text:
If your home was in the process of foreclosure in 2009 and 2010, you may be getting a check in the mail next week.
More than 4 million borrowers will receive payments ranging from $300 to $125,000, as a result of a settlement over improper foreclosure practices reached between regulators and mortgage servicers. The checks are scheduled to be mailed out starting Friday.
To benefit from this agreement, your loan must have been serviced by one the following companies, their affiliates or subsidiaries:
- Aurora.
- Bank of America.
- Citibank.
- Goldman Sachs.
- JPMorgan Chase.
- MetLife Bank.
- Morgan Stanley.
- Sovereign.
- SunTrust.
- U.S. Bank.
- Wells Fargo.
Borrowers will receive payments even if they were not victims of errors or misconduct by the servicers when their homes were in foreclosure.
Why does everyone get a piece of the pie?
Originally, regulators required servicers to hire third-party consultants to identify borrowers who suffered financial injury. They also offered borrowers a chance to have their foreclosure files reviewed for potential errors, so that the victims could receive compensation for the wrongdoing.
A year later and after more than $2 billion was paid to consultants reviewing the files, regulators decided that the process was too complicated. They put an end to the foreclosure reviews and reached an agreement with the mortgage servicers to provide $3.6 billion in cash payments to borrowers.
How do you get your share?
If your mortgage was serviced by one of the companies listed in the settlement, and you faced foreclosure in 2009 and 2010, you probably will receive a check sometime between next week and the end of July. About 1.4 million checks are expected to be sent by the end of April. The final wave of checks goes out by mid-July.
Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are part of the agreement, but borrowers whose loans were serviced by them will not get paid yet. Information to these borrowers will be announced in the near future, the Federal Reserve says.
The checks will be sent by Rust Consulting Inc. If you want to confirm that you qualify for a payment or have moved and need to update your contact information, call (888) 952-9105. You will have to listen to a series of automated messages for about three or four minutes, but you'll get to talk to a representative after that.
How much will you get?
The payment amounts will be based on the stage of a borrower's foreclosure and the type of "possible servicer error" that regulators think you may have been a victim of.
How did regulators identify possible errors without reviewing the loan files? An OCC spokesman said that, rather than trying to identify potential errors, regulators used multiple automated systems to identify "objective" loan attributes such as:
- The stage of foreclosure.
- Whether a borrowers' loan modification was approved or denied.
- Whether the borrower had requested a loan review.
The Federal Reserve and the OCC provided data with the payment details that resulted from this automated process. Here is a sample of the loans that qualified for compensation:
Loan mod was denied
According to the data, more than 300,000 borrowers lost their homes to foreclosure after loan modifications were denied. These borrowers will receive $3,000 each. Those who fall under this category and had previously requested a loan review will get $6,000.
Successful trial mod wasn't made permanent
Borrowers who got a loan modification and completed the payments required under the trial period but still lost their homes to foreclosure after the lender failed to convert the modification to permanent, will get $25,000 ($50,000 if they requested a review).
Borrower wasn't even in default
Some borrowers will get the maximum payment of $125,000. They include 53 homeowners whose homes were foreclosed on even though they were not in default.
Foreclosure hasn't been completed
If you've been through the inconvenience of having the lender try to foreclose on your home but the foreclosure is still in process, you (and about 600 other borrowers) will get about $5,000.
What do you think of this agreement?
I'd love to hear from borrowers who think they will be getting a check.
Follow me on Twitter @Polyanad.


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The Burlington police conducted an alcohol compliance operation Jan. 10 at 14 local store locations.
Ten stores passed the compliance operation while four stores sold alcohol to underage buyers.
�Alcohol compliance operations are law enforcement operations that occur on a regular basis in our community and throughout the state with the goal of determining those businesses that sell to underage youth and encouraging training to store managers and clerks on North Carolina laws related to alcohol sales,� Alamance Citizens for a Drug Free Community Project Director Karen Webb said
The following stores were visited. Those that passed asked for appropriate identification and refused to sell to the buyer while the stores that failed sold alcohol to an underage buyer.
According to Mark Rascoe of the Burlington Police Department, stores that are first time offenders are usually allowed to attend a Be A Responsible Server class offered by Alcohol Law Enforcement. According to ALE, a report is issued on each store that violates the underage law to the Alcoholic Beverage Commission. The ABC decides what penalties are issued on a case-by-case basis ,which could include fines or suspensions.
The following stores passed:
Kangaroo Express, 2602 Alamance Road
Food Lion, 2660 Ramada Road
Food Lion, 3535 S. Church Street
B P (586), 1103 Huffman Mill Road
Kangaroo Express, 1110 Huffman Mill Road
Food Lion, 1780 West Webb Avenue
Kims Mart, 2114 West Webb Avenue
B P (591), 2611 Maple Avenue
Huffs Interstate, 2562 Maple Avenue
Wilco Hess, 653 East Webb Avenue
The following stores failed and sold to the underage buyer:
Harris Teeter, 2950 S Church Street
Shell, 2309 S Church Street
Tommys Mini Mart, 538 Trollinger Street
B P Family Fare, 2227 Maple Avenue

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Splash Damage is an independently-owned British game development company that specializes in multiplayer first-person shooter games. Based in London, England, the studio is best known as the creator of the Enemy Territory franchise for id Software.
Only registered members can share their thoughts. So come on! Join the community today (totally free - or sign in with your social account on the right) and join in the conversation.


text:
Getting ready to write to you!
I wasn't going to write a post this morning. I was just going to chill out and have a break from the whole IT thing but it's part of my day now. I love tuning in to my little online community each morning, catching up on all your news. So I am sitting here, sipping coffee out of my new Ada and Darcy teacup, revelling in the whole 'I don't have to do the school run this morning' thing.
Even the fact that my brand new(not even a week old) iPhone was found fully submerged in a handbag full of water last night could not ruin this beautiful 'non school' morning. After soccer practice last night, a water bottle was hurriedly put into my handbag (upside down).... as we were running out of hands to carry things. I found my dripping handbag late last night, after retracing steps from puddles on the floor. Lets see if the case that I had my phone in and a dose of sunshine can't help fix the thing. Hey, my last little dinky phone survived a napisan soak and 2 days hanging on the clothesline in the sun... still worked like a charm.
... and my handbag camera still works... maybe I can blame the fuzziness of all my photos on water damage now!
We're off to the park this morning.. soccer of course.... and then out to a birthday party this afternoon. My boys always want to just hang out close to home on Saturdays... they need unhurried 'home down time'... the week is so busy... time to breathe out.
What do you get up to on Saturdays? Before children I vaguely remember the whole relaxed, reading papers in comfortable silence, coffee shop scene on a Saturday morning.... sigh!
P.S Oh, I joined Facebook. Yay! Feels really funny being a total newbie again! Am I the last person on earth to join them? Better late than never :)


text: Its a very good argument. More along the lines of, people going downhill in a ski slope have ROW over people wishing to walk up to the top of the hill to go down again. People going up the hill use a path that it not on the main downhill run. It's a matter of giving priority to the primary users of a unique location (the break zone). Go out somewhere other than where the primo waves are breaking. Don't skate board on the roadway. Don't expect to drive on the wrong side of the road against oncoming traffic, etc..SBBeachbum wrote:That's a bad argument. I like to drive fast but still have to stop at a stop sign or red light. Going out makes you often more vulnerable in many spots so the ROW should be yours. I doubt that this will be a big issue as these wave regs will differ locally and will be handled locally. You will also not find an oiltanker or or other vessel in the line-up so not coming up with a sailing conform rule should not be a problem at all.Windrider wrote:Wave riders should have ROW because waves are the reason the people are riding there.... If you want to go out, go out away from where the waves riders are riding. You can't ride waves where there aren't any, but you can still go out there, so go out where there aren't any waves (or where there are the least desirable waves).


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Category:Page Annotation
This is an attempt to create very detailed annotations for every single page of the comic.
It can later be linked to Plot Summary and linked or merged with Descriptive Table of Contents.
Every page gets its own article. It is not very good for searching, but putting it all into one article will get unmanageable very soon. (Actually it became apparent after page 1 - not much happens in it, but it is still 1000 characters long. 150 pages means at least 150 Kb long article.)
Style guidelines
Page numeration is as per online version. (Rob mentioned that pages will be renumbered prior to the book publication.)
The style is not defined yet. Your suggestions are welcome. Suggested principles:
- number and describe every panel
- include all narrative text, character speech and sound effects (in italic); preserve the original punctuation and grammar; if you notice a blooper in the text, underline it
- when describing panels, be precise; avoid ambiguous wording and speculation; if you notice a blooper in the image, add an underlined comment.
- try to include as many details as possible (including references to our world if you notice them)
- be consistent
Collaboration Notice
When editing articles, be sure to edit the section you work on and save your work often. This will allow more than one user to work on an article at the same and save their work without technical difficulties.
No edit wars! All disputes are resolved on the talk page.
Your help is very welcome and appreciated!
This category has the following 7 subcategories, out of 7 total.


text:
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text:
These days, Bill Crockett knows he better come prepared when he is approaching administrators about a need for added funding. His vice president warned him about that once the recession began to rear its head in university affairs.
"He goes, 'I have to make decisions, and I can't do it on knee-jerk reactions. I can't do it because you're pulling at my heartstrings. You need to bring me data. You need to bring me evidence,'" recalls Crockett, director of university recreation and fitness at the University of Maryland, Baltimore.
The added scrutiny has put an emphasis on constant assessment and analysis of data, not only to justify future expenditures but also to ensure the facility is running efficiently, Crockett says.
The same scrutiny is being applied at university rec centers across the country. The economic downturn affected the university recreation community later than most markets because many university projects and big purchases are budgeted for and planned years in advance. But now, while universities figure out how to deal with less revenue, recreation directors are facing added scrutiny from administrators who want more justification than ever for everything from an added staff member to more equipment or programming.
One way to handle the situation is by looking at access data. Crockett says he constantly tracks access data and graphs it to make comparisons, looking frequently at corresponding dates in previous calendar years to see patterns. Those patterns are not always what one would expect. For instance, this year, Crockett's recreation center will be more appropriately staffed for what graphs from previous years showed him was an attendance dip the week before spring break—perhaps the result of mid-terms.
In another situation, Crockett changed the early closing time on Fridays after hearing complaints from members who wanted a healthy alternative to a typical college Friday night. As it turned out, his data showed him that about 10 times as many people were exiting the recreation center within the last 30 minutes of usage on Fridays than during the rest of the week.
"I was using our access data to make sure that we were staffing strategically, to make sure that we could do this expansion of hours without having a negative impact to other areas," Crockett says. "And we did. We've increased our hours without having to increase our operating budget. And we've done it without having any dilution or discontinuation of services that were in place before."
David Hall, director of campus recreation at Springfield College, Springfield, MA, agrees that a competitive budgetary climate has put an emphasis on analyzing data.
"We may expand or retract," Hall says. "I think we're not afraid to retract and kind of end something if it's not working, and then utilize our resources other ways."
Springfield's recreation center now has about 50 group exercise classes per week, up from less than 10 when Hall arrived in 2005. He also moved the facility's closing time to 10 p.m. Both decisions were based on attendance data collected at the door, via card scan and manually during exercise classes.
The recession and the need for data to justify expenses have affected Brown University in a different way. The Providence, RI, school has kept on track its plan to open a newly built, nearly $50 million facility this month, the culmination of 10 years of planning.
However, Matthew Tsimikas, assistant athletic director of physical education, intramural and club sports at Brown, says he has had to be frugal in making staffing decisions. He determined how many staff members he needs at the new facility by analyzing what other Ivy League schools were doing.
"We'll be growing into this facility as we open, so we're not exactly sure what staffing levels we will need," Tsimikas says. "We're more or less set up to grow into it rather than starting off with excessive staffing and resources and having to cut back."
To determine the staffing that the facility ultimately will need, Tsimikas will continue to rely on data he collects after the facility is open.
The importance of data and analytics to justify spending at rec centers has grown as rec centers must compete now more than ever with other departments at universities for more limited dollars from state governments and donors. However, even after economic climate changes, these requirements for data will remain.


text:
Contractor Charged in Baghdad Badge Scam
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
A military contractor returning from Iraq was charged yesterday with distributing identity badges that control access to Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone to people not allowed to receive them, including an Iraqi woman he was dating.
Thomas Nelson Barnes III, who worked for DynCorp International, was arrested by federal agents as he arrived at Dulles International Airport. He is accused of defrauding the U.S. government by issuing the high-security badges to other Iraqi civilians and a DynCorp executive.
Security in Baghdad's International Zone -- commonly referred to as the Green Zone -- has been extremely tight since U.S. forces took control of Baghdad during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The zone, surrounded by blast walls and heavily guarded entry checkpoints, encompasses much of central Baghdad and houses the U.S. Embassy, Iraq's interim government and many coalition and civilian military personnel.
Although law enforcement sources said they knew of no specific security problem resulting from Barnes's alleged actions, federal and military officials warned that any breach could have dire consequences. The Green Zone's entry checkpoints have been the scene of numerous car bombings and are guarded by heavily armed coalition soldiers.
"A free pass to the International Zone is something that an insurgent would love to get his hands on," said Lt. Col. Barry Venable, a Pentagon spokesman. "A compromised badge represents a potential avenue of approach into the zone for folks who would want to commit violence."
The badges allegedly passed out by Barnes have different colors indicating level of access to the Green Zone. The highest access is blue. An FBI affidavit, filed in federal court in Alexandria, said Barnes gave a blue badge to an Iraqi woman he was dating, when she was allowed only a purple badge -- a lower clearance.
He allegedly gave various badges to other Iraqi friends, along with a blue badge to a DynCorp vice president who was not entitled to receive it. Barnes, 48, of Fort Worth appeared in U.S. District Court in Alexandria yesterday and was released on a personal recognizance bond pending another hearing Thursday. He could not be found later for comment, and a defense attorney had not been appointed for him.
Barnes is charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States and use and possession of military passes with the intent to defraud. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison.
Gregory Lagana, a spokesman for Irving, Tex.-based DynCorp, said Barnes had worked for the company for just over a year and was fired recently because of the investigation. The company was awarded a $7.7 million Pentagon contract in March 2004 to establish a program to centralize ID badges being given out for the Green Zone by a variety of government agencies.
Barnes, a supervisor, was one of fewer than 50 DynCorp employees on the project. "We are disturbed by this," Lagana said. "We do a lot of work for the U.S. government, and we have a very good record. We are cooperating fully and absolutely."
Stan Soloway, president of the Professional Services Council, a trade association for government contractors, said the case should not be viewed as an indictment of the tens of thousands of military contractors in Iraq. "There is absolutely no evidence that there have been any more security problems with contractors than with federal government employees or anyone else."
The case is among the first brought by federal prosecutors in Alexandria since February, when U.S. Attorney Paul J. McNulty announced a crackdown on fraud in government programs. Law enforcement sources familiar with the case said the allegations against Barnes arose from that initiative.
Staff writer Renae Merle contributed to this report.


text:
Now Available: Innovators Under 35 2013 See The 2013 List »
Yaakov Benenson, 28
He wants to replace physicians with molecular machines that diagnose and treat diseases with phenomenal precision.
Graduate student, Weizmann Institute of Science
In just five years, Benenson has taken the concept from drawing board to test-tube prototype. Working at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, he has built molecular devices -- essentially DNA strands and enzymes -- able to analyze genetic changes associated with lung and prostate cancers and to release a drug in response. These prototypes are "a beautiful work of molecular and conceptual integration, pointing the way toward truly integrating diagnostics with therapeutics," says George Church, director of the Center for Computational Genetics at Harvard Medical School. "Using these tiny diagnostic machines, we could selectively treat only the diseased cells," Benenson says. For example, the prototype device for small-cell lung cancer assesses the activity of four genes. Cancerous cells produce extra RNA copies of each of these genes. Consecutive sections of the DNA strand in the prototype bind, in turn, to these RNA strands; when they do, an enzyme chops them off. If all of the cuts are made properly, the enzyme releases and activates an anticancer drug that has been tethered to the DNA in an inactive form. Benensons molecular machines offer a unique combination of precision and flexibility. A single one of them can be designed to look for up to 10 different diagnostic markers before it releases its drug payload. The devices can also be tailored to several different diseases through simple-to-make changes in their DNA sequences. These machines represent a quantum leap not only in medicine but also in DNA computing. Benensons molecular "doctors" -- which are computers in the sense that they store information and analyze it following a yes/no logic -- are "directed at a practical interface with biomedicine rather than losing an abstract race with existing computers on their own turf," says Church.
2004 TR35 Winners
Vadim Backman
Found a way to spot colon cancer earlier than was previously possible
Yaakov Benenson
He wants to replace physicians with molecular machines that diagnose and treat diseases with phenomenal precision.
Rebekah Drezek
Develops photonic technologies that use targeted nanomaterials to detect, monitor, and treat breast and gynecologic cancers painlessly, and at a fraction of the cost of conventional approaches.
Ryan Egeland
Slashed the cost of producing a DNA chip from hundreds of dollars to a few dollars by combining microfluidics, computer control, and novel electrochemistry.
Michael Elowitz
Combines existing genes to build artificial biological pathways, or "circuits," that operate inside cells.
Tim Gardner
Constructs computer models of cellular pathways in order to optimize bacteria for energy production and environmental remediation.
Colin Hill
Aims to more than double human trials success rate by virtually prescreening drugs in computer models of human cells.
Shana Kelley
Builds nanoscale electrochemical and electrical sensors to detect medically relevant gene sequences and proteins.
Gloria Kolb
Devised a way to remove kidney stones more cost effectively and less invasively by taking advantage of the ureters tendency to dilate around foreign objects.
Jörg Lahann
Designed an electrically switchable surface coating that can alternate between attracting and repelling water.
Eric C. Leuthardt
Showed that a patient could achieve real-time control of a computer via electrodes placed on the brains surface.
David Liu
Applies evolutionary principles to synthetic molecules by linking starting materials to DNA strands.
Frank Lyko
Aims to reprogram cancer cells to be more like normal cells by developing compounds that block the aberrant modification of DNA in cancer cells.
Lauren Meyers
Helped public-health officials control epidemics of walking pneumonia and SARS with sophisticated mathematical models that predict how a disease will spread through networks of human interactions.
Ananth Natarajan
Bridging the gap between research and patient care.
Vasilis Ntziachristos
Facilitated noninvasive optical imaging of proteins and other molecules in the body, which could lead to ultraprecise diagnosis of cancer and other diseases.
Shayn Peirce
Models how individual cells in tissues migrate, multiply, and develop during processes such as blood vessel growth. The models should aid tissue engineering and drug development.
Cristoph Schaffrath
Discovered an enzyme that could enable environmentally benign production of fluorine-containing compounds such as Teflon and Prozac, which are now made via noxious chemical processes.
Monisha Scott
Determined how small, natural proteins boost the immune response.
Vikram Sheel Kumar
Developed interactive software that motivates patients to manage chronic diseases such as diabetes and AIDS.
Christina Smolke
Fine-tunes the activity of individual genes via an adaptable technology
Kahp-Yang Suh
Came up with the first method that allows researchers to pattern proteins and cells directly onto glass or plastic surfaces or within microfluidic channels without complicated preparation.
Olga Troyanskaya
Devised sophisticated and accurate computer algorithms for analyzing data generated using DNA microarrays.
Smruti Vidwans
Development of drugs to assist in the battle against TB.
Lei Wang
Expanded the genetic code in order to allow living cells to incorporate new, unnatural building blocks into the proteins that they make.
Sandra Waugh Ruggles
Uses clever testing schemes to determine which protein- slicing enzymes make the cut as potential drugs.
Xiaowei Zhuang
She has filmed a single influenza virus infecting a cell.


text:
We are sitting in the Craven-Pamlico Animal Services Center playroom, where chairs and couches line two walls. A tower of PVC pipe and fabric stands against another wall, loaded down with cat toys. Dog and cat breed posters hang on one wall; so do posters hinting that nothing could be finer than a shelter pet from Carolina.
First of a three-day series about the Craven-Pamlico Animal Shelter. Tomorrow we will take a closer look at the animals that come into the shelter, their stories and their fate.
We are sitting in the Craven-Pamlico Animal Services Center playroom, where chairs and couches line two walls. A tower of PVC pipe and fabric stands against another wall, loaded down with cat toys. Dog and cat breed posters hang on one wall; so do posters hinting that nothing could be finer than a shelter pet from Carolina.
One wall features a huge glass window that doesn�t quite filter out the pathetic mewing of a kitten next door or the cacophony of dogs across the hall.
I am sitting with Trinity Smith, animal control supervisor. She smiles at our fellow occupant, a momma cat who wanders the room, weaving about the furniture and our legs, doing things that cats do.
Not far into our conversation I say the wrong thing � the thing that probably every animal control officer dreads to hear: �I love the animals, but I don�t think I could handle working here.�
Trinity�s smile fades just a bit.
�People come in here all the time,� she says. ��I could never do what you do. I love animals too much.� That really makes us upset, because that�s why we do what we do.
�We are here because we all love animals. This is our passion.� She pauses, then utters the phrase again; makes it a question. ��We love animals too much?��
Despite the unavoidable mortality � �Putting your head in the sand does not help anybody,� she says � Smith sees her job as being a voice for abandoned or stray animals.
The animal shelter is a division of the Craven County Health Department, although it also is contracted to receive animals from Pamlico County and Cherry Point air station.
Five full-time employees work here, all of them women. It is a job that seems to be held mainly by women as a trend, employees here contend. Two part-timers are also employed � one of these is male. A host of volunteers and court-assigned community service workers also help keep the center afloat and the animals healthy.
The center is inspected at least once a year by the N.C. Department of Agriculture.
�Are records properly kept? Are we holding the animals the required amount of time?� Smith explains. �We can�t have exposed wood. Everything has to be nonporous.�
Anything that absorbs liquid becomes a health issue.
Of course anything nonporous does not absorb sound. Hence, the endless echo of dog�s barking.
Most of the amenities that help make the animals feel a little more at home, and many that directly affect their health, receive little or no funding from the county.
�We are able to take donations,� Smith said. �That money goes to a foundation and I can only use that for items that my regular budget doesn�t cover.�
Among those items is medicine, vaccines, veterinary care, toys, and beds.
�We bought a veterinary sized dog scale, we bought a professional grooming tub,� Smith elaborated. �We bought coloring books to give away to kids.�
Smith estimates that the shelter deals with some 5,000 animals a year.
�There are days when we have 60-plus animals come through the door,� she says. She has 24 eight-by-four foot dog runs and 30 cat cages, �So we have to juggle. We have had animals in every available spot in this building,� including the kitchen, garage, offices and grooming room.
And it isn�t just dogs and cats.
�We�ve had chickens, roosters, ducks, ferrets, chinchillas, turtles, iguanas. We had a monkey in here once. We had a pig,� Smith said.
When the non-dog, non-cat variety of animal comes, Smith said, �We try to get them to rescue groups� There�s a rescue group for everything.� Including, she noted, one for snakes and a New Bern-based society for ferrets.
A good relationship with rescue groups, Smith said, are a key ingredient to adoptions at the shelter. Colonial Capital Humane Society, Pals for Paws, the Pamlico Welfare and Fran�s Felines are among the local general rescue groups. Then there are statewide and nationwide rescue groups aimed at specific breeds such as pit bulls and weimaraners.
�We have a pretty good relationship with rescue groups,� she said.
Animals arrive at the shelter as either strays brought in by citizens or animal control officers, or as owner turn-ins. Their experience and fate depends on the animal and its situation.
�We get as much information as we can about where it was found, how long it was there, was it wearing a collar, any information like that,� Smith said of stray dogs that are brought in. State law requires these animals be held for 72 hours to give a chance for owners to claim them, although Craven County holds them four a full four days � three days for cats.
After this waiting period the animal becomes the property of the county.
�We can either put it up for adoption, transfer it to a rescue group, or we can put it to sleep,� Smith said.
Owners sometimes do show up and reclaim their animals she said � although, sometimes, owners are well aware their pets have turned up at the shelter and they simply leave them there.
Retrieving your pet from the shelter can cost you: New Bern and Havelock have leash laws and so you will have to pay a fine for that. Outside of these towns there are no leash laws, but you will still pay a fine if your pet does not have a collar and rabies tag. And owners can�t prove their pet has had its rabies vaccination, they will be charged for that as well.
If your pet turns up missing it is important to contact the shelter to see if it has been picked up. �The best thing to do, if you�re missing a pet, is to come down here, see what we have because you will know your animal better than we will,� Smith said. She also advised bringing a picture, vet record or other evidence of your pet because the shelter will want proof it�s really yours.
The goal is to find the pets homes, and every opportunity is sought to do so.
Smith said a lot of people who come to the shelter believe that animals are automatically put to sleep after a set period of time, but notes that this is not the case.
�We have a dog right now who�s been here for three months,� she adds. �There�s no limit of how long we can keep them here. As long as they stay happy and healthy and friendly, we keep them.�
Many animals are turned over to rescue groups, of which there are many.
Colonial Capital Humane Society, Pals for Paws, the Pamlico Welfare and Fran�s Felines are among the local general rescue groups. Then there are statewide and nationwide rescue groups aimed at specific breeds such as pit bulls and Weimaraners.
�We have a pretty good relationship with rescue groups,� she said. �We�ve all worked close together to get a lot of these animals out of here.�
Bill Hand can be reached at 252-635-5679 or email@example.com.


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Only hotels in Hazel Crest are listed below. Find cheap and/or discounted hotel rates in or near Hazel Crest, IL for your upcoming personal or group travel. Discover the most popular Hazel Crest Illinois hotel/motel rooms. Review the Hazel Crest hotel list below to find the perfect lodging. We also have a map of the Hazel Crest hotels. Group booking? Search Hazel Crest Group Hotel Deals
The Hazel Crest center point is approximately 1 mile west of Homewood Amtrak Station and 4 miles east of Tweeter Center.
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On Instagram #healthyhairdresser, @modernsalon asked how you managed your salon career while pregnant and, wow, did you respond! Even for those of you who had to cut your hours, you told us that the baby's worth it, of course! Whether you add back those hours or you continue to work less once you're a mom, children are a game-changer. Some of you had to go on bed rest, and some of you lost clients. We appreciate all of your comments, negative and positive, but here we're sharing some of the encouraging messages to help anyone who's currently pregnant see that there's a career still there when the nine months are over!
Make sure to check the print issue of MODERN SALON in April, where there will be a full Healthy Hairdresser article about the impact on your career as your life cycle continues to roll.
eileen_marie: Loved everything about it! I'm very fortunate to have a career in hair. Three babies later and still have my clients.
melissaannm: It was tiring, but I was able to work right up 'til the end. Helps to make the time go by faster….I talked about it with my clients for months and had them prebook all their appointments with one or two girls in my salon who knew and could easily attain their formulas. When I came back, I shortened my work week and worked longer days. Didn't seem to lose many—maybe a few, but I think that's the name of the game anyway.
ashleysaysno: I found some clients went missing after I came back from maternity leave, but they've come back a few months later when they realized that they weren't going to get the same level of service and quality elsewhere.
jovita_gwilliams: I worked up until I went into labor—my husband was literally emailing and texting clients from the hospital to reschedule them. I was back to work after a month 😦 I love this business, but people don't realize it's difficult at times when u have children. We don't have the luxuries that people have that clock in from 9-5—paid vacations, sick time, days off on Saturdays. Oh well…
duhsavannah: I worked right up until I went into labor. It was absolutely exhausting working being so pregnant, and on top of that I went back to work in 3 weeks. It was tough, but in our industry if you don't work you don't get paid. I've cut down my hours and days to have more time with my children, and I wouldn't trade it for the world. I lost some clientele due to not working late nights, but I've gained back new people to replace those who couldn't work with my schedule, so all in all it has worked out wonderfully!
nicolemoore: Just had my first baby. Worked until a week before my due date. Came back to work 3 weeks after delivery. During the busy season, I lost a few clients, but that's inevitable. Now I'm as busy as I ever was and have a wait list. I work the same hours I did during my pregnancy so I can have some family time. It's a good balance for me.
levitownes: I lost some clients when I went back to work after my maternity leave, but I increased prices and now work fewer hours. Clients will always be there, and now I have something that I can come home to. It's also nice to go to work when you have a baby, because it gives you your time to do what you love.
Make sure to check #healthyhairdresser on Facebook and Instagram to give us your feedback on our posts!


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185134 dollars Yearly income freehold residential building for sale
- $ 2 314 184
- Multi-Family Home For Sale
Ajman is 10 minutes form Dubai the busy, and much too fast city. The air is fresh, the area is actually peaceful. This city is growing so fast. Wonderful community where the people are friendly & where you can find all the amenities you need right in your fingertips. You can live comfortably, surrounded by everything you & your family would ever need. You will be able to take advantage of a mini mall, a deluxe club house, a luxurious spa, & other amenities you won't find in other countries. We also, offer a (management service) for your properties while you have fun, relaxing in your home. Your money will be deposited to your bank account every 3 months. Snatch real estate opportunities at low prices, before their value becomes common Knowledge.
Freehold residential building for sale in U.A.E Ajman. The price is only 2314184 Dollars (NEGOTIABLE). Yearly income is 185134 Dollars.
Call: 00971559266623
- View: Town
- Listing status: Active
- Available from: Nov 23, 2016
- Listing #: 13130
Latitude / Longitude: 25.411110 / 55.435040


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and always ready to welcome me home...
Thanks for visiting
Pamela xo
How lucky you are to be able to go back home and visit the house where you grew up. It is just wonderful and your Mom really has a great sense of style- now I know where you get it from. Blessings to you tonight and welcome home- xo DianaReplyDelete
I believe style is something you are born with and clearly both you and your mom were born with bucket loads! x SharonReplyDelete
Wonderful memories Pamela - I liked that cement heart too, did you see how it's sitting perfectly straight?ReplyDelete
Your mother has great tast. Love the brck wall with the arch. It is so sweet that you can relive the memories when you visit your home. I drive by my childhood home every couple of years. I always wish someone would be outside and I could ask to go inside.ReplyDelete
what a super house and what wonderful memories.. I love Canada , when my daughter first emigrated they lived in a little town near Vancouver and now in Ontario they live in Aurora.. I love the people and their ways,.. seeing your son, I can see he is from Italian stock.. how amazing that your parents stayed in the one place all these years, no wonder you love going to visit them.. thank you so much for sharing your thoughts.. JReplyDelete
Nothing like home. Do you think the heart cement thing is a part of say a few of them that would have formed a railing? Lovely, just lovely.ReplyDelete
Wow, I was close to your home this summer.....upstate NY: Buffalo, Ithaca, and Aurora! Your childhood home is charming.ReplyDelete
Your childhood home is absolutely beautiful! You were really close to me too, :D
OK, that elevator door is fabulous! I've never seen anything like it and am going to have dreams about it tonight. When we sold my mother's house which they bought before I was born I have never ever been back. I will not drive down the road and have no interest in even hearing about all the things the new owners have done to it. So I am with you. It may just be a house, but the memories make it so much more than that!ReplyDelete
Everything about the charming exterior of your house is really lovely Pamela - and I know your creative mother must have done a wonderful job inside too! I especially love the brick gateway, and all the garden statuary, urns etc.
Glad you had a happy visit home - always a special place to be no matter how long we've been away! I do not like to look at my childhood home when I return to England - since my mother's death and selling the house, the new owners have made changes I find so upsetting - such as concreting over her lovely front garden to make a parking pad for cars!!!!
I'm off to Australia next week and hope to have lots to share about the interesting trip planned.
Hugs - Mary
Your mother sounds so cool, and i love that she was and still is unique, and creative... and walks her on path, how totally awesome! You must be so proud of that. Home is a very primal, gut, heart thing, and it must have been emotional on so many levels to go back... being the you now, and remembering the you then...
and, I love love that front door!
What a wonderful house! It sounds like you had a terrific time at home. Good for you. Glad you made it home safe and sound.
xo C
Your home is gorgeous Pamela!
When I head home to where I grew up, I always love going back and looking and remembering those special memories.
Your Momma has made this spot so unique and beautiful!
So glad you got a chance to visit again!
Deborah xoxo
How perfectly delightful to see photos of your childhood home. You are blessed to have had one place to live in for so long. You certainly inherited your mother's eye for design!
It's a beautiful home, I would LOVE to see what your mother has done with the interior, I'm sure it's equally beautiful.
beautiful pictures Pam. It's not just a house though, a home has much, much more weight.
As Dorothy said so well, "There's no place like home, there's no place like home. " :)
It's the best place in the world, not because of the views and the design but the whole idea of it. Our home is the most loving in the world, and nothing else can match that. No place like home as most people would say. bathroom lightingReplyDelete
Karen October 31, 2012 in Wodonga,Victoria,Australia
I am an addict of decorating magazines and am just discovering the blog world...I love the way you feel about your mother's home..her love shines through...my children enjoy returning to my 35 years imprint on my 100 yr old home..(also the only home they have known)..I WANT that elevator door...smile...your blog is delightful
Glad you had a good trip home. My parents don't live in the house I grew up in anymore but its funny that I still feel like I'm going home when I go to visit. She too was ahead of her time, going to auctions and antique and second hand stores to save money. She unknowingly filled our home with loving memories that travel with her still.
WoW Now we know where you get your acute sense of style!
Hoping you are well...
OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!! I live 10 minutes from Niagara Falls, Ontario in St. Catharines!!!!!! Too cool. I absolutely love, love, love your blog. Wish I could join/follow by email though as I prefer that.
If you could respond that would be wonderful. Jann
Latest Hot Entertainment News, Latest updata about Bollywood, hollywood, pakistani Girls
You have such a beautiful yard. I love your chair in front of your home.
-Zane of ontario honey
There's no better feeling than going home, Pamela. :) Sweet times and sweet memories all rolled into a hug. ♥ I adore that darling brick path leading to the gate. So cozy!
xoxo laurie
what a beautiful home you grew up in!!ReplyDelete
Very creative blog.I will always be concerned about.- ugly christmas sweater contest StoreReplyDelete
Que bom rever a família. Essa casa deve te dar muitas recordações. Adorei seu blog.
Tenha uma ótima semana.
I host a weekly link party called "Seasonal Sundays". This week, in honor of my fourth blog-a-versary, I'm having a giveaway of a $100.00 gift certificate to HomeGoods/TJ Maxx. I'd love to have you join the fun!
- The Tablescaper
I stumbles the post, that are beneficial, and your post is one of them. Neat and clever content, keep it up.
Water Filters
Oh my goodness,,I guess I am a bit mixed up...have missed too many blog entrys ...as I thought you had moved back to Ontario!
Oh my goodness your family home...Love that elevator screen door, and the arched brick wall...how delightfully unexpected!
What lovely memories you have!
oops...reading back now I see the problem as you where winging your way to Ontario I was floating over the channel to your island to visit relatives...seems I missed a few entrys!


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lvziggy wrote:Dave, obviously you need to do what's right for you. ~Alison
When I went to read the paper this morning I was quite happy with the monovision. But this evening I went outside at about 7pm to help my son with his pitching- I play catcher for him while we work on his throwing technique. I could see and track the ball OK, but not as well as I could with my regular perscription. So I'm beginning to see the trade-offs. I need the close vision more often than the distance/sports vision, so perhaps I would keep a stash of disposable -1.0 contacts for my left eye that I could use on occasions when I know I'll need the best distance vision for a long period of time. I hope that isn't as crazy as it sounds. I'm going to try one more day at -7.0 vs. -8.0 on the left eye and then switch to -7.5 to see if that is more acceptable.


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Mike Dirnt's '56 Ford Panel
Making a living traveling the world, playing in front of hundreds of thousands of people in one of the biggest rock 'n' roll bands on the planet sounds like a dream job to every teenager who's ever picked up a guitar; hell, I still dream about living that lifestyle! But Mike Dirnt, bass player of the seminal punk band Green Day, has actually gone from dreaming about it to making it his lifelong career. Together with his band mates, Billy Joe Armstrong and Tre Cool, they've forged a steady path of rock destruction since forming some twenty-five years ago in Northern California's East Bay. And while many things have changed over the years as the band went from playing three dollar shows at Gilman Street to sell-out stadium shows around the world, one thing has remained; Mike's '56 Ford Panel truck.
"In 1994 I had been searching for a used panel truck, because I love utility vehicles; form and function. For a musician, this is a must. I had searched a number of swap meets and what I had found was either too polished, too big a project, or just wasn't speaking to me for some reason.
"One weekend I headed to the Turlock Swap Meet. I didn't find anything of interest on site, but having been to my fair share of car shows, decided to check out the parking lot outside the swap meet. Once there, I spotted what looked like a panel truck roof about 70 yards off. I ran over to it and there was the toughest looking panel I've ever seen and it was for sale! It was a 1956 Ford with a 460ci engine and a C6 tranny, Volare front end, and was rough enough around the edges that it was a piece of art as-is! Like that perfectly worn pair of Chuck Taylors."
Mike called the number listed on the For Sale sign and met up with the owner later that day. With an asking price of $6,500, it was two grand more than Mike was carrying in his pocket. Bartering down to $5,000, the lowest the owner's wife would let him go, Mike borrowed an extra $500 from his buddy and a deal was struck.
"I knew if I didn't drive it home that day, his wife might not let him sell it to me."
Over a decade later and many thousands of miles clocked on the odometer (not to mention countless gigs!), and the truck was starting to get tired. It was time for an overhaul, but being a busy musician traveling the world doesn't leave much time to spend in the garage. So, Mike turned to his good friend Jed Arian who agreed to oversee the build as it went together at American Classics in Petaluma, California.
Greg Mills takes over the story, "We received this tired old panel and as we tore it down, we evaluated which way to go. We started with a new Total Cost Involved chassis which included a cleaner IFS instead of the Volare front clip. On the rear end we went with a four-link setup because we knew we were going to be giving it some horsepower."
Of course, the drivetrain would need to be sorted out as well. For that end, the crew at American Classics decided to overhaul the 460 by having TEM Machine Shop stroke it to 532 ci using a 4.30-inch SCAT crankshaft. Ross pistons were dropped into each hole and topped by a pair of Edelbrock heads. A super secret Comp cam was slid into the block to actuate the valves which are fed by a Holley 4150 carb through an Edlebrock Air Gap intake manifold. A Billet Specialties Tru-Trac serpentine setup ensures the accessories are driven with efficiency while the Flowmaster Delta 44s provide an equally reliable tone.
With over six hundred horsepower being made by the newly refurbished engine, the crew opted to swap out the strong C6 for an equally strong yet overdriven E40D. Assembled by Horgan's R&R Transmissions in San Rafael with an SFI-approved flex plate and a Pro Torque street/strip torque converter, the electronic transmission is controlled by a TCS from Baumann Electronic Controls.
When resurrection of the panel began, Mike had only a few stipulations that he wanted seen through.
"I wanted the truck to be Ford drivetrain. I wanted the 460 in there, because it's a heavy truck and as a great man once said, 'there's no replacement for displacement.' I also wanted to maintain the original look it had, i.e. flat white paint and refurbished slot mags."
For this end, Jed cleaned up the exterior, leaving the flat white paint and slot mags as they were, save a little bit elbow grease and moved his attention inside the truck. Here, the stock gauge cluster was retained, modified with individual gauges replacing the dummy lights that monitor the engine. A Dodge pickup truck bench seat was recovered in black leather with black carpet providing the foundation of the Spartan creature comforts while the rest of the panel's floor was covered in custom wood flooring with polished stainless strips. A Flaming River tilt column topped by a Grant Formula GT steering wheel mounts under the dash. A full-length black leather headliner and side panels accent against the red interior, rounding out the cab's accoutrements.
Mike relates that having the panel in purgatory while the crew did their magic was akin to visiting a good friend in the hospital.
"Only when this friend gets out, he should feel like a wolverine!"
Since the panel was completed, it's responsibilities have been relegated from daily driver status to that more akin to a weekend warrior type. But Mike's passion for the panel hasn't diminished in the slightest and said, "This truck has been my band van, my second home, and a very dependable friend."
No better description of a classic truck has ever been uttered! CCT


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Research and Development at TianJiang Pharmaceutical
TianJiang Pharmaceutical is the world's largest manufacturer of premium Chinese granule herbs and leads the industry in scientific research and production. Since our establishment, we have worked with research institutes such as the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and China Pharmaceutical University to improve traditional herbalism through scientific research and technological innovation. To accomplish this, we employ renowned experts to lead our research and development programs, which include: a national postdoctoral research program, a state-level research center to improve granule herb engineering technology, and a national government-approved lab for granule herb testing. In addition, TianJiang Pharmaceutical has established the Technology Research Institute of Chinese Granule Herbs in conjunction with Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Throughout our work we provide our staff with the technological skills and training needed to lead the industry in research and development.
As a global leader in the field since inventing Chinese granule herbs over 20 years ago, TianJiang Pharmaceutical has worked with more than 70% of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) national and state-level hospitals, completed 101 research projects at the national and state level, independently written and published 155 clinical application papers and 47 research papers, and contributed to over 1,000 jointly-published papers. These achievements and innovations have helped to shape the Chinese granule herb industry, and will continue to contribute to this ever-evolving field.
For a more detailed description of our areas of research and development please see below:
1. Study of Raw Materials
The goal of our raw materials research is to guarantee that only high quality, efficacious, safe, and consistent raw herbs are selected for the next step of production. TianJiang's quality standards are determined by conducting extensive studies which compare each herb's properties, growing conditions, and farming practices among a variety of regions. Data from these studies are then analyzed to inform the ideal growing practices and regions for each herb. For example, after the chemical compositions of over 150 herbal products were statistically analyzed, it was found that more than 80 decoctions and products were most effective when prepared using fresh (rather than dry) herbs. Results from these analyses—which include heavy metal and pesticide residue testing to ensure safety—along with the regulations set by Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), are integrated to form TianJiang Pharmaceutical's standard operating procedures for herbal farming.
Due to variances in growing regions and methods of cultivation, the effective components of some herbs can vary considerably. The concentration measurements of these components help to determine which regions will be the cultivation bases for each species, thus ensuring the high quality of raw materials used. For example, Shandong Pingyi was selected as the ideal region to cultivate Huang Qin because our research revealed that Huang Qin grown in Shandong Pingyi had the highest concentration of baicalin of any region studied. By determining the ideal region to grow each herb, we are able to provide a stable source of high quality raw herbs to our consumers. Since 1994, we have established over 20 cultivation bases across 10 provinces for 320 herb species.
2. Study of Production Process
TianJiang's concentrated granule herb manufacturing procedures include: extraction, separation, drying, preparation, and granulation. Throughout these procedures, we employ advanced production technology and specialized techniques including: supercritical fluid extraction, super fine crushing, spray freeze drying, and a unique granulation process. The company owns 20 patents for invention, 1 application model patent, and all the independent intellectual property rights of the key technologies used in concentrated granular herb production.
3. Study of Quality Standardization
To ensure a safe, consistent, and high-quality product, TianJiang Pharmaceutical has developed a number of standardization protocols that regulate the process of converting raw herbs into concentrated granule herbs. These protocols prescribe the use of specialized technology to control for each herb's identity, origin, concentration of effective components, optimal binding material, and the proper dosage in concentrated form. To achieve this, we use chromatography, high-performance liquid chromatographs, hyphenated technology, fingerprinting, characteristic fingerprinting technology, inductive coupling plasma emission spectrographs, and gas chromatographs. To date, TianJiang has established quality standards for over 600 granule herbs. In fact, due to their rigor, our standardization protocols for concentrated granule herbs have been internationally recognized and adopted as the industry's national standard in the People's Republic of China.
Not only have our standardization protocols gained recognition, but we were also the first company in the industry to receive a Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) certification from the central government of the People's Republic of China. TianJiang's manufacturing documentation falls into six major categories which are further divided into over 3,600 systems of record documentation. During the manufacturing process, we have also implemented a 3-step quality control safeguard with checkpoints at each step, a 5-step chemical analysis throughout the conversion from raw herbs to granules, and digital archives of collected and analyzed data for each batch of product. In addition, our buildings, personnel, and equipment all satisfy GMP standards.
4. Development of New Products
Although TianJiang Pharmaceutical is already the world's largest manufacturer of Chinese granule herbs, we continually invest in new product development in order to meet ongoing domestic and global market demands for Chinese granule herbs.
5. Clinical Studies
As a further safety precaution, for the past 20 years TianJiang Pharmaceutical has conducted clinical studies to compare the effects of herbs that were mixed before they were processed with those that were mixed after they were processed. For these studies formulas that induce measurable physiological effects were examined to discern the differences in efficacy between the "pre-mixed" and "post-mixed" versions of these formulas. Of the 20 clinical studies conducted, none found a significant difference in efficacy between pre-mixed and post-mixed formulas. Most of these studies were sponsored by the central government of the People's Republic of China.
Future Research
Continuing to invest in research and development is an integral part of modernizing TCM, and as a leader in the industry of Chinese granule herbs, TianJiang will continue to focus its research on improving seed selection, cultivation, decoction, technology, quality standards, and clinical applications research. By pursuing the in-depth study of each herb from seed to finished product, TianJiang Pharmaceutical encourages both the potential for new enterprise and the globalization of TCM.
Research Cooperative Schools and Institute


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Cardinals pray in front of the coffin of John Paul II at St. Peter's Basilica at the end of John Paul II Beatification Ceremony in Vatican City, Vatican. The ceremony marking the beatification and the last stages of the process to elevate Pope John Paul II to sainthood was led by his successor Pope Benedict XI and attended by tens of thousands of pilgrims alongside heads of state and dignitaries.
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Local Belk store perform day of service day at Northeast Elementary
Northeast Elementary School was brushed by a Belk retail store service sweep this week.
In efforts to celebrate the company�s 125th year, more than 300 southern stores are providing local school makeovers from March 10 to July 12 � or 125 days.
Based on need, 301 schools were afforded various service projects by Belk associates who volunteered.
Ten store employees worked on a picnic table, shelves and paintings with fourth grade students at Northeast, the selected area school.
�I�m so thankful that Belk was able to come out and just give these kids experiences that they�ve never had before,� said Northeast fourth grade teacher Danielle Groseclose, who spent the morning helping coordinate the project. �It shows them that there are people out there in the world that are there to do nice things. I don�t think that they get to see that a lot; in the news, it�s always negative.�
She said the students additionally had a chance to apply real-world skills they�ve been learning in class.
Student Shkur Hardy, 10, painted a picture of a volcano beneath a river based on Greek mythological god Hephaestus.
Groseclose added a student working with Belk role models is, �very impactful to inspire them to go out and be that same kind of person.�
Jason Bailey, local Belk store manager, said this is the first time the company in Kinston has participated in a school makeover project.
�This is one small way we can give back to the community that supports our stores,� said Bailey, who�s worked with Belk eight years. �Our customers are a part of the community, so we felt like our children are our future. They�re our future shoppers; their parents shop in our stores. We felt like it was important that we give back in some way.�
He said all 44 Kinston store employees volunteered for the Northeast project.
Store associate Taylor Bielby, who works in the Kid�s Department, was thrilled to work with students who painted portraits for the school library.
�This is wonderful,� she said. �(The kids) are enjoying themselves. It�s amazing to see the smiles on their faces, what we can do for them and what they can do for us.�
Volunteers assisted students with paint and brushes and picnic table construction for about two hours. Some fourth graders hoped Belk would someday return for another round.
�I feel like if they can do it for us now, they might be able to do it for us in the future,� said Chazitee Everett, 10. �My favorite part about today was painting and doing things to encourage us for the EOGs. I�m glad that (Belk) gave it to us for free.�
Belk supplied Northeast materials for the project and will officially celebrate its anniversary on May 29.
�We�ve been around 125 years and obviously we couldn�t have done it without the communities we exist in,� Bailey said. �We�re not looking to get anything out of it. It�s just a way to say thank you for 125 years of support.�
Jessika Morgan can be reached at 252-559-1078 or at email@example.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessikaMorgan.


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Illyrians, Romans, and Slavs
Before the arrival of the Slav peoples in the Balkans in the 6th and 7th centuries ce, the area now known as Montenegro was inhabited principally by people known as Illyrians. Little is known of their origins or language, but they are claimed today as ancestors by the modern Albanians. Along the seaboard of the Adriatic, the movement of peoples that was typical of the ancient Mediterranean world ensured the settlement of a mixture of colonists, traders, and those in search of territorial conquest. Substantial Greek colonies were established on the coast during the 6th and 7th centuries bce, and Celts are known to have settled there in the 4th century bce. During the 3rd century bce an indigenous Illyrian kingdom emerged with its capital at Skadar (modern Shkodër, Alb.). The Romans mounted several punitive expeditions against local pirates and finally conquered this kingdom in 9 ce, annexing it to the province of Illyricum.
The division of the Roman Empire between Roman and Byzantine rule—and subsequently between the Latin and Greek churches—was marked by a line that ran northward from Skadar through modern Montenegro, symbolizing the status of this region as a perpetual marginal zone between the economic, cultural, and political worlds of the Mediterranean peoples and the Slavs. As Roman power declined, this part of the Dalmatian coast suffered from intermittent ravages by various seminomadic invaders, especially the Goths in the late 5th century and the Avars during the 6th century. These soon were supplanted by the Slavs, who became widely established in Dalmatia by the middle of the 7th century. Because the terrain was extremely rugged and lacked any major sources of wealth such as mineral riches, the area that is now Montenegro became a haven for residual groups of earlier settlers, including some tribes who had escaped Romanization.
Medieval South Slav kingdoms
The South Slav peoples of the region were the ancestors of today's Serbs and Montenegrins, though the degree of differentiation between those two groups remains controversial. The peoples were organized along tribal lines, each headed by a župan (chieftain). In this part of the Adriatic littoral, from the time of the arrival of the Slavs up to the 10th century, these local magnates often were brought into unstable and shifting alliances with other larger states, particularly with Bulgaria, Venice, and Byzantium. Between 931 and 960 one such župan, Česlav, operating from the županija of Zeta in the hinterland of the Gulf of Kotor, succeeded in unifying a number of neighbouring Serb tribes and extended his control as far north as the Sava River and eastward to the Ibar. Zeta and its neighbouring županija of Raška (roughly modern Kosovo) then provided the territorial nucleus for a succession of Serb kingdoms that in the 13th century were consolidated under the Nemanjić dynasty. (See also Serbia: Medieval Serbia.)
Although the Serbs have come to be identified closely with the Eastern Orthodox tradition of Christianity, it is an important indication of the continuing marginality of Zeta that Mihiajlo of Duklja, the first of its rulers to claim the title of king, had this honour bestowed on him in 1077 by Pope Gregory VII, head of the Western, or Roman Catholic, church. It was only under the later Nemanjić rulers that the ecclesiastical allegiance of the Serbs to Constantinople, and thus to Eastern Orthodoxy, was finally confirmed. On the death of Stefan Dušan in 1355, the Nemanjić empire began to crumble, and its holdings were divided among the knez (prince) Lazar Hrebeljanović, the short-lived Bosnian state of Tvrtko I (reigned 1353–91), and a semi-independent chiefdom of Zeta under the house of Balša, with its capital at Skadar. Serb disunity coincided fatefully with the arrival in the Balkans of the armies of the Ottoman Empire, and in 1389 Lazar fell to the forces of Sultan Murad I at the Battle of Kosovo.
After the Balšić dynasty died out in 1421, the focus of Serb resistance shifted northward to Žabljak (not far from Podgorica). There a chieftain named Stefan Crnojević set up his capital. Stefan was succeeded by Ivan Crnojević (Ivan the Black), who, in the unlikely setting of this barren and broken landscape and pressed by advancing Ottoman armies, created in his court a remarkable, if fragile, centre of civilization. Ivan's son Djuradj Crnojević built a monastery at Cetinje, founding there the see of a bishopric, and imported from Venice a printing press that produced after 1493 some of the earliest books in the Cyrillic script. During the reign of Djuradj, Zeta came to be more widely known as Montenegro.
Under the prince-bishops
In 1516 a shift occurred in the constitution of Montenegro that many historians regard as having ensured its survival as an independent state. The last of the Crnojević dynasty retired to Venice and conferred the succession on the bishops of Cetinje. Formerly, the loyalty of minor chieftains and of the peasantry to their rulers had been unstable. It was not unusual for political control throughout the Balkans to pass from Slav rulers to the Ottoman Turks, not because of the defeat of the former in battle but because of the failure of local magnates to secure the support of their subjects. In Montenegro the position of vladika, as the prince-bishop was known, brought stability to the territory's leadership. The link between church and state elevated it in the eyes of the peasantry, institutionalized a form of succession, and excluded the possibility of compromising alliances with the Turks.
Nevertheless, this period was a difficult one for the small, then landlocked Montenegro, which was almost constantly at war with the Ottoman Empire. Cetinje itself was captured in 1623, in 1687, and again in 1712. Three factors explain the Ottoman failure to subdue it completely: the obdurate resistance of the population, the inhospitable character of the terrain (in which it was said that "a small army is beaten, a large one dies of starvation"), and the adroit use of diplomatic ties with Venice.
From 1519 until 1696 the position of vladika had been an elective one, but in the latter year Danilo Nikola Petrović was elected to the position (as Danilo I) with the new provision of being able to nominate his own successor. Although Eastern Orthodox clergy are generally permitted to marry, bishops are required to be celibate; consequently, Danilo passed his office to his nephew, establishing a tradition that lasted until 1852.
Two important changes occurred in the wider European context for Montenegro during Danilo's reign: the expansion of Ottoman territory was gradually reversed, and Montenegro found in Russia a powerful new patron to replace the declining Venice. The ebbing of the Ottoman tide proved significant for Montenegrin religious identity, which appears to have been particularly unstable throughout the 18th century. In spite of the establishment of an Orthodox theocratic polity and the apocryphal mass slaughter of those who had converted to Islam (the "Montenegrin Vespers" of Christmas Eve, 1702), there is contested evidence that Montenegrin lineages shifted in a very fluid manner not only between the Roman Catholic and Muslim faiths but also between Montenegrin and Albanian identity. It seems that, given the uncertainty over who held power in the region, diversity was often regarded as a kind of collective insurance policy. Montenegro's Orthodox identity gradually stabilized, however, as Ottoman power declined. Roman Catholicism retained a toehold in the area, and only in modern times have Montenegrin Catholics identified themselves as Croats.
The replacement of Venice by Russian patronage was especially significant, since it brought financial aid (after Danilo I visited Peter the Great in 1715), modest territorial gain, and formal recognition in 1799 by the Ottoman Porte of Montenegro's independence as a state under the vladika Petar Petrović Njegoš (Peter I). Russian support at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, following the final defeat of French emperor Napoleon I, failed to secure for Montenegro an outlet to the sea, even though Montenegrins had participated in the seizure of the Gulf of Kotor from French forces in 1806.
Modernization and statehood
The accession of Peter II as vladika in 1830 heralded an era of modernization and political integration, in spite of further wars against the Ottoman Turks. The authority of tribal chieftainships was significantly attenuated after a brief civil uprising was suppressed in 1847. The position of "civil governor" was replaced by a senate, and much progress was made in the suppression of blood feuding. After Peter's death in 1851, his nephew and successor, Danilo II, introduced major changes in governance. Because he was already betrothed, Danilo was precluded from becoming vladika; therefore, he assumed the title of gospodar (prince) and, by making it a hereditary office, separated the leadership of state from the episcopal office. Danilo also introduced a new and modernized legal code, and the first Montenegrin newspaper appeared in 1871.
A turning point in the fortunes of Montenegro came when Serbia declared war on the Ottoman Empire in 1876. (See Serbo-Turkish War.) Montenegro, under Prince Nikola Petrović (Nicholas I), joined Serbia immediately and Russia the following year. Although the territorial gains awarded to Montenegro by the initial Treaty of San Stefano were reduced at the Congress of Berlin in 1878, the state virtually doubled in area, and for the first time its borders were set down, however vaguely, in an international treaty. Most significantly, Montenegro secured vital access to the sea at Antivari (modern Bar) and Dulcigno (Ulcinj). Although the hostility of the other great powers to a Russian naval presence in the Mediterranean tended to restrict the use of these ports, Montenegro was now far more open to communication with the developing industrial economies of western Europe. Trade expanded, tobacco and vines were cultivated, a state bank was founded, motor roads were built, a postal service was initiated, and in 1908 the first railway (from Antivari to Virpazar on Lake Scutari) was opened. The majority of the investment was by foreign (especially Italian) interests. Economic openness had another side, however, as a flow of emigrants began to leave Montenegro, especially for Serbia and the United States.
The steady expansion of educational opportunity and contact with the outside world produced further pressure to modernize governance. The legal code was thoroughly revised in 1888, and parliamentary government was introduced in 1905. Prince Nicholas's autocratic disposition nevertheless made for frequent conflict between parliament and the crown. He took the title of king in 1910.
The peaceful economic expansion that the country experienced after 1878 ended with the Balkan Wars of 1912–13. Montenegro sided with Serbia and the other Balkan League states to oust the Ottoman Turks from their remaining European possessions. The Treaty of London (1913) brought territorial gains on the Albanian border and in Kosovo, and it also resulted in a division of the old Ottoman sanjak, or military-administrative district, of Novi Pazar between Serbia and Montenegro. This brought Montenegro to its greatest territorial extent and for the first time gave the two states a common border. Discussions began about a possible union between the two countries, but these were interrupted by World War I, when Austrian troops drove Nicholas into exile in Italy.
Following the end of hostilities in November 1918, a national assembly in Cetinje deposed the king and announced the union of the Serbian and Montenegrin states. Although Montenegrin representatives had had little contact with the Yugoslav Committee—a group of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes who advocated the establishment of a unified South Slav state—or with the Serbian government-in-exile of Nikola Pašić during the war, Montenegro was taken into the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes on Dec. 1, 1918. Of all the constituent parts of this newly unified state (renamed Yugoslavia in 1929), Montenegro had suffered the greatest proportionate loss of life during the war.
Montenegro in the two Yugoslavias
In view of the dominant place of the Serb-Croat conflict in Yugoslav politics, almost no attention has been given by historians to the development of Montenegro between the two World Wars. Economic development—including foreign investment—followed the lines of political patronage, and therefore little of it filtered into Montenegro. No new railroad building took place, no new mineral extraction was initiated, and there was little road construction. Having few large estates to expropriate, it was almost untouched by agrarian reform. Port development in the Gulf of Kotor was largely confined to military facilities; in the words of one historian, Bar in 1938 was "of very little importance." By almost all indicators of economic well-being, the Zetska banovina, the administrative district in post-1929 Yugoslavia that roughly corresponded to Montenegro, vied for the lowest level of economic development with the banovina of Vardarska, which comprised parts of Macedonia. Montenegro's most important export in this period was probably emigrants.
It is difficult to determine whether this neglect had a lasting effect on the Montenegrins, as Yugoslav politics was centralized and multiparty politics was proscribed under the royal dictatorship after 1929. It is perhaps indicative that the Communist Party drew support as much in such marginalized areas as Montenegro as it did in the large industrial centres of Zagreb (Croatia) and Belgrade (Serbia).
During World War II, after Yugoslavia was invaded and partitioned by the Axis powers in April 1941, Montenegro was occupied by the Italians under a nominally autonomous administration. Spontaneous armed resistance began within a few months; it was divided in its aims and loyalties between communists and their sympathizers and noncommunist bjelaši (advocates of union with Serbia). At the same time, many Montenegrin nationalists (zelenaši), disappointed by the experience of Yugoslav unification, supported the Italian administration. Notwithstanding this local conflict, which was soon entangled within the wider Yugoslav struggle, the local strength of the Communist Party gave the communists an effective base in Montenegro. In addition, the area's remoteness and difficult terrain made it an important refuge for Josip Broz Tito's communist Partisan forces during the most difficult stage of their struggle, and it became a relatively safe haven after the fall of Italy.
The Montenegrins' traditional Pan-Slavism made them natural allies of the communist plan to reunify Yugoslavia. Consequently, after the war many Montenegrins found themselves in high positions within the military, political, and economic administration—in contrast to their former marginality. That same devotion to the Communist Party and to Soviet leadership, bolstered by Montenegro's pro-Russian tradition, helps to explain why a large number of Montenegrins sided with Joseph Stalin in the 1948 dispute between the Soviet-backed agency of international communism, Cominform, and the Yugoslav leadership. Many of those people who backed Stalin were victims of subsequent Yugoslav purges.
Nevertheless, Montenegro's elevation to the status of a republic—part of the communist strategy of unifying Yugoslavia through a federal structure—ultimately secured Montenegrin loyalty to the Yugoslav regime. Montenegro later became a regular recipient of the large sums of federal aid disbursed to less-developed regions, which enabled it to embark for the first time on a process of industrialization. In spite of an attempt to develop the Nikšić area as a centre of both bauxite mining and steel production, economic progress was constantly hampered by the republic's marginality to the communication networks of the Yugoslav federation. The Montenegrin coast did not emerge as an important tourist area until the 1980s.
Federation with Serbia
The breakup of the Yugoslav federation after 1989 left Montenegro in a precarious position. The first multiparty elections in 1990 returned the reformed League of Communists to power, confirming Montenegrin support for the disintegrating federation. The republic therefore joined Serbia in fighting the secession of Slovenia and Croatia, and in 1992 it joined Slobodan Milošević's "third Yugoslavia," a federal republic comprising only Montenegro and Serbia. Still, in 1989 the remains of King Nicholas I and other members of the former royal family had been returned to Montenegro to be reinterred with great ceremony in Cetinje. This sign of the continuing sense of distinctive Montenegrin identity was matched by lively criticism of the Serb conduct of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (see Bosnian conflict). In addition, the United Nations' sanctions against Yugoslavia seriously harmed Montenegro, especially by undermining its lucrative tourist trade; their impact, however, was somewhat softened by the opportunities created for smuggling, in collaboration with coastal networks in Albania.John B. Allcock John R. Lampe
Relations between Montenegro and Serbia began to deteriorate at the end of 1992. Montenegrins reacted negatively when an attempt to settle the dispute over Montenegro's frontier with Croatia in the Prevlaka Peninsula was headed off by the Milošević regime in Belgrade (though the matter was later settled). Montenegrins also became increasingly frustrated with Serbia's unequal access to power in the new federation and impatient, in particular, with its failure to address economic reform. Disagreements over the conduct of the wars in Bosnia and Croatia led to the withdrawal of Montenegrin units from the Yugoslav army.
Matters came to a head in 1997, when the ruling party, the Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro (Demokratska Partija Socijalista Crne Gore; DPS), split into factions that either supported or opposed Milošević, who had ascended from the Serbian to the Yugoslav presidency in July. After Milošević's protégé and close ally Momir Bulatović was defeated by Milorad Ðjukanović in Montenegro's presidential elections that October, Ðjukanović began to steer an increasingly independent course of action, and within a year Montenegrin representatives had been withdrawn from most of the federal institutions. Ðjukanović was also critical of the Serbian policy toward Kosovo, fearing that once Milošević had settled accounts with the rebelling Kosovar Albanians, Montenegro would be forced to submit to a firmer hand from Belgrade. As the Kosovo conflict escalated, however, Ðjukanović's active opposition to Serbian policy did not entirely save Montenegro from military action carried out by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) against Yugoslavia in 1999: the port of Bar as well as communication facilities and military targets in the republic were bombed.
Despite widespread support for independence in Montenegro and plans to hold a referendum on secession in April 2002, Ðjukanović negotiated an agreement with Yugoslav and Serbian authorities in March, calling for Montenegro's continued association with Serbia in a virtual federation. The agreement, approved by the Yugoslav parliament and the Montenegrin and Serbian assemblies in 2003, renamed the country Serbia and Montenegro, gave wide powers to the governments of Montenegro and Serbia, and allowed each republic to hold a referendum on independence and to withdraw from the union after three years.
In a referendum held on May 21, 2006, 55.5 percent of Montenegrins (just over the necessary threshold of 55 percent) voted to end the federation of Serbia and Montenegro. On June 3, 2006, Montenegro declared its independence, which was recognized by the Serbian parliament two days later.
The principal feature of the first years of independence was the economic boom of 2006–08, with growth rates exceeding 6 percent each year. The boom was followed, however, by a contraction of roughly the same percentage in 2009. Sharp declines in European bank credit, real estate sales (to Russians in particular), and direct foreign investment—factors that had been partly responsible for the boom—accounted for the economic retreat.
Both contributing to the boom and also easing its end in the midst of a broader international financial crisis was the unchanged political dominance of the Democratic Party of Socialists. Its leader, Ðjukanović, who had been serving as prime minister at the time of independence, had stepped down in November 2006 but returned to the post in February 2008. He then led the party, as part of the Coalition for a European Montenegro, to victory in the parliamentary elections of March 2009. Subsequently, in consultation with the International Monetary Fund, the government and Montenegro's central bank worked to restart the flow of bank credit, keep unemployment from rising, and reduce both the current-account and state budget deficits.
In the meantime, the successful conclusion of Montenegro's Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the European Union (EU) was marked by the lifting in late 2009 of the restrictive visa requirements for Montenegrins traveling to the Schengen zone, which included most EU member states. (See Schengen Agreement.) Montenegro's recognition of Kosovo's independence in 2008 troubled relations with Serbia, however, and the status of Serbs within Montenegro remained unsettled. Continuing controversy over whether Montenegrin constituted a language separate from Serbian added to the disquiet. (See also Serbo-Croatian language.) For the government that matter was settled in 2010 when it published a Montenegrin grammatical code and declared Montenegrin the official language of the country's broadcasting and education systems.John R. Lampe
Montenegro's relations with the rest of southeastern Europe were promising, but reviving economic growth in the face of fiscal austerity remained a major domestic challenge for the country. As part of Montenegro's continuing efforts to join NATO, in March 2010 a contingent of Montenegrin soldiers was dispatched to Afghanistan as part of NATO's International Security Assistance Force. In November the European Commission recognized Montenegro's sustained progress in meeting EU membership goals when it recommended the country for candidate status. Ðjukanović resigned as prime minister the following month, but he remained head of the DPS and continued to exert a strong influence on Montenegrin politics. Ðjukanović's finance minister, Igor Luksic, succeeded him as prime minister, and Luksic continued his predecessor's efforts to achieve greater integration with the rest of Europe and with the West.
Luksic presided over a modest economic recovery that stalled in early 2012 as foreign direct investment—one of the chief engines of financial growth in Montenegro—dried up in the wake of the euro-zone crisis. In spite of the economic downturn, a small measure of optimism was restored in June when Montenegro began formal accession talks with the EU. The ruling DPS-led coalition claimed the largest share of seats in parliamentary elections held on October 14, 2012, but strong showings by opposition and ethnic-minority parties prevented the DPS from obtaining an outright majority. The DPS was able to forge a coalition with the support of several minor parties, and Ðjukanović returned as prime minister to form a new government in December. In April 2013 Filip Vujanović of the DPS was reelected president in polling that the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) characterized as "professionally and efficiently administered." Nevertheless, opposition parties claimed fraud and initially refused to recognize the result. The economy began to recover in 2014, and the European Commission concluded that Montenegro had made considerable progress toward EU membership.
In December 2015 Montenegro was invited to become the 29th member of NATO, a move that was strongly opposed by Russia, and a wave of antigovernment protests in September and October of that year were widely seen to have been orchestrated by Moscow. Demonstrators called for Ðjukanović's resignation, but an ultimatum delivered by opposition pro-Russian legislators backfired, and police dispersed the protest camp that had been established. The threat of violence marred parliamentary elections on October 16, 2016, when 20 people, including the former commander of Serbia's special forces unit, were arrested by Montenegrin police for suspected terror offenses. The election had been widely seen as a choice between closer ties with the EU or Russia, and the pro-Western Ðjukanović decried the plot as an attempt by Russia to influence the election. This proved to be a massive understatement, as Montenegrin authorities and Western intelligence agencies later revealed that the foiled operation was nothing less than an attempted coup, allegedly with Russian backing, that was to have included the assassination of Ðjukanović.
As in 2012, Ðjukanović's DPS captured the most votes in the election, but they failed to gain a clear majority, and 10 days later Ðjukanović—who had held power as either president or prime minister for most of the previous 25 years—resigned. He was succeeded by Duško Marković, who assembled a governing coalition and was elected prime minister on November 28, 2016. On June 5, 2017, Montenegro formally became a member of NATO, the first expansion of that alliance since 2009. As NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg oversaw the hoisting of the Montenegrin flag over NATO headquarters in Brussels, Russia claimed that it reserved the right to take "retaliatory measures" against Montenegro's "hostile course."The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Learn More in these related Britannica articles:
Alps>Montenegro, Serbia, and Albania. Only Switzerland and Austria can be considered true Alpine countries, however. Some 750 miles (1,200 kilometres) long and more than 125 miles wide at their broadest point between Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, and Verona, Italy, the Alps cover more than…
flag of Montenegro…in 1878, and that year Montenegro adopted the horizontal red-blue-white tricolour of Serbia (with which it had loose links) for its own state flag. Its pan-Slavic colours were inspired by the Russian flag. When Montenegro acquired a navy, symbols of Prince (later King) Nicholas appeared on the design. After World…
Balkans, easternmost of Europe's three great southern peninsulas. There is not universal agreement on the region's components. The Balkans are usually characterized as comprising Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, and Slovenia—with all or part of each of those countries…
EuropeEurope, second smallest of the world's continents, composed of the westward-projecting peninsulas of Eurasia (the great landmass that it shares with Asia) and occupying nearly one-fifteenth of the world's total land area. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the west by the Atlantic…
CetinjeCetinje, city, Montenegro, historical capital of Montenegro. It lies 2,198 feet (670 metres) above sea level on the Cetinje plateau, surrounded by peaks and at the foot of Mount Lovćen (5,738 feet [1,749 metres]). The city's name derives from the river, the Cetina (or Cetinja). The monastery at…
More About Montenegro7 references found in Britannica articles
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physical geography
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it's finally about to happen!
So excited to go to the beach resort though, packing neatly and correctly is
my first task I have to finish right now!
Oops, one thing I wanna tell you......today Dec,29th is actually my birthday!!
So I've got to sing that song aloud and bite a piece of cake, and yeah...
I should finish to pack anyway!!
Wish you a happy new year! With love.
coat: MiuMiu(old)
top: zara(here)
shorts: zara
necklace: Kenneth Jay Lane(here)
bag: Chloe(love this new color!)
boots: Valentino(similar here)


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Topic: Boba Hat`
so in my searches on ebay i have come across a many number of hats and was wondering if anyone had any or maybe home made on. i know there is a bantha skull beanie, a grey hat with him in black, a red disney cartoon style one and i do believe there is a trucker hat version but that 1 i saw was a while ago and could have been fan made. anyone else seen any?
―Peter Griffin


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Two Winston-Salem residents are the first to be arrested locally under a mortgage fraud prevention law passed in 2007.
Local Couple First To Be Charged Under New Mortgage Law
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Two Winston-Salem residents are the first to be arrested locally under a mortgage fraud prevention law passed in 2007.
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Rachel Dollar, the editor of Mortgage Fraud Blog is a California attorney and Certified Mortgage Banker who handles litigation for mortgage lenders, servicers and financial institutions.
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Legal Disclaimer. The information and notices contained on Mortgage Fraud Blog are intended to summarize recent developments in mortgage fraud cases and mortgage banking matters nationwide. The posts on this site are presented as general research and information and are expressly not intended, and should not be regarded, as legal advice. Much of the information on this site concerns allegations made in civil lawsuits and in criminal indictments. All persons are presumed innocent until convicted of a crime. Readers who have particular questions about mortgage banking, mortgage fraud matters or who believe they require legal counsel should seek the advice of an attorney. The creators, editors and sponsors of Mortgage Fraud Blog do not intend to create a confidential relationship or an attorney-client relationship by communication via or arising from this site.


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No matter how much faculty of idle seeing a man has, the step from knowing to doing is rarely taken. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Simple Dollar, like any worthwhile internet resource, is about knowledge. The entire purpose of the site is to get your mind thinking about your money, your time, and your career. Even if you don't agree with every idea or conclusion presented (and, frankly, you shouldn't unless you're in your early thirties and living in Iowa in a house with a spouse and three children and with a very similar personality to mine), you're at least pushing yourself forward by thinking about those ideas.
In the end, though, it doesn't matter how many great ideas you have floating around in your head if you never take action on any of those ideas.
You can think about frugality all day long, but if you don't actively make choices to save money or engage in projects that result in lowered expenditures, those thoughts don't add up to too much.
You can think about your career all day long, but if you're not volunteering for hard tasks, taking classes to improve your skill set, or putting your nose to the grindstone on the dull tasks, you're going to remain one of those middle-of-the-road workers no matter how many great thoughts you have.
You can think about your health all day long, but if you still stop for fast food on the way home, pick up a super-sweetened coffee each morning, and sit on the couch instead of exercising, you're not going to get into better shape no matter how powerful your ideas are.
Changing your life comes from action, not from just thinking about it. You might know exactly what you need to do. You might even think of those actions as common sense. Still, if you're not actually doing those things, nothing is ever going to really change in your life.
Every day, you have a choice. You can either sit back and let your life continue in the way that it always has, or you can stand up and push your life in a different direction.
You can twiddle your thumbs and watch the clock at work, or you can try to fill those hours by learning a new task or implementing a new workflow.
You can stop at the grocery store and wander about as you toss things in your cart, or you can plan meals ahead of time, design a grocery list that takes advantage of sales, and greatly reduce that bill you'll be facing at the checkout line.
You can kick back on the couch and watch Sportscenter or TMZ (or fire up your laptop to check the scores or see some celebrity pics), or you can read a challenging book or stop at the gym for an hour.
Positive change in your life doesn't come from having powerful ideas. It comes from putting those powerful ideas to work. Most people don't have what it takes to really do that, but the people who do are the people who get ahead and have all of the things they want in life.
Are you going to sit around and think about it? Or are you going to do it?


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Manischewitz Moves to Newark
June 14, 2011 Leave a comment
By Desiree Taylor
Kosher specialty food company, Manischewitz, has a new corporate home and a new face. For much of its 120 years Manischewitz has had a presence in New Jersey. But after 80 years in Jersey City company officials decided to consolidate and call Newark home. Read more of this post