Spits? DJ Smith named head coach of Oshawa Generals

The Windsor Spitfires? assistant coach DJ Smith has been named the new head coach of the Oshawa Generals.

Smith spent seven years as an assistant coach with the Spitfires and was a key component of the club?s back-to-back MasterCard Memorial Cup championships, according to a press release. He also played four seasons with the Spitfires and captained the team during the 1996-1997 season.

?On behalf of the ownership group, I?d like to wish DJ all the best in Oshawa,? said Spitfires president and head coach Bob Boughner. ?He will be missed on a day-to-day basis. DJ has worked extremely hard to get to this point, and is very deserving of the chance to be an Ontario Hockey League head coach. As an organization, we have always tried to develop our staff in the same way we develop our team. And DJ is a prime example of that strength and the successes we have enjoyed. DJ is not only a great coach, but a great friend. He will do an outstanding job for the Generals.?

Boughner said the remaining coaching staff, including himself, associate coach Bob Jones and assistant coach Dave Matsos will continue leading the team.

?We?ll continue on with the three of us behind the bench,? he said. ?As much as we will miss DJ back there, we are looking forward to the challenges that lay ahead this season.? ?Smith is entering his eighth season as an Assistant Coach.

Source: http://blogs.windsorstar.com/2012/06/28/spits-dj-smith-named-head-coach-of-oshawa-generals/

nfc championship game martin luther king jr quotes martin luther king jr i have a dream speech packers score ricky gervais napoleon dynamite michelle williams

94% Moonrise Kingdom

All Critics (158) | Top Critics (41) | Fresh (147) | Rotten (10) | DVD (1)

Anderson never loses his core themes - young love, the need to escape, the bind and bluster of family. His "Kingdom" may not be large, but it is perfectly appointed.

Though undeniably smart and charming, "Moonrise Kingdom" loves itself the way the callow Holden Caulfield loves himself: unconditionally. Salinger understood the problem with that. Anderson may not.

The latest unadulterated delight from Wes Anderson, director of "Rushmore," "The Royal Tenenbaums" and "Fantastic Mr. Fox."

The usual complaints and caveats about Anderson - he's precious, his characters have no grounding in the real world - can be made about Moonrise Kingdom, but so what?

Anderson and his actors are able to convey more genuine feeling through these devices than most filmmakers can with more-traditional means.

One knock against some of Anderson's previous efforts is that they're too clever - so clever, in fact, that the humanity gets sucked out of them. That doesn't happen here.

Eventually Anderson's penchant for style over soul becomes draining.

The plot isn't as fetching as the presentation, starting with the tersely whimsical dialogue. There aren't punch lines for big laughs, but rather a seamless series of non sequiturs for smiles.

It's funny, it's touching, it's Anderson doing what he does better than he's ever done before.

Wonderfully inventive and entirely immersing.

The great thing about Wes Anderson, other than his fabulously childlike imagination, is his deep attention to the smallest details.

This isn't Wes Anderson's best effort by any stretch. However, any Anderson is better than no Anderson at all.

This film contains some of cinema history's best lightning strikes.

Wes Anderson's films are stylistic carbon copies of each other, merely swapping out storylines and characters. It's like going to a bunch of different restaurants and ordering the exact same meal -- you walk in knowing what you're going to get.

Most of Wes Anderson's previous pictures came from the head; Moonrise Kingdom is one from the heart.

Moonrise Kingdom is a charming reminder of Anderson's particular talent for spinning fantasies about the collective childhood we all wish we had.

As fussy as anything Anderson has ever done, but instead of being overstuffed, as virtually all of his movies have been, for good and ill, [the film] is mostly delicate.

A sometimes precocious but mostly whimsical and artfully fluent evocation of adolescent enthusiasm and adult ennui.

Anderson's latest effort is like an Instagram photo - a nostalgic snapshot that seems to be of different time and place but is really the twee affectation of a world that never existed.

[Anderson] may make it look easy because of how firmly his mannerisms are established at this point, but it takes a real artist to evoke the rocky emotional storms of adolescence and adulthood with such clear eyes and precise voice.

Anderson's films have been described as quirky, eccentric and whimsical. But there is also a genuine charm and heart that is driven by the Anderson's love for his characters, and the love those characters have for one another.

Wes Anderson, at 43, is still grappling with adolescence.

More unbearable Anderson whimsy.

When the storm arrives, it's a doozy, especially as it intensifies a final, thrilling chase sequence.

More Critic Reviews

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/moonrise_kingdom/

real housewives of orange county bloom energy franklin graham jambalaya taylor swift and zac efron basketball wives manny ramirez

Get to Know Hello Cupcake Public Relations | WeddingLovely Blog

I am so happy to share today?s interview with Stacy of Hello Cupcake, LLC. I met Stacy last year at a WeddingLovely meetup in San Francisco and she is SO SWEET and ambitious. When I learned that she launched her own boutique wedding industry Public Relations firm, I knew we had to share it with our vendors. If you are looking for help marketing yourself, look no further ? we bring you Stacy! :)

1. Tell us a bit about yourself and your company.

Since starting my company Hello Cupcake in 2008 I?ve joked that I?m in a serious relationship with my printer. Yes, it?s true that we spend many hours together, we fight, we makeup and we continue to learn how to work better as a team. But in all seriousness my business is multifaceted and has two main operating functions. Hello Cupcake Creations is my paper line with wedding invitations, party decor and cards ? it?s my creative outlet. Hello Cupcake Public Relations is my main focus and is a boutique wedding industry Public Relations firm.

Learn more about Hello Cupcake PR after the jump?

2.How did you get into public relations?

Previous to starting Hello Cupcake, I had attained a degree in Journalism from Texas A&M with a Public Relations emphasis and a minor in Broadcast Communications. In my professional career I?ve worked in public relations for the technology industry, the non-profit industry and the wedding industry!

3. How can the Wedding Lovely collection of vendors use your services?

Many Wedding Lovely vendors run their own small businesses. It?s likely that they are busy meeting with clients, establishing vendor relationships and taking care of the day to day operations. But who is making sure that gorgeous engagement shoot they just photographed is being submitted and featured in magazines and blogs? Who is responsible for creating unique blog content and updating social media?

As small businesses I know that you are being pulled in a zillion different directions but it?s important to be aware of the message it?s send to potential clients when there hasn?t been a blog post for two months, or the last tweet was sent out more than a year ago. It gives the impression that you have nothing going on and therefore nothing to talk about!

My job is to make sure you, the client has your opportunity to shine!

4. What would you say is the most important tip for those who consider themselves a public relations novice?

You cannot ignore social media! More than 90 percent of American adults who are online use some form of social media. As a small business you are your own brand and if you are interested in furthering your brand you need to jump on the bandwagon. Think you?ve got nothing interesting to share? Maybe you just designed a new invitation. I bet your customers would love to know the inspiration behind the design. Did you just have an awesome cake tasting with a bride? Spill the beans, where?s the bakery! Did a bride wear a fabulous dress for her engagement shoot? I?m dying to see a picture!

Think outside the box and don?t be shy! You will be pleasantly surprised about the opportunities that will come from social media and how engaged your followers will become with you and your business.

5. What do you like to do when you are not working?

I love spending time with my husband and our furry baby Ginger. I?m a creative person by nature and try to make DIY projects a part of my everyday life. I also love scouring antique faires for vintage jewelry and treasures!

Learn more about Hello Cupcake Public Relations and learn how Stacy can help you!

big ten tournament 2012 dennis quaid bruce weber fired notorious big biggie smalls lyrics azores emmylou harris

R. Kelly Cancels Appearances Due to "Health Emergency"

Bad news for fans of artists who like to urinate on teenage girls R. Kelly: the musician has been forced to cancel a number of appearances this week due to what his rep is describing as a "health emergency."

R. Kelly Live in Nashville

The artist was scheduled to appear at a book launch in New York City tonight, but has been "sidelined in Chicago," according to an insider who tells TMZ:

"We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this has caused."

Kelly has also backed out of a performance on Jimmy Fallon and on The Today Show, with his camp telling the site:

"Initial indications are that he is suffering from complications from surgery he had last year to treat an abscess on his vocal cords... It is unclear how long Kelly may be sidelined."

We wish the controversial singer a full recovery. We guess.

pujols watchmen hitch justin beiber lamar odom perfect game jon jones vs rashad evans results

Coverage for most Americans, a scramble for states

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama's health care overhaul is on the way to its ultimate jury: the families, doctors, business people and state officials who'll have to grapple with the confusing details while striving to fulfill its promise.

With the Supreme Court hurdle cleared, open enrollment for millions now uninsured is scheduled to begin 16 months from now, in October 2013. Much of the health care industry is ready. People who do have insurance won't have to worry about the loss of popular new benefits, such as coverage for young adult children or improvements to Medicare's prescription plan.

And, starting in 2014, insurance companies will no longer be able to turn away people with a history of medical problems, or charge them more.

But carrying out the law will be a mad scramble for states, especially Republican-led ones where officials had hoped this day wouldn't come. And the court added a new complication by giving individual states more leeway to turn down the law's expansion of Medicaid, expected to provide coverage to about 16 million uninsured people.

After the ruling, chances of repealing the entire law appear much slimmer for Republicans, although they will again make it an election rallying cry. However, a targeted repeal strategy aimed at individual components of the law including cost controls, taxes and spending cuts, may still work.

Vicki McCuistion of Driftwood, Texas, who shuttles between two part-time jobs and is uninsured, said the Supreme Court ruling has given her new hope. Her husband Dan has back problems so bad he can't go to work some days, and with a family history of skin cancer she is worried about a mole that she hasn't been able to get checked by doctors.

"Having access to health insurance that we can actually afford would allow us to improve our lives," McCuistion said Thursday.

At the White House, Obama repeated his promise that the Affordable Care Act will both deliver health insurance and help get a handle on growing costs. But the glow of victory may be brief. Even some supporters of the law candidly admit it's only a first installment ? a way to get most of the population covered before tackling costs forcefully. Wrenching choices about Medicare and Medicaid cuts could come as early as next year.

Thursday's decision moves the United States closer to other economically advanced countries that for years have guaranteed health insurance to their citizens.

The law's controversial mandate that individuals have health insurance or pay a fee ? upheld by the court on Thursday ? will affect relatively few people, because more than eight in 10 Americans already have coverage. But employers with 50 or more workers will face fines if they don't provide insurance for employees.

The law is expected to extend coverage to about 30 million of the estimated 50 million uninsured. Illegal immigrants will represent a large share of those still without coverage, but 90 percent of citizens and legal residents will have insurance.

The focus now quickly shifts from Washington to the states.

While health insurers, big hospitals and major employers have spent the last two years planning and carrying out the law, states are all over the lot.

Although they are expected to play a crucial role in delivering insurance to their residents, only 14 states, plus Washington D.C., have actually adopted a plan for doing so. Hoping the law would be overturned, Republican governors and legislatures have resisted setting up new insurance markets that are a linchpin of the legislation, and that could turn into a problem for the whole country.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners expects only about half the states to be ready to set up new health insurance markets, slated to open for business on Jan. 1, 2014.

If states aren't ready, the law calls for Washington to step in and run things. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says the feds are ready to do that.

State plans for the markets ? called exchanges ? are due to the federal government this fall. Washington will run the exchanges in states that lag behind. The new Internet-based markets are supposed to provide one-stop shopping for health insurance, steering middle-class households to private plans and low-income people to an expanded version of Medicaid, the federal-state program for the poor and disabled.

But the court added a new wrinkle, ruling that states cannot be threatened with the loss of their entire Medicaid allotments if they refuse to carry out the expansion, which is geared largely to helping uninsured low-income adults. Under the law, the federal government will pick up all of the cost for the first three years, eventually dropping to a 90 percent share.

Matt Salo, head of the National Association of State Medicaid Directors, said it's too early to tell what states will do.

"This opens up what was a mandate into a state option, and states are going to have to think very, very carefully as they weigh all the political, policy and fiscal ramifications of the decision," Salo said.

States that turn down the money will still be stuck with the cost of treating uninsured patients in hospital emergency rooms. States that accept the money may be on the hook if Washington later decides to reduce the generous federal matching funds for the expansion.

"What this really means is the decisions are going to be made after the elections this year," said Wisconsin's health secretary, Dennis G. Smith, whose state has not moved to put the law in place. "This is going to go back to Congress. We had always thought (the law) was unworkable, and today's ruling proves the point even more."

Aside from help for low-income and uninsured people, the Supreme Court decision also means an expanded safety net for all Americans. Starting in 2014, insurance companies will not be able to deny coverage for medical reasons, nor can they charge more to people with health problems. Those protections, now standard in most big-employer plans, will be available to all, including people who get laid off, or leave a corporate job to launch their own small business.

Seniors stand to receive better Medicare coverage for those with high prescription costs, and no copayments for preventive care. But hospitals, nursing homes, and many other service providers may struggle once the Medicare cuts used to finance the law really start to bite.

The health insurance industry's top lobbyist said the ruling relieved one big concern for insurers ? that the mandate would be struck down, allowing people to buy coverage literally on the way to the hospital. But the companies are still worried about costs.

"Without universal participation you have no incentive to purchase coverage until you are sick, and that is not an insurance system," said Karen Ignagni, president of America's Health Insurance Plans. "Now it's time to turn all the attention toward affordability." The industry continues to fight taxes and other requirements in the law.

In contrast to the states, the nation's vast health care industry is better prepared. When the law passed in 2010, insurers, hospitals and major employers immediately went to work to carry it out. Some of the changes called for in the law were already being demanded by employers trying to get better value for their health insurance dollars.

"The factors driving health care reform are not new, and they are not going to go away," said Dr. Toby Cosgrove, CEO of the Cleveland Clinic. "We know we have to take costs out of the system and improve quality."

squirrel appreciation day billy beane kathy griffin road conditions newt gingrich wives weather gina carano

S. Africa's ruling ANC agrees on new direction paper

[ [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 2]], 'http://yhoo.it/KeQd0p', '[Slideshow: See photos taken on the way down]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 7]], ' http://yhoo.it/KpUoHO', '[Slideshow: Death-defying daredevils]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['know that we have confidence in', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/LqYjAX ', '[Related: The Secret Service guide to Cartagena]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['We picked up this other dog and', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JUSxvi', '[Related: 8 common dog fears, how to calm them]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 5]], 'http://bit.ly/JnoJYN', '[Related: Did WH share raid details with filmmakers?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 3]], 'http://bit.ly/KoKiqJ', '[Factbox: AQAP, al-Qaeda in Yemen]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have my contacts on or glasses', 3]], 'http://abcn.ws/KTE5AZ', '[Related: Should the murder charge be dropped?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JD7nlD', '[Related: Bristol Palin reality show debuts June 19]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 1]], 'http://bit.ly/JRPFRO', '[Related: McCain adviser who vetted Palin weighs in on VP race]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['A JetBlue flight from New York to Las Vegas', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/GV9zpj', '[Related: View photos of the JetBlue plane in Amarillo]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 15]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/white-house-stays-out-of-teen-s-killing-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120411/martinzimmermen.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['He was in shock and still strapped to his seat', 6]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/navy-jet-crashes-in-virginia-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120406/jet_ap.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['xxxxxxxxxxxx', 11]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/russian-grannies-win-bid-to-sing-at-eurovision-1331223625-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/1/56/156d92f2760dcd3e75bcd649a8b85fcf.jpeg', '500', ' ', 'AP', ] ]

[ [ [['did not go as far his colleague', 8]], '29438204', '0' ], [ [[' the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 4]], '28924649', '0' ], [ [['because I know God protects me', 14], ['Brian Snow was at a nearby credit union', 5]], '28811216', '0' ], [ [['The state news agency RIA-Novosti quoted Rosaviatsiya', 6]], '28805461', '0' ], [ [['measure all but certain to fail in the face of bipartisan', 4]], '28771014', '0' ], [ [['matter what you do in this case', 5]], '28759848', '0' ], [ [['presume laws are constitutional', 7]], '28747556', '0' ], [ [['has destroyed 15 to 25 houses', 7]], '28744868', '0' ], [ [['short answer is yes', 7]], '28746030', '0' ], [ [['opportunity to tell the real story', 7]], '28731764', '0' ], [ [['entirely respectable way to put off the searing constitutional controversy', 7]], '28723797', '0' ], [ [['point of my campaign is that big ideas matter', 9]], '28712293', '0' ], [ [['As the standoff dragged into a second day', 7]], '28687424', '0' ], [ [['French police stepped up the search', 17]], '28667224', '0' ], [ [['Seeking to elevate his candidacy back to a general', 8]], '28660934', '0' ], [ [['The tragic story of Trayvon Martin', 4]], '28647343', '0' ], [ [['Karzai will get a chance soon to express', 8]], '28630306', '0' ], [ [['powerful storms stretching', 8]], '28493546', '0' ], [ [['basic norm that death is private', 6]], '28413590', '0' ], [ [['songwriter also saw a surge in sales for her debut album', 6]], '28413590', '1', 'Watch music videos from Whitney Houston ', 'on Yahoo! Music', 'http://music.yahoo.com' ], [ [['keyword', 99999999999999999999999]], 'videoID', '1', 'overwrite-pre-description', 'overwrite-link-string', 'overwrite-link-url' ] ]

scott walker recall fisker atlantic social darwinism jamie lynn spears wisconsin recall election april 4 santa monica college

Benefits of Small-Dollar Structured Settlements | Patrick Farber ...

By: Patrick C. Farber and Patrick E. Stockalper
Reprinted for ASCDC Verdict, Volume 1, 2012

Download a PDF of this article here.

An individual is injured in a car accident and both defense and plaintiff attorneys agree to a $45,000 settlement. Instead of a lump sum payout, a structured settlement is put in place that will pay the settlement over a set period. Structured settlements for large-dollar claims are commonplace, but surprisingly, so are structures for settlements under $200,000.

During the first three quarters of 2011, 21,846 cases were structured, totaling approximately $3.633 billion in annuity premiums. The average case size was about $166,000. These results are based on figures released independently by 11 life insurance companies that issue structured settlement annuities.

Over the past 20 years, more than 50 percent of the structured settlements facilitated by Ringler Associates, a national structured settlements brokerage firm, were less than $50,000. Another approximately 17 percent were between $50,000 and $100,000. These figures are typical of most annuity brokerage firms.

In most cases, neither plaintiff or defense want to see cases go to trial, particularly with small cases where small-dollar structured settlements makes more financial sense than a protracted, unpredictable jury trial. If defense counsel can highlight the advantages of structured settlement benefits to the plaintiff, these cases are more likely to be resolved in the client?s best interest.

Tax Advantages

Although smaller annuities are more difficult to justify today because of historically low interest rates, plaintiffs are seeing them as a way to bolster their retirement. Many have had their retirement savings take a beating over the last 10 years. Small annuities can subsidize retirement savings?even with today?s low interest rates. The money accrues tax-free and plaintiffs have the peace of mind of knowing they will have these additional funds when they retire.

Small settlements can be structured so they combine a lump sum payout to pay for immediate needs and an annuity for possible expenses down the road. Let?s say a worker injured his hand at his job and received a $60,000 settlement. He can go back to work, but only part time while receiving medical treatment. It is determined that it will take six to eight months of physical therapy for his hand to improve so he can resume working fulltime. A settlement is reached in which he receives a $40,000 lump sum at the time of settlement to cover medical costs and living expenses while he is working part time. The remaining $20,000 will or can be paid out in future years for use if additional surgery is needed. If the injured party finds that surgery is not required, the money is still received tax-free.

Another structured settlement advantage is that the funds cannot be spent quickly by the injured party (as can be the case with a lump sum payout) so there is the opportunity for financial management and tax planning. Guaranteed, scheduled payouts are not subject to market whims or economic calamities. Funds are placed in AAA rated bonds and Treasury securities by the life insurance carrier. For plaintiffs who can easily succumb to demands from friends and family for cash, or from well meaning individuals with the latest can?t miss investments, a structured settlement is the protective answer.

Protecting Medi-Cal and Medicare Benefits

Cases involving injured parties who are eligible or soon-to-become eligible for Medi-Cal can use a special needs trust (SNT) annuity to protect their government benefits while still enabling them to collect tax-free settlement payouts. Individuals who are eligible for Medi-Cal and receive a litigation recovery will lose Medi-Cal coverage until the litigation recovery?s balance is below $2,000 for an individual or $3,000 for a couple (the resource limits for Medi-Cal). The most common solution to protect Medi-Cal government benefits and settlement proceeds is to place the litigation settlement into a qualifying first party SNT ? either an individual SNT or a pooled SNT with money paid to the injured party from the trust.

Much like an SNT used to preserve a plaintiff?s eligibility for Medi-Cal, a Medicare Set Aside Arrangement (MSA) is used to preserve a plaintiff?s future eligibility for Medicare. For example, a 35-year-old male slips and falls at a grocery store and injures his back resulting in multiple surgeries including future surgeries. He sues the grocery chain and the case settles for $230,000. An MSA would be created for a portion of the settlement to pay for future medical costs related to the injury. Why? In cases that involve a claim for future medical costs resulting from an injury, the plaintiff is required to use settlement funds allocated for future injury-related medical costs first to pay for the medical care. Until that allocated amount is spent, Medicare will not cover the plaintiff for treatment related to those injuries involved in the settlement.

In the above example, the MSA could be set up to receive $7,500 in cash and $2,500 a year for 20 years to pay for future back treatments. An annuity would cover the $2,500 a year payments. The MSA?s present value would actually be $30,000, but the annuity could be purchased for as little as $19,500 for a savings to the defendant of $10,500.

Small Structures and Minors

The majority of smaller structured settlements are for minors. In fact, when minors are involved, judges often require that settlements be structured before approval regardless of the settlement amount. With structures, parents can ensure that their children are unable to access the funds until they turn 18 or age of majority. They also give parents a chance to plan financially for their child?s college years and beyond. In the case of young children, settlements of as little as $5,000 or $10,000 can be structured so the money is available in later years. Be aware, however, that some life insurance companies charge ?small case fees? if the structured amount is very small. These fees eat up a large percentage of the settlement.

The negative consequences of an older child receiving a lump sum injury settlement as the child nears college age are significant. He or she may not be eligible for state grants and low interest loans because the worse off the financial situation a young person is in when applying for financial aid, the better chance for qualifying for these grants and loans.

If an older child nearing college age receives a lump sum payout, say for $50,000, the income would be counted against the child when seeking to qualify for college financial aid. Instead, if structured, the family could decide on a minimum payment per year for incidentals at school and wait until the child graduates to receive the remainder of the settlement. This could be used to pay off low interest college loans that are required to be paid after graduation. Here, not only do the parents see tax savings, but also have the opportunity to have their child qualify for grants and low-interest loans that would not be available if the settlement had been paid in a lump sum prior to the child?s entering college.

The Big Picture on Small Structures

Structured settlement annuities help smooth out investment ups and downs for the injured party. The regular income that even a small annuity brings can be used to supplement money from other sources, pay for everyday living expenses or to see the injured party through until recovery.

For the defense, expenses associated with small claim payments are eliminated with structured settlements since the payment obligation and all liability are transferred to the insurance company managing the annuity. Defendants can close the books on these cases as soon as the settlement papers are signed.

Still, the results of a 2007 survey by the National Structured Settlement Trade Association (http://www NULL.nssta NULL.com/) (NSSTA) of attorneys involved in structured settlements estimated that only 7 percent of all personal injury settlements between $75,000 and $100,000 were structured, even though 95 percent of the attorneys surveyed said they were proponents of structured settlements. This means many smaller settlements that can be structured are still being handed out in lump sums.

Ultimately, the amount of the structured settlement is not as critical as is creating a settlement that meets the needs of the injured party. An annuity paid over a set number of years offering guaranteed tax-free income can be an attractive alternative to low interest bearing bank accounts or higher yielding, but riskier investments.

Patrick C. Farber is a structured settlements broker in California. He specializes in settling medical malpractice, physical injury, nonphysical injury, product liability, workers? compensation, mass torts, punitive damages, employment and elder abuse cases with structured settlements in court hearings, arbitrations and settlement conferences. 800-734-3910, p...@patrickfarber.com.

Patrick E. Stockalper is a partner with the firm of Reback McAndrews Kjar Warford & Stockalper (http://www NULL.rmklawyers NULL.com/) and specializes in the areas of medical/dental/professional liabiltiy defense and personal injury defense. Mr. Stockalper, an ASCDC Board of Directors member, is the 2009-2010 President of the Litigation Counsel of America.

Related posts:

1. Preserving Plaintiff?s Medi-Cal and Medicare Benefits [The Advocate - September 2011]
2. Age 65 and Over Settlements: Preserving the Elder Plaintiff?s SSI and Medi-Cal [CAOC Forum - Nov/Dec 2010]
3. Structured Attorney Fees Can Reap Long-Term Benefits

Tags: Medi-Cal, Medicare Set-Aside, MSA, National Structured Settlement Trade Association, NSSTA, Patrick Farber, Patrick Stockalper, SNT, Special Needs Trusts, struct, Structured Settlements

the muppet movie mars rover mars rover apple cup jewelry stores sleep no more cyber monday deals

Video: More on June 27: Courting the right?

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

kate upton K Michelle roger clemens Microsoft multiple sclerosis nascar falling skies

15 Indoor Winter Activities for Children | Paarl

The wet cold winters in Paarl might give your children cabin fever, but don?t worry. Here are quite a few ideas to keep the kids entertained this winter without having to resort to watching TV or play Xbox or Playstation games.

Have an Indoor Picnic

Picnics are not just for summer. Throw a blanket and cushions on your living room floor and let the children help make healthy snacks to have at their picnic. Use cookie cutters to make fun shaped sandwiches, make popcorn and flavour it with spices, powdered cheese or icing sugar for a sweet treat, make your own lemonade for some vitamin packed goodness to keep away colds and flu, make mini fruit kebabs by piercing small block of fruit onto toothpicks, grate cheese and roll it into balls mixed with their favourite chips crushed finely and round it off with a mug of steaming hot chocolate with marshmallows.

Indoor Gardening

Many herbs and flowers grow very well indoors. Use recycled containers like plastic yoghurt tubs and let the children decorate it with paint, stickers or magazine cut outs. Make sure to make a few holes in the bottom for water drainage. Go to your closest plant nursery and let your children choose a few herb or flower seedlings. Get potting soil that has already got compost in it. When you get home, you can let the children plant their seedlings into the decorated containers. Place the planted seedlings each on a saucer and give your child the duty of watering their plants every morning. You can even use see through plastic containers and plant seeds in it, so that your child can watch the little plant grow. Place the plants in the window sill to get well needed sun to grow.

Kitchen Fun

Take out your recipe books and let your child help you bake one of the family?s favourite cookie recipes. For smaller children you can use a recipe that does not require baking. Let them help stirring, sifting, pressing out cookies or decorating. You can also make a batch of cupcakes and let the children have free reign with the decorating of the cupcakes. Making play dough is also great fun! Mix 2 cups of flour, 1 cup of salt and a few drops of food colouring together. Add 1 cup of water and 1 tablespoon of oil and mix it together till it forms a ball. Kneed for a while and voila, you?ve got child-safe play dough in a jiffy.

Scrap Booking

Scrap booking is a fun way to keep children busy for hours. Use some old magazines to cut out words and letters from or a few family photos and a selection of paints and stickers and decorations. You can also create unique family tree by using photos of all your family members and drawing a tree on an A2 size poster board. Let the children decorate the tree with each family member?s favourite activities.

Games

Playing board games are always fun. You can even play in teams. Create some healthy competition and let the winners choose an activity the losers must do, like wash the dishes after dinner. Make turns choosing games, so that everyone gets a chance to beat the others at what they excel in best. If you don?t have a variety of board games, why not create your own games or draw up a snakes and ladders board. There is also a wide range of imagination and word games that you can play. Charades are always great fun for the whole family. Don?t forget your trusty pack of playing cards!

Fort Fun / Camping in living room

Children have always enjoyed making forts out of furniture, blankets, and cushions. Help your kids construct their own fort in the family room. They?ll stay busy all day long with fun, quiet activities to play inside their new imaginary castle. The older children can even read stories to the little ones. If you have a children?s tent and you don?t want to have your furniture turned upside down, pitch the tent in the living room and have an indoor camping day.

Treasure Hunt

Put on your explorers hat and go hunting for treasures. Each child can hide an item somewhere in your house and then draw a map or write clues of how to get to the treasure. If it is not a rainy day, the treasures can also be hidden in the garden. Let all the neighbouring children join in and let everyone take turns to hide a surprise treasure or let everyone hide something at their house and make one big treasure hunt!

?Have a Backyard Bonfire

As South Africans we love our braai, but it is not so great during the cold winter months. Fire still adds warmth, so why not still make a fire outside when it?s not raining and let the children dress warmly and gather round the fire outside and toast marshmallows and make yummy Smores. (A?s?more?(sometimes spelled?smore) is a traditional night time?campfire?treat?popular in the?United States?and?Canada?consisting of a roasted?marshmallow?and a layer of?chocolate sandwiched between two pieces of?cracker) Toast a marshmallow and sandwich it between your favourite cookies. If it?s too cold to make a fire outside, start up your fireplace. You can also easily make Smores in your microwave by placing a marshmallow on a cookie; add a small block of chocolate, and cook ?it for a few seconds in the microwave till the marshmallow puffs up. Top it with another cookie and enjoy with your favourite steaming hot beverage.

Remember not to leave the little ones on their own at the fire!

Make a Natural Mobile

Your back garden is a treasure trove of beautiful ornaments that you can use to make a stunning mobile or wind chime with. Let your children gather small stones, acorns, dried seed pods, leaves, small sticks, empty snail shells etc. Wrap a piece of string or ribbon around each item. Take a stick at least 30cm long and knot the loose end of the ribbon to the stick. Tie a long piece of ribbon to the middle of your stick and hang it up in a tree or from your porch. You can also use an old clothes hanger to hang your ornaments from.

Make a calendar

Making personalised calendars could be so much fun and there are so many ways that you can decorate them. Turn it into an arts and crafts activity and let your children draw or decorate a picture for every month of the year. You can also use family photographs and make collages. Why not take your digital camera and play dress up, make funny faces or create themed scenes for each month. Remember to highlight special events of your family, like birthdays, on the calendar too! Calendars also make creates gifts, so you can scan in the final art works and print out a few calendars as gifts. Granny would love to see her beautiful grandchildren?s beaming faces all year round!

Paper Bag Puppets

Sock puppets are fun to make, but what is even easier to make are paper bag puppets. Take a small paper bag and crayons or markers. ?Simply draw a funny face on the bag and you have a puppet! ?You can also decorate your puppets with wool for hair, buttons for eyes, and glitter for cheeks. Ribbon can be added to the hair or made into a bow tie for the ?neck?. Draw on eyelashes and lips with colourful markers. Animal puppets are also great fun. The children can then create a puppet show and ?perform? it for you.

Make a Movie

Modern technology has made it so easy for anyone to make their own movies. Let your child have free reign with shooting some footage. Let them document the activities of your family pet or let them ?follow their feet? for a day or let them interview friends or neighbours. When they are done, help them edit it and add fun captions or music. Screen your child?s movie at your next movie night.

Make a Snow Globe

It is so easy to make your own snow globe. Take a glass jar and paste a plastic figurine on the inside of the lid. Let the glue dry completely. Fill the jar with water, glitter and liquid glycerine (available at a pharmacy). Tightly screw on the lid, making sure there is no leakage. Flip it over and let them see the beauty of their own winter wonderland.

Snowflake Silhouettes

Decorate your windows with snowflake silhouettes. Take white pieces of paper and fold it over a few times. Use scissors to cut out organic shapes. Unfold your paper to reveal a one of a kind snowflake. Paste it on the inside of your windows with small pieces of Prestick. If you want more intricate designs, you can use a template downloaded from the internet.

Indoor Sandbox

Take the biggest container you can find and fill it with rice, dry pasta or beans. Place it on the floor with newspaper underneath the container. Take out the children?s beach buckets and spades and let them play in the ?sandbox?. You can even paint a few shapes different colours and let the kids have a competition to see who can collect the most coloured shapes.

best ipad apps chris paul gift card exchange tj holmes waste management two fat ladies dennys

O Music Awards Are Live Now!

Follow the Flaming Lips' record-breaking quest and all the awards via the 24-hour live stream.
By Kara Warner

The Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne
Photo: Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images

masters par 3 contest google augmented reality glasses wonderlic test texas tornado fantasy baseball st louis cardinals jared sullinger

Georgia impounds some assets of opposition tycoon

[ [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 2]], 'http://yhoo.it/KeQd0p', '[Slideshow: See photos taken on the way down]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 7]], ' http://yhoo.it/KpUoHO', '[Slideshow: Death-defying daredevils]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['know that we have confidence in', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/LqYjAX ', '[Related: The Secret Service guide to Cartagena]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['We picked up this other dog and', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JUSxvi', '[Related: 8 common dog fears, how to calm them]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 5]], 'http://bit.ly/JnoJYN', '[Related: Did WH share raid details with filmmakers?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 3]], 'http://bit.ly/KoKiqJ', '[Factbox: AQAP, al-Qaeda in Yemen]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have my contacts on or glasses', 3]], 'http://abcn.ws/KTE5AZ', '[Related: Should the murder charge be dropped?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JD7nlD', '[Related: Bristol Palin reality show debuts June 19]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 1]], 'http://bit.ly/JRPFRO', '[Related: McCain adviser who vetted Palin weighs in on VP race]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['A JetBlue flight from New York to Las Vegas', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/GV9zpj', '[Related: View photos of the JetBlue plane in Amarillo]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 15]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/white-house-stays-out-of-teen-s-killing-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120411/martinzimmermen.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['He was in shock and still strapped to his seat', 6]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/navy-jet-crashes-in-virginia-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120406/jet_ap.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['xxxxxxxxxxxx', 11]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/russian-grannies-win-bid-to-sing-at-eurovision-1331223625-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/1/56/156d92f2760dcd3e75bcd649a8b85fcf.jpeg', '500', ' ', 'AP', ] ]

[ [ [['did not go as far his colleague', 8]], '29438204', '0' ], [ [[' the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 4]], '28924649', '0' ], [ [['because I know God protects me', 14], ['Brian Snow was at a nearby credit union', 5]], '28811216', '0' ], [ [['The state news agency RIA-Novosti quoted Rosaviatsiya', 6]], '28805461', '0' ], [ [['measure all but certain to fail in the face of bipartisan', 4]], '28771014', '0' ], [ [['matter what you do in this case', 5]], '28759848', '0' ], [ [['presume laws are constitutional', 7]], '28747556', '0' ], [ [['has destroyed 15 to 25 houses', 7]], '28744868', '0' ], [ [['short answer is yes', 7]], '28746030', '0' ], [ [['opportunity to tell the real story', 7]], '28731764', '0' ], [ [['entirely respectable way to put off the searing constitutional controversy', 7]], '28723797', '0' ], [ [['point of my campaign is that big ideas matter', 9]], '28712293', '0' ], [ [['As the standoff dragged into a second day', 7]], '28687424', '0' ], [ [['French police stepped up the search', 17]], '28667224', '0' ], [ [['Seeking to elevate his candidacy back to a general', 8]], '28660934', '0' ], [ [['The tragic story of Trayvon Martin', 4]], '28647343', '0' ], [ [['Karzai will get a chance soon to express', 8]], '28630306', '0' ], [ [['powerful storms stretching', 8]], '28493546', '0' ], [ [['basic norm that death is private', 6]], '28413590', '0' ], [ [['songwriter also saw a surge in sales for her debut album', 6]], '28413590', '1', 'Watch music videos from Whitney Houston ', 'on Yahoo! Music', 'http://music.yahoo.com' ], [ [['keyword', 99999999999999999999999]], 'videoID', '1', 'overwrite-pre-description', 'overwrite-link-string', 'overwrite-link-url' ] ]

jeff probst king jong il dead south korea baron davis duggar family gilbert arenas dexter

California Condors Face Menace of Carcasses Laden with Bullet Lead

Image: Wikimedia/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Why do testicles hang the way they do? Is there an adaptive function to the female orgasm? What does it feel like to want to kill yourself? Does ?free will?...

Read More??

From Nature magazine

After more than three decades on the brink of extinction, the California condor (Gymnogyps californianus) ? the largest and most threatened wild bird species in the United States ? is making a modest recovery, thanks to intensive captive breeding and medical intervention. But troubling data reported this week suggest that unless hunters change their practices, the condor will require extensive support in perpetuity if it is to survive in the wild.

The cause of the problem is that the condors ingest lead when they feed on the carcasses of animals that hunters have shot. A multidisciplinary study published on 26 June (M. Finkelstein et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1203141109; 2012) shows that chronic lead poisoning persists among condors, despite a 2008 California ban on the use of lead shot in regions where the birds are being reintroduced.

Building on earlier studies, the researchers collected feathers and blood samples from trapped birds and found no discernible difference in lead levels before and after the ban. Condors feed by scavenging; the results show that many of those sampled have dangerous levels of lead in their bodies. Lead poisoning can severely damage the birds? nervous systems and impair liver and kidney function, among other problems, and it can be fatal. The study also found that approximately 20% of condors in the wild have lead levels that are high enough to require costly treatment with chemical agents to remove the toxic metal from their bodies.

?By any measure, the lead poisoning rates in condors are of epidemic proportions,? says Myra Finkelstein, a toxicologist at the University of California at Santa Cruz, who led the research.

The California condor population fell to an all-time low of 22 individuals in 1982, but captive-breeding and monitoring programmes have brought it back up to nearly 400 birds. Of those, half reside in captive-breeding centres, which provide a steady supply of new releases. In California, only 24 chicks have fledged in the wild. At that rate, the study shows, it would take 1,800 years for the population in California to reach 150 ? the number called for in the recovery plan ? without the ongoing release of birds bred in captivity.

Finkelstein?s team did an isotopic analysis of the lead in the birds and identified lead shot or bullets as the main source of contamination. Even though hunters must use copper bullets or other alternatives in condor habitat, some are apparently ignoring the ban. Condors must consume 75?150 carcasses every year to maintain a healthy weight. The study found that even if fewer than 2% of the carcasses contain lead, there is a 50% chance that a condor will eat contaminated meat (see ?Loaded odds?).

?Kudos to the hunters who are using copper [bullets], but it isn?t going to be effective until you get all the lead out,? says Jeff Miller, conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), based in Tucson, Arizona. Lead ammunition is cheaper and popular with hunters. The American Bird Conservancy in The Plains, Virginia, which advocates for lead-free hunting, argues that publicizing the risk of lead shot to human health might persuade hunters to use alternatives.

Pedro Nava, a former member of the California State Assembly who spearheaded the lead ban, says that a lack of resources for enforcing the ban means that the condor?s future depends on the good will of hunters. He says that the California Department of Fish and Game needs more enforcement personnel. ?They have 300 game wardens in the state. If they were to be consistent with other states in terms of population, they should have a thousand,? he says.

kony 2012 jim irsay the new ipad apple announcement indianapolis colts joseph kony joseph kony

Populist Japan mayor grooms candidates for national stage

OSAKA, Japan (Reuters) - Gathered in a hall in the city of Osaka, about 900 students at Toru Hashimoto's school for candidates listen raptly as the populist mayor issues a clarion call to shake up Japan's deadlocked politics in an election that could come this year.

"It means nothing if you do not win. I don't know when it will be, but everyone, get ready," said a shirt-sleeved Hashimoto, wrapping up a speech in which he blasted mainstream parties, chided the media and pledged to speak for a silent majority.

"Become warriors. Let's fight together. Let's change Japan."

Detractors call the boyish-faced Hashimoto a dangerous, right-wing populist who targets unpopular groups such as overpaid civil servants, tattoo-sporting city workers and electric power companies discredited by the Fukushima nuclear crisis, and bashes them to public applause.

Fans argue his brand of strong leadership is what Japan needs to break out of decades of policy impasse that last month prompted rating agency Fitch to downgrade its credit status.

Either way, Hashimoto's ability to tap voter discontent far beyond the western city of Osaka means the former lawyer and TV talk show celebrity has the potential to shake up Japan with far-reaching results for the world's third-biggest economy and its neighbors.

"People in Tokyo thought he was just an Osaka phenomenon, but that is changing," Kunio Hiramatsu, the former mayor of Osaka easily defeated by Hashimoto last year, told Reuters. "If they run 200 candidates in the next election, I think they could win a substantial number."

Hashimoto's plan is for the best and brightest of the students at his cram school for candidates to join more experienced allies to run in a national election that must be held by August 2013 but could come sooner.

SENSE OF DEADLOCK

Hashimoto's stronghold is in Osaka, Japan's second largest but declining metropolitan area, where business executives dream of reviving past commercial glories.

After resigning as governor of Osaka Prefecture in 2011, he won a landslide victory to become city mayor on a platform attacking scandal-tainted civil servants while promising to unify city and prefecture governments to eradicate duplication and cut wasteful spending.

"In a situation where people felt a sense of deadlock over a stagnant economy, deflation, a lack of jobs or stalled income and wanted to change something, Hashimoto's easy-to-understand call for change resonated in people's hearts," said Akira Yanagimoto, a city assembly member from the rival Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and no fan of the mayor.

With memories of Japan's military aggression in the 1930's and 1940's still raw, even some conservative critics find Hashimoto's tactics disturbing. Others worry about what they see as an authoritarian streak.

"Right now, he is fashioning domestic enemies - those in the minority and 'vested interests'," Yanagimoto said. "But I worry that if he goes on the national stage, foreign companies or even foreign countries could become the 'enemies'."

Some backers acknowledge that propelling Hashimoto, 42, to the nation's top job, prime minister, would carry risks, but argue that Japan's prolonged stagnation makes drastic action vital.

"Frankly, I do feel some sense of danger, but I am more worried about the situation now," said Shimpei Fukuda, 36, a former aide to a ruling party member of parliament and a student at Hashimoto's school. "The only option is change."

Clearly, there is a deep well of disillusion to tap. Nearly 80 percent of Japanese are dissatisfied with the way things are going in their country, while 86 percent said the government is having a bad influence, according to a recent survey by the Washington-based Pew Research Center.

That sort of discontent helped sweep the novice Democratic Party of Japan to power in 2009 with promises to take control of policy-making away from bureaucrats and pay more heed to consumers and workers rather than big corporations.

Three years and three prime ministers later, the Democrats look set to split after cutting a deal with the opposition to raise Japan's sales tax to curb ballooning debt, a move critics inside and outside the party, including Hashimoto, say violates its 2009 campaign pledges.

RIGHT-WING ALLIES

Hashimoto could also be well placed to take advantage of fears that political paralysis is keeping Japan from competing successfully with Asian rivals China and South Korea.

"While Japanese politics is in great confusion over the sales tax, neighboring countries are ready to pounce," Hashimoto said in his speech. "They are aiming at Japan's weakness."

The policies of Hashimoto's Osaka-based Ishin no Kai (Restoration Group) are a work in progress, not least when it comes to diplomacy and defense. An eight-point policy plan calls for supporting the U.S.-Japan security treaty and joining a U.S.-led free trade pact.

Still, even some conservatives worry his allies and advisers could push him toward right-wing positions that could upset China and other neighbors - Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara, for one, is well known for remarks that upset China.

His insistence that public school teachers sing the national anthem - for some still a symbol of pre-war militarism - at ceremonies and a ban on city workers having tattoos, long associated with "yakuza" gangsters, upset liberals.

"He is a kind of nationalist" but not extreme, said Shinichi Kitaoka of the Institute for International Policy Studies.

"But he is still surrounded by more hawkish people," said Kitaoka, who said he had lectured at Hashimoto's school to prevent a "right-wing coalition from happening".

DO-IT-YOURSELF

On the economic front, Hashimoto's stance - like his talent for punchy remarks in front of the television cameras - echoes that of the popular Junichiro Koizumi, who promoted privatization, competition and deregulation during his 2001-2006 stint as premier.

He also wants to create regional blocs that can collect their own taxes and set spending priorities while leaving diplomacy and defense to the central government.

Some say Hashimoto's own background - he was raised in a poor family by a single mother, but went on to prestigious Waseda University and became a lawyer - has formed his policy stance.

Hashimoto grew up in an Osaka "buraku" community, home to members of an invisible minority racially and ethnically indistinguishable from fellow Japanese but long the target of discrimination rooted in ancient religious concepts.

Those who know him say he does not identify with the group or back the idea of special financial help for its members.

"His view is that one can succeed through one's own efforts and competition," said Yuji Yoshitomi, a journalist who has written a book about Hashimoto.

The platform of Hashimoto's Ishin no Kai group includes radical reforms such as abolishing the upper house, whose ability to block legislation in a divided parliament has been one reason for political stalemate, and the direct election of the prime minister by voters rather than by parliament. Both innovations would require hard-to-achieve constitutional reform.

Hashimoto adopted an anti-nuclear stance after last year's disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant. But he softened his opposition to restarting two reactors after lobbying by business groups about the dangers of blackouts.

The party itself favors less reliance on nuclear power, but is not calling for a complete exit, said its policy chief, Hitoshi Asada.

"We are not saying, like Merkel, that after 20 years there should be no nuclear power," he told Reuters, referring to Angela Merkel, the leader of Germany, where nuclear power is being phased out.

Whether Hashimoto himself will take a shot at parliament, a pre-requisite to becoming premier, is unclear. Some say it would be tough for him to quit as mayor mid-stream. Others argue that, ultimately, he will not be able to resist.

Politicians and experts say Ishin no Kai and its allies could well garner enough to play a key role in the formation of a new coalition government.

"I think what he is hoping for is to become the most visible and most popular so that when his small group goes national, he'll be seen as the person who can galvanize these disparate groups or link them together," said Andrew Horvat, director of the Stanford Center in Kyoto.

(Editing by Ron Popeski)

constitution day coachella 2012 dolly parton stephen colbert running for president richard threlkeld moonrise kingdom coachella lineup

USATF draws scrutiny with no plan to settle tie

Carmelita Jeter and Allyson Felix compete in the women's 100m semi finals at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials Saturday, June 23, 2012, in Eugene, Ore. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Carmelita Jeter and Allyson Felix compete in the women's 100m semi finals at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials Saturday, June 23, 2012, in Eugene, Ore. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

This Saturday, June 23, 2012, photo provided by USA Track & Field shows the third-place finish of the women's 100-meter final from a photo-finish camera, shot at 3,000-frames-per-second, during the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials in Eugene, Ore. Allyson?Felix and Jeneba Tarmoh, in foreground, finished in a dead heat for the last U.S. spot in the 100 to the London Games, each leaning across the finish line in 11.068 seconds. (AP Photo/USA Track & Field)

Allyson Felix leads a women's 100m preliminary heat at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials Friday, June 22, 2012, in Eugene, Ore. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Allyson Felix leads a women's 100m preliminary heat at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials Friday, June 22, 2012, in Eugene, Ore. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) ? Justin Gatlin would pick a runoff, reluctantly. So would Maurice Greene, who would do a coin toss as a last resort.

Everybody has an opinion ? even Olympic gold medalists ? about USA Track and Field's hastily unveiled options for breaking a third-place tie between Allyson Felix and Jeneba Tarmoh, who finished in a dead heat in the 100-meter final at last weekend's Olympic trials.

On Tuesday, three days after they raced, USATF still has no idea when it will be resolved.

The sprinters have until Sunday, when the trials end, to decide if they want a runoff ? a winner-take-all race to break the tie ? or a flip of a coin to determine who gets the last spot on the London-bound team. One of them can simply bow out, too.

"I honestly can't tell you why a protocol wasn't in place," USATF President Stephanie Hightower said. "No one ever thought through it. The likelihood of it happening didn't cross anybody's minds."

Surprising, since this has happened before ? to Hightower, no less.

At the 1984 Olympic trials, she finished in a three-way tie for second place in the hurdles. A grainy photo was used to break the tie and she was the odd person out, failing to earn a spot.

"There's no question that everyone was caught off guard," Hightower said. "At least this gives us the motivation to look at our bylaws and competition rules to see if there are any other gaping holes we need to shore up before the next big championship or Olympic trials."

That doesn't exactly help Felix and Tarmoh now. They will compete in the 200 meters and after Saturday's final, if both make it, decide what to do next. The trials went on a two-day break Tuesday and will resume Thursday.

The fear for Bobby Kersee, who coaches both athletes, is that perhaps this cloud will adversely affect his sprinters in the 200. He hinted they may announce a resolution to the dilemma sooner than Saturday.

"It's a unique situation and we still have plenty of time to figure it out," Kersee told The Associated Press late Tuesday night. "Anytime you have a situation like that, you have to come up with different solutions. We're all talking, the athletes are talking, USA Track and Field is talking, in terms of coming up with a solution.

"It's just so the athletes can step on the track Thursday, knowing they can focus on the 200 meters and then deal with what we have to deal with after that."

So far, the women have been pretty much mum on the matter. Their teammates have not.

"As an athlete, this worries me," said Gatlin, who won the 100 last weekend, but will skip the 200. "Because no one knew about this loophole in the system.

"To run the 100-meter final at the Olympic trials and for it to be decided on a coin toss? It blows my mind."

So does a runoff.

"Your coach trains you for three rounds, for six rounds if you run the 100 and 200, and not an extra round. That's looked at as more of a sideshow," Gatlin said. "These ladies should have the respect for someone to say to them, 'Hey, you know what? There should've been a better (system) in place.'"

If left to Greene, an Olympic gold medalist in 2000, he would pick runoff. Maybe.

"That's why you have a coach," he said. "If he said (coin flip), I would have to do that."

As it is, both are eligible to be selected to the Olympic 400-meter relay team. So are Carmelita Jeter, who won the 100, and runner-up Tianna Madison.

There has been some scuttle that perhaps Felix is waiting to see how she fares in her signature event, the 200, before reaching any decision. Should she earn a spot in the 200 and Tarmoh doesn't, Felix might just surrender the 100 spot to her training partner.

"It's noble, but I'm not giving anything up," Greene said. "I fight for everything. Nothing in life is given to you. You have to take everything you want and you have to work for it."

He has a solution ? a made-for-TV special. No other events, just these two women on the track.

"Tell NBC to give them $2 million and have a runoff," Greene said. "Then they'll do it for sure. If they have a runoff, do you realize how much money there's going to be."

Maybe that would work if they weren't already coming off a grueling competition schedule. Kersee is concerned about the possibility of injury, since there's really no rest for either athlete.

The Olympics, after all, are on the line.

"You've come this far. I would gut it out," Gatlin said. "I would run. ... It would bring more excitement to track and field, to have a runoff."

In every other sport, there's some sort of carefully spelled-out tiebreaker in place.

In swimming, deadlocks are settled with swim-offs between the two opponents.

Gymnastics released its revamped tiebreak procedures so it doesn't have a repeat of the debacle in Beijing, where it practically took a NASA physicist to decipher the complicated formula that settled the gold medal on uneven bars. Now the execution mark will be the big deciding factor, and there is the possibility of sharing medals.

Odds of that happening are rare.

Still, it's a plan.

"You're always going to have your haters and your critics," Hightower said. "That goes with the territory. I think we've been responsible, responsive and we've been thoughtful. If this is a way to educate people about our sport, I'll take good with bad."

In a society that craves everything in an instant, the 100 is the ideal race.

Sprinters blaze down the track, lean at the finish line and look up at the giant scoreboard, where the times and places instantly pop up.

Even high-tech cameras couldn't break Saturday night's dead heat in a sport that's long relied on technology. Unlike baseball, which is slowly turning to video replay, track uses images to help sort things out.

But in this case, the image from the outside camera was inconclusive for determining the finish because both runners' arms obscured their torsos ? a key consideration in determining the finish.

The image from the inside camera, shot at 3,000 frames per second, was analyzed by timers and referees, who declared the tie.

"We might even look at where we put cameras in the future," Hightower said. "Now that we've had this incident, it will give us the motivation, for us to do our due diligence to look at things.

"I want to make sure that both (Felix and Tarmoh) walk away from this knowing that there was a fair process in place and they had input into it. They can walk away and feel like we haven't done anything to harm them and their ability long term."

___

AP National Writer Nancy Armour contributed.

Associated Press

alyssa bustamante protandim weightless ellen degeneres jcpenney yeardley love nba all star reserves rock center

McCaskill to skip Democratic National Convention (The Arizona Republic)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

ali fedotowsky krill oil krill oil black friday 2011 rhodium uppity uppity

Chase 'Future Proof' Device To Accept Mobile Phone Payments In Stores

By David Henry
NEW YORK, June 27 (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co said on Wednesday it has begun equipping merchants with devices that accept payments from mobile phone signals and cards embedded with computer chips as well as traditional magnetic strips.
Chase is trying to protect a key part of its credit card business and speed up use in the United States of mobile phone payments and cards with chips that are in widespread use in Europe and more secure than cards with magnetic strips.
JPMorgan Chase ranked fourth in card processing for U.S. merchants in 2011, with 11.6 percent of the market. It handled 8.2 billion transactions at 307,000 stores, according to the Nilson Report. Chase has a business processing transactions as well as a unit issuing cards.
No more than 5 percent of point-of-sale card readers in the U.S. work with embedded chips to standards known as EMV, according to David Robertson, publisher of the Nilson Report.
Visa Inc and MasterCard Inc are pushing merchants and processing banks to take EMV cards in the United States to thwart counterfeiting and make it easier for international visitors carrying the cards.
Outside of the U.S., more than 75 percent of card readers take EMV cards, according to MasterCard.
The new terminals from JPMorgan Chase are being marketed to merchants under the name "Future Proof" to signal their ability to be adapted to advances in payment technology, such as so-called "open wallets" in mobile phones and systems delivering price discounts to spur sales.
The terminals will allow customers to make small purchases without standing in long lines to write their signatures.
Established card companies are trying to keep from losing business to innovators in digital payments that could cut into revenue they get from merchant customers.
"We, and our customers, are not going to be put in the position of playing catch-up," said Bob Nadeau, group executive for product development at JPMorgan Chase Paymentech processing unit.
Paymentech last year earned a 47 percent return on equity for JPMorgan, which is three times the goal for the entire company.
Processing by the bank for merchants rose 22 percent to $152.8 billion in the first quarter of 2012 from a year earlier.
The bank, the biggest in the U.S. and one of the most profitable, has been investing to provide services for fees at a time when demand for loans is weak and interest rates are low.

Contribute to this Story:

"; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });

jon jones vs rashad evans results justin bieber meteor shower rashad evans jon jones chuck colson death meteor showers 2012