text:
At the New Mexico State Fair, just a few hundred feet west of the Downs at Albuquerque racetrack and casino, sits a row of crumbling stables. On a June afternoon, the walkways are littered with dead pigeons—casualties of BB guns wielded by the horses' caretakers' young children, many of whom live onsite. In the bathrooms the caretakers share, layers upon layers of mildew rot the walls of the shower stalls to a color resembling human excrement.
Until this year, the Downs—a gaming development company that manages the racino—was responsible for maintaining these barnyards, which it leased from the state. Despite the disrepair, in 2011, a state-appointed evaluator gave the Downs a perfect score for "management expertise" when reviewing the company's bid for a lucrative, 25-year lease extension. The Downs' bid won, and the new lease shifts management of the dilapidated barnyards to the state, leaving taxpayers with the burden of renovating and maintaining them.
Near the decaying barnyards, a brand-new VIP room—resembling an upscale Buffalo Wild Wings—stands in stark contrast. It's evidence of the $20 million the Downs must spend building a new casino under the new lease—as well as of the windfall the company reaped during the lease negotiations last fall.
Under the new lease, the Downs must pay the state nearly half a million dollars less than it did last year. But the deal gets sweeter. Over the next 25 years, Downs shareholders are projected to pull in at least $1 billion from gambling sales.
To critics, it's an outrage: A company notorious for mismanaging state property not only managed to land a 25-year lease extension, but also succeeded in sweetening the deal by paying less while shifting some of its responsibilities to taxpayers.
But it's not just the lease itself that has critics up in arms. Some say the process by which the new lease was approved was shoddy at best; at worst, some consider it blatant favoritism toward a company with longstanding political ties. Defenders of the lease maintain that it went through all the proper procurement channels, but the state auditor's office and attorney general are looking into it.
"It was a sweetheart deal to gambling interests," state Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Bernalillo, tells SFR. "[It illustrates] how the politicians corrupt the process to do the bidding of their donors."
With a 25-year time frame—not to mention the potential to generate more than $1 billion—the racino lease was so attractive that, by the time the state approved the new lease last December, the Downs had spent more than a decade lobbying to extend it.
Long casino contracts yield large profits. In one instance, a group of investors—including Paul Blanchard, who is also a Downs shareholder—took in more than $150 million after using a state contract to build and resell a Hobbs racino.
Such contracts also provide opportunities for political favors. The Hobbs contract came thanks to former Gov. Bill Richardson, who appointed Blanchard to the state Board of Finance after Blanchard headed his 2002 transition team. Blanchard and his wife Kandace donated $25,000 to Richardson shortly before the Hobbs contract; the Downs gave him a whopping $100,500.
Blanchard had also been involved with the Downs since its early days of managing the Albuquerque racino. With a lease expiration date looming in 2004, the Downs made several attempts to extend it; ultimately, though, Richardson came to the company's aid.
In 2002, the State Fair Commission, a governor-appointed volunteer board tasked with helping manage the fair, issued a 90-day request for proposals, or RFP, for a 25-year lease of the state fair and racino grounds the Downs managed. But the RFP would have made the lease available to potential Downs competitors, and Richardson scrapped it shortly after becoming governor, despite interest from eight developers across the country, according to former State Fair Chairman Tom Tinnin.
Instead, Richardson rechristened the state fair Expo New Mexico and appointed a whole new commission, which quickly acted to extend the Downs lease through 2010.
Even then, Richardson wasn't finished. At the end of his second term, he proposed extending the Downs' lease for up to 40 years—but state lawmakers voted down that proposal. Many wanted the more competitive process of an RFP, says state Sen. Tim Keller, D-Bernalillo, whose district encompasses part of the state fairgrounds.
Instead, the state Legislature gave the Downs two one-year lease extensions, increasing the Downs' rent by 10 percent each time and effectively postponing the question of a longer-term lease until 2012, when the extensions expired. Keller says the extra payments were intended to help the struggling state fair, which had operational losses of $17 million between fiscal years 2006 and 2010.
But there were also indicators that the Downs might not deserve another lease.
In an extensive report released last year, the Legislative Finance Committee concluded that the state fair was in "crisis management mode" and operationally insolvent, able to account for just 39 cents for every dollar of its total liabilities.
While declining attendance prompted by the recession played a role in the fair's financial difficulties, so did the Downs' inability to pay the state what it owed. According to the LFC report, the Downs owed the fair $240,000 from horse-racing revenues and was failing to meet its yearly obligation of providing $420,000 for promotional events, among other problems.
Documents also show that the Downs couldn't pay for simpler purchases. Emails from Luis Wu of Phoenix-based fertilizer producer Tessenderlo Kerley, Inc. show that the Downs was at least five months late on a $4,800 payment. In February 2011, Wu threatened to call a collections agency.
One month later, he wrote another email after hearing nothing back.
"What is happening?" Wu wrote. "Am I supposed to turn this in to a collection agency?"
Downs Controller Ann Pelletier, noting that she was new to the company, wrote back apologetically: "I do not know who you represent—would you refresh my memory?"
The fair is also notorious for its lack of accountability. While it draws in an estimated $3.5 million each year, the LFC report found that it has "no segregation of duties between the custody of the cash and record-keeping of the cash received."
"That's very dangerous," Keller says. "They can affect the entire state's bond rating."
Although the governor's office appoints commissioners to help manage the fair, the commission has little to no autonomy.
"Think of a board of directors of a company that isn't in charge of the CEO," Keller says. "That's worthless."
In August 2011, Gov. Susana Martinez appointed Charlotte Rode, a reform-minded Republican and mother of seven, to the State Fair Commission. For years, critics had lamented the lack of local representation on the commission; Rode came from the area and was familiar with the lack of management and oversight that plagued the fair and the Downs' adjacent racino.
"I Pray to God that You Reconsider Doing This"
On Oct. 20, the LFC presented its scathing report of the State Fair's financing and management in a heated hearing at the Roundhouse.
Key recommendations included adding oversight to the Fair from other state agencies, hiring a qualified chief financial officer and clarifying what exactly the commission's role is, which Mourning himself didn't know.
"What is the role of the State Fair Commission in contracts and approval?" state Sen. Tim Keller, D-Bernalillo, asked him at the hearing. "Do they have a voice or a say?"
Mourning responded: "There hasn't been a full commission appointed until actually right before the fair. So the roles of the commission versus the staff—I believe we are in a team effort on that. I don't have a clear answer for that at this time."
The report warned that "a lack of strategic planning has led to a rushed request for proposals for a renewed racing lease." Several lawmakers, including Keller, state Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Bernalillo, and state Rep. Dennis Kintigh, R-Chaves, raised concerns about awarding the Downs another lease.
"They're not even in compliance with the current contract," Kintigh said of the Downs. "Why is the fair even considering them at all?"
McSorley, a vocal gaming opponent, had a more dramatic tone.
"I pray to God that you reconsider doing this," he told Mourning.
Before becoming a commissioner, Rode—a polished brunette in her mid-40s—worked as a legislative assistant for state Sen. Mark Boitano, R-Bernalillo, who recommended her for the commissioner job. Boitano describes her as a "straight shooter and political novice."
"She doesn't look at things through the lens of, 'Who do you know?'" he tells SFR. "She's very independent and has a mind of her own. She's not afraid to step on people's toes."
Coming in, Rode knew the racino lease would dominate the commission's business. "We got right into the whole RFP issue in my first meeting," she tells SFR.
In fact, the past year had been a full-court press to get to that moment.
Donations from the Downs' major shareholders during and after the 2010 election cycle illustrate that point. Between June 2010 and January 2011, players tied to the Downs donated $75,000 to Martinez' gubernatorial campaign; they gave $10,000 to her political action committee the following summer. They also gave at least $50,000 to Martinez' unsuccessful Democratic gubernatorial opponent, Democrat (and former Richardson Lt. Gov.) Diane Denish.
In February 2011, the Downs made another savvy political move: hiring Modrall Sperling Law Firm to help conduct its bid for a new lease. One of the lawyers in charge of the process would be Pat Rogers, a high-profile Republican attorney who had developed deep, behind-the-scenes relationships with high-ranking staffers in the governor's office [news, July 17: "A Higher Power"].
But the Downs still faced significant challenges. To nearby residents and others, the Downs' history of neglectful management was common knowledge.
"It is no secret that horsemen have had a contentious relationship with current management," Jack McGrail, executive director of the New Mexico Horsemen's Association, wrote to Expo General Manager Dan Mourning, who handles the day-to-day operations of the state fair and racino grounds. "Our livelihood depends upon revenue generated from the casino and on track handle. There has been little effort to maximize either revenue stream."
In June 2011, it appeared Expo New Mexico had again kicked the can down the road when Mourning approved another short extension of the Downs lease, through January 2013. That same month, Martinez stated that she would
during the fall 2011 special session.
Keller says he agreed with that idea because it would have given Expo ample time to prepare for a "proper RFP"—ie one that could include the city of Albuquerque and Bernalillo County in the negotiations and advertise in nationwide trade journals in order to elicit as many bids as possible.
But one month later, on July 24, Mourning quietly released an RFP for a 25-year lease extension on the racino. Expo did little to promote the bid, limiting advertising to its website and in the Sunday Albuquerque Journal.
"They didn't advertise it in any trade journals. They didn't send out any notices. They didn't hold a press conference," Rode says.
Expo spokesman Michael Henningsen writes in emails to SFR that the RFP was "duly picked up in several racing publications," but that he couldn't recall any specific ones because "frankly I wasn't paying attention."
To Rode and others, it felt like a rush job.
Interested companies only had 30 days to respond—a much shorter time frame than the 90 days initially allowed in the scrapped 2002 bid. The state General Services Department recommends a minimum of 30 days for RFPs, noting that most are longer. But Expo maintains that the time frame was adequate.
"Obviously, 30 days was enough, because we did get two bidders," Henningsen tells SFR.
One was the Downs. The other was Albuquerque-based Laguna Development Corporation.
Still, the short time period may have put smaller developers, who would have needed at least a month to secure the needed cash, at a disadvantage. Greg Leyendecker, president of New Mexico Bank and Trust, says it would take at least 60-90 days for his company to underwrite a $30 million loan—the amount Laguna said it would need to make the improvements required under the new lease.
"By the time we get all the information together and do the analytical work on it, it's just a long process," Leyendecker tells SFR.
While the Downs crafted its proposal, Tinnin was putting together a short list for an independent RFP evaluation team, at Mourning's request.
A staunch Republican, Tinnin is the longest-serving chairman in State Fair Commission history, serving from 1997-2002. But he's also outspoken and familiar with the Downs' history of missed payments and poor management. He wouldn't forget it when evaluating the company's bid.
"I think it was clear [that] when my name came up on this committee, it sent shivers down people's spines," Tinnin tells SFR.
On Aug. 12, he emailed Mourning a list of five names, including his own. Less than two weeks later, Tinnin read in the newspaper about a completely different evaluation committee. Furious, he called Mourning for an explanation. According to Tinnin, Mourning said he had been too busy to tell him the news.
Martinez spokesman Scott Darnell says Tinnin would have had a conflict of interest as an evaluator because of his Board of Finance membership and his previous involvement in litigation with the Downs. (That litigation was, in fact, a lawsuit the state brought against the Downs for being $1 million behind in its payments.)
To Tinnin, it wasn't about being on the committee or not—it's the way it happened.
"I don't give a shit about your goddamn committee," Tinnin says he told Mourning. "At least have the common courtesy to call me."
Instead, Mourning picked Charles "Chuck" Gara to head the RFP evaluation team, despite Gara's lack of experience in gaming. (State Department of Finance and Administration spokesman Tim Korte says Gara's long career in real estate and property control got him the nod.)
On Sept. 28, one month after the RFP formally closed, Gara submitted his personal review of the Downs, giving it 825 of a possible 1,000 points. One of the categories Gara evaluated was "management expertise," for which he gave the Downs 300 out of a possible 300 points, despite the crumbling barnyards, leakage problems and a malfunctioning heat, air and ventilation system.
"If you did any due diligence, you would find out that they're awful managers," Rode says.
Gara wouldn't comment on his evaluation score. Korte says that by law, the state doesn't make individual RFP evaluation sheets public, adding that Gara's were "erroneously released." The union-funded Independent Source PAC released them last winter. Its executive director, Michael Corwin—a private investigator who once did opposition work for Richardson—has been a leading critic of both Martinez and the Downs deal.
Under its new lease, the Downs pays $2 million in rent for the first two years and $2.75 million per year thereafter plus an extra $1 million if gaming revenue exceeds $50 million; Laguna would have paid $2 million the first year, $2.5 million the second year and $3 million per year thereafter.
On the overall evaluations, the Downs scored 15 points higher than Laguna, securing the committee's recommendation for the new lease. But Rode says that, despite her membership on the State Fair Commission—which was charged with actually awarding the lease—she didn't get to see a breakdown of the committee's evaluation.
"I wanted to see how each one of the members scored each one of the subjects," Rode says. "They wouldn't let me. They just showed me the compilation of the scorings."
Henningsen says that the commission isn't charged with evaluating proposals—merely with deciding whether the lease is a good deal.
"With all due respect, Commissioner Rode is confused about what her role as a Commissioner is, and that is a big part of the problem," Henningsen writes in an email to SFR.
But an email dated Sept. 22 from Assistant Attorney General Lesley Lowe to Martinez Deputy Chief of Staff Ryan Cangiolosi suggests otherwise.
"[Mourning] will be sending the RFP and both complete proposals to all seven Commissioners to study and review to prepare themselves to vote on a final lease proposal," she wrote.
Darnell adds that all commissioners had a chance to see both RFP responses, but that Rode chose not to. Rode, for her part, says she wasn't given that opportunity until after Nov. 9, the date the commission was scheduled to vote on the lease.
To Henningsen, any talk of a fixed deal is nothing more than a manufactured controversy "created by the Charlotte Rodes and the Michael Corwins."
This summer, Corwin also released private emails that appeared to show Rogers discussing commissioner vote strategies with Cangiolosi [news, July 4: "Leaked"].
Strange Bedfellows
"Some of these people are very strange bedfellows," Tom Tinnin says of the players involved in the Downs deal. They include:
• Paul Blanchard is a prominent Democrat and big-time donor to former Gov. Bill Richardson. When the Board of Finance approved the deal, Blanchard was required to put his shares into escrow because he was called as a possible witness to a federal grand jury involving Richardson.
• Downs majority owners William Windham and John Turner are prominent casino developers and Republicans based in Louisiana who contributed both to Gov. Susana Martinez and to Diane Denish, her Democratic opponent in the 2010 gubernatorial race.
• Martinez appointed Charles "Chuck" Gara to head the RFP evaluation. Earler in 2011, she hired him as a division manager at the state General Services Department. In 2008, Gara donated $1,500 to then-congressional candidate Darren White.
• Darren White, current general manager of the Downs, was first hired as a security consultant to prepare the Downs' response to the RFP. White was a familiar face in Albuquerque: Just one month before the Downs hired him, he stepped down as Albuquerque's chief public safety officer while facing scrutiny for personally driving his wife to the hospital after she crashed her car into a curb.
• Pat Rogers, the Downs' attorney, exchanged several private messages about the deal with governor's office staffers and Expo New Mexico General Manager Dan Mourning.
• Jay McCleskey managed both Martinez' and White's campaigns and heads Susana PAC, the governor's political action committee. He has closely communicated with Rogers, including about the Downs deal.
Henningsen concedes that private emails between Downs players and the governor's staffers "probably doesn't help their cause."
"But the process is set up so things can't sully it," he adds. "State procurement code was followed to the letter."
While he says he respects Rode's opinion, Henningsen says her protests stem from an anti-gaming ideology (though Rode says she supports gaming) and a misunderstanding of the process.
But Boitano, while admitting he's not intimately familiar with the Downs deal, argues that part of a public official's job is to ask hard questions.
"I'm a fan of what she's doing, and a lot of people I talk to say the same thing," he says.
On Oct. 25—two weeks before the State Fair Commission was scheduled to vote on the Downs lease—Downs attorney Pat Rogers was already emailing Mourning about the next step: getting the lease approved by the State Board of Finance.
"Peter Franklin is ready to assemble and hand-deliver," Rogers wrote (Franklin is another Modrall attorney).
The letter read that the lease was "executed by the State Fair Commission."
But the commission's approval wasn't guaranteed—and even if it did approve the lease, it wouldn't do so until its next meeting, on Nov. 9.
Traci Wolf, another lawyer who assisted the Downs, made a point of the discrepancy in an email to Rogers and Franklin that day.
"I am worried that language stating that it has already been awarded may cause some problems," she wrote.
Rode agrees.
"They're asking for approval, and we haven't even voted on it," Rode says. "They thought it was a done deal."(Later that day, Rogers wrote to Mourning and fellow attorney Mark Shoesmith that "we do not want anyone to see it as presumtious [sic].")
Mourning, who wrote the letter, did it "with the sincere hope that [the commission] would vote to adopt the new lease," Henningsen says.
"It doesn't seem unreasonable to look ahead to the next step in a multi-step process," Darnell adds.
When the Nov. 9 meeting finally came, the Downs apparently didn't have the needed votes to get the lease approved. Commissioners Kenneth "Buster" Goff and Kenneth "Twister" Smith both voiced concerns. Rode says Mourning huddled with two other commissioners and "maneuvered so that they could postpone the vote."
They scheduled a "workshop meeting" for Nov. 21 and a second meeting for Dec. 1, presumably for the final vote. Rode says the workshop meeting would enable them to review the two lease proposals. But a problem remained: The Downs lease approval was still on the agenda for the Board of Finance's Nov. 15 meeting.
"I need Dan Mourning to send me a simple email withdrawing the request," BOF Director Stephanie Clarke wrote to Franklin.
Mourning did so later that day.
The commission finally approved the Downs lease on Nov. 21, in a surprise vote that incensed critics.
"We were not aware that we were going to vote," Rode says.
More than a week before, Downs attorneys had met privately with Goff who, at the Nov. 9 meeting, had publicly stated that he couldn't support the Downs lease in its current form.
The next day, Shoesmith emailed Goff, saying he looked forward to learning which aspects of the lease Goff wanted addressed.
At the Nov. 21 meeting, Rogers noted that a change in the lease's definition of certain racing licenses "was made in response to Commissioner Goff's concern." Kennedy then made an unexpected move and put the lease to a final vote. It passed 4-3, with Goff as the swing vote.
The next step to make the lease a reality was approval from the Board of Finance, of which Tinnin had been a member. But after raising concerns about the way the State Fair was handling the deal, he met with Martinez on Nov. 19.
"She made it clear to me [that if I spoke during] an open meeting in a way that would disparage her people, she would take it personally," Tinnin says. "I told her, 'Let's agree to disagree.'"
He resigned later that day, thus removing himself as one of the Downs' final obstacles.
On Dec. 21, the Board of Finance awarded the new lease to the Downs, with blessings from Martinez as well as two prominent Democrats: state House Speaker Ben Luján, D-Santa Fe, and state Rep. Antonio "Moe" Maestas, D-Bernalillo.
But since then, details of a fast-tracked deal have emerged. In June, Rode submitted a formal complaint to State Auditor Hector Balderas, who says he's planning to deliver a response soon. Earlier this month, state Attorney General's Office Special Agent Stan Gloria informed the State Fair Commission that the AG's office was "conducting an inquiry" into the RFP process and requested interviews with six commissioners. Rode also says she's met with the FBI, which wouldn't confirm or deny an investigation.
Questions remain about the commission's role in the lease process, and Rode and Expo New Mexico embody two competing visions.
"[Commissioners] are supposed to move the Governor's agenda forward," Henningsen writes in an email, "and if they disagree with the Governor's agenda, then, quite frankly, they should do the right, respectable thing and resign their post(s)."
Rode has a different view.
"What I'm after is good government," she says, "and being able to have the balance of powers and people having a voice. We have to have certain things so we can have oversight, and there's just none of that with the state fair."
But reform efforts are underway. Keller plans to carry a bill next session that would add oversight to Expo and make the commission more independent. (He introduced a similar bill this year, but it failed to reach the floor.)
Action by either the AG or the state auditor could turn the process around and start an RFP anew. Martinez could also act to issue a new RFP.
But Darnell notes that the lease never had to be competitively bid and that it was heavily negotiated with the state before its approval. Henningsen maintains the deal is good for taxpayers, who get more rent money from the Downs for less land, and emphasizes that the barnyards area the state got back is "prime real estate" that can now be leased out separately.
He adds that Expo isn't worried about the probes. He ends that thought by saying something that, given the history of state politics in New Mexico, is up to interpretation: "Once this all plays out, it's going to occur to everybody that it is what it is."
Read Mourning's letter to the Board of Finance here:
Santa Fe Reporter


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subset: commoncrawl


text:
This title takes a look into the history of haunted prisons and asylums and the unusual behaviors that have happened there throughout history.
This title looks into the paranormal activity of haunted houses around the world.
This title explores haunted battlefields and cemeteries aroung the world and the paranormal activities that happen there.
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This title looks at haunted hotels around the world with paranormal activity that has happened there.
This title looks at how objects can be haunted and gives examples of famous places with such objects.


text:
Migration – Emigration – Fleeing
Can't a democracy protect itself anymore?
Dear Aman,
One thing, that I've learned from our correspondence, is the insight, that what Europeans think is almost unavoidably one-sided and constrained.
But what does that mean for the election of Donald Trump to the American presidency?
Does it mean, that everything is not so surprising, in the sense of bad, lying, corrupt leaders being more the norm than the exception?
Or does it mean, that this is all just the beginning, meaning that the collapse of democracy, as I know it, will get way more dramatic?
Or does it mean, that all of us, who call ourselves liberals, should just catch our breath and understand, that politics is a fight for power, that people have different interests, and that you sometimes loose?
I really do not know; all I know is that the confusion is so profuse and widespread, for those who consider themselves to be on the right side, and that those on the other side, the gang around Trump, these people will start laughing over and over again whenever they think about how soft and vulnerable their opponents are.
On the other hand, it's also important to see that they did not win, at least not in terms of the number of votes cast. And, to me, this captures the actual issue with this election.
This country, in which I often feel so comfortable, is a country in which the elections, which purport to be free and fair, are manipulated over many years so that the country functions like a corrupt oligarchy.
I was writing this a few years ago, when people, like the New York Times columnist and Nobel Prize recipient, Paul Krugman, said that the USA is no longer a democracy.
But now that the consequences are so obvious, it really is something else: Like in Wisconsin, where the Republicans have been redistricting the electoral map to great effort in order to get the outcomes they want, because as many poor and black people, and those are still often one and the same, vote in the same districts.
Or the difficulties many voters had in having to sufficiently identify themselves – which led to tens of thousands of people, primarily black and poor people, not being able to vote in one state, which Trump narrowly won.
These kinds of reports reveal the structural problems of this democracy, which is indeed still the second largest in the world. And I would like to know how you see it from the perspective of someone who lives in the largest democracy in the world?
The absurdity, that a billionaire with a cabinet of billionaires and insiders declares himself to be the savior of ordinary people and that many ordinary people seem to believe him, and in doing so have pretty clearly voted against their own interests – do you know this from India? Would you explain Modi's victory in the same way?
And the idea that a democracy can't protect itself from being transformed into something else by democratic means, into something authoritarian – is that the story of our time, from the USA to Europe and possibly also in your country?
Or is it different. Are the circumstances much more stabile and we, the well-minded people, just have to learn to better deal with defeats, being vigilant when oppression becomes too blatant, gathering strength for the next attack?
Is that how things go?
I'm interested in how you see this election, which some have explained as a revolt against globalization, which began on the left and has ended on the right.
I think that there's something to this interpretation, albeit only if you're into the pretty vague and impracticable concept of globalization.
Because, do we really know what we're talking about when we say globalization? Or is it only an abstract concept that obfuscates how uncertain we are about it, how circumstances in the world are connected, and how changes in current and future circumstances will take place?
What the concept definitely does do, is describe a problem: The way in which, even to many on the side of the left, the course of events added up to the export of jobs and the law of a global economy as if it were natural law.
There's nothing we can do, that was the motto, which wasn't an answer. Now we're hearing the answer from the most surprising direction. It's aggressive, it's driven by fear, and it creates fear.
For me, the lowest point of an American election abundant with low points, was the moment when Donald Trump was asked about Aleppo and the humanitarian crisis taking place there.
Aleppo, was his answer, Aleppo has fallen, and I don't really care about that. I want to destroy ISIS, he said, that is my goal.
This is a tenet of post-human politics, in a post-human era, in which the principles of order, of security, and of the military come before the principles of human rights.
I would argue, that this stability won't only be achieved at a high moral price, but that it's also deceptive, because you can't create order on top of injustice in the long run.
Aman, you know the contradictions of political arguments better than I do, I believe, you're closer to the spirit of our times to a certain degree, I think our conversations have changed me, because I no longer surrender myself to pessimism as easily, I hope.
Like Barack Obama said recently: Roll up your sleeves, it's time to get to work. There will always be opponents, it's about never giving up, for working for what you believe in.
I hope you've been well. Tell me about you and Delhi and the air that people can't breath. And then, dear Aman, tell me something beautiful.
As always, from my heart,
Cambridge, 5th December 2016


text:
Oregon votes for fairness
Part of the problem is that land planners and environmental activists are never satisfied. The result is incrementally increasing burdens that eventually block all use of the land. With overlapping land-use districts, drainage basin districts, forestry districts, historical districts, view shed restrictions, special exception requirements, etc., it's a wonder anyone knows what is going on. You can hardly blame people for acting to protect their economic interests when the government failed to do its primary job of protecting lives and property.
I hope that Oregon uses this opportunity to resolve issues that should have been considered up front. Across the country, jurisdictions have copied Oregon's pioneer land-use laws. I hope they adopt this amendment as well, because a good environment populated with people with hard feelings can hardly be called a success.
Ray Hyde
Ashby Glen Farm
Delaplane, Virginia


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Doug Sosnik, a Democratic political strategist, was a senior adviser to President Bill Clinton from 1994 to 2000.
There's been lots of talk about a supposed civil war brewing within the Democratic Party, as its centrist and progressive wings vie for power. But at least as a matter of presidential politics, this talk isn't premature — it's too late. The war may not have been won but the eventual victor is clear: By the end of the 2020 presidential primaries, an increasingly liberal grass-roots activist base is likely to have gained full control of the party.
The party that nominated Barack Obama to the presidency almost a decade ago had moved considerably to the left by the end of his second term. Hillary Clinton was barely able to withstand these changes in her campaign against Bernie Sanders. She ultimately secured the nomination by harnessing the remnants of the decaying Democratic political apparatus and racking up overwhelming support from the appointed superdelegates.
This transformation has been building since the beginning of the past decade, fueled by Bush v. Gore, George W. Bush's subsequent decision to go to war in Iraq and growing income inequality exacerbated by the economic crisis. The Trump presidency has only further energized the liberal base.
It is difficult to overstate the depth and breadth of the move to the left on social and economic policies among Democrats since Bill Clinton's presidency. The Pew Values Survey released last month found that the percentage of Democrats and Democratic leaners who express liberal or mostly liberal political values exploded from 30 percent in 1994 to 73 percent in 2017.
The research found that 84 percent of Democrats think immigration is a good thing for our country — a 52-point increase since 1994. And 64 percent now believe that racial discrimination is the main reason that many black people cannot get ahead — a 36-point increase in the past seven years. A June 2017 Pew poll found that a majority of Democrats support single-payer health insurance, a 19-point increase in just the past three years.
Other factors will continue to push the party leftward, including demographic trends, the growing geographic concentration of like-minded voters and changes in the Democratic Party's nomination process.
The demographic changes are generational as well as racial. In 2018, for the first time, millennials will surpass baby boomers as the largest cohort eligible to vote. The most recent U.S. Census data show that more than 44 percent of millennials in the country are minorities and that more minorities are born each year than non-Hispanic whites. These millennials are the most anti-Republican and anti-Trump of any voter group due in large part to their views on social issues. In addition to embracing a progressive agenda on virtually every social issue, millennials are particularly energized by issues such as energy and the environment, which they prioritize at the voting booth.
At the same time this generational shift unfolds, Democrats are increasingly self-selecting where they live and whom they choose to live near. President Trump carried 84 percent of U.S. counties, but the remaining areas, located largely on the coasts as well as urban areas in the middle of the country, voted overwhelmingly for Clinton. As much of the country moved to the right to elect Trump, the geographic areas that voted for Clinton moved further to the left. This shift is leading to the election of more progressive political leaders in the Democratic Party as these strongholds have become the political frontlines in the war against Trump.
The likely changes in the 2020 Democratic primary process will also push the party further to the left. The revelations in former party chair Donna Brazile's new book will put pressure on the Democratic National Committee's leadership to make the nomination process more transparent, while reducing the influence of the establishment in the primaries. Perhaps even more significantly, moving the California primary up to March 3 will push the candidates to take increasingly progressive positions on issues that appeal to this rich bounty of voters.
Republicans, of course, are experiencing their own internecine battles. Yet for all the implications of the Trumpification of the Republican Party, the impact for Democrats could be even more enduring. Unlike the Trump takeover, which was rooted more on blowing up the system than on any deeply held philosophical views, the changes in the Democratic Party are grounded in a firm set of ideological beliefs driven at the grass-roots level.
This transformation is not without risks for the party. According to 2016 Gallup polling, while 25 percent of adults now consider themselves liberal, an eight-point increase since 1992, we remain a center-right country, with 70 percent of Americans self-identifying as either moderate or conservative.
The central challenge for Democrats in taking back the White House will hinge on the party's ability to persuade a majority of Americans to support a more progressive agenda going forward. While the country is moving in that direction, it is not there yet.
Read more on this topic:
Rahm Emanuel and Bruce Reed: Democrats can keep winning: Just copy (Bill) Clinton
E.J. Dionne Jr.: Democrats, Republicans, take note: A new era has begun
Eugene Robinson: The Democrats are in crisis, too
David von Drehle: The party is over
Marc A. Thiessen: The past 100 days have been a disaster — for Democrats


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Please make sure that your account region and physical location match otherwise you may not be able to activate or download this product.
Requires the base game Injustice: Gods Among Us
Defeat your enemies as the sinfully twisted Joker, sly and stealthy Catwoman, or everyone's favorite caped crusader Batman with the Batman: Arkham City Skin Pack based on the legendary series from Rocksteady Studios.
Unlocks following skins:


text: Economy folding table is made for heavy-duty use indoors or outdoors yet is 30 percent lighter than standard folding tables. Capacity is 2,000 lb. evenly distributed. 2" tabletop is made of durable, blow-molded, high-density polyethylene that is dent-resistant and scratch-resistant. Tubular legs are made of heavy-gauge steel with a powder-coat finish. Legs fold into recessed cavities beneath the table. Folding table is designed to nest with other Iceberg IndestrucTable Too tables when stacking to allow maximum storage capacity.


text: This living space stair rail was too tradtional to compliment the contemporary architecture of the space. (Not to mention, the railing was weak and no longer safe) Creative horizontal railing was added with metal pipes and oak railing. The removal of a heavy fridge/pantry arrangement in the middle of the kitchen also opened up the space for entertaining and enjoyment.


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WW2 pilot's remains found 75 years after Cornwall crash
- Published
The remains of a distinguished Spitfire RAF pilot were found by a metal detectorist 75 years after he was killed in a mid-air crash.
Sqn Ldr Daniel Cremin, 25, died in 1942 when his plane came down over Cornwall.
Mark Cremin, said a sealed coffin of his father's remains was sent to his family and buried in Wiltshire but it "may have just been sandbags".
Sqn Ldr Cremin's bones have now been interred in his original grave after being discovered last year.
Following the discovery of his remains an inquest will be held. It is due to open on Monday in Truro.
Sqn Ldr Cremin was an Australian pilot who was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his bravery during the siege of Habbaniya in Iraq, shortly before he died.
He served in the Middle East before being transferred to 66 Squadron.
On 24 March 1942, he was on operational training over Cornwall when his Spitfire collided with another Spitfire flown by Australian, Sergeant William Norman. Both men were killed.
Last year, police were contacted after a metal detectorist discovered the Australian pilot's bones at the crash site near St Erth, Hayle.
In November, a second service was held and Sqn Ldr Cremin's remains were interred in his original grave at Wardour Roman Catholic Cemetery in Tisbury.
Mr Cremin, who was just two when his father died, said the discovery and burial with "full honours" had "helped to conclude the whole affair".
"I had quite a small wooden casket. The grave had been opened so I put it in the grave," he said.
"I missed him as a father all those years and somehow doing that was a conclusion.
"It's now all in one place and drawn together."


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This week has seen the 'Montreal High Lights' festival taking place around the old town and downtown Montreal. Part of the festival involved a series of light and art installations, so we set off with the cameras on the lookout for some cool, light themed, street shots.
You can find the entire set here over on Flickr.


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90-year-old Elizabeth Hopkins (Russellville, AR) was fatally injured in a single-vehicle accident on Tuesday, August 21.
The accident took place in 27000 block of State Highway 7 North in Pope County. At approximately 5:10 p.m., Ms. Hopkins was a passenger in a 2018 Buick driven by 87-year-old Lee Hopkins (Russellville, AR). Their vehicle was northbound on State Highway 7 when they failed to negotiate a left-hand curve and left the roadway. Their vehicle went down an embankment and struck a tree.
Weather and road conditions were unknown according to a police report.
The full preliminary fatal crash summary is available HERE.
Accident Location: 27000 Block of State Highway 7, Pope County, Arkansas:


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Kris Jenner Explains Why Social Media Contributed To The Decision To End KUWTK!
The momager opened up about the end of Keeping Up with the Kardashians and assured fans that just because the show is ending, that does not mean they will no longer be able to keep up with the family's lives. After all, Kris Jenner is nothing if not business-savvy so she is well aware that social media is really important nowadays in the entertainer career.
With that being said, Kris Jenner explained that social media was also a factor when it comes to the decision to end Keeping Up with the Kardashians in the first place!
During a new interview for Beauty Inc., Kris dished that: 'When we first started, there was no Instagram or other social media platforms. The world's changed. Now there's so many, the viewer does not have to wait 3 or 4 months to see an episode. We can give them all the information anyone would ever want in real time. Social media is the fastest and most controlled way to get the message out.'
'The consumer gets to see the products the girls are working on in real time, and they know we're going to get it out the door pretty quickly. The girls want them to be part of the journey to keep them engaged,' she went on to explain.
Obviously, the momager knows very well what she is doing.
After all, she, as well as the rest of the family have really successful businesses and she explained that all of her daughters' success is owed to the fact that they always make sure to listen to their fans and consumers.
'The girls have created a relationship. Kylie listens. Kim listens, and she is able to adjust and adapt accordingly. If something goes wrong, she is the first person to say, 'I hear you. Let me change that, because you are absolutely right.' The consumer loves that,' Kris told the news outlet.


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Develop a Crisis Management Plan for Your MSP Company
Are you worried that a business crisis could threaten your MSP company's future and your employees' future? If you prepare for the crisis before it happens, it can actually benefit your business.
Crisis planning is essential because sooner or later something bad is going to happen. You may need the assistance of a crisis management company to help with setting out a plan that will benefit the business and minimize any issues that can arise. Your plan should include a proactive approach to make sure your brand and business aren't damaged. If you have a crisis management plan, you don't have to say, "What do we do now?" but you say, "Here's what we're going to do."
Read more about crisis management and how it benefits your company:
Leadership is Key
During a crisis, MSP company leadership pulls your employees together so you're all working on the same page. Explain the facts so there's no risk of rumors spreading through your business and online. Everyone from your receptionist to your sales team is ambassadors of your brand value. Make sure you give them the honest and right messaging.
Communicate with the Public
Just like you give your employees the facts, you have to let the public know what's happened. You want to do this quickly and with empathy. This shows your transparency. If your customers see you're not holding back any of the facts, they'll stand behind you.
Set yourself up as an authority with useful and accurate information. You might have to deal with fake news, so you need to counteract it quickly. It seems lies and rumors spread faster than the truth. So, it's important to grab the public's attention with the truth and protect your company's reputation.
When you communicate with the public or the media, follow these tips:
- Take responsibility for what happened
- Be accountable
- Be consistent with the information
- Determine your responses
- Create a website with up-to-date information
All these crisis communication tips can get the crisis under control.
Plan for Every Situation
Think about any situation that could affect your business flow. This includes plans for theft, IT and network problems, security breach, natural disasters, and public relations issues.
After you determine the crises you could face, calculate the worst-case scenario. This helps you deal with any monetary or reputation loss. The time to review and put policies into place to minimize the risks of a crisis is before it happens. Perhaps some businesses might like to use the software provided by Synario. Their software allows businesses to use financial models to predict what would happen financially if a crisis did happen to the business. Of course, the software also does other things too, so business owners may want to learn here. Hopefully, that will help more businesses to predict any financial losses during a crisis, ensuring that they can plan ahead before a crisis occurrs.
Also, ensure that you have assigned personnel responsible for dealing with the crisis.
Remember, preparing for a crisis and communicating appropriately can avert the crisis from a disaster to a learning opportunity.
Handle a Crisis Well
If you handle an MSP company crisis well, your business can become more respected. Your customers will see that you're a victim of the crisis, rather than the villain. Like everything in management, the difference between a successful business and failure is planning.


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Explore our food menus
Food is available Monday to Thursday 12-3pm / 5-10pm, Fridays & Saturdays 12-10pm and Sundays 12-8pm.
Our food is locally sourced and freshly prepared with our meat being supplied by local companies.
Bookings available of any size Sundays all day and weekdays 12 - 5pm. All other times we only accept bookings for 6 or more people.
Well behaved children are welcome until 8pm, see our children's menu below:


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Now, don't snigger at the word Bing. Yes, it's a silly name that Steve Ballmer thought up back in the mists of time and yes, as a search engine it's a good 20% down on Google in efficacy, but the Image of the Day, used on the Bing home page every day, is utterly wonderful, almost without exception - I featured it here. Having a stunning new lockscreen background on your Windows device every day adds an amazing new freshness - try it on your desktop or Surface device, for example. It's often jaw dropping.
On the mobile side, a sensible and interesting portrait crop of the Spotlight image is always made for Windows Phones and Windows 10 Mobile handsets around the world, auto-grabbed by the OS if you turn the option on.
So, in case your memory needs jogging, or if this is the first time you've heard about using these excellent Bing images, here's what to do:
PS. If you want even more control over using these Bing images on your Windows 10 Mobile phone, try out SpotBright.


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If you buy something from the links on this page, we may earn a commission. Why trust us?
The 11 Beauty Essentials to Always Keep in Your Clutch
Just a few bare (beauty) necessities.
If you're beautifying on the go, an extensive routine is rarely on your radar, and if you're carrying a clutch, there also isn't much room for glitz and glam. Stick to the basics with these nine clutch necessities to refine and refresh throughout the day.
Horrendous hair day? We've all had them. Whether your alarm never buzzed and a shower was no longer an option, or strands just seem to be misbehaving on purpose, Living Proof's dry shampoo is always the solution. Arguably the best dry shampoo on the market (we're believers), all it takes is one shake and a few sprays in separated sections for hair to look both styled and completely fresh.
Dry shampoo? Check. Dry Conditioner? Also check. Living Proof may be the end all be all for our greasy strands, but Drybar's leave-in conditioning spray is a heaven-sent for soft hair on the fly. Mr. Incredible earned its name! An aromatic blend of ginger, mint, and sandalwood notes veils strands in a lightweight scent that works to detangle, shine, and repair damaged hair when sprayed over damp hair.
Because, let's face it, ladies — we'll probably lose these in a second. Nonetheless, never go tie-less again. Store a package of these goodies in your clutch for sport, play, or as a heatwave essential.
$15 for pack of six BUY NOW
Your breath is only as fresh as your gum, and Simply's flavors are all natural. Choose from a variety of flavors — including Cinnamon, Mint, Coffee, Ginger, and more — for an organic chew on-the-go.
Save room in your clutch for Kissamint's two-in-one product. Uncap the balm for a smooth lip conditioning when sensitive skin feels chapped, or use the mouth-freshening mint drop at the other end for a much-needed refresher after lunch with co-workers.
$10 for pack of 24 BUY NOW
The classics will rarely steer you wrong, and when it comes to clutch essentials, Chapstick is an all-too-necessary, somewhat obvious component. If you're uninterested in lip tints, glosses, and stains, this cherry-flavored chapstick protects lips while tasting delicious.
It was love at first bite — err, lick? — after swiping on the brand's delicious agave lip mask. Destined to be your next staple salve, the mask is available in three shades — two satin and one shimmer finish — all of which look like a better version of your standard balm. What takes the cake, though, is the formula's exclusive bioactive blend made of organic agave nectar, jojoba, vanilla extract, and triple the amount of antioxidants you'd find in a glass of red wine. It can be worn throughout the day for a moisture shock, or applied before bed for a night mask.
This beauty editor's current obsession comes in a travel-sized tube for on-the-go lash extension. Benefit's Roller Lash Curling & Lifting Mascara is perfection in a bristle wand that won't clump or falter. Similarly to the bounce you'd expect from hair rollers, it's a super-curling tool that opens eyes wide (perfect for rough afternoons when you regret not hitting snooze a second time).
New on the market from Kate Somerville comes the cream you need stored in every clutch, purse, and pocket you own. Somerville knows skin; her acne products can vouch for this, so we believe in the powers of her restorative balm to soothe dry areas around the entire body. Clinically proven to last a full 24-hour duration, it has been infused with oat-kernel flour to aid irritation, combines blackcurrant seed oil and balloon vine extract to create a natural barrier, and enhanced with Japanese kelp to hydrate cells back to comfort.
Manicures can be a menace. Polish chips, tips crack, nails break, and always at the most inconvenient of times! Save yourself from the temptation of popping in and out of the salon with Sephora's deluxe kit to cover all the incidentals.
You probably needed a Tangle Teezer like yesterday. Available in 11 colors and patterns to match your personality (pink-and-black cheetah print for the win!), it's a palm-sized brush that untangles knots quickly, efficiently, and without the "ouch" factor.


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My Mom's Darkest Secrets
When 21-year-old Ashley Beck-Ford finds her biological mother, Sara Hillman, online, she is shocked and thrilled - But building a relationship with her long-lost mother proves to be more dangerous than Ashley could have ever imagined. Soon after meeting her, Sara's husband is murdered. Ashley soon finds herself caught in a web of lies and deceit in which she isn't sure if her mother is innocent or guilty of that murder.
Genre: Drama
Actor: Nia Roam, Kintaro Akiyama, Ash Catherwood
Director: Curtis Crawford
Country: Canada
Quality: HD
Duration: 0m
Release: 2019
IMDb: 6.1/10


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Slide 1:
Thank you to ObservePoint for putting this together. It's a unique format that gives people that wouldn't potentially have the opportunity to attend and industry event, to get together and hear from a really great set of speakers. We've already heard from some amazing speakers so far and there's others still to come. Thank you to ObservePoint for putting this together, it is a great event and a great opportunity to learn.
If you're in this session, which I've titled, "How to sell your boss on a new data layer," my assumption is that you're interested in data layers. Potentially, you've already approached you boss and you've tried to pitch a data layer to him or her and maybe getting some push back. Or maybe you're just interested in a data layer in general. It's a pretty hot buzzword that's going around a lot and it seems very trendy. To set expectations, my presentation is going to be focused on arming you with the key benefits and counterarguments that you can use in your organization to have them help you to make the investment to deploy a digital data layer. While there's a lot of great information about the depth and technical aspects to architecting and building a data layer, that's not what this presentation is focused on. I really want to arm you, as the practitioner, with the information you need to move this project forward in your organization.
So if you're like me and hundreds of other practitioners that I've talked to that are interested in moving forward with building a digital data layer in their company, you've probably been met with some kind of resistance. That's because these projects re typically very hard to do and they take a lot of time.
Slide 2:
One of the things you may hear if you approach your powers that be is, "You know what, we've had analytics for a long time. The digital analytics space has been around for a number of years now." And chances are you work for an organization that has been successfully running your digital analytics program for a number of years, so the argument of, "We've had analytics for years and we've done it it successfully without a data layer. Why do we need one now?"
I get it, it makes sense. To understand why this might not be a valid argument, one of the things we might want to do is look back at the history of analytics. See where we came from and where we are today to see why having analytics ten years ago without a data layer made sense, but why, today, it doesn't.
Slide 3:
So if we look at a timeline of digital analytics, let's go all the way back to the last century and let's look at where this all began. The start of digital analytics was really around log file analysis. We were taking an artifact of what was already in place. Our web servers were kicking out a bunch of data and some smart people got together and said, "I think we can do something interesting with this." We were able to go through that data and do things like; how many people are coming to our site? How many pages are they viewing? Maybe some basic pathing. It was pretty limited. There was not a lot of customization to the data, it was basically what we had available. Really basic site metrics primarily focused in the network administration space. We were looking at doing things like; how do we optimize our servers? How do we have faster page load times? Great things to look at, but really not the things that we're looking at from a business perspective today as high value.
Hopping forward to last decade, and this is really where web analytics at the time—we now call it digital analytics—was born. This was the page tag or web beacon revolution. You had companies like Omniture and Webtrends and WebSideStory and others that came up with their own—and I'm calling it: dialect—JavaScript. Basically it was JavaScript, but each vendor had their own unique way of how that JavaScript was formed. To deploy a technology on your site, you would take these vendor tags and you would deploy it across your web properties. What this created was the opportunity to highly customize the data collection. We were moving away from just what we had to: we can start to get what we need. This was a great step forward in the progress or the process of digital analytics. One of the great outputs of this was marketers would really begin to consume the data. We were starting to broaden the breadth of how data was used in the organization.
However, a couple of the drawbacks of this approach is that development cost was high. We needed a developer that understood each vendor technology to customize and deploy these tags across our entire site. While that may have worked back then when we were talking about two or three vendors, it starts to break down today where we start to have a wide range of vendors that we want to use from an organizational standpoint. Not only that, but this approach created very siloed data. Each platform that we utilized as a business held its own, unique set of data that really didn't work well together with other vendors. Again, that might not have been a bad thing in 2004 when we were utilizing maybe two or three vendors, but it's a huge problem today. I'll get into that a little more later.
Let's move forward, out of last decade, to today. What are companies that are on the leading edge of digital analytics doing. They're moving away from the page tag approach and they're deploying their analytics through a centralized location, coupling the data more closely with their product. They're doing this through the use of primarily tag management systems built on a foundation of a data layer. This has created cross-functional ownership across the organization. We still have high customization, which is fantastic. A few things are coming out of it: we're reducing development costs, we're redesign maintenance costs, we're centralizing our data in a core data hub, really driven by business needs, and now we have people across the organization consuming this data.
This is really where we need to be. At one point in time, a few years ago, this may have been a nice thing to have, or a luxury. Today, it's really becoming a requirement. As we go through the next couple of slides, I'll start to document, or help you understand, why we really need to move to this approach.
Slide 4:
So your boss says, "Okay, I get it. You're saying we're old-school, we're stuck in last decade—but honestly, I don't get it. What's the big deal because I come in every morning, I fire up my laptop, and my KPI dashboard is in my inbox. And if we have a major decline in our site conversion rate, I have this cool alert on my phone that shows up. So we're good. I don't know that last decade is all that bad, is it?" Well it kind of is.
Slide 5:
Here's why. Last decade, the page tag approach, while it may have been effective than working with, as I mentioned, a handful of vendors, that's no longer the case today. If you were a practitioner running an analytics shop back in 2004, you may have been managing one, maybe two—on the high-end, maybe three—vendor tags on your site. That's just not the case today. In fact, go to your favorite website. Use a tool like Ghostery, or a similar tool, maybe I don't know, ObservePoint—they have a great tool that allows you to audit all of the tags on a page—open up that tool and take a look. It won't be a surprise to see 20, 30, 40, different marketing tags on any given site.
That's why the paradigm of what worked in 2004 is starting to break down today. To help your boss visualize that, I've put together a simple slide of what it looked like last decade. Previously what we did with the page tag approach, was we had a digital property and every time we wanted to deploy vendor code to that property, we would reach out and say, "Hey Adobe, Omniture, give us your special JavaScript. BlueKai, Eloqua, Salesforce, fill in the blank." And each one of those would then be tied into our web property.
This was starting to become very inefficient, I think you can quickly see that. So not only do we have to have a developer that understands each of these technologies, we have to make unique calls for each one of these platforms and each one of these separate tags needs to be maintained. Not only that, I'm sure you've found that a lot of these platforms utilize the same core set of data. If we're sending half the data to Adobe Analytics that we're sending to BlueKai or to Eloqua, why are we doing it three or four different times? It really should be done once in a centralized way. That's becoming more and more of a requirement as we're plugging more and more technologies into our marketing stack.
Slide 6:
It sounds like what you're saying is that centralizing our digital data is a good idea, this is starting to make sense to me and in fact, one of the things that may come back is that your boss may say something like, "Hey, I'm sitting in these weekly planning meetings with the other executives and I'm starting to get really beat up by our development team. We're utilizing a lot of their time and they have other things that they're supposed to be working on. It seems like every other week, I'm getting a bit of a pushback from the development manager on how many hours we're using of their time to deploy and maintain these marketing tags. So if this centralization could help reduce the load on the, that might be a good thing for me."
Slide 7:
I agree, centralizing data through a data layer is a really great idea and here's why. If we take that simple layout that we saw before, how we organize thing using the page tag approach, this is what it looks like today utilizing a digital data layer. Instead of having separate actions and functions going to each one of our vendors, we now having everything controlled through a common, digital data layer. The data layer is our data hub of all the data that is critical for the business to make informed decisions with. It's all in one centralized location. Many companies are making use of a tag management system to help communicate that data layer with the other applications they have deployed in their marketing stack.
In this example, you can see that we have the data layer communicating with our tag manager, and now we're reaching out and we're having our marketing application subscribe to that data. We have Adobe Analytics, we have BlueKai, Eloqua, Salesforce. Again, please keep in mind that this is a very simplified approach. Chances are you're running many more marketing tags than this, but now they're subscribing directly to this data. It's much more efficient. We can utilize much less from a development resource perspective to make this happen. It's much more efficient from an application level. If we're concerned about page load speeds and user experience on the site, having a centralized methodology for pushing data to each of these marketing technologies is going to help address that issue as well.
If you're reading the body language of your boss, it might look like you're starting to make some headway. Centralizing this data, reducing development time, these are all starting to sound like some really great ideas and things that we can use in the organization to help sell why we need to invest in this project.
Slide 8:
You get a little sense of fear in your boss because gears start clicking and he or she probably starts saying, "Well, you know, this sounds great. I love what you're describing here, but it sounds complicated, and honestly it sounds like it's going to cost us a lot of money to pull off."
Slide 9:
And that's true. The data layer project is an expensive investment. It's expensive because it takes time, it takes people, and it takes money to pull off. One of the biggest mistakes that the organizations make is they undervalue, they under budget what it takes to get a data layer project in place. They say, "We can pull this off with half a developer in six weeks and we'll be done." Unfortunately, those projects typically end in failure and the data layer project gets a stain on it. From my perspective, having seen many data layer projects deployed across very large brands, the three things that will make a project successful is one: having the budget in place to pull off a very complex project. That means money to attract talent to help build it, retain outside resources, or realign internal resources that can help you build, design a data layer from a business standpoint. Ultimately, this is a business function. The data layer is meant to serve as the core set of data used by the business to inform the business of the key measures they need to operate.
Secondarily, you need people. The people that we're talking about here is development. While in the long term, we have great promise of savings from a development perspective, up front, this is going to greatly ramp up the amount of development resources needed to pull off a project like this. That's because the key pieces to getting a data layer deployed live within the development framework. Having development resources assigned to this project and prioritized, will be key to making this project go. Having this as a side project and constantly pulling developers off to have them work on other projects is a recipe for disaster.
And finally, time. I know we all want to get to this point where we have this great data layer, we're using it as a foundation that we're going to build this amazing marketing stack on top of, but it takes time. A lot of organizations don't want to hear that, especially if you've invested hundreds of thousands of dollars already in licensing fees for these marketing technologies, the last thing you want to hear is, "Well, it's going to take us half a year to get to the point where we can really get these things running to the level that we expect." But that's the reality. Again, having seen many of these projects executed from beginning to end, on average these projects are taking anywhere from four to six months.
That expectation should be set up front. Again, this might be a tough thing for the business to swallow, but I'm a firm believer in being very transparent, not only in the benefits that the business will see, but the cost that they'll need to invest in order to make this project go. However, this is an investment that if done right, if you build a solid foundation that you can build your entire marketing stack on top of, you will see massive, massive benefits. Not only in the short term, but in the long term as well.
Slide 10:
So your boss is saying, "Okay, you know this is starting to make a lot of sense to me. You've kind of hinted around a few benefits. You've mentioned things like reduced development costs in the long term, which I like because I don't like going to these planning meetings and being told that I'm using too much of the company resources to make marketing tags, I like that. We spent a lot of money on marketing technology and they're not talking to each other. We have a DMP and it's not talking to our digital analytics platform and neither one of those is talking to our optimization platform. I was at a conference last week and they were showcasing that if these things could all talk together, that's the promised land. And it sounds like that what you're telling me is that if we deploy a data layer, it's going to give us that opportunity to connect all of these systems together. So we can break up some of those data silos and really start to see the real return on investment that the sales reps promised us when we were looking at these."
And that's true. There's a lot of amazing benefits here. We've kind of danced around of few of them, we've kind of hinted at a couple more, so let's go through what I think are the top four benefits to deploying a data layer. I would use these four points as your talking points when you're speaking with your management team, when you're trying to sell this internally, and you really should look at this as a sales and marketing effort. That's one of the things that a lot of analytics practices fail to do is, they say, "We're internal, we're going to push this out and they're just going to take it because we can tell them what they're going to do." Again, another recipe for disaster there. Analytics organizations should look at their goal as partly a sales and marketing role, and they need to convince and sell their idea to the organization to get buy-in. I would use these four concepts, or these four benefits, as a way to get buy-in from the greater organization—executives, marketing, development—to invest in your data layer project.
Slide 11:
The first benefit that I want to highlight is: critical marketing and analytics code can now be deployed much, much quicker and to our environment. Why is that important? It's important for a lot of reasons, but I'm going to highlight one reason: marketing organizations like to run really, really fast. One, I just think it's in their DNA, but two, marketing organizations like to take advantage of topical and timely events. If they have an opportunity to capitalize on something that's happening now, they want to run as fast as they can and do it now, with or without the support of the analytics organization. That's not necessarily a great long-term strategy, but let's look at why they take that approach.
In the old-school way of page tagging, this is typically what would happen when a marketer would run and event, let's say—and I've seen this happen in the real world—your marketing team came to you and said, "We're going to run a half million dollar Facebook buy and we have some marketing tags that are going to support that. One, from a reporting perspective, and two, from an optimization perspective so we can fine-tune this campaign as it runs over the next couple of weeks." Typically, what would happen is that request would go into some queue, JIRA or whatever system you're running, and it'd probably sit there for a day or two, eventually someone would come around and prioritize it, and they would say, "Okay, let's see, the developer that works on those types of projects is on another project right now, but he'll free up in a week, and then he'll get started on it, and then we can align this with our following release. So in two to three months we'll have you tag out into production."
Typically, what happens is the marketing organization says, "Great, we're going to go ahead and move forward without your support. We can't wait for that." That's problematic in that, one, they're going to release a huge campaign—half a million marketing buy—without any real way of being able to measure the impact of that campaign. But I think more importantly, they don't have any real kind of visibility into that campaign. They're on a set it and forget it type of mentality. However, if they have the analytics team's support, they could tweak and fine-tune that campaign as it was running.
Once we have the digital data layer in place, that becomes much more of a reality. The request bypasses that whole process of having to figure out the guy that has this tag, is he on a project or not? We're done. The developers have already put in the hard work. To lay the foundation to provide the business with the information and data they need to run, and in this case, to run a big marketing campaign. So we bypass the whole process, we plug your marketing tags directly into the data layer and you realize ROI now instead of later. The time value of money aspect is huge here.
Slide 12:
The second benefit that I want to highlight is: the greater flexibility we will have when it comes to testing out new marketing technologies. What do I mean by that? If you've been in the pace long enough, you've probably seen it at one time or another, that slide that gets passed around that shows the marketing landscape. The one that's like a four quadrant grid with 150, 200 different logos smashed into it trying to help you visualize how crowded and complicated the marketing landscape is. And it's true. As a business, as a marketing organization, how does that impact us? We want to constantly be utilizing the product, and the product mix within our marketing technology stack that's going to give us the best possibility to achieve and be a front-runner when it comes to business. That historically has been really hard.
As new technologies come online and weekly—even daily—we're seeing new vendors pop into the space, it's really difficult to try them out. Again, going back to the previous slide, it's a two or three-month process to get them plugged in. That has become very cost-inefficient and not effective, and typically those projects are denied and we just go on using what we use. Once we've got the data layer in place, running proofs of concept with new technology becomes much, much easier to do—affording you the luxury to plug in new technologies, vet them out to see if they're the right fit for the business, or if they can be ignored from the rest of the noises out there. This is a huge benefit, especially to marketing organizations that constantly want to stay on the cutting edge of the new technologies that are in the space.
Slide 13:
The third benefit that I want to highlight is one of data integrity. This may be shocking, but a third of companies out there are paying licensing fees for marketing technologies that no one in their organization is using. They're literally sitting on the shelf collecting dust. And that's because people don't trust the data. It doesn't matter how big the name is of the brand, it doesn't matter how much money you're paying for licensing fees, it doesn't matter how great your analytics team feel the implementation is, if the end user doesn't trust the data, they're not going to use it. This is a huge problem because we need to drive user adoption to be able to do the things that we want to do with an ever-increasing complexity in our marketing organization.
One way to do that and address this directly, is with a data layer. By deploying a data layer, we move the critical data needed to run the business away from the vendor, and more in alignment and coupled with our digital property. We're no longer speaking vendor speak. We're no longer tying things directly to a vendor, but now our data collection is coupled tightly with our application. This is critical, if for no other reason, as our site matures and ages over time, the data layer matures with the site. It's no longer a side-job or an afterthought. A data layer alone will drastically reduce this number and increase trust in data, driving an increase in that trust and user adoption, which will go a long way in helping to complete your marketing initiatives.
Slide 14:
Finally, and I saved the best one for last here, if we use no other argument than this one, this one has some first numbers you can put behind it, and this should be your silver bullet for how you convince your organization to make the investment. This is a real world study that we conducted with a large retailer, and what we did is we took a fairly popular vendor marketing tag whose implementation was medium level of effort. There are definitely marketing technologies out there that are much more complex than this to implement, and there are a lot out there that are quite a bit easier than this to implement. We wanted to take something that was middle of the road to get an idea of how much could we save by investing in a data layer.
We put together our technical specs that were provided by the vendor, and we went to the development team and said, "This is what we need deployed. We need it configured per this specification and we need it deployed across the entire site. How long will this take you?" they came back with an estimate of 170 hours. Having been in the space a long time, it was pretty spot on. Let's jump down to the bottom, this is the actual time it took to configure and deploy the tags: 37 hours. Not only was the time cut drastically, the level of work was shifted. The 37 hours didn't even fall to the development team, it was the digital marketing team that did that effort. If we do some back of the napkin math here, this project alone, we're looking at 20 to 30 thousand dollars in savings, just for this project. That is massive. You can quickly see as we do other projects, as we look at maintaining our technologies, this data layer is doing to more than pay for itself in a very short period of time.
I think it makes sense. We've probably convinced our bosses at this point, but let's review the four critical benefits of why we'd want to deploy a digital data layer. We talked about improved speed to market. Extremely critical in this crowded landscape of technology vendors that we can get things out quickly and we can run at the speed of our marketing organizations. We can pilot new technologies as new optimization and personalization, and lately, data science type tools come online. We want to be able to try them out. We can do that now with our data layer. We no have increased trust in the data. We're now coupling that data tightly with our web properties and it's going to increase the trust in our data, driving user adoption up.
And finally, and really the piece that should seal this deal is the cost savings are massive. We saw one example of a real world study we did with cost savings of 20 to 30 thousand dollars just for a single project. This makes sense. I hope you can help convince your boss that this is the right way to go. It's no longer a nice thing to have, you really need to be here. I'm passionate about this topic and I would love to answer your questions or continue this conversation. You can go out to our website, 33sticks.com, we have a lot of great information on data layers. Or you can track me down directly, probably the easiest way in on Twitter, I'm @usujason. I would love to chat and answer any questions that you may have.


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Travel: Romantic getaway across the river
Central Jerseyans will find an idyllic and relaxed destination with a faraway feel in Bucks County, Pennsylvania
- Shop the 65 stores located throughout historic Peddler's Village.
- Do a wine tasting and tour for $15 at Sand Castle Winery.
- Grab a flight of beers from Doylestown Brewing Company.
As Valentine's Day creeps out to brighten up our otherwise dismal New Jersey winters, many of us find ourselves yearning for a weekend getaway with our better halves.
Unfortunately, a quick trip to the Shore — a favorite of New Jerseyans in the summertime — isn't much of an option in freezing temperatures.
However, Central Jerseyans will find that if they look to the west, rather than to the south, they will find an idyllic and relaxed destination with a faraway feel right across the Delaware River in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, that has plenty of both indoor and outdoor options for couples looking to turn up the heat.
Read on to discover several Bucks County attractions to keep you and your honey happy all Valentine's Day-weekend long.
1. Shop downtown New Hope and Doylestown
New Hope is home to some seriously eccentric shops, making it quite the stopping point for those looking to pick up something different. Visitors should wander River Road, Ferry Street and Bridge Street, some of the most scenic and historic streets, which feature the largest concentration of interesting stores.
Some of the shops that travelers shouldn't pass up are Farley's Bookshop, which offers a diverse collection of books young and old; Love Saves the Day, a vintage shop that holds collections of nostalgic clothes, toys and trinkets; and Suzies Hot Shoppe, which has enough hot sauce to have you running next door to Fran's Pub for a cold drink. However, the best way to find the coolest shops in New Hope is to simply take a walk down the street.
Travel: Beachfront romance rules at the Breakers
Downtown Doylestown has a similar vibe with historic buildings and a colonial air filled with locally owned shops, boutiques and restaurants. To check out some of the most popular shops and restaurants, head down West and East State Street, North and South Main Street and West and East Oakland Avenue.
During your venture, don't miss a stop at the Tubby Olive for specialty olive oils and balsamic vinegars, the Doylestown Food Co-Op for locally grown and organic products, as well as Notoris Clock & Coin to see vintage clocks, coins and other antique items.
2. Grab a flight at Doylestown Brewing Company
For a break from meandering through Doylestown, as well as to escape from the chill, visitors can plan a stop at Doylestown Brewing Company, at 22 S. Main St. nested inside of an open-air marketplace with a reputation for simple yet quality beers in a rustic, European pub setting.
Brewery President Joe Modestine said, "We try to keep it simple but different at the same time. Each beer has a unique style and taste without overpowering your taste buds."
Travel: Gambling and more an hour away at Sands
Modestine, who brings 66 years of his family's brewing experience to the bar, keeps 10 beers on tap and serves food from Andrea's Cheese Shop and Spuntino's Pizza, located upstairs in the marketplace.
The brewing company, which opened last May, offers flights a 3-beer flight for $7.50 and a 5-beer flight for $12.50 and will also be hosting Love and Lager Night on Saturday, Feb. 13, for Valentine's Day, which will present a five-course dinner with beer and wine pairings for $75 a person or $140 a couple.
3. Climb Fonthill Castle
Finally, for an educational break from romance, couples should head to Fonthill Castle at 525 E. Court St. in Doylestown, which was the home of Henry Chapman Mercer, archaeologist, anthropologist, ceramist, scholar and antiquarian who built his home as a showplace for his collection of tiles and prints.
Travel: Fall into fall at New Hope with 7 activities
The building — a mazelike blend of Medieval, Gothic and Byzantine architectural styles — is a National Historic Landmark that can be toured for $14 a person.
"I think people who have a sense of wonder and perhaps a bit of the romantic in their soul would enjoy a visit to Fonthill Castle," said Edward L. Reidell, site administrator "It is pretty common for us to hear from guests that they were not looking forward to another house tour and within a couple of rooms, they were completely hooked."
4. Stay at a charming country inn
Bucks County may only be a short drive from Central Jersey, but the best way to complete a vacation-next-door experience is to stay at one of the area's historic inns or bed and breakfasts.
The Golden Pheasant Inn of Erwinna, which currently has rooms ranging from $205 to $295 on a weekday and $220 to $395 on a weekend, was built in 1857 and is recognized on the National Registry of Historic Places.
Brittany Faure Booz, co-owner of the family owned inn, said, "The Golden Pheasant Inn is believed to be one of the longest-continuously-operating commercial properties along the Delaware River. We are also lucky enough to have the Pennsylvania Canal right out the back door."
With stellar views of the Delaware River, an in-room fireplace in the Delaware Suite and romantic touches for Valentine's Day such as the gift of a dozen roses and special menu items such as Hudson Valley foie gras, Lancaster County lamb shank and fresh East and West Coast oysters, the Golden Pheasant Inn is an ideal stop for couples looking to get away for a night or just a meal.
Why do you love your Valentine? You could win $150 dinner at Verve or Old Bay
Other local inn options include the recently renovated, refined Old World-touch Golden Plough Inn, located in Peddler's Village, which includes a welcome bottle of wine from Chaddsford Winery and complimentary breakfast with every overnight stay for $135 to $225 a night.
The Doylestown Inn is another option for guests looking to extend their Bucks County Valentine's Day stay for $170 to $235 a night. The 11-guestroom boutique hotel, which has previously served as a hattery, cigar shop, shoe store, restaurant and speakeasy since the building's 1871 inception, now features the The Hattery Stove & Still, a modern-American tavern restaurant with an industrial and vintage flair.
For Valentine's Day, the Hattery will be offering two menus — a $60 per-person four-course prix fixe menu, as well as a $350-per-couple seven-course tasting menu.
5. Wander historical Peddler's Village
Nestled in historic New Hope at 2400 Street Road, Peddler's Village, the third-most-visited destination in the Greater Philadelphia region, offers 65 distinctive shops and boutiques inside colonial-style buildings among award-winning gardens and winding brick pathways.
"We are the classic Philadelphia region destination — a shopping, dining, lodging and family entertainment village with wonderful architecture, landscaping and gardens reminiscent of colonial America," said Eve Gelman, director of communication and relationships of Peddler's Village.
While shopping for family and friends (or yourself), don't forget to stop at Hewn Spirits for local whiskey, rum and moonshine, Lace Silhouettes Lingerie for top-of-the-line intimate apparel and Pine Wreath and Candle for candles and Christmas goods.
If you get hungry wandering through the Village, stop at Cock 'N Bull, which serves American classic comfort foods — including at a popular Sunday brunch — such as prime rib, beef burgundy and chicken pot pie. The Village is also host to four other restaurants.
For Valentine's Day, Peddler's Village is offering a Chocolate Lovers Tea, a Rose Petal Sunday Brunch, a murder mystery dinner and a Valentine's Weekend Dinner.
6. Tour and taste at Sand Castle Winery
The Sand Castle Winery at 755 River Road in Erwinna, otherwise known as "Napa East" due to the romantic, relaxed setting of the 1974 winery, may not have Napa Valley weather, but it certainly has the same quality wines, perfect for a tour and tasting for a couple looking to escape the chill.
The winery solely produces wines from vitis vinifera (meaning "in wine is the truth") grapes, which, as Joe Maxian, co-winemaker with his brother, Paul, said, "have been perfected for thousands of years to produce God's gift with help of human hands. The quality of these wines is comparable to the best of the wine countries of the world."
Get a free photo taken of your pet for Valentine's Day
However, the pricing and Maxian's demeanor is anything but snobbish — wines range from $15 to $40 and tours cost $10, which include a tasting of the 12 current wines and a tour of the facility, shaped like a large sand castle, overlooking 15-mile views of the Delaware Valley.
"I stand on a ladder with a ruler and explain all of the wines to everyone," said Maxian, laughing in his booming voice and Czech accent. "We have a lot of fun in here."
For Valentine's Day, the winery will be offering a wine, cheese and chocolate pairing on Saturday, Feb 13, at 2 p.m. The event will feature a tasting of all 12 of the winery's wines, paired with three gourmet chocolates and three artisanal cheeses for $25 per person. Tickets must be purchased in advance online at sandcastlewinery.com.
February long-distance travel isn't ideal for New Jerseyans, who frequently become bogged down with unexpected snow and cold. However, you don't have to stay at home for Valentine's Day just because of the chill. Instead, pack your bag and drive less than hour for a destination that feels old-world with all of the comforts of home.
Jenna Intersimone's "Life Aboard The Traveling Circus" column appears Tuesdays. Her "Life Aboard The Traveling Circus" blog is at LifeAboardTheTravelingCircus.com. Tweet her at @JIntersimone or email her at email@example.com.
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The Great Dictator
Watch The Great Dictator 123movies online for free. The Great Dictator Gomovies: Dictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.
Actor: Charlie Chaplin, Jack Oakie, Reginald Gardiner, Henry Daniell, Billy Gilbert, Paul Weigel, Paulette Goddard, Grace Hayle, Maurice Moscovitch, Emma Dunn
Director: Charles Chaplin
Country: USA
Quality: HD
Release: 1940
Runtime: 125 min
IMDb: 8.5


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