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Distinguished Scientist: Jennifer Black, Ph.D.

January 27, 2016

Image with caption: Jennifer Black, Ph.D.

Jennifer Black, Ph.D.

This profile is part of a series to highlight the researchers who will be honored at a ceremony for UNMC's 2015 Scientist Laureate, Research Leadership, Distinguished Scientist and New Investigator Award recipients.

The Distinguished Scientist Award

The Distinguished Scientist Award -- which is sponsored by the chancellor -- recognizes researchers who have been among the most productive scientists in the country during the past five years.

  • Name: Jennifer Black
  • Title: Professor, Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer and Allied Diseases
  • Joined UNMC: 2011
  • Hometown: Buenos Aires, Argentina

Research focus:
Colon cancer.

Describe your research briefly in layman's terms.
Research in our laboratory focuses on understanding mechanisms that maintain normal tissue homeostasis in the colon and determining how these mechanisms are subverted in colon cancer.

How does your research contribute to science and/or health care?
The overall goal of our research is to identify novel biomarkers for colon cancer detection and prognosis and new targets for therapeutic intervention in the disease.

What is the best piece of advice anyone ever gave you, professional or personal?
I try to keep the following advice in mind: "At night, try not to think about the sun, because it will only prevent you from seeing the stars." (Rabindranath Tagore, India's first Nobel Laureate).

List three things few people know about you.

  • My daughter and I enjoy creating theme cakes for family and friends.
  • I have lived in Argentina, Chile, Brazil, England and the United States.
  • My husband and I had the same last name before we were married.

Fill out the following and your comment will post once it has been approved.

Name (Required)

Email (Required)

Thank you, your comment will appear below once it has been approved.

John S Davis
January 27, 2016 at 4:41 PM

Sathish kumar Natarajan
January 27, 2016 at 11:56 AM

Congratulations Dr. Jennifer Black


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Charles Bradley Attorney Profile on UpCounsel
Charles Bradley

Charles Bradley

Attorney at Law

Licensed in
University of Kansas School of Law
Private practice experience learning marketing, customer service and brand development. Public practice experience developing legislative research and drafting advisory opinions. Trial experience spanning from municipal court to the Kansas Appellate Court and ranging from multi-million dollar divorces to high-level felonies to a successful police brutality suit. Reputation as a fair but aggressive litigator with excellent rapport with both judge and jury. Meticulously organized and keen strategist; excellent interpersonal and communication skills.

Practice Areas

Client Reviews

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Work History

Kansas Department of Revenue

Aug 2016 - Present

• Represented Department in litigation defense, developed CLEs and drafted advisory opinions for other agencies/constituents.

Aug 2016 - Present

galloway, wiegers and brinegar

Jun 2013 - Aug 2016

• Represented cities of Denison, Waterville and Centralia as Prosecutor, litigating traffic tickets, DUIs and condemnations and City Counselor advising city on ordinances and open-records.
• Represented defendants in over 500 criminal cases covering all facets of criminal defense including evidence suppression, jury trials, bench trials and appeals.
• Sued and defended contract enforcement claims.

Jun 2013 - Aug 2016

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Non Profit vs a Not for Profit

Nonprofit vs not-for-profit are two types of structures that companies can legally file under. All companies must generate profits to some extent to stay in business. However, these structures are not focused on generating excess profits like other company structures are. Instead, they focus on using any profits to expand the company's operations and promote social good. Although they are similar, nonprofit and not-for-profit companies are distinctly different in key ways.

Non Profit Companies

Nonprofit companies, also referred to as NPOs or nonprofits, are companies that do not use their profits as rewards for company employees. In a normal company, profits can be distributed as bonuses or compensation for work. NPOs use their profits to create a positive change in the community. Charity work and social initiative for the well-being of the community are common causes for NPOs. NPOs also share the liability for the company between its founders, making NPOs limited liability companies.

Not-for-Profit Companies

Not-for-profit companies, or NFPs, are companies that are not focused on generating profits at all. Instead, they focus on completing specific non-monetary objectives while generating just enough revenue to operate. This revenue can be generated in a variety of ways. However, NFPs may not generate profits or revenue at all, and exist just long enough to fulfill the objectives of the parties involved. NFPs are often organizations that are formed to support larger groups.

Why File as an NPO or NFP?

Companies choose the NPO and NFP structures for specific advantages. Both structures allow the organizations to become tax-exempt, meaning that they have no tax liability. Not having to pay taxes significantly reduces the financial burdens on a company. This allows companies to focus on other pursuits besides creating profits for investors.

Another strong reason to choose these structures is the reason why each organization is founded. NFPs and NPOs are founded by groups that are interested in promoting a cause. You cannot deny that in modern times, companies have the majority of the influence on society. NPOs and NFPs leverage the strength of major organizations to generate funds and rally support for a cause within the community.

How to Become an NPO or NFP

Becoming an NPO or NFP requires legal action. In most cases, companies must file as one of the standard business structures that are limited to For Profit (FP) structures. This is to ensure that companies are not able to circumvent their tax liability when they are not qualified for tax-exempt status. Once a company is founded as an FP, it can file the legal paperwork to become an NFP or NPO. This may take a year, and the company may have tax liabilities in its first year, but investments from the founding sources can often cover these liabilities.

Tax-exempt status is a special class of business status the removes the tax liabilities for a company. NFPs and NPOs often seek tax-exempt status to reduce their liabilities. Doing so requires the filing of the 501(c)(3) forms with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Once a company has achieved 501(c)(3) status, the company must comply with the requirements established by the IRS and other state agencies to maintain its tax-exempt status.

NFP and NPO Criteria

To qualify as an NFP, companies must adhere to the following criteria:

  • It has a central focus, such as a hobby or recreation, that is not related to profit or general business interests.

  • It does not have a governing board.

  • It does not have a charter (the document that defines a business' founding bylaws).

  • It is not designed to earn money beyond operational expenses.

  • It functions in small groups without a centralized and connecting governing structure.

To qualify as an NPO, companies must meet the following criteria:

  • It has a charter.

  • It is focused on serving the community (i.e., charities, social work groups, etc.).

  • It uses profits to fund the organization's operations, not to pay bonuses or dividends.

If you need help with understanding Non Profit and Not for Profit company structures, you can post your legal need on UpCounsel's marketplace. UpCounsel accepts only the top 5 percent of lawyers to its site. Lawyers on UpCounsel come from law schools such as Harvard Law and Yale Law and average 14 years of legal experience, including work with or on behalf of companies like Google, Stripe, and Twilio.


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Top definition
The final act whilst sat upon a toilet & having a dump, to squeeze the final bits of poo out.
I was sat on the john the other day for like, 10 minutes of pure thrutching, and nothing came out. I felt cheated
by Dan_the_01 May 09, 2011
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To flail desperately
As John attempted to climb the crack in the cliff he started thrutching, causing his skin to peel and his hands to bleed.
by Marc Leclerc March 11, 2008
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First:   Mid:   Last:  City:  State:

Susan Aakre

Looking for details about Susan Aakre? If that is the case, this is the right place to be because USA People Search concentrates on data such as address, phone number, and email for individuals like Susan Aakre. Moreover, with the huge selection of details that we provide for people with the Aakre, you are sure to locate the friend or relative you are searching for.

In order to make it easy for you to find the specific Susan you are looking for, we have gathered our information into four main categories – name/aliases, age, location and possible relatives. This enables you to breeze through all the people with the last name Aakre below and pinpoint the right match. If you uncover a listing that is similar to the Susan Aakre you are trying to locate, just click the View Details link to the right of the listing to read through all the information we have on the person.

If you cannot see the Susan you are looking for, you can try to locate it again by using the search box above. A different spelling variation might hit the jackpot, but also make sure to key in the full name, if you know it. Once you discover the correct Susan Aakre, click through to the details page to unearth all the information we have to offer.

 Name/AKAsAgeLocationPossible Relatives
1. Aakre, Susan  Minneapolis, MN
Burnsville, MN
Minnetonka, MN
AAKRE, ANDREA L (age 48) View Details
2. Aakre, Susan  M70  Grand Rapids, MN
  View Details
3. Aakre, Susan  A  Grand Forks, ND
Fargo, ND
AAKRE, HANS T (age 82)
AAKRE, JANICE Y (age 82)
AAKRE, STEVEN J (age 58)
View Details


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A One-Stop Shop for Consulting Interview Preparation

The only undergraduate case preparation organization on campus, UCC strives to empower students that are interested in exploring a career in consulting through extensive resources and peer mentorship.

At UCC, you can find end-to-end consulting recruitment preparation, client service experience, and a vibrant, supportive community of bright people - all in one place.

Find out about our organization, mission, our methods, and the outcomes UCC provides.

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Ready to take the next step? Learn about our application timeline and how you can apply to be a part of UCC.

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Jun 05, 2014 - 3:30pm

Senior Editor, Digital Content

Attendees Apple's World Wide Developers Conference. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg.
Attendees Apple's World Wide Developers Conference. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg.

Immigration reform opponents claim that high-skilled immigrant workers take jobs away from Americans. A new study by the Partnership for a New American Economy shatters that claim and instead finds that more American workers would be employed in computer-related jobs, and their wages would have grown faster after the recession, if more high-skilled immigrants were allowed to work in the United States.

Vox’s Dara Lind explains what the study examined:

The study looks at how different cities fared in the [H-1B] visa lotteries in 2007 and 2008 — right before the financial crisis and most recent recession. In particular, it calculates how many H-1B applications for jobs in that city got rejected in the lottery over those two years — and how much it would have affected the size of the city's tech sector if there had been enough visas to let those immigrants come.

Chicago, for example, had an average of 7,410 visa applications that didn't get through the lottery in 2007 and 2008. But because there were already 89,503 people working in computer-related jobs in Chicago before that, the "shock" (negative impact) of not getting those visas was only 8.3% — still high, but not that high. Detroit, on the other hand, had about 5,386 visas rejected those years — for a tech sector that only had 40,000 people beforehand. So Detroit missed out on the chance to expand its computer workforce by 13.3%, just by not getting those visas approved.

After determining which cities had gotten relatively lucky in the visa lottery (by getting more visas approved, or having a larger tech sector already that made rejections less significant) and which cities had been unlucky, the study's authors looked at employment trends in the computer industry before 2007-2008, and then again during the recession.

Economists Giovanni Peri, Kevin Shih, and Chad Sparber  found that as many as 231,224 tech jobs for U.S.-born workers weren’t created because of H-1B visa rationing. “The total number of U.S.-born workers with computer-related jobs would have exceeded 2 million by 2010 with that additional employment,” they write.

Chart: Additional jobs created if there weren't H-1B denials in 2007 and 2008.
Source: Partnership for a New American Economy

In addition, H-1B visa rationing kept wages from rising faster. The report finds that U.S.-born, college-educated workers in computer-related fields missed out on as much as $3 billion in aggregate annual earnings.

Chart: Wage growth if there weren't H-1B denials in 2007 and 2008.
Source: Partnership for a New American Economy

Also, U.S.-born workers without bachelor’s degrees were especially hurt, because they often fill jobs supporting high-skilled workers. “By 2009-2010, U.S. metropolitan areas lacked as many as 188,582 computer-related jobs for U.S.-born workers without a college degree as a direct result of the large number of applications that were denied in the 2007 and 2008,” the report states.

The authors sum up their findings [emphasis mine]:

Cities whose employers faced large numbers of denials in the H-1B visa lotteries experienced considerably less job creation and wage growth for American-born computer workers in the two years that followed. Denying H-1B visas didn’t help the economies of America’s cities or their U.S.-born workers. Instead, it cost their tech sectors hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions in missed wages.

This research reaffirms how immigrant workers don’t compete for jobs with Americans; they complement them. Contributions from immigrant workers (both high- and lower-skilled) grow the economy faster and produce more jobs for U.S.-born workers.

In April, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that 172,500 H-1B petitions were filed for 85,000 visas, the highest number ever recorded for H-1B demand. Based on this study, not raising the number of H-1B visas ends up hurting American workers.

More Articles On:

About the Author

About the Author

Sean Hackbarth
Senior Editor, Digital Content

Sean writes about public policies affecting businesses including energy, health care, and regulations. When not battling those making it harder for free enterprise to succeed, he raves about all things Wisconsin (his home state) and religiously follows the Green Bay Packers.


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With The Jobs Report Looming, Mortgage Rates May Rise

Non-Farm Payrolls (Sep 2009 - est. Aug 2011)

If you’re shopping for a mortgage rate, today may be a good day to lock one down. That’s because Friday morning, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will release its Non-Farm Payrolls report for August 2011.

The “jobs report” tends to have a big influence on mortgage bonds and mortgage rates.

The jobs report is a monthly issuance, providing sector-by-sector analysis of the U.S. workforce. It also report the national Unemployment Rate.

Wall Street expects the August Non-Farm Payrolls data to show 75,000 jobs created in August, down from 117,000 in July; and it expects that the Unemployment Rate will remain unchanged at 9.1%.

The jobs report’s connection to mortgage markets is straight-forward — as jobs go, so goes the economy. This is because when the number of working Americans rises :

  1. Consumer spending gets a boost
  2. Government tax collection gets a boost
  3. Household savings gets a boost

These are each good turns in a recovering economy.

For today’s rate shoppers and home buyers, though, it won’t be the actual number of jobs created that matter as much as how close that jobs figure is to Wall Street’s expectations. If the number of jobs created exceeds the 75,000 estimate, look for mortgage rates to rise.

Conversely, if job creation falls short of 75,000 in August, mortgage rates are expected to rise.

Home affordability remains at all-time lows and mortgage rates do, too. If you’ve been wondering whether now is the right time to lock a rate, you can remove some risk by locking ahead of Friday’s Non-Farm Payrolls release.

The report will be released at 8:30 AM ET.

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SPACAR 2015 - Previous versions

The 2013 release of SPACAR is still available from this web server. Note however that we do not actively support these older versions. In case of problems you are advised to study the accompanying manuals.

Older releases of Spacar are no longer available for download. Contact one of the authors if you desparately need one of these versions.


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A short drive north of Primorsko, a resort town on the southern Bulgaria Black Sea coast, you will find a site that challenges the imagination.

The ancient Thracian sanctuary known with the Turkish word Begliktash stands in a meadow that opens up dramatically before you after a 40-minute walk along an overgrown path through the oak forest of the Strandzha. Anticipation builds even before you start on the path because just where it begins is the Dragon's Houses, a Thracian dolmen hidden by a canopy of tree branches.

Scattered seemingly at random, like the abandoned building blocks of a giant baby, some of the rocks which make up Begliktash weigh up to 150 tonnes.

Millennia ago the Thracians used the site as a shrine, while under the Ottomans it meant no more to the local people than the rocks, or taşlar, where the beglik, or sheep tax, was collected.

The first researcher of the site was the Czech historian and archaeologist Karel Škorpil, who, at the end of the 19th century, produced an early scientific account of the sanctuary. However, the wider public only became aware of the existence of this fascinating place as late as the early 2000s. The reason? During Communism, Begliktash was in the grounds of the Perla Residence, the off-limits hunting-and-vacation resort for high-ranking Communist apparatchiks. A hunting watchtower still rises in front of the sanctuary, a reminder of the times when Party men, guns in hand, waited for some easy game to appear.

The first excavations of Begliktash began in 2003 and research concentrated on the sanctuary's central section. The finds revealed that the shrine was used between the Late Bronze Age (mid-2nd millennium BC) and the advent of Christianity in the 4th century. Most of the artefacts pointed to fertility rites, solar and chthonic cults: stone axes, ceramic fragments, flint knives and arrows, charred deer bones.

The researchers also tried to identify the different parts of the sanctuary and to give them meaning. Besides the hollows of ritual basins and canals over the surface of the sanctuary, some of the rocks and boulders were interpreted as being an altar, a throne, a menhir, a dolmen. A huge flat rock was identified as the bed where the priest would perform sacred sex in a ritual aimed at reviving nature. The so-called Great Dolmen, an imposing structure – 12m long, 9m wide and 5m high – is believed to be a royal tomb.

As in other places connected with the Thracian heritage, many historians disagree with these interpretations, but the claims are so fascinating that, combined with the sheer size of the boulders, they turned Begliktash into one of the most popular Thracian shrines in the country. Today the site is widely advertised as "The Bulgarian Stonehenge," repeated ad nauseam by tourist websites, blogs and the sensationalist media.

Begliktash shrine, Bulgaria

Begliktash seen from the air. The site now looks lost amid the oak wood, but its name suggests that it used to be the place where local sheep tax used to be collected

But did the ancient Thracians really make Begliktash, collecting the huge rocks from all over the forest to create an elaborate megalithic complex?

Well, actually not. Begliktash is a natural phenomenon. The Thracians made their shrine there only because they were impressed by it and saw in it the manifestation of divine powers.

Near Begliktash is another site of Thracian interest. About 2.5 km from the mouth of the Ropotamo River, on top of the Lion's Head rock phenomenon, are the remains of a fortress the locals call Chengersko Kale or Valchanovo Kale. The fortress was used between the early 1st millennium BC and the end of the 15th century AD, and a strong wall of massive boulders not unlike those seen at ancient Troy and Mycenae still survives, at places rising to 1.5m.
Treasure hunters have invaded the site for centuries, searching for the gold of the legendary Valchan Voyvoda, a local brigand who used to rob Ottoman tax convoys. Nearby is a dolmen.

Begliktash shrine, Bulgaria

According to popular belief, only people without a sin (and excess weight) can squeeze between these boulders

Begliktash shrine, Bulgaria

A boulder believed to weigh 150 tonnes and stay upright balancing on two points only

A Guide to Thracian Bulgaria

America for Bulgaria FoundationHigh Beam is a series of articles, initiated by Vagabond Magazine, with the generous support of the America for Bulgaria Foundation, that aims to provide details and background of places, cultural entities, events, personalities and facts of life that are sometimes difficult to understand for the outsider in the Balkans. The ultimate aim is the preservation of Bulgaria's cultural heritage – including but not limited to archaeological, cultural and ethnic diversity. The statements and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the America for Bulgaria Foundation and its partners.

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An excerpt from Shadow Journey: A Guide to Elizabeth Kostova's Bulgaria and Eastern Europe

Vagabond Interviews

Andon Simeonov, Country Manager of SoftServe Bulgaria, on how to excel in the current software economy

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Campaign Videos

Campaign Video

Watch the award winning video, with President Mark A. Heckler presenting the strategic priorities of Forever Valpo: The Campaign for Our Future

Campaign Kick-Off Recap

Nearly 1,900 attended the kick-off celebration on Sept. 23, 2016. Watch a recap of the event.

Campaign Kick-Off Timelapse

The Athletics-Recreation Center was transformed from a basketball arena into an intimate venue for 1,900 attendees. Watch 3 days of activities condensed to 45 seconds.

Watch as the Barenaked Ladies pay a special tribute to everyone's favorite dining employee, Marianne, and see Ed Robertson perform a Valpo rap.

Nostalgic Look at Valpo

Valpo is a very special place. This video captures the spirit in a nostalgic look with "Free and Unbroken" presented by Travis Scholl, '96.

Student Philanthropy

A gift from Kathy and Mark Helge has served as the catalyst for Valpo's new student philanthropy initiative. Watch to learn more about the program.

Leadership and Service

Watch the story of three longtime employees, Dee Herscher '50, Dale Kempf, '62, and Stephanie Umbach '59, who dedicated more than 130 years of service and $6 million in gifts to Valpo.


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Economics, Info-Graphs

50 Wealthiest People In The World [INFOGRAPHIC]

Wealth-X and Business Insider have collaborated to produce a definitive list of the 50 wealthiest people on the planet. This elite club of billionaires has a combined fortune of US$1.45 trillion, nearly equal to the GDP of Australia, and more than two-thirds are completely self-made.

Microsoft founder and renowned philanthropist Bill Gates was No. 1, with a net worth of US$87.4 billion. Rounding out the rest of the top 6 are fashion retail mogul Amancio Ortega Gaona, Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and brothers David Koch and Charles Koch, who run Koch Industries.

The United States is home to 29 billionaires on the list, more than any other country. China comes in second, with four billionaires, and India is third, with three billionaires.

Here are other insights from the list:

  1. Men dominate at the very upper tiers of wealth — there are 46 male billionaires versus four female billionaires, and all the women on the list inherited their wealth.
  2. Tech is king — 12 billionaires, nearly a quarter of the list, come from the technology sector.
  3. The youngest billionaire in the top 50 is 31-year-old Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, ranked 8th with a net worth of US$42.8 billion.
  4. The oldest billionaire, 93-year-old L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, is also one of four women in the list. She is ranked 17th, with a net worth of US$29 billion.

50 Wealthiest People In The World

50 Wealthiest People In The World

50 Wealthiest People In The World


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vara team

VARA Team Criteria

VARA Team members will receive complementary entry fees for all VARA races for the year they are named to the team. All VARA team members must be current VARA members and are responsible for renewing membership for the upcoming competitive season.

Selection for the VARA TEAM is as follows:
1. U16 VARA State Overall Champion M/W
2. VT Cup Series Overall gold medalists U16 and U21-19 M/W
3. U14 VARA State Championship gold medalists per event, M/W
4. George Tormey VARA Spring Series Overall Champions (1st Pl M/W)
5. Gold medalist per event and combined for; Jr Eastern Championships (fis), U19 Nationals, U16 Eastern Championships, U14 Eastern Championships
6. VT USST & Eastern Team members are considered Honorary VARA Team Members.

Athletes must have been a current member of VARA and of a Vermont club for the previous competitive season. The VARA Team will be recognized at the VARA Gala and will be named prior to that event.

2018 VARA Team Club
Aidan Robin BMA
Aleck Sullivan BMA
Austin Taylor MRG
Bradshaw Underhill KMS
Carolina De Buy Wenniger OMS
Carson Taylor MMSC
Chloe Lathrop SMS
Erik Holm SMS
Gavin Dewey GMVS
Hayden Van Alstine GMVS
Izzy Jenne KMS
Jacqueline Culver SMS
Katie Killian BMA
Lydia Riddell GMVS
Moro Bamber GMVS
Musashi Eto KMS
Nevin Vilandrie GMVS
Olivia Holm SMS
Patrick Coughlin BMA
Riley Plant Midd College
Sammie Gaul GMVS
Tess Beyer SMS
Theodore Kim BMA
Zoe Zimmermann BMA


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Basic Skills Initiative

The Basic Skills Initiative is a key project employed to address the goal of student success and readiness in the California Colleges System Strategic Plan.  The Strategic Plan emphasizes the community colleges’ central role in meeting the state’s social and economic needs and requires colleges to significantly transform how they address and meet the needs of basic skills and ESL students.

Basic skills are those foundation skills in reading writing, mathematics, learning skills, study skills, and English as a Second Language which are necessary for students to succeed in college-level work.

Components of the Basic Skills study include:

  1. An extensive review of literature related to basic skills practices, as well as an overview of examples of strategies employed by 33 California Community Colleges, as well an nine out-of-state institutions.

  2. A self-assessment tool designed to engage college administrators, faculty and staff in a meaningful and reflective dialogue about their current practices and plans for program improvement, enhancement, or modification.

  3. A cost-revenue model for developmental education programs providing a way for exploring the incremental revenues that can be derived over time from effective basic skills programs, practices and/or intervention.

 Basic Skills Faculty Toolkit for Student Success


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Bespoke Furniture

Why Bespoke Furniture?

Bespoke fitted furniture can offer an affordable and unique aspect to your home. At Verve they combine both traditional style and craftsmanship with the latest interior design trends. Specialising in Bedrooms, Kitchens and Home Offices the expertise has been extended to include media rooms and tailor made furniture to compliment built-in bedroom furniture.

Modern lifestyles have changed and so have the features of the home.  Built In TV Display cabinets and technology now create the focal point in the room in many homes.  Traditional and period homes also benefit from bespoke furniture, because with the right design, it is possible to maintain the welcoming appeal of traditional homes and incorporate the current trends.

Bespoke Fitted Furniture

Our custom built products include built-in wardrobes, walk-in wardrobes, chest of drawers, bookcases and shelving, library and home office furniture, loft and under stairs furniture and media rooms.  Our previous works shown are design ideas of the bespoke designs options available to you. However, these are only design ideas.  With your own creativity and style and a good dash of input from one of our designers your choices are endless. A unique and affordable bespoke furniture design can be yours.

Custom Built Furniture

We recognise that you have unique and individual preferences for the design of your built in furniture, and we want to help you to create the perfect custom built furniture for your room. Our designers would be happy to talk with you about the affordable luxury options that are available.


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What is the ship's current position? Where is the ship located? 322 current position is 32.02827 N / 120.91354 E on Oct 11, 2016 06:10 UTC.

AIS Data

AIS TypeCargo ship (HAZ-C)
FlagPitcairn Island
IMO / MMSI - / 555550000
Length / Beam120 / 34 m
Current draught-
Course / Speed0.0° / 0.0 kn
Coordinates32.02827 N/120.91354 E
Last report Oct 11, 2016 06:10 UTC

Are you interested in the sailing schedule of the 322 ship?
The 322's port of calls and sailing schedule for the past months are listed below as detected by our live AIS ship tracking system. VesselFinder also gathers and keeps detailed information about ship movement history (e.g ship track) for the past 7 days (max).
More detailed historical ship movement AIS records are available on request.

Port Calls

Last Port CallActual time of Arrival (UTC)

Map position

322 current position and history of port calls are received by AIS. Technical specifications, tonnages and management details are derived from VesselFinder database. The data is for informational purposes only and VesselFinder is not responsible for the accuracy and reliability of 322 data.


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What is the ship's current position? Where is the ship located? ALIMA current position is 32.92858 S / 71.5409 W on Sep 15, 2018 16:16 UTC.

AIS Data

AIS TypeSailing vessel
IMO / MMSI - / 725003360
Length / Beam14 / 3 m
Current draught-
Course / Speed219.0° / 0.0 kn
Coordinates32.92858 S/71.5409 W
Last report Sep 15, 2018 16:16 UTC

Are you interested in the sailing schedule of the ALIMA ship?
The ALIMA's port of calls and sailing schedule for the past months are listed below as detected by our live AIS ship tracking system. VesselFinder also gathers and keeps detailed information about ship movement history (e.g ship track) for the past 7 days (max).
More detailed historical ship movement AIS records are available on request.

Port Calls

Last Port CallActual time of Arrival (UTC)

Map position

ALIMA current position and history of port calls are received by AIS. Technical specifications, tonnages and management details are derived from VesselFinder database. The data is for informational purposes only and VesselFinder is not responsible for the accuracy and reliability of ALIMA data.


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Remedy’s Sam Lake teasing new Alan Wake? “It will happen again in a town called Ordinary”

By Johnny Cullen, Sunday, 3 June 2012 15:27 GMT

Remedy lead writer Sam Lake’s either gone and lost it on Twitter or he’s started teasing a brand new Alan Wake.

He tweeted the following last night: “It’s all true. ‘It will happen again, in another town, a town called Ordinary.’ It’s happening now.”

The tweet contained a link to a short story that basically screams ‘Wake’. This is what part of it says.

“In the dream I was visiting the previous owner of my house at the nursing home, only in the dream the owner wasn’t a sweet old lady, he was a man, and he wasn’t old, he was a young man with a dark hair – very good looking in fact. I remember that he was wearing a funny jacket with old-fashioned elbow patches.

“I was there to find out about the shoebox, but he was very agitated and didn’t listen to me. The place was brightly lit, it was sunny outside, but he was still very anxious and wanted me to turn all the lights on.

“He kept going on about the place being too dark. I remember being certain that all the lights were on already, but that didn’t calm him down. In the end he was screaming for me to turn the lights on. I was also starting to freak out, starting to think that something horrible was coming to take us away, and that’s when I woke up.”

Remedy’s not been shy in saying it’s been looking to continue the Alan Wake series. The studio’s head of franchise development Oskari Hakkinen told VG247 back in February the series’s last installment, American Nightmare, wouldn’t be the last we’d hear of the troubled writer.

“Alan Wake in general, the intellectual property, is ours, and it’s not the last you’re seeing of Alan Wake,” he said at the time of the release of AW.

The original Alan Wake came out in May 2010 for Xbox 360. The previously-announced PC release launched at the start of this year before the release of the bite-sized American Nightmare on Xbox Live Arcade. AW launched on PC last month.

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Barnabae Itinerarium, or, Barnabee's Journal
London - Reeves and Turner, 1876 Book. Very Good. Hardcover. A smart, finely bound edition of Braithwaite's famous satire. Bound in half leather with gilt lettering and decoration. A New Edition Carefully Revised by W. Carew Hazlitt. This text is in English and Latin. With A Life of the Author, A Bibliographical Introduction to the Itinerary and a Catalogue of his Works. With Four Plates. This didactic and satirical text describes four journeys between Kendal (Brathwaite's home) and London. The route taken is different in each instance. It is a remarkable example of the trend for topographical writings in the 1630s, but in its rollicking style it also prefigures some of the picaresque novels of the eighteenth century. (DNB)Joseph Haslewood, 1769 - 1833, was an English bibliographer and antiquary. William Carew Hazlitt, 1834 - 1913, was an Englishbibliographer. Condition: The binding is tight and firm. There is slight wear to the extremities, including slight rubbing andfading, prominent to the spine. Internally the pageshave very slight browning, with light spots throughout. Overall the condition isnear fine..
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text:
Terrorists under the bed

In the morning I went up to Mr. Crew’s, and at his bedside he gave me direction to go to-morrow with Mr. Edward to Twickenham, and likewise did talk to me concerning things of state; and expressed his mind how just it was that the secluded members should come to sit again. I went from thence, and in my way went into an alehouse and drank my morning draft with Matthew Andrews and two or three more of his friends, coachmen. And of one of them I did hire a coach to carry us to-morrow to Twickenham.
From thence to my office, where nothing to do; but Mr. Downing he came and found me all alone; and did mention to me his going back into Holland, and did ask me whether I would go or no, but gave me little encouragement, but bid me consider of it; and asked me whether I did not think that Mr. Hawly could perform the work of my office alone or no. I confess I was at a great loss, all the day after, to bethink myself how to carry this business.
At noon, Harry Ethall came to me and went along with Mr. Maylard by coach as far as Salsbury Court, and there we set him down, and we went to the Clerks, where we came a little too late, but in a closet we had a very good dinner by Mr. Pinkny’s courtesy, and after dinner we had pretty good singing, and one, Hazard, sung alone after the old fashion, which was very much cried up, but I did not like it.
Thence we went to the Green Dragon, on Lambeth Hill, both the Mr. Pinkney’s, Smith, Harrison, Morrice, that sang the bass, Sheply and I, and there we sang of all sorts of things, and I ventured with good success upon things at first sight, and after that I played on my flageolet, and staid there till nine o’clock, very merry and drawn on with one song after another till it came to be so late.
After that Sheply, Harrison and myself, we went towards Westminster on foot, and at the Golden Lion, near Charing Cross, we went in and drank a pint of wine, and so parted, and thence home, where I found my wife and maid a-washing.
I staid up till the bell-man came by with his bell just under my window as I was writing of this very line, and cried, “Past one of the clock, and a cold, frosty, windy morning.” I then went to bed, and left my wife and the maid a-washing still.

bed like a state
with no land but the ink
of a great loss

all the clerks in a closet
and the much-cried green dragon
just under this very line

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Monday 16 January 1659/60. (See the original erasure.)

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text:
What Kalief Browder’s Mother Thinks Should Happen to Rikers

After years of abuses, local power players are making noise about closing the notorious NYC jail complex. We asked the mother of one of the island's most tragic figures for her take.

Feb 18 2016, 5:00pm

NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio and other city officials at a special housing unit on Rikers Island in 2014. (AP Photo/The Daily News, Susan Watts, Pool, File)

This story was co-published with the Marshall Project.

The speaker of the New York City Council shook up the political landscape this week when she announced a slate of reforms aimed at reducing the population at Rikers Island in order to realize the "dream" of shutting down the city's infamous jail complex. The proposal by Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, which included setting up a commission headed by the state's former chief judge, drew the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo, while Mayor Bill de Blasio called it "noble" but "very difficult."

In her address, Mark-Viverito drew on the story of Kalief Browder, who was held on Rikers Island as a teenager for three years, two in solitary confinement, without ever standing trial. He was beaten by guards and fellow prisoners, and the violence was captured on surveillance cameras. The charges were eventually dropped. At home last year, he committed suicide, and his story has become a touchstone for many reform advocates. "Rikers Island has come to represent our worst tendencies and our biggest failures," Mark-Viverito said before an audience that included Venida Browder, Kalief's mother.

Browder spoke with the Marshall Project's Alysia Santo about her son and the movement to close Rikers Island. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

One argument in favor of shutting down Rikers is that it is so isolated from the rest of the city. It's practically invisible to the public and difficult for people to visit. When Kalief was on Rikers Island, how often would you visit? What was that trip like?
Let me tell you, that is an all-day trip. I'm in the Bronx, and it took about two and a half hours on a good day. It's a job. But I went every weekend for three years.

If he was in a facility in the Bronx, I could have went on a weekday, and that would have made him more at ease—instead of him having to wait for the weekend to see his mom. If he was closer, I could have been more of a support for him.

Sometimes, I would cry because there was nothing I could do. He used to tell me, "Mom, stop crying," because people would notice. But as his mother, I'm supposed to protect him. But there was nothing I could do with him being in there. When he first told me how he was being beat, I said, "Well, Kalief, I can go over their heads, and I can go tell." And he said, "No, Mom. Don't do that." Because he was afraid of what would happen to him.

When Kalief first came home from Rikers Island, what was the first thing you noticed?
Physically, he was here, but mentally, he was still in Rikers. The solitary confinement really messed him up. It made him very paranoid. He was terrified of ever having to go back to Rikers. He felt that people were police plants, trying to get him. He was afraid to trust anybody. He even told me one time, "I don't know if I can trust you." To show you how far his paranoia went, it got to the point where I couldn't watch certain TV channels because he said they were linked to the police, and if I had those channels on, they could see or hear anything going on in the house.

He was angry all the time. He got in a verbal altercation with one of his brothers, and next thing you know, they started fighting. I was looking at Kalief, and a look came over him that wasn't Kalief. And it terrified me. And his brother had to go to the hospital because he threw him onto a glass table, and his brother cut his foot. Kalief later apologized and told me, "Ma, I don't know what happened, but I was back at Rikers, and I had to fight."

His paranoia continued to progress to where he wouldn't even talk to me in the house if it was something dealing with the case or what happened at Rikers. If I needed to talk to him, we had to go outside the house and outside the front gate. The night before his suicide, he was just pacing back and forth in the house. And then he said, "Ma, I gotta talk to you." So we went outside the gate and he said, "Ma I don't know what to do." He was talking about a message on Facebook. He said, "They said they warned me, and I didn't listen." And he was terrified. He had tears in his eyes. I don't know what the message said. His brother knew his password, and when I checked it Saturday evening after the police took his body away, every piece of message or information, it was all erased.

So no one knows what scared him that night before?
He tried to show me one message, but I didn't see what he saw. I couldn't understand it, and I didn't want him to see me not believing him. And I was proud that he told me, but at the same time, it hurt that he was going through so much.

What would justice for Kalief look like?
I want the city—and when I say city, I mean the NYPD, the courts, and Rikers—I want them to admit that they're the reason my son is dead. He never had any mental issues till he went to Rikers. These are people that take our kids. Sixteen is a kid. If Kalief were here, and I beat him and mistreated him, I'd be in jail for child abuse.

They need to do away with Rikers. That's the gist of it. It's a horrible place. Shut it down. They can make different facilities in the boroughs where the child lives. Maybe that would help.

Kalief's story has caused people to take a second look at our justice system and feel compassion when they might not have otherwise. Has all this attention surprised you?
It really surprised me, especially when President Obama opened his editorial about ending solitary confinement for juveniles with Kalief's story. I've met a lot of people, judges, politicians. I've even met Sandra Bland's mom. And out of all the people I met, she is the one that really understands my pain, because she lost her child. When we met, her hug really hit me. And I could not control my tears.

I admire her because she goes out there and travels to different states to speak. Me, I speak here and there, but if it was up to me, I'd just stay in my room and be with Kalief, with his pictures and everything. I cry every day. Every day. He may have hung himself, but the strings were pulled by the system. They destroyed my family, and they definitely destroyed me. And I've lost faith in the judicial system, the police. Not all cops are bad, and not all COs are bad, but being that the bad ones destroyed my son, it's hard. It's a lot to deal with.

I was going through his things after he died, and I came across a questionnaire he had to fill out for therapy or something. It said: "What do you do when you're angry? Who do you go to talk to?" And the first person he put was me. Do you know how I felt that he put me? I'm sorry (crying). He put me down first, and there was nothing I could do to stop him.

And you know, I just miss my son so much. He was my youngest. He was my baby. I have to go out there and speak on his behalf. And I hope one day he will get the justice he deserves. They are waiting for this story to die and get swept under the rug. It's not going away because I'm not going to let it go away.

This article was originally published by the Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization that covers the US criminal justice system. Sign up for their newsletter, or follow the Marshall Project on Facebook or Twitter.

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text:
To celebrate our first wedding anniversary, my husband and I decided upon a weeks trip to Croatia. We have been asked many  times as to why we chose this destination and in all honesty, it’s not that clear. My parents had had little experience of Split and Dubrovnik as part of a European cruise a few years back and had always said that it was worth a look knowing that I love quaint,
picturesque places. Anyhow, before we knew it, I had ordered a second hand Rough Guide book and my husband and I were thumbing through it over a hearty Sunday lunch in our local pub one dreary afternoon, shortlisting places to go to in a 7
day visit.

The first big decision was whether to do Split or Dubrovnik. My folks fell in love with Dubrovnik (“the streets are so clean and shiny”) but after some research we decided that we might be able to soak up a bigger variety of Croatian culture and beauty (beyond said clean streets) if we stuck to the Western Coastal areas around Split.

An initial ‘must have’ on the list had been a trip to the Plitvice National Park lakes. However, given that we were only going to be in Croatia for a week, it was going to work out as quite a chunk of travelling time to get there and back. So that was struck off the list as we discovered another National Park called Krka that had fab reviews and was a fraction of the distance away. We also
intended to stay on the island of Hvar. Armed with this list (Split, Krka and Hvar) I googled for any specialist Croatian travel agents and discovered Completely Croatia. Alison and Jane were our contacts and were only too pleased to help advise on and shape our trip. I find putting trust in others fairly difficult, not in an ‘I know best’ kind of way but just because you never really know levels of others expectations and values when it comes to holidays. But these ladies know Croatia, that was clear, so after many an email, this was our finalised plan (including all transfers):

Airline: Wizz Air (more on them later)
– Arrive in Split and immediately transfer to Trogir for a 2 night stay.
– 1 day excursion to Krka National Park
Day 3: Ferry to Hvar for a 5 night stay at the Podstine Hotel.
– Whilst on Hvar, our plan was to go to Brac (Bol) for the day to see ‘the
beach’  Zlatni Rat.
Final day: early morning ferry back to mainland to fly home from Split.

All set! Right? No…

A slight chink in the plan came when we MISSED OUR OUTBOUND FLIGHT. Yep. Mortifying. Ever missed a flight? You feel like an idiot. You watch other blissful couples, excited youngsters, families and more embarrassingly the elderly leisurely check in and be on their merry way whilst you are standing at the Wizz Air information desk flustering over what other flight you can get
on…whilst crying. Not good. It was an honest mistake (the husband’s to be clear, although we’re still married so it wasn’t THAT bad). A simple timings error. We arrived at the airport when our flight was taking off. Sickening.

Now, not that you are going to make this mistake but a word of warning just incase. Flights to Croatia are currently  not that regular. At time of writing this, flights from all London airports are once daily and in the early morning. We therefore couldn’t get a flight later that day. Or the next day (fully booked). Old Wizz Air desk lady simply sat there shaking her scrunchie clad head
at my husband.

“Help, we’ve missed our flight!”
At around 7am on our departure day, we were sheepishly calling Completely Croatia. ‘They are going to think we’re stupid/they’re not going to understand that the husband is usually ‘plastic-folder-man’ with all documents and timings in absolute order/they are going to judge us and have us down as terrible travellers’. Oh the shame. Alison was cool and calm though (‘this hasn’t happened to me in 6 years’) as she went through options whilst we sat at a coffee shop at Luton airport. A nail biting taxi journey home ensued as we awaited a revised itinerary….thoughts of ‘is this holiday actually going to happen? Will we only get a 5 day break? What is this going to cost us?’ ran through our ‘terrible traveller’ brains.

Long story short. £800 later we were rebooked, retaining our 7 night break but with the order of the holiday turned on it’s head.

New itinerary:

– Fly to Split and immediately transfer to Hvar to redeem our original booking at The Podstine hotel.
– After 5 days on Hvar, ferry to Split and transfer to Trogir to stay at a new hotel; The Palace Derossi for 2 nights with a trip to Krka on our penultimate day.

Take 2
We land in Split. It’s 37 degrees, bright sun. The airport is pretty small and has to accommodate a lot of visitors from Scandinavia, the Uk, Germany etc. It wont be long before it has to expand in size. A short private transfer gets us to Split where we have a few hours to kill before our ferry to Hvar leaves…

Split really is rather lovely, from it’s markets to how clean it is (ok mum and dad, I get your ‘clean streets’ comment now). But what grabbed me most was the buildings. From the higgledy piggldly brickwork to their shutters. Old battered wooden shutters. Gorgeous. I desperately want to be peaking out from them and not peering out through double glazed glass  back home. How unromantic. We wandered, I bought cheap flip flops and kicked off the Converse and we settled on a little port side restaurant for a quick bite and drink.

People watching is a favourite pastime and Croatia is a great place for this as it caters to all sorts. The young party goers most notably from America and Australia, the older Velcro sandal wearers of South Africa and the tall beautiful Scandinavians that saunter past with their flat tums and perfectly blonde locks. People slow down, there’s no fast pace urgency at all. They lick their dripping ice creams, sit on the port edge watching the water and the comings and goings of boats and simply absorb their charming surroundings.

HVAR; The Podstine, the sea, good restaurants and boat hiring…
We board the Jadrolinija ferry at 8.30pm to begin our stay on Hvar. It fills up pretty quick with a real mix of people (and their cats and dogs!) The trip is pretty smooth and as we depart Split we get a lovely view of the sun making it’s way down over the crooked rooftops.

Tip: even though the weather is very hot, if you sit outside on the ferry, pop a little sweater on as the breeze is rather chilly.

1 hour and 45 mins later, we arrive in Hvar and as we disembark the ferry we’re greeted by our transfer driver who picks up us and another more elderly couple.

Now as it’s dark, we don’t get to see much of the scenery…but we can tell that we are climbing high as our ears pop and by the way we can make out the lights down below of little villages and towns. The smell hits us too…Croatia is known as a fragrant destination and Hvar really represents this. It’s a mix of spice and lavender with the latter having been a key export of Hvar for years. The island is dotted with fields and fields of the crop and on your trip you’ll notice Market stalls full of lavender wrappings and gifts for tourists.

45 mins later we arrive at The Podstine hotel (which our driver tells us is much nicer than Hotel Croatia where the elderly couple in our minibus were just dropped off at!)

As it’s gone 11pm, the bar is shut so as we make our way to our room, we hope for a minibar.

The decor of the hotel overall is fine. Dated, but fine. However, I couldn’t help but think that it would really benefit from a nice whitewash on the walls to neutralise and brighten it up. I also have general issues with red carpets too (don’t ask!) and these run throughout the halls where the bedrooms are.

Our bedroom was compact with conflicting wallpaper on different walls, we had two single beds pushed together and 1 pillow each. These are not complaints by any means, just observations. You won’t be spending your time in the bedrooms anyway with all that Hvar has to offer outside. But if you are expecting exquisite luxury, a room at The Podstine is not for you.  Doors open up to a little balcony and we have aircon and a minibar – hoorah! Incidentally, after a word with reception, we got more pillows and a double mattress topper and sheet fitted.

We awake on our first full day on Hvar and the first thing we check is our view from the room as we have no idea what the sea is like etc. It looks bright turquoise which is always a good sign. The sun is shining, its deliciously hot and we go down for brekkie.

Buffet breakfast food at The Podstine: hams, cheeses, fruit, granola, cereals, scrambled eggs, yoghurts, toast, bacon and sausages.

Steps from the breakfast restaurant lead you down to a few outdoor split level areas of the hotel; an alfresco restaurant area, a cocktail bar, a PADI scuba diving centre, and 3 staggered   levels of sun beds and beanbags in amongst pine trees for shade that overlook the sea. The hotel also features a little secluded pool, a gym, a gorgeous smelling spa and whirlpools.

The sea: wow. It is crystal clear as hoped. It’s calm and clean and has a rocky bed. There’s no sand here, ladders step you into the waters and although the cold of the sea is an initial shock (mainly because of your body temperature from the sun!) once you’re in, bobbing around, taking in the moment, all is perfect in the world.

Definitely hire a snorkel from the PADI centre.  There are an abundance of little fishes to spy on.

Highlights of Hvar:

– Hiring a little boat for the day, organised at the Podstine reception.  Its a must and really cheap to do. We sailed our way around the Pakleni islands opposite our hotel and moored for lunch at a lovely restaurant called Zori on the island of Palmizana.
– Hvar Town: a pleasant 20 minute waterside walk from The Podstine brings you into Hvar Town with it’s gorgeous cobbled streets, port, restaurants and shops. On your walk you will pass the Hula Hula bar which is a bustling party bar that warms people up for the night ahead. Worth a stop. You’ll also pass the rather impressive if a little daunting in size, Amfora hotel. It’s huge and boasts quite a few pools.
– Restaurants in Hvar Town: Dalmatino is fabulous, down a little side street. We had chataubriand which was melt in the mouth good.   Divino is also nice, we went here for our anniversary dinner. Its up some steps port side so brilliant for appreciating the comings and goings of some impressive yachts. Give Bounty a miss. Bad service and food. On the walk from The Podstine to Hvar Town you will also pass Bonj les Bains which looks nice in location and setting but received some bad reviews from some fellow guests at The Podstine.
– Floating in the sea. Sounds simple hey? But there’s something about the sea here that let’s you just float. With no effort at all. You lay back, your toes pop out of the water and you stare up at the clear blue sky and can do for however long you wish!

After our 5 nights on Hvar, it’s time to depart for Trogir. This time as it’s during the day we climb on board the  Jadrolinija Catamaran instead which shaves 45 minutes off the ferry transfer time, getting us back to Split in one hour. Again, as arranged by Completely Croatia, we are picked up by our driver and make a 20 minute air conditioned drive to Trogir.

Trogir is a yet another quaint little destination. It’s a bit peculiar in formation, with the heart of Trogir being a small islet laying between the gentle hills on the mainland and the coast of the Island of Ciovo. As we find our hotel, The Princess Derossi through an archway off a busy sidewalk, husband and I look at each other and giggle as this is what we call ‘cranky’, in a good way. You find yourself in a little courtyard with some tables and chairs laden with red check table cloths and look above you to see bedsheets and towels all drying on washing lines hung between the hotel’s windows. Cute. The receptionist is smiley and welcoming and shows us to our room on the second floor. Word of warning: no lifts.

We unpack and go for a wander.

Through enchanting, winding cobbled streets we come across a fourteenth century cathedral which is rather astonishing. So well preserved and expertly carved. Round another corner we find a busy square with a classical band playing. We grab an ice-cream and head to the port. Another stretch of waterside restaurants and bars awaits us, we choose a bar and sit back with a mojito.

At the end of the islet, is the impressive Trogir castle. Worth a visit.

Although our time in Split was short, I really would recommend a stay in Trogir over Split.

We hadn’t really done our restaurant research for Trogir and just opted to stumble upon ‘nice looking’ ones for the 2 nights we were there. Whilst the food on every menu in Croatia is pretty similar (Dalmatia cured ham anyone?) you don’t come here for the food and unless you’re a total foodie you’ll easily get by. By day you’re guaranteed a fresh thin crispy pizza cooked in a clay oven. By night meats, pastas, seafood and salads are on offer. I recommend reading up on the restaurants to head to in advance though as we had in Hvar to guarantee satisfied taste buds.

All in all, Trogir captivated me. Smiles all round.

The day before we leave for home is a moment I’d been waiting for, our trip to the waterfalls of Krka National Park. My shower at home is the nearest I’ve been to a waterfall before, expectations were high.

Again, a private drive awaits us and our driver is a delightful local man ready to talk us through life in Croatia. One thing we learn is that their tax rate is around 28%, wow.

The trip to Krka is around an hour from Trogir but it whizzes by as we meander up and down the beautiful scenic route. As we leave the car and lovely driver man, we are free to do what we want for the next 2 hours.

The sun is blazing once more and as we have arrived fairly early, the park is not that busy. We have a feeling that will change!

Walking down the numerous steep steps at Krka in the scorching heat is enough to make anybody a little parched and clammy but there’s no better reward than hearing the thunderous sound of falling water before turning a corner and seeing the magnificent sight of the falls.

Water cascades down into more crystal clear waters where people are swimming and bathing. We can’t wait to have a go.

We perch ourselves on a clear rocky patch by the water and take it in turns to have a swim. I was a little overwhelmed to be honest, by the sounds and the feelings of being in such gorgeous natural waters. Swimming against the force of
the water, making it to the floating barrier and hanging on to it just looking at the waterfall. Not a care in the world.

After our time in the water it was time to lay in the sun with another ice-cream before returning to our lovely driver man, driving home and catching a little snooze on the backseat.

A real must- see.

Ordinarily the day you return home is reserved for hurried packing and moodiness. But not this time! We’d packed the night before and seeing as our flight home wasn’t until late afternoon, we set off to Trogir port around 9am with our swimmers on underneath our clothes to catch a little boat taxi to a nearby beach. Time to soak up the last of the rays and for one last swim.

There are a couple of nearby beaches but a 15 minute sail away from Trogir. We chose Okrug for no particular reason, jumped on the little taxi and away we went.

It’s not the most exquisite of beaches, is fairly narrow and a step away from a road. But for one final relax and for the sake of a couple of hours it’s heaven compared to the stresses back home. It has a lot of beach refreshment huts fordrinks and is full of locals making the most of it on their weekend.

As stated earlier, Split airport is small. Not an ideal place if delayed. And delayed we were. Almost as if to get us back for missing our original flight, our Wizz Air flight home is delayed by 5 hours.  Holy moly.

I look at my iPad battery, 30% remaining. Great. And there’s only so much Fifty Shades of Grey you can take in one sitting. I’m screwed. Excuse the pun.

I spend some dosh in the duty free, I go back every hour to douse myself in the body moisturiser testers and I claim my free complimentary sandwich.

Despite this slightly bitter ending (that the Wizz Air pilot later blames on the Olympics even though it’s early July!) our love affair with Croatia holds strong.

In short, Croatia is whatever you want it to be – good for clubbing and partying, for families with babies, for doughy eyed couples and for the older generation. With their velcro sandals.

Currency: Kuna
Food: Do your research to find the best restaurants. There’s no real signature dish of Croatia but you can eat really well if you do your homework.
Love your tootsies: Invest in some of those ugly looking water feet things so that you can easily walk on the rocky sea bed.
Ice cream: Eat loads.

3 comments so far.

3 responses to “CROATIA”

  1. @nnie says:

    I’m saving this link/post in my favorites folder for whenever I am going to Split (definitely will be going to the National Park!)

  2. Wow that was odd. I just wrote an extremely long comment but after I
    clicked submit my comment didn’t show up. Grrrr… well I’m not
    writing all that over again. Anyways, just
    wanted to say superb blog!

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Picking Kiara up in melbourne

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Picking up my Z (Kiara)

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text:
The Terrible Lure of Violence

Source: El Siglo de Tucumán

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A HoV: Sitges Film Festival - Spain October 17, 2005
A HoV: Sitges Film Festival - Spain October 17, 20....
© Ayata. Used by permission.
In Barcelona, Spain, David Cronenberg and the actor Viggo Mortensen spoke with El Siglo about A History of Violence, a movie directed by the former and starring the latter, an American who lived in Argentina for several years.

A History of Violence, recently screened in Tucumán, is a lucid reflection upon violence, particularly in extreme situations.

Cronenberg is a Canadian and almost all his movies are made in his home country. Calm, serene and soft-spoken, he is a director with one of the most interesting filmographies around, always dark and obscure in their themes. Mortensen, a New Yorker raised in the Chaco and Buenos Aires, speaks perfect Spanish with an Argentinean accent, and is known for his devotion to the San Lorenzo team.

The two have an excellent relationship and share a good sense of humour, which is reflected during the interview. Both express interest in working together again in the future.

El Siglo was with them in Barcelona during the annual Sitges Film Festival, where this exclusive interview took place.

In your movies sickness is always present. You also often have schizophrenic characters in your movies, split personalities, like in Spider, Crash and The Fly. Do you consider violence a sickness?

Cronenberg: My movies are centred around the human body. The human condition has always interested me and to study it you first have to talk about the body. Mutation, sex, perversion, illness, death and technology, too, are strictly human. All technology has been created by man and is an extension of himself. I don't consider violence to be an illness or a virus, rather something innate in a human. It's in our DNA. It's too bad it isn't a virus, because then perhaps there would be a cure. Sadly, that's not the case, and even though intellectually we reject it, we live side-by-side with it.

Mortensen: The film is too good to reduce it into terms of mere violence. It speaks about the human condition and how ambiguous we are. I agree with David on this: human beings are complicated. A man can be the most violent person in the world and yet still on occasions act with compassion and in a caring manner.

Cronenberg: As happens in this case. It's not about publicizing or criticizing violence. It's about observing it. There is a lot of violence in the film and I try to see the reactions to it. Someone seeing the movie knows that the violence isn't real, so that gives us a certain measure of peace and we can enjoy it. But it's also relevant to find out why 'we like' such violence or why we find pleasure in it.

Another recurring theme in your movies is identity. How did you work with the dualities of personality?

Cronenberg: Identity is a very fragile attribute that requires work to maintain. Every day when we get out of bed we have to remember who we are, what language we speak, where we live. It's an ever-present subject, in one form or another, in my movies.

Mortensen: I never saw the character - not when reading the script or playing the role - as two separate personalities or men. We agreed right from the beginning that he would be one character. We spoke with David every day before filming and said from the beginning that the character would be one person with multiple identities. It would have been easier to do a Jekyll & Hyde transformation, but no. He was always going to be one person with different attitudes. Each one of us does the same thing every day. And if violence enters the picture, it does so with consequences. Also, the violence is shown in a crude and direct manner, without choreography or music in the background to make it more dramatic.

It's a dry production, without frills or superfluous camera movements, or slow, interminable rivers of blood. The action scenes are short and scarce. It's about getting as close to a person as possible in order to do the most possible damage. Why in such a brutal manner? Because it's that much more disturbing.

Many critics commented on the movie being a critique of American society. Did you set the movie in the U.S. for a specific reason?

Cronenberg: In order to be universal, all artists have to be specific. That's why I set it in the U.S., because of the special relationship the country has with weapons. The scenery of the Midwest also seemed very appropriate to the story. But the movie's content can be applied to any place in the world.

Mortensen: I think it's unfair to say that the movie's about the violence prevalent in the U.S. It's very easy when you're in Europe to say, 'look how violent those Yankees are'. Artistically, it can't be reduced to those terms. The film talks about violence in human society, be it English, Spanish, North American or Chinese. It also shows that we are capable of reasoning and trying, even if it's in a clumsy manner with poor results, to be a different way.

How did you create the character? Was Cronenberg helpful as a director?

Mortensen: The most enjoyable part, and what gives me the most satisfaction when making a movie - something which is not always achieved - is working with people like David. He's a subtle director, who values what an actor can contribute. He doesn't tell you what to think - like Lars von Trier, who tells you the answers - and he doesn't even tell you what questions to ask. He tells a story and allows you the chance to reflect. He provokes. A lot is told without words. When I read the script I thought it was interesting, but full of pitfalls. I didn't accept the role until I knew who would be directing...

I invented a life for the character - where he was born, where he lived - and travelled to the places to learn about them.

Cronenberg: You didn't mention the people you had to kill to create the character. [laughs]

Mortensen: David told me that as long as he didn't know them, it was fine. [laughs] The U.S. has always been very violent and you have suffered from being its neighbour. [laughs]

The movie is based on a story that involves violence, but not sex. Did you read the comic book before making the film?

Cronenberg: It's important to note that I didn't know it was based on a comic book. I hadn't read it. There wasn't sex and I added it in. [laughs] If somebody had made a movie based on the comic book, it would be very different. When twenty years ago I directed The Dead Zone I didn't write the script and since then I don't worry so much about the text. Moviemaking is all about teamwork.

Mortensen: The sex is an important theme. This movie is basically a love story. In all relationships there are power struggles, including people who know and love each other. The plot would be lost if we didn't know the marriage intimately. The transitions in their relationship are vital to understanding what happens.

What projects do you have going on right now?

Cronenberg: I don't know what my next steps will be, but if the possibility of another role for Viggo appears, I'd hire him.

Mortensen: Thanks. [laughs] I don't have any plans. I want to be home with my son. It's the same story as always: When we want work, there isn't any. And when you decide to rest, the devil knocks at your door to offer you a role.

Viggo Mortensen's new movie, Alatriste, premieres in October 2006. Considered the most expensive movie ever made in Spain (it cost around 24 million Euros), it's based on the novels of Arturo Pérez-Reverte about Captain Alatriste, a mercenary and adventurer in the 17th century. During the filming, Mortensen had to work hard to get rid of his Argentinean accent and replace it with a more Spanish one.
Last edited: 1 February 2006 04:50:27
© El Siglo de Tucumán.


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Basic Obedience

Basic Obedience is the foundation for all training. In this course, you will learn the fundamentals of positive-based training and formalize your dog's response to the 5 core commands -- Sit, Down, Stay, Come and Heel.

Our training methods are kind and constructive, using positive reinforcement to help you succeed. We aim to teach you how to communicate with your dog, giving you knowledge and confidence for training.

This course is a great place for young dogs and puppies (4 months and older) as well as for older dogs who have learned not to listen. In addition, portions of every class are devoted to teaching the techniques to develop perfect leash walking.

Each Course is 6 weeks long and is carefully structured to help owners understand how to implement successful training methods. Each week, owners will practice and develop their training skills and be given homework (called "set ups") to incorporate training into everyday life.

Commands Taught

Introduction / Fundamentals of Positive Reinforcement

  • Timing & Rewards
  • One Command / One Action
  • Touch / Yes (follow my hand, Emergency Recall)
  • Sit (until I tell you otherwise)
  • No (Formal No)
  • OK (release command)
  • Leave it
  • Sit (until I tell you otherwise)
  • Sit / Stay
  • Down
  • Down / Stay
  • Come
  • Leash Work / Follow My Lead
  • Heeling (Walk at my side, sit when I stop)
  • Find Heel (Swing to my left side)
  • Heel Turns (Turn at my left side, 90°, 180°)
  • Polite Greetings (no jumping)

Enroll in Private Classes

In a private class you work one-on-one with your trainer. Classes meet in your home, at a nearby park or wherever you'd like. We focus on teaching your dog basic obedience as well as utilizing those skills in the context of your home, learning to walk politely on a leash, or wherever you have an issue.

Price: $375 / 5 weeks
includes graduation exam & diploma

To enroll in private instruction,
please call Village Dogworks at:

Group Class

Group classes are a great opportunity to practice your dog's skills while working around other dogs. All group classes are taught outdoors and will meet once a week for 6 consecutive weeks. Dogs are required to wear a 6' nylon or leather leash. Dogs receive a diploma upon successful completion of the Basic Course.

Price: $275 / 6 weeks
The Basic Obedience Group Class meets outdoors in Tompkins Square park  for 6 consecutive weeks. Includes graduation exam and diploma

Next Course Begins:

Main Oval by the Krishna Tree
(7th Street between Ave A & B)

  • Wednesday, May 4th 2016 at 7.30 p.m.

To enroll, please call Village Dogworks at (646) 675-2125


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Gloucester in The 1900s

Howard Street GloucesterNext >

Our first picture was taken by Mr Sumsion in about 1900. This is probably the first photograph of Howard St. The camera is looking east toward High St from the Midland Rd end.

Mr Sumsion’s camera was donated to the Gloucester Folk Museum along with a number of glass plates.

Gloucester Cross 1909

Probably one of the most photographed scenes of the 1900s. It was taken by Mr George Matthews in June 1909 and shows The Cross decorated for the visit of King Edward 7th.
The camera is in Eastgate St looking west.

Wood Mill House in Coney Hill RoadThis photograph is of Wood Mill House in Coney Hill Road.This old building stood on the ground later occupied byThe Walnut Tree Inn which has also been demolished.

Next >


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Known as an all-in-one destination with incredible entertainment, food and culture, Overland Park’s roots date all the way back to America’s trailblazing past—and KC’s role as the true gateway to the West and modern innovator.

Discover the history of one of Kansas City’s most notable neighbors.

Trailblazing Origins

Image courtesy of Missouri Valley Special Collections

Once the jumping off point for gold seekers in search of their California fortunes, pre-settlement Overland Park was a sparsely populated region, with little to no roads and prairie as far as the eye could see. That changed when William B. Strang arrived in the area. A successful international railroad developer based in New York, Strang’s mother convinced him to come to Kansas City after a devastating flood in 1903.

Strang brought his mother to the farm of George Metcalf, a friend whose farm was located across the state line. Strang’s mother loved the area and the air so much that the developer decided to construct a flood-proof suburb that resembled a carefully planned park.

Innovative Transit

Photo Credit: Overland Park Historical Society

With the rise of the automobile still in its infancy, the success of the suburb relied on interurban travel. So, in 1904, Strang brought the Strang Electric Interurban Trolley Line to the region. The line ran from Kansas City to Olathe and touted the world’s first self-propelled trolleys.

Along with the new trolley system, Overland Park saw expanded growth at the end of The Great War. Soldiers returned from the conflict in Europe and purchased homes in the suburb, bringing with them a steady increase in automobile traffic—a reliance that eventually bankrupted the Strang Trolley Line in 1940.

Strang also brought aviation to the region. In 1909, the innovator made an agreement with Charles K. Hamilton to host the area’s first flying exhibition, which featured a biplane with wings made from bamboo and rubberized silk.

Massive Growth

One of the keys to Overland Park’s long-term success was its ability to survive the Great Depression. While KC proper was still reveling in its Prohibition heyday, Kansas City Power & Light relocated to OP in 1924, bringing with it jobs and financial security.

Another influx of soldiers returning home—this time from World War II—meant countless young families in search of affordable homes to own. The area grew and grew, earning its first-class city status in 1960, followed by an annexation in 1965 that nearly doubled its size. Expanded populations led to larger municipal departments, police departments, infrastructure, school systems and more. More and more people were living and working in Overland Park, shifting its status from a “bedroom community” to what the Johnson County Sun newspaper dubbed as “Executive Country.”

The name may not have stuck but the sentiment remains: Today, Overland Park is more bustling than ever. The destination is home to a vibrant farmers’ market, eclectic restaurants, unique entertainment spaces, specialty shops and family-friendly events that draw huge crowds.

More information about Overland Park can be found at How We Do KC: Overland Park and

Contact Visit KC


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Things to do in Pigeon Forge

Things to do in Pigeon Forge Tennessee has never been so exciting. From Dollywood and Dollywoods Splash Country to The Dixie Stampede and so many more action packed Pigeon Forge attractions for your Smoky Mountain family adventure. As you stroll along downtown Pigeon Forge you and yours can experience the thrills of Magi Quest, The Track, Wonder Works, and the newest attraction The Titanic. Pigeon Forge also includes over 10 music theaters that feature comedy, country, and more. The Dixie Stampede offers entertainment and great food all at the same time.

Things to do in Pigeon Forge includes so many great opportunities for restaurants. The Old Mill located at red-light seven offers breakfast, lunch and dinner family style.  The Old Mill also features fresh baked goods, candies from their candy kitchen and handcrafted pottery.  Families can also experience Christmas 365 days at year at The Incredible Christmas Place. This is a village that will enchant your heart and soul. There are also so many Pigeon Forge shopping opportunities from the outlets to specialty stores like Stages West, Walden’s Landing, Belz Outlet and more.

Things to do in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee has never been so exciting – so bring your family and come join us today. Be sure to visit our Pigeon Forge coupons section for special deals on things to do in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee including attractions and dining coupons.

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Friday, 30 September, 2016

Vistra ITCL Launch Events

Vistra ITCL launched their new brand identity on 12 September 2016, and to celebrate this new chapter, several senior delegates from Vistra, including Martin Crawford, CEO, and Jonathan Clifton, Group Managing Director, travelled to India to meet with Vistra ITCL colleagues and clients.

Client cocktail events were hosted in Mumbai and New Delhi on the 21st and 23rd of September respectively, and were well attended by approximately 200 Vistra ITCL clients including CEOs, CXOs, Heads of Investment banks, senior officials of corporate India, and legal/finance fraternity. The presence of high ranking officials of the Government and Public sector Institutions of India reflects Vistra ITCL’s strong relationships in India.

Among those in attendance in Mumbai was Mr. Ravi Parthasarathy, Chairman of IL&FS, who expressed his gratitude towards the team at Vistra ITCL for their hard work during the integration period.

In New Delhi, Dr. Arvind Mayaram, IAS (Retd), Former Finance Secretary - Govt. of India, Ms. Sharmila Chavaly, Joint Secretary (Infrastructure and Energy) - Dept of Economic Affairs, Govt. of India, and Mr. S. B. Nayar, Chairman and Managing Director, India Infrastructure Finance Company Limited, were kind enough to take time out of their busy schedules to attend and speak at the cocktail evening.

The Mumbai and New Delhi events boasted a notable mix of guests, with Navita Yadav (MD & CEO, Vistra ITCL) and Martin Crawford speaking on both evenings, welcoming the audience and expressing the value of the partnership between Vistra and Vistra ITCL, whilst also verbalising their excitement for the future of the Vistra brand.

Global Head of Capital Markets, Vistra and Managing Director & CEO, Vistra ITCL India,
Non-Executive Director,
+852 2848 0199


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Work experience

Work experience
2009 - Present

Clark Enterprises, Inc.

One of the largest privately held real estate companies in the Washington, DC metropolitan area with holdings in real estate; commercial, heavy and residential construction; and private equity investments.

Director of Financial Planning and Analysis (2009-Present)

Lead role in reengineering the financial accounting department from manual bookkeeping orientation into a dynamic electronic based process business unit.The new system will enhance the financial management of the portfolio and lay the foundation for improved asset management through traditional Financial Planning and Analysis.

  • Increase frequency of annual financial closings from semi annual to monthly
  • Increase speed of closing process from 40 to 10 days
  • Lead Creation of detailed and consolidated financial statements
  • Reduce G&A expense by 30% by implementing electronic transfer vs. manual methods
  • Implement traditional Financial Planning & Analysis processes
  • Standardize Chart of Accounts and categories used across 45 core Real Estate Portfolio
  • Review investments in resources for enhancing improvements listed above
2005 - 2009

Among the nation's largest owners and operators of rental apartment communities, with $1.84B in annual revenues and 5,900 employees throughout the US.

Vice President of Development (2006-Present)

Identify and enhance current assets with substantial revenue potential. Conduct detailed market analysis and develop comprehensive redevelopment plans to capitalize on market opportunities. Supervised consultant teams comprising architects, engineers, marketers, and legal counsel to develop full construction documents. Design and present business plans to the investment committee. Direct construction activities. Manage cross-functional evaluation of anticipated return on investment (ROI), coordinating research and analysis among construction, marketing, and operations teams. Co-select financing options and assess tax implications for each project.

  • Rapidly developed familiarity with and expertise in redevelopment to skillfully lead senior management meetings, assess portfolios, and analyze potential investments.
  • Authored 3 redevelopment plans that created $50M in value.
  • Increased revenue 27% and asset value 52% ($14M), with 1 high-rise renovation.

Vice President of Finance (2005-2006)

Headed financial operations for 30 DC Metro area apartment communities totaling 12,000 units and 34 community and regional managers. Maintained competitive rental rates in each community to meet and exceed revenue goals. Ensured monthly distribution of up to 3,000 lease renewal offers, totaling 60% of leasing revenues. Led monthly senior management business reviews.

  • Boosted sales 5% year over year (YOY) through a combination of revamping pricing processes, streamlining and upgrading key systems, and increasing marketing and promotional efforts.
  • Grew renewal business 10% YOY by standardizing offers and reengineering processes.
  • Successfully introduced new management and revenue forecasting systems despite previously failed efforts by others and utilized change management prowess to guide implementation.
  • Cultivated a sense of urgency in solving business critical problems
  • Promoted from Regional Finance Officer.
2002 - 2005

Senior Project Manager

$700M retailer with 50 beer, wine, and liquor stores in 8 states.

As a retail management systems subject matter expert, supported multiple business areas by improving and implementing processes, overhauling ineffective systems, and managing pricing and operations systems. Coordinated a quarterly retail pricing project for 4,000 products in 8 markets.

  • Saved 20 man-hours each week through labor scheduling automation.
  • Developed a competitive analysis database using MS Access reporting system to monitor retail pricing changes for key products at 30 competitive retailers.
  • Created guidelines for distribution partner supply chain controls.
  • Secured management buy-in for cost-saving projects that improved productivity.
1996 - 2002

$40B grocery retailer with locations in the US and Canada.

Senior Financial Analyst· 2001-2002

Led programmer and analyst teams to standardize and improve sales reporting and sales initiative performance systems throughout North America. Coached team members and ensured alignment for each project. Supported planning and sales efforts for the $3B meat and seafood business.

  • Developed effective sales automation solution using MS Access, ODBC, against tight deadlines.
  • Leveraged business acumen and solid technical background to gain a deep understanding of key business drivers and performance measures.

Senior Industrial Engineer · 1996-2001

Managed and refined salary targeting and reporting systems for the retail business, totaling $250M in annual salaries. Provided training and development for the retail management team of 250 on reaching and maintaining labor standard budgets. Managed labor data critical to analyzing and negotiating union contracts. Planned and executed a variety of cost savings projects and financial analyses to support corporate initiatives.

  • Generated cost savings of approximately $1M/year for each of 5 years.
  • Selected to develop and administer warehousing labor standards for a new distribution center, saving $2M/year and justified the standards increase to union officials.
  • Improve line length 30% as a key player in a line reduction initiative.
  • Developed subject matter expertise in cost management, earning a promotion to a corporate position as Senior Financial Analyst.

2001 - Present

Master of Business Administration

The George Washington University
1995 - Present

Bachelor of Science

University of Minnesota

Finance · Analysis · Operations

Executive with more than 10 year of multi-industry experience spanning real estate and retail sales. Track record of success in managing large projects, overseeing major projects, and generating millions of dollars in incremental revenue through investment and cost savings through continuous improvement and process streamlining. Demonstrated ability to thrive in union and non-union organizations. Extensive financial expertise including revenue forecasting and long-range business planning. Strengths in problem solving, consensus building, and negotiation. Proven history of managing successfully in diverse environment.

Financial Accountability · Change Management · Market Research · Competitive Positioning

Pricing Strategies · Business Analysis · Strategic Planning · Market Modeling · Retail Sales

Cross-Functional Team Leadership · System Development · Performance Management

Process Reengineering · Cost Control · Project Management · Negotiations

National Association of Home Builders

Urban Land Institute