt to the right.

The loss ended a run of five straight bowl victories for the Scarlet Knights and kept them from recording their first double-digit win season since 2006.

The win also was the Hokies' 12th straight victory over their former Big East Conference rival.

Virginia Tech trailed 10-0 at the half, then rallied in the final 30 minutes thanks to some timely turnovers and offense. Quarterback Logan Thomas struggled in the first half and finished with a pair of interceptions, but also had 192 yards passing and the game's only passing touchdown.

"I can't commend the defense more," Thomas said. "The entire season that's kind of how it's been. I have to give a shout out to (linebacker) Bruce Taylor because he played his tail off the entire game. It felt like he was in the backfield making a tackle on every play."

Taylor finished the night with a team-high 11 tackles to lead a defense that held Rutgers to 67 yards in the second half.

Virginia Tech cornerback Antone Exum, selected the most valuable player of the game, picked off Gary Nova's pass early in the fourth quarter to set up the tying score.

He said though the offense took its lumps early, he was never down on their effort.

"That's just the way the game panned out," Exum said. "We never lose hope with the guys on the other side of the ball. Our job, honestly, is just to go out there and get as many three-and-outs as possible and give the most opportunities as we can to put points on the board.

"We did a good job of that tonight."

Rutgers seemed to be in command until the opening minutes of the fourth quarter, when turnovers and a sudden surge from the Hokies' offense quickly turned the momentum.

Down 10-0, Virginia Tech took over after Rutgers missed a field goal and moved into Scarlet Knights' territory for the first time in the game on a 32-yard pass from Thomas to Dyrell Roberts.

Thomas then found Corey Fuller for a 25-yard strike on the next play, before the drive stalled on the 8. It forced the Hokies to settle for Journell's 25-yard field goal.

Exum intercepted Nova's pass on the ensuing drive, giving the Hokies a first down on the Rutgers 21.

The Hokies found the end zone three plays later on a 21-yard touchdown pass from Thomas to Fuller with 10:56 left as steady rain began to fall.

"We finally caught them off balance," Thomas said. "We finally got them uncomfortable. ... I just had to put the ball out there for him."

Virginia Tech defensive end Tyrel Wilson then came up with the defense's second turnover of the night, recovering a fumble inside the Scarlet Knights 40 after Nova dropped a snap while lined up in the shotgun.

An intentional grounding penalty on Thomas forced a punt, though, with less than 7 minutes to play.

They got another chance a few series later, only to see Journell's 51-yard field goal come up short with 2:20 showing on the clock.

Rutgers punted, but got it back just a play later when Thomas' pass was intercepted by Brandon Jones.

"Two tremendous defensive performances, and one of the better defensive performances I've seen from Rutgers players this season," Rutgers coach Kyle Flood said. "It's unfortunate that we came out on the wrong side of the game, and squander that kind of performance as a result."

It was defense on both sides that controlled the action in the first half as Rutgers took a 10-0 halftime lead.

The Scarlet Knights were the most effective offensively, managing a modest seven first downs and a field goal. But the Scarlet Knights came up empty on their best drive of the half, failing to convert on a fourth-down pass play inside the Hokies 35.

Virginia Tech struggled throughout, though, tallying only 73 yards total in the first two quarters. Thomas was also sacked twice and intercepted late in the half, which severely hampered an offense that never made it into Rutgers' territory.

Penalties also bent in Rutgers' favor. Virginia Tech was penalized eight times for 60 yards. The Scarlet Knights weren't whistled for any penalties in the half.

A miscue by Virginia Tech on the opening drive of the game produced the game's first score.

Hokies center Caleb Farris sent his second snap of the night sailing past Thomas and into the end zone.

Thomas scrambled back to pick it up, and tried to run it out, but he was instantly swarmed and lost the ball as he was tackled. It was eventually recovered by Rutgers linebacker Khaseem Greene for the touchdown.

Beamer said the challenge now is to not let any shortcomings from this season cloud the offseason.

"I couldn't be more proud of this team," he said. "We've won some more games in other years, but I think this group is special.

He said he won't have any negative feelings when he looks back on this season.

"Not everything in life is real smooth," Beamer said. "These players worked hard and how they reacted to adversity and to disappointment and when all of them wanted to do better ? they kept together."

NOTES: The game was the lowest scoring the bowl's history. It surpassed Stanford's 24-3 win over Penn State in 1993. ...The game also set a bowl record with 20 punts, passing the previous record of 19 in the 1991 matchup between Alabama and Colorado.

___

Follow Kyle Hightower on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/khightower

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-12-29-FBC-Russell-Athletic-Bowl-Folo/id-3e6d53d63a3944559e4afef1e141a2c4

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New emergency manager law signed in Michigan

By Ed White, The Associated Press

DETROIT -- Gov. Rick Snyder put a new emergency manager law on the books in Michigan on Thursday, weeks after voters repealed a version that gave sweeping powers to a single person to overhaul financially distressed communities.

The new law, passed by a Republican-controlled Legislature, will give local governments and ailing school districts the opportunity to choose their own remedy. If a review team finds that a financial emergency exists, those communities can request an emergency manager, ask for a mediator, file for bankruptcy or introduce a reform plan with the state.

"This legislation demonstrates that we clearly heard, recognized and respected the will of the voters," Snyder, a Republican, said in a statement. "It builds in local control and options while also ensuring the tools to protect ... residents, students and taxpayers."

The law won't kick in until late March. Under the old law, the power to send an emergency manager rested solely with the governor. It was a threat to labor unions because managers had the power to throw out contracts.

Under the new law, a manager still would have the power to change contracts. But local officials also have the option to develop an alternative plan if it saves the same amount of money as the manager's proposals. Local governments can remove a manager after one year with a two-thirds vote of its elected officials.

---

The philosophy behind the law is that troubled local governments may lack the political consensus needed to get back on track or they simply need expertise to get past their financial problems.

The law includes a $770,000 state appropriation to cover managers' salaries, a provision that would shield it from another statewide vote because spending bills are immune to referendums. Rep. Tim Greimel, D-Auburn Hills, accused Republicans of going to "extreme lengths" with that provision.

Managers are working now in Benton Harbor, Ecorse, Flint, Pontiac and Allen Park, as well as in the Muskegon Heights, Highland Park and Detroit school districts. But they're operating under a decades-old law with fewer teeth that automatically kicked in after the November election. The communities have struggled with lower tax revenue due to a drop in property values and a weak economy.

Allen Park, near Detroit, was stable until it sold bonds for a movie studio that went bust. Residents recently voted down a tax increase.

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Ray Holman, a lobbyist for a UAW local that represents 17,000 state workers, gathered signatures to get a repeal of the old law on the ballot. He said the new law is "only slightly better" and predicted critics would explore a legal challenge.

"It's the exact same law with window dressing. Ultimately, it's a dictator's law," Holman said. "It's disingenuous to say Gov. Snyder listened to the people. He's flat-out wrong."

Threatened with a state takeover last spring, Detroit is operating under a set of financial reforms negotiated by the Snyder administration and city officials. The city, however, continues to struggle and is under yet another review.

Snyder promised last week that some type of "action will be taken" in Detroit in the weeks ahead, but probably before the new manager law takes effect.

The City Council has sent a plan to state Treasurer Andy Dillon that calls for layoffs, days off without pay, the sale of some assets and possible pay cuts, council members said during meetings Thursday at the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News.

They said the money-saving moves exceed those proposed by Mayor Dave Bing, who has said 400 to 500 layoffs, or 5 percent of the workforce, are likely in the new year.?

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? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/27/16196658-new-emergency-manager-law-signed-in-michigan-still-a-dictators-law-critic-says?lite

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Top Mortgage Refinance Tips for 2013

The New Year is approaching quickly, and many people are thinking about refinancing their home. Because of the holidays, your bank account might be a little smaller, so you need to find ways to save money. Before you refinance your mortgage, you need to know what to expect.

Here are some mortgage refinance tips for 2013.

Tip #1: Shop around for lenders. Even though you currently have a mortgage lender, you can still compare rates. Rates will vary among lenders, so you want to make sure you are getting the best deal. However, it is important that you choose a reputable lender. Keep in mind that there are other things to consider besides the rate. Other things you need to consider include customer service and closing costs.

Tip #2: Know how much you will save. Before you refinance your mortgage, you need to make sure that you are saving money. One of the main things you need to consider is the closing cost. You should not refinance your home if there is a possibility that you will be moving within the next few years. Only refinance your home if the new interest rate is at least a point below your current one.

Tip #3: Be prepared. The process will go more smoothly if you have the proper documents available. You will normally need copies of your recent pay slips, bank statements and tax returns. You will probably also need a copy of a recent mortgage statement.

Tip #4: Know your credit score. Because people are defaulting on their mortgages, lenders have more strict guidelines before approving a mortgage loan. Before you apply for a mortgage, you need to order a copy of your credit report. Check to see if there are any mistakes, and correct those mistakes before you apply. A higher credit score will mean a lower rate.

Tip #5: Get your rate locked in. When you are approved of a loan, make sure you have the lender lock in your rate in writing. They can fax or email you a confirmation of your rate, and the rate will be good for a certain amount of time. Therefore, you need to make sure you close on the loan before the rate expires.

Tip #6: Look for hidden fees. Be cautious of lenders who say that no closing costs are involved. When you are refinancing a mortgage, you will still be required to pay certain fees. In some cases, you will be offered the opportunity to just roll the closing cost into the amount of the loan. If you?re not sure how to make sense of your contract, consider talking to an expert. Australian readers can get advice from Smartline Mortgage Brokers; they?ve got specialized experts who can help you to make the right decision.

Source: http://www.girlsjustwannahavefunds.com/top-mortgage-refinance-tips/

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Book Review : Human No More: Digital Subjectivities, Unhuman Subjects, and the End of Anthropology, Neil L. Whitehead and Michael Wesch, eds.

Human No More: Digital Subjectivities, Unhuman Subjects, and the End of Anthropology, Neil L. Whitehead and Michael Wesch, eds.

By Science News Staff

Web edition: December 27, 2012
Print edition: January 12, 2013; Vol.183 #1 (p. 30)

Online worlds are re?defining what it means to be human, according to the authors of these anthropological essays on digital culture.

Univ. Press of Colorado, 2012, 243 p., $75

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/347270/title/Book_Review__Human_No_More_Digital_Subjectivities_Unhuman_Subjects_and_the_End_of_Anthropology_Neil_L_Whitehead_and_Michael__Wesch_eds

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European shares steady as "fiscal cliff" push awaited

LONDON (Reuters) - European shares were steady and the euro edged higher on Thursday, as U.S. lawmakers prepared to resume negotiations to avoid a fiscal crunch, while the yen hit a 21-month low on the prospect of drastic monetary easing.

Returning from the Christmas holiday break, European shares opened little changed at 1137 points, with London's FTSE 100, Paris's CAC-40 and Frankfurt's DAX between 0.1 percent lower and 0.4 percent higher.

A 0.1 percent gain in U.S. stock futures suggested a firm Wall Street start.

In a sign that there may be a way to break the deadlock in the U.S. Congress, Republican House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner urged the Democrat-controlled Senate to act to pull back from the cliff and offered to at least consider any bill the upper chamber produced.

President Barack Obama will try to revive budget crisis talks which stalled last week when he returns to Washington on Thursday after cutting short his Christmas holiday in Hawaii.

"There is still hope for a last-minute deal, otherwise we're in for a correction in January. People have already priced in an agreement. Without it, the market can't stay at these levels," a Paris-based trader said.

Economists warn that the "fiscal cliff" of higher taxes and spending cuts worth $600 billion could push the world's largest economy into recession, dragging other countries with it.

Such concerns underpinned the dollar as the fiscal impasse continues to sap investor appetite for risky assets, raising the dollar's safe-haven appeal.

Against the yen, the dollar at 85.87 yen reached its highest since September 2010, with investors accelerating their yen sales after new Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said his government would pursue a bold monetary policy, a flexible fiscal policy and a growth strategy to encourage private investment.

The euro, which is being supported by a better outlook towards the euro zone, climbed 0.4 percent to $1.3266.

In commodity markets, London copper rose 1.7 percent to a one-week high of $7,932 a tonne after some positive data from China, the world's top copper buyer.

U.S. crude futures inched up 0.2 percent to $91.14 a barrel, helped by the Chinese data and also by hopes the new Japanese government's policies would spur demand. Brent crude steadied at $111.03.

With bond investors focusing on Washington, German government bond futures opened little changed at 144.72.

(Reporting by Marc Jones; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/european-shares-steady-fiscal-cliff-push-awaited-090108396--finance.html

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Indian rape victim surviving against the odds, Singapore hospital says

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - An Indian gangrape victim whose assault in New Delhi triggered nationwide protests earlier this month has suffered "significant brain injury" and is surviving against the odds, the Singapore hospital treating her said on Friday.

The 23-year-old medical student, who was severely beaten, raped for almost an hour and thrown out of a moving bus in New Delhi, was airlifted to Singapore on December 26 for specialist treatment.

"The patient is currently struggling against the odds, and fighting for her life," Mount Elizabeth Hospital Chief Executive Officer Kelvin Loh said in a statement.

"Our medical team's investigations upon her arrival at the hospital yesterday showed that in addition to her prior cardiac arrest, she also had infection of her lungs and abdomen as well as significant brain injury."

The victim had already undergone three abdominal operations before arriving in Singapore where her condition on Thursday was described as "extremely critical".

Demonstrations over the lack of safety for women erupted across India after the December 16 attack on the unnamed victim, culminating last weekend in pitched battles between police and protesters in the heart of the capital.

Should the woman die, it could trigger fresh outrage over the case, which caught Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government off-guard and triggered a blame game between politicians and the police.

"We share the anguish and anger with the country over this heinous crime," Singh told reporters on Friday. "Our prayers are with the brave young girl and best possible medical care is being provided to her."

New Delhi has the highest number of sex crimes among India's major cities, with a rape reported on average every 18 hours, according to police figures. Government data show the number or reported rape cases in the country rose by nearly 17 percent between 2007 and 2011.

(Reporting by Kevin Lim in Singapore and Satarupa Bhattacharjya in New Delhi; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/indian-rape-victim-surviving-against-odds-singapore-hospital-061357017.html

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Top Japanese Messaging App Line Adds Kids Apps To Its Growing Product Roster

Line--Japan's top smartphone messaging app--which reaches about a third of that country's mobile phone users, just announced the release of Line Kids (link via Google Translate), for children aged six and younger. Line Kids is currently available only in Japan and developer NHN Japan says it does not currently have plans to release it outside of the country. But, as Kim-mai Cutler noted in November profile of Line, the app has the potential to become a very important messaging player throughout the world, and marketing to families and children will help it increase its already large user base.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/27V_E9fssyw/

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Nonprofit tech innovators inspire new philanthropy

In this 2009 image provided by Charity: Water, Scott Harrison walks in a field in the northern region of Tigray in Ethiopia in 2009, as he visits a water project completed by local partner, Relief Society of Tigray. Harrison's organization has funded nearly 7,000 clean water projects in some of the poorest areas of the world. He wanted to add sensors to the wells to give donors more assurances about the projects. But raising millions of dollars for the innovation was a problem. Google stepped in with major funding to create and install sensors on 4,000 wells across Africa that will send back real-time data on the water flow. Experts say the new annual grants are a part of a growing trend in venture philanthropy from donors who see technology as an instrument for social change. (AP Photo/Charity: Water)

In this 2009 image provided by Charity: Water, Scott Harrison walks in a field in the northern region of Tigray in Ethiopia in 2009, as he visits a water project completed by local partner, Relief Society of Tigray. Harrison's organization has funded nearly 7,000 clean water projects in some of the poorest areas of the world. He wanted to add sensors to the wells to give donors more assurances about the projects. But raising millions of dollars for the innovation was a problem. Google stepped in with major funding to create and install sensors on 4,000 wells across Africa that will send back real-time data on the water flow. Experts say the new annual grants are a part of a growing trend in venture philanthropy from donors who see technology as an instrument for social change. (AP Photo/Charity: Water)

In this undated image provided by Charity: Water, Scott Harrison talks with school children as he visits a school water project in India. His organization has funded nearly 7,000 clean water projects in some of the poorest areas of the world. Harrison wanted to add sensors to the wells to give donors more assurances about the projects. But raising millions of dollars for the innovation was a problem. Google stepped in with major funding to create and install sensors on 4,000 wells across Africa that will send back real-time data on the water flow. Experts say the new annual grants are a part of a growing trend in venture philanthropy from donors who see technology as an instrument for social change. (AP Photo/Charity Water)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Scott Harrison knows his charity has funded nearly 7,000 clean water projects in some of the poorest areas of the world in the past six years. How many of those wells are still flowing with drinking water months or years later, though? That's a tough question to answer.

His organization called Charity: Water has funded projects in 20 different countries. It's committed to spend 100 percent of each donation in the field to help reach some of the 800 million people who don't have clean water and resort to drinking from swamps, unhealthy ponds or polluted rivers. Organizers send donors photos and GPS coordinates for each water project they pay for.

Still, Harrison, a former New York promoter for nightclubs and fashion events, didn't want to guess at how many water projects were actually working. He wanted to give donors more assurance, knowing as many as a third of hand pumps built by various governments or groups stop functioning later. His solution: why not create sensors to monitor the water flow at each well? But raising millions for a new innovation could prove impossible.

Few funders want to pay for a nonprofit's technical infrastructure or take the risk of funding a dreamy idea. They'd rather pay for real work on the ground.

This month, Google stepped in with major funding to create and install sensors on 4,000 wells across Africa by 2015 that will send back real-time data on the water flow at each site. The $5 million grant could be a game changer for Charity: Water to ensure its projects are sustainable, to raise money for maintenance and to empower developing countries to maintain their infrastructure with new data.

"You could imagine a water minister salivating over this technology, even a president of a country being able to hold his water ministers in different districts accountable, saying, 'Hey, look, I want a dashboard in my office where I can see how my small, rural water projects are performing,'" Harrison said.

The grant is part of the first class of Google's Global Impact Awards totaling $23 million to spur innovation among nonprofits. Experts say the new annual grants are a part of a growing trend in venture philanthropy from funders who see technology as an instrument for social change. Such donors say they can have a bigger impact funding nonprofits that find ways to multiply their efforts through technology.

The gifts also represent a shift in the tech company's approach to philanthropy.

Google's Director of Charitable Giving Jacquelline Fuller said the company analyzed its giving, including $115 million in grants last year. It decided it could have a greater impact by funding nonprofit tech innovation, rather than specific issue areas or existing projects. Its grants will come with volunteer consulting on each project from Google engineers or specialists.

"We're really looking for the transformational impact" from clever uses of technology, Fuller said. But that sometimes involves risk that new technologies and innovations may not work.

"Informed risk is something Google understands," she said. "There's actually very few dollars available that's truly risk capital, lenders willing to take informed risk to help back some of these new technologies and innovations that may not pan out."

The largest source of funding for U.S. nonprofits is government, mostly through contracts that come with strings attached. Individual donors contribute significant support to charities as well, and the nation's foundations give about 14 percent of overall philanthropy to nonprofits.

"There is sort of a new breed of philanthropists coming into the field," including many who made money in the tech sector at a young age, said Bradford Smith, president of the Foundation Center, an information clearinghouse on nonprofits. "There I think you're seeing a really interesting sort of confluence of almost kind of a venture, risk-taking approach and technology as an instrument for social change."

Google zeroed in on projects that could develop new technology to scale up smaller projects targeting the environment, poverty, education and gender issues.

It's giving $5 million to the World Wildlife Fund to develop high-tech sensors for wildlife tagging to detect and deter poaching of endangered species. Another $3 million is going to a project at the Smithsonian Institution to develop DNA barcoding as a tool to stop illegal trading of endangered plants or animals smuggled across borders. That project could give six developing countries DNA testing materials with fast results to use as evidence to prosecute smugglers.

To fuel future innovation, Google is giving Donorschoose.org $5 million to create 500 new Advanced Placement courses in math, science and technology for U.S. schools that are committed to enrolling girls and minority students.

The charity GiveDirectly will receive $2.4 million to expand its model of direct mobile cash transfers to poor families in Kenya as a new method for lifting people out of poverty.

A charity run by actress Geena Davis that studies gender portrayals in the media will use a $1.2 million Google grant to develop new automated software that analyzes how females are portrayed in children's media worldwide, speeding up a previously manual process.

"It was looking prohibitively expensive to do a global study," Davis said, adding that developing new technology seemed like a far-flung wish. "It seems so science future that we weren't really raising money to do it."

While the grant may be a relatively small investment for a major tech company, it represents one of the largest gifts ever for the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media.

Innovation and technology among nonprofits have long been underfunded with traditional funders often feeling averse to risk and more often seeking to fund specific types of existing programs.

Momentum has been building for the past decade for funders pursuing venture philanthropy, said Matt Bannick, managing partner of the Omidyar Network founded by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. Since 2004, the group has given out $310 million in grants to nonprofits, including the Sunlight Foundation and DonorsChoose.

Seeking out ideas to fund, rather than existing projects, turns traditional notions of philanthropy on its head, Bannick said.

"Rather than looking for organizations that could do this specific work that we're hoping to get accomplished, let's look for fabulous entrepreneurs ... that have a new and innovative idea that we can get behind," he said.

Silicon Valley philanthropists are fueling some growth in funding for nonprofit innovators, but some older foundations also have turned to funding innovation and nonprofit entrepreneurs.

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in Miami, born from a newspaper chain, has turned its focus to media innovation. The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, founded in 1934 by a General Motors chief, focuses on science and technology to drive the nation's prosperity. Sloan was an early funder of the Smithsonian's DNA barcoding project.

Such funders are betting that early seed money can have a big impact with the right ideas and entrepreneurs.

"If there was more funding," Bannick said, "there would be a lot more great ideas that could emerge."

___

Charity: Water: http://www.charitywater.org/

Google Global Impact Awards: http://www.google.com/giving/impact-awards.html

Omidyar Network: http://www.omidyar.com/

___

Follow Brett Zongker on Twitter at https://twitter.com/DCArtBeat

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2012-12-27-Nonprofit%20Innovation/id-2b4860546bc84babb6b912736112f4dd

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Firemen's killer left chilling note, deaths at 3

WEBSTER, N.Y. (AP) ? An ex-con killed two firefighters with the same caliber and make military-style rifle used in the Connecticut school massacre after typing a note pledging to burn down his neighborhood and "do what I like doing best, killing people," police said Tuesday as another body, believed to be the gunman's missing sister, was found.

William Spengler, 62, who served 17 years in prison for manslaughter in the 1980 hammer slaying of his grandmother, set his house afire before dawn Christmas Eve before taking a revolver, a shotgun and a semiautomatic rifle to a sniper position outside, Police Chief Gerald Pickering said.

The death toll rose to three as police revealed that a body believed to be the killer's 67-year-old sister, Cheryl Spengler, was found in his fire-ravaged home.

Authorities say he sprayed bullets at the first responders, killing two firefighters and injuring two others who remained hospitalized Tuesday in stable condition, awake and alert and expected to survive. He then killed himself as seven houses burned on a sliver of land along Lake Ontario.

Police recovered a military-style .223-caliber semiautomatic Bushmaster rifle with flash suppression, the same make and caliber weapon used in the elementary school massacre in Newtown, Conn., that killed 26, including 20 young children, Pickering said.

The chief said it was believed the firefighters were hit with shots from the rifle given the distance but the investigation was incomplete.

"He was equipped to go to war, kill innocent people," the chief said.

The two- to three-page typewritten rambling note left by Spengler did not reveal what set off the killer or provide a motive for the shootings, Pickering said. He called the attack a "clear ambush on first responders."

He declined to reveal the note's full content or say where it was found. He read only one chilling line: "I still have to get ready to see how much of the neighborhood I can burn down, and do what I like doing best, killing people."

Pickering said it was unclear whether the person believed to be Spengler's sister died before or during the fire.

"It was a raging inferno in there," Pickering said.

A next-door neighbor said Spengler hated his sister and they lived on opposite sides of the house.

Roger Vercruysse said Spengler loved his mother, Arline, who died in October after living with her son and daughter in the house in a neighborhood of seasonal and year-round homes across the road from a lakeshore popular with recreational boaters.

As Pickering described it and as emergency radio communications on the scene showed, the heavily armed Spengler took a position behind a small hill by the house as four firefighters arrived after 5:30 a.m. to extinguish the fire: two on a fire truck; two in their own vehicles.

They were immediately greeted by bullets from Spengler, who wore dark clothing. Volunteer firefighter and police Lt. Michael Chiapperini, 43, driving the truck, was killed by gunfire as the windshield before him was shattered. Also killed was Tomasz Kaczowka, 19, who worked as a 911 dispatcher.

Several firefighters went beneath the truck to shield themselves as an off-duty police officer who was passing by pulled his vehicle alongside the truck to try to shield them, authorities said.

The first police officer who arrived chased and exchanged shots with Spengler, recounting it later over his police radio.

"I could see the muzzle blasts comin' at me. ... I fired four shots at him. I thought he went down," the officer said.

At another point, he said: "I don't know if I hit him or not. He's by a tree. ... He was movin' eastbound on the berm when I was firing shots." Pickering portrayed him as a hero who saved many lives.

The audio posted on the website RadioReference.com also has someone reporting "firefighters are down" and saying "got to be rifle or shotgun ? high-powered ... semi or fully auto."

Spengler had been charged with murder in his grandmother's death but pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter, apparently to spare his family a trial. After he was freed from prison, Spengler ? a felon who wasn't allowed to possess weapons ? had lived a quiet life on Lake Road on a narrow peninsula where Irondequoit Bay meets Lake Ontario.

That ended when he left his burning home Monday morning, armed with his three weapons and a lot of ammunition.

"I'm not sure we'll ever know what was going through his mind," Pickering said.

___

Esch reported from Albany. Associated Press writer Larry Neumeister in New York City also contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/firemens-killer-left-chilling-note-deaths-3-223847945.html

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Impact Real Estate Delivers 50 Homes | 2merkato.com

Impact International Real Estates, Ethiopia delivered its first group of 50 houses, built on near Lake Tana in Amhara Regional State.

The 50 homes delivered to clients are the first of the 120 home housing project launched by the real estate company in 2006. The company intends to build 400 houses altogether.

The cost of the project is estimated at 450 million birr with construction to be conducted on a 150 thousand meter square plot of land. The design of the project also includes the construction of constructing health facilities, schools, and various entertainment facilities with bungalows, a supermarket and other services.?

The construction projected has created 300 jobs for people within the community noted Minyechel Getnet (Eng) founder and General Manager of Impact Real estate.

The location of the project ideal for residence, entertainment, conference and tourism services and as such has attracted the attention of Ethiopian Diaspora and people of Ethiopian lineage he added.

??Even though there was a shortage of cement and price escalation during construction work, as well as price escalation of iron and other related construction inputs and shortage of qualified staff, these didn?t prevent us from delivering the houses as we promised,?? Minyechel said.

Source: Capital

Source: http://www.2merkato.com/201212251917/impact-real-estate-delivers-50-homes

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Hundreds more flights canceled as Christmas storm moves east

Tornadoes were reported across parts of the South, compounding what was already likely to be a travel nightmare. Jim Cantore of The Weather Channel reports.

By M. Alex Johnson, NBC News

More than 500 more flights were canceled across the U.S. on a snowy, blustery Christmas Day, many of them in Texas, where the Dallas and Houston areas were smacked with a rare coating of snow and ice Tuesday.

The travel website?flightaware.com?reported that?523 flights into or out of U.S. airports were scrubbed. Many were at the Dallas and Houston airports, which got rare Christmas snowfall.

NBCDFW.com: White Christmas brings delays, cancellations to DFW airport

With 8 to 15 inches of snow expected across northern Ohio on Wednesday, United Airlines canceled at least 60 percent of its flights at Cleveland Hopkins Airport beginning at noon Wednesday, NBC station WKYC of Cleveland reported.

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Numerous traffic accidents also stalled motorists across Texas and Oklahoma as drivers slid and crashed in a mixture of wind, sleet and snow. Twenty-one cars and tractor-trailers crashed in a massive pileup on roads coated with freezing rain in Oklahoma City.

"You definitely have to worry about everyone while you're driving, especially out here," Dallas resident Jerdal Whitaker told NBC 5 of Dallas. "We're not used to the weather that comes, especially when it's ugly, so you definitely have to drive slow."

With temperatures expected to drop into the teens, little melting was expected overnight.

Christmas storms spread snow, tornadoes across US, snarling travel

The Midwest was also heavily hit. A blizzard was forecast to end up having dropped 10 to 15 inches of snow on parts of Indiana, where road crews began work last Friday on keeping roads as passable as possible.

"We're hoping to make it there in time before that weather hits," said James Mason, who was driving home Tuesday to Missouri with his wife and three children through Indiana.

"We don't want to get caught up in it. That is when accidents happen and people get stranded," he told?NBC station WTHR of Indianapolis?during a rest stop in Plainfield, Ind.

The heavy snow spread into Kentucky, where state officials urged people to stay at home and off the roads.

"Try to avoid travel from, say, 9 or 10 Tuesday night through about noon on Wednesday, simply because the conditions are going to be so brutal," said Keith Todd, a spokesman for the state Transportation Department. "If you do go out, you ?need to be prepared like you're going to the North Pole."

In Ohio, the Transportation Department planned to have more than over 100 snow plows on the streets by 4 a.m. Wednesday.

The storm is forecast to hit the Northeast sometime Wednesday evening, bringing a mix of heavy sleet, snow or heavy rain, depending on its track.?

Motorists were warned to expect whiteout conditions in falling and blowing snow overnight Wednesday in the Buffalo area, where some locations could get as much as 14 inches by late Thursday, NBC station WGRZ of Buffalo reported.

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Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/25/16151508-hundreds-more-flights-canceled-as-christmas-storm-moves-east?lite

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