plus 4, NEWS OF THE WEEK - Orange County Business Journal |
- NEWS OF THE WEEK - Orange County Business Journal
- Latest Articles - Dissident Voice
- Welcome home - Herald-Palladium
- Zuma admits corruption "real threat" to SAfrica, creates ministerial ... - Investors Business Daily
- Beware of phishers; they can be pretty crafty - Herald-Palladium
| NEWS OF THE WEEK - Orange County Business Journal Posted: 22 Nov 2009 08:44 AM PST Compiled by Julie Leupold ECONOMIC INDICATORS TOP STORIES Santa Ana's TTM Technologies Inc., a contract electronics maker, agreed to buy the printed circuit board business of Hong Kong's Meadville Holdings Ltd. for $521 million. The cash and stock deal is expected to close during the first quarter. TTM said the deal would more than double sales and "create one of the largest printed circuit board manufacturers in the world." Lake Forest-based construction and engineering company Primoris Services Corp. late last week acquired James Construction Group LLC, a Baton Rouge, La.-based construction company, for $135 million. Primoris is buying James Construction for $7 million in cash, a five-year $53.5 million promissory note and shares of Primoris preferred stock valued at $64.5 million. Incentives could provide James Construction another $10 million in Primoris stock. James Construction will become a subsidiary of Primoris. TECHNOLOGY HEALTHCARE
REAL ESTATE Maguire Properties Inc. was sued for foreclosure by Bank of America Corp. on 2600 Michelson Drive, a 16-story tower near John Wayne Airport. Los Angeles-based Maguire missed $1.7 million in payments in August, September and October, the bank said in complaint filed earlier this month in Superior Court in Santa Ana. The bank wants the court to appoint a receiver for the property who would conduct a sale and attempt to recoup the remaining $95 million in unpaid principal owed by Maguire. APPAREL Foothill Ranch-based mall retailer Wet FINANCE OTHER NEWS This content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
| Latest Articles - Dissident Voice Posted: 22 Nov 2009 08:15 AM PST On November 2nd many western leaders gathered at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany, to celebrate the downing of the notorious Berlin Wall. These hypocrite leaders; German Chancellor Merkel, French President Sarkozy, Russian President Medvedev, British Prime Minister Brown, US Secretary of State Clinton, and US President Obama, praised those who tore down the wall, emphasized the need to "overcome the walls of our time," "keep fighting for freedom … so people get to live their dreams," and emphasized that "all men are created equal … have the right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness," yet none of them recognized the rights of Palestinians and Iraqis to their freedom, and none of them condemned the uglier Israeli separation and imprisoning wall that cuts the West Bank into smaller Bantustans, or the Baghdad wall that divides the city into smaller sections. Contrary to their cajoling speeches the foreign policies of these leaders have encouraged the erection of these walls. Their political support and their citizens' tax money had encouraged rogue Israel to violate international laws and to keep constructing its separation wall. The erection of the Baghdad concrete wall, similar to Berlin Wall, exposes the hollow rhetoric of Obama and Hillary In 2004 the International Court of Justice (ICJ) had ruled the Israeli wall as a flagrant violation of international laws. Fourteen out of the fifteen judges in the ICJ voted against the Israeli wall. The sole backer of the wall was US judge Thomas Buerghenthal, who echoed the sentiments of then US president Bush and the presidential candidate John Kerry. Occupational governments, who erect such walls, claim that walls are needed to ensure security. One should notice that these walls are built to divide countries and cities into halves, to separate members of same family in order to disintegrate their social structure, to separate people from their farmland in order to destroy their economy, and to separate people, who had shared same culture and history for thousands of years, in order to destroy a nation. The separation walls are symbols that show how governments can separate and alienate people in order to create misunderstanding and hatred. History shows us how governments had divided same people; e.g., Germany was divided into east and west; Korea was divided into south and north; great India was divided into Pakistan, Kashmir, and India; Yugoslavia was divided into many segments such as Kosovo, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina; the Arab world was divided into 22 separate countries; and lately Iraq was divided into three separate segments: Kurdish, Shiites, and Sunnis. The Israeli separation and imprisoning wall is a unique phenomenon and is unlike all other walls. It cuts down a whole country and extends from one end to its other end. In the West Bank the wall extends 730km and 8-9 meters high. This is five times longer and three times higher than the Berlin Wall. It has armed watchtowers with snipers every 400 meters, and a military buffer zone 30-100 meters wide in many areas. In other areas it consists of electric fences, trace paths, barbed wires, cameras and deep trenches. In yet other areas it cuts through the hearts of Palestinian towns separating families from their very neighbors. While Berlin Wall was only in Berlin City, the Israeli wall is all over the West Bank of Palestine encircling many major cities such as Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Ramallah, Tulkarem, Qalqiliya and Nablus. Some of these cities are completely surrounded by the wall on all directions with a single military checkpoint serving as the only exit/entrance gate to the city. The whole Gaza Strip is surrounded with the wall on all three directions, while the fourth is faced with a sea patrolled by Israeli torpedo boats. The Gaza economical siege and the last December Israeli military onslaught demonstrate the devastating effects of the wall on the people. Israel is building its separation wall not for security reasons as its leaders keep claiming. In reality it is an isolation wall erected with the hidden agenda of creating an atmosphere of silent "voluntary" transfer of Palestinians out of their communities. Its purpose is to imprison whole Palestinian communities in a large open prison within a wall disrupting peoples' lives and separating them from their farm land, from schools, from hospitals, from jobs and from all the social services in the neighboring cities, thus exacerbating poverty and unemployment that would, Israelis hope, drive Palestinians out of their home towns to search for better livelihoods. The wall is a massive land grab that has annexed 47% of the West Bank, which constitutes 22% of the whole Palestine proper leaving even smaller disconnected patches of land for the proposed Palestinian state. Its construction is a great crime against mother earth herself since Israel has razed the fertile layer of the confiscated farm land, and has uprooted hundreds of thousands of fruit trees especially one-thousand-years old olive trees. Many of these trees are protected under international cultural heritage laws. The wall has also cut off all Palestinian cities from Jerusalem, the proposed capital of Palestinian state, and has destroyed the city's historical and cultural characters. It has thus encroached on and violated Palestinians' religious rights since they are cut off from their Christian and Islamic religious sites in the city. Palestinians opposed the construction of the wall since its beginning in 2002. They have organized peaceful demonstrations and rallies against the wall. Weekly peaceful demonstrations are carried in the path of the wall, the most known are carried in the villages of Bi'lin and Ni'lin, where Palestinians are joined by many international and even Israeli peace activists. These demonstrations are usually faced violently by Israeli soldiers shooting live bullets, rubber-coated bullets, tear gas and sound grenades, arrests and savage beatings. Palestinians had also taken the issue to the streets of major American and European cities leading to the establishment of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) with western peace activists, who expressed solidarity with the Palestinians verbally and actively. Many ISM members traveled to Palestine to help Palestinian farmers harvest their crops peacefully, to protect Palestinian homes from demolition, and to join in demonstrations against Israeli separation wall. Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes against mother earth, and violations of international laws have shocked even the average western citizen. An anti-Israeli apartheid movement has begun to take shape and is gaining momentum. Boycott campaigns against Israel have been launched worldwide. Israeli goods are being boycotted in many European countries. Academic and sports boycotts are also gaining ground. Divestment campaigns are spreading within university campuses, churches, city councils, and many other organizations. In the 20th anniversary of the dismantling of Berlin Wall Palestinians, with the help of international peace activists, have planned ten days (Nov. 9-18) of demonstrations, meetings, discussion groups, and information centers to bring people's attention to Israeli crimes and to the inhumane Israeli separation wall. Demonstrations against the wall are planned in many countries such as Argentina, Australia, Austria, Basque Country, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Quebec, Scotland, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States and Venezuela. In the occupied West Bank Palestinians led demonstrations against the wall. In a symbolic gesture and despite Israeli tear gas and rubber bullets, Palestinians with international activists in the village of Ni'lin and Qalandia refugee camp had toppled down one of the concrete slabs of the wall. It took twenty years to topple down the Berlin Wall. But with such Palestinian resolve and international support the Israeli separation wall would, definitely, take shorter time to fall. This content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
| Welcome home - Herald-Palladium Posted: 22 Nov 2009 08:08 AM PST BENTON TOWNSHIP - Overcoming obstacles is what makes a reward all the sweeter. That was the sentiment voiced Saturday by Tiffaney Blossom and Jalita Joseph, who became the last two homeowners at Crystal Estates, Harbor Habitat for Humanity's 21-unit subdivision at the corner of Crystal and Empire avenues. The project began in April 2008 when the first Community Challenge House was built with a gift from Whirlpool Corp. with a goal of cultivating new donors, according to information posted in Saturday's dedication program. For Joseph, 44, a single mother with six children, Saturday's program capped off a journey that began to end with her third application for Habitat housing. "What they (Habitat) did was ... brought me to get my credit correct," Joseph said after Saturday's ceremony. "But I just stayed focused, and stayed encouraged. I just did what I needed to do." Joseph has been a Dial-A-Ride driver for nearly three years. Asked what it took to make her dream come true, Joseph responded, "Dedication, love and patience." Joseph will live at 1051 Harbor Court in a home sponsored by friends of the late Bruce Temple - a longtime Habitat volunteer builder - and the Adopt-A-Day partnership, which provides eight to 15 volunteers, plus a $1,000 charitable donation to underwrite building material costs, the program stated. Blossom will become Joseph's neighbor at 1067 Harbor Court. She will turn 38 on Nov. 29, giving her an extra reason to celebrate - especially when thinking about where she's been. "I was living with my mom before I started this specific journey, in a rental house, and it was overcrowded in there - so I went ahead and filled out an application," she said. Blossom's house was sponsored by the Community Challenge and the United Federal Credit Union. A mother of two, Blossom recently became a full-time teller at Chase Bank's Bridgman branch, where she's worked almost five years. Blossom credited her uncle, Carl Stigall, with persuading her to proceed with the application. Among other requirements, potential homeowners must put in several hundred hours of "sweat equity" toward the construction, which was one factor that made Blossom hesitate. "I said, 'When would I have time to work on it?'" Blossom said, laughing. "But my employer was very great about letting me off and getting my sweat equity hours in." Harbor Habitat Executive Director Mike Green paid tribute to the participating families, sponsors and volunteers who all joined in making Crystal Estates a reality - 19 months after it began. That kind of dedication, Green said, brought the area's number of Habitat-completed homes to 98. "We're not just building structures, or houses - we're building families, friendships, relationships. We're building a community, and all that you saw today is an example of that," Green said. Few people demonstrated that spirit more than Temple, who died of a brain tumor Dec. 6, 2008, and was well-known for his participation in Thursday build crews that play such a big role in the homes' construction. For that reason, it was deemed appropriate that House No. 98 - which Joseph will occupy - be dedicated in Temple's memory, said Harbor Habitat's board president, Paul Carteaux. Temple's wife, Ann, recalled her late husband's reaction on learning of the project. "Bruce did love Habitat. He came home so excited one day," Ann Temple. "He said, 'There's going to be a whole neighborhood.' And he just could not wait for Thursday to come around." Green said Crystal Estates finished under its two-year completion timeline, and the $3 million budgeted for the project. The next objective is to sell the houses, which should be easier - now that Congress has extended an $8,000 federal tax credit for first-time home buyers, Green added. With that boost, Habitat expects to close on nine houses Monday and Tuesday, Green said. Those families will receive their deeds, sign their paperwork and begin the formal process of home ownership. "That's why we were pushing everybody to get done before Thanksgiving so the families could be in for the holiday, and get those houses sold," Green said. "A lot of things have to happen behind the scenes to get a house sold - appraisals, title work, all those things that you have to do." Despite the soft economy, "we still had a lot of people step up and donate services," Green said. "It's been a challenge this year. We've had to make some adjustments to meet our requirements. We have to pay our bills, like everybody else." Habitat still has "a small shortfall" to make up, which it will do by sending fundraising letters between now and Christmas, Green said. He would not disclose the amount, but said that it represented "a drop in the bucket" against the total project cost. Applications are now being accepted for next year, which are only available from Habitat's office at 785 E. Main St., Benton Harbor, Green said. "You've got to walk in the door and pick up an application - that's the only way you get it," Green said. "You have to work for it (home ownership), so you might as well start that process right away." This content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
| Zuma admits corruption "real threat" to SAfrica, creates ministerial ... - Investors Business Daily Posted: 22 Nov 2009 08:15 AM PST Nov 22, 2009 (BBC Monitoring via COMTEX) -- [Editorial: "Zuma's First Step To Fight Corruption"] The establishment of an interministerial committee this week to formulate new strategies on how the government can effectively deal with the rampant scourge of corruption is in many ways a tacit admission by President Jacob Zuma that the pilfering of state coffers has spiralled out of control. It is significant that such a committee was appointed when the country is still reeling from shock at the Special Investigating Unit's correctional services corruption report tabled in parliament this week. The report revealed how prison tenders worth more than R1-billion [rand] were characterized by kickbacks and bribes channelled to senior public servants, their families and associates by the equally iniquitous service providers. The ministerial committee's formation comes at a time when the ink has hardly dried on the auditor-general's report that revealed how corrupt civil servants and their families benefited from government tenders worth more than R600-million. This week, human settlements minister Tokyo Sexwale added salt to the wound when he revealed how his department was compelled to rebuild 40000 defective low-cost RDP [Reconstruction and Development Programme] houses built by greedy contractors, some of whom have become instant millionaires. It is matter of public record that many politically connected crooks who have swindled the state -from the corrupt Land Bank deals to milking school feeding schemes -are walking the streets as free men because corruption appears not to be punished in this country. South Africa risks gaining a reputation as one of the most corrupt countries in the world if we do not nip the scourge in the bud. In the midst of abject poverty and hunger, greed and the speedy accumulation of wealth have become the most defining characteristics of South Africa's post-apartheid democracy. Public office, in particular, is seen as a stepping stone to instant riches by many officials elected to office. Politicians and civil servants use their new-found status to line their own pockets and those of their associates through illicit and ill-gotten tenders. We want to believe that by appointing the anti-corruption ministerial committee, Zuma has recognised that corruption has become the real threat to the future of South Africa's democracy. Whatever recommendations this committee comes up with, it must ensure that it proposes measures that will make it difficult for venal politicians and civil servants to loot any further. Corruption has burgeoned because culprits get away with it. Zuma needs to set an example by adding substance to the anti-corruption rhetoric. It would send a message of confidence to the citizens of our country and, indeed, the rest of the world if our president ensures that all government officials and their cronies, however politically connected, found guilty of pilfering, are rooted out and face the full force of the law. Source: Sunday Times website, Johannesburg, in English 22 Nov 09 BBC Mon AF1 AFEausaf 221109 mj BBC Monitoring. Copyright BBC. This content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
| Beware of phishers; they can be pretty crafty - Herald-Palladium Posted: 22 Nov 2009 08:08 AM PST Generations: Richard Martin Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime. Give a phisher your info, and he'll live high on your money. A colleague received an e-mail the other day that said, "It has come to our attention that your AOL billing information records are out of date. That requires you to update the billing information. Failure to update your records will result in account termination. Please update your records within 24 hours." It told her she must "… click the link below, and enter your login information on the following page to confirm your Billing Information records." She said it caused her immediate concern because she had a lot of photos and contact information in her AOL account that would be lost if it were to be terminated. So she almost clicked on the link and gave her credit card number to keep the service going. Instead she sent an e-mail to AOL to ask them if this was legitimate. Was she supposed to update her account information? They responded that it was indeed a phishing expedition. A phisher is an unscrupulous individual, posing as a representative of a legitimate company and asking for your account information. A phisher may say a computer malfunction caused information to be lost and that information is needed to continue service. Guess what? As soon as you provide them with a bank account number and password, they will empty your account. Or, if you give them your credit card info, they'll spend like there is no tomorrow, at your expense. I received a message on the phone at home a couple of weeks ago from the fraud department of my credit card company. They wanted to know if I had authorized some particular purchases. They made me feel at ease because they only referred to the last four digits of my card. I figured they didn't want to leave all the digits of my card in the message in case someone else listened to it. I called the number they left, expecting them to ask about the supposedly fraudulent purchases. The first thing they asked, to verify my identity, was my 16-digit number on the card. I immediately realized they should have had my card info and hung up the phone. They probably got the last four digits from a copy of a receipt and were phishing for more information. It seems pretty evident to me, and probably to you, that you shouldn't give vital information to a caller unless you are the one who initiated the conversation. If an e-mail requests information and provides a link to a Web site, it may look very official. It probably even contains the logo of the financial institution they supposedly represent. Before giving out personal account information via the Internet or via the telephone, stop to ask yourself, "Did I initiate this conversation?" Think about it! "Did I call them, or did they call me?" Don't fall for their scams. If you are contacted and asked to call a number … DON'T. Instead call the financial institution using a number that you know. Ask them if this is legitimate. If you are asked to click on a link … DON'T. Instead, contact the company through a Web site address that you know. If you suspect that you are the intended target of a phisher, you might also want to notify the police. Richard Martin is chief information officer of Region IV Area Agency on Aging in Southwest Michigan. Questions on age or independence services? Call the Info-Line for Aging & Long-Term Care at (800) 654-2810 or check the Web site at www.areaagencyonaging.org. The Generations column appears each Sunday in The Herald-Palladium. This content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Add Images to any RSS Feed To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
.gif "OBAT KUAT")
.gif)
No comments:
Post a Comment