‘New era’ for DC’s NHL, NBA teams? Caps coach Trotz says so

WASHINGTON (AP) — There they were, right in the front row, wearing red hockey jerseys, pounding on the glass just like any fan might, and urging other spectators to cheer loudly for the NHL’s Capitals in Game 7: Paul Pierce and a trio of other players from the NBA’s Wizards.

And a night after winning their first-round series in the same arena — via a sweep, no less — Washington’s professional basketball players watched the city’s professional hockey players get past the New York Islanders 2-1 to advance to the second round, too.

It’s the first time that the NHL and NBA teams in the nation’s capital both have won a postseason series in the same year, according to STATS.

And Capitals coach Barry Trotz found some significance in that.

“This is a new group. We always look at the past. I think what we need to do in Washington, D.C., sports … (is) have positive attitudes. Not that old stuff. This is a new era for basketball and hockey.

And the baseball team. And we’ll get that football team straightened away. And we’ll go from there,” Trotz said, mentioning that he noticed Pierce, John Wall, Marcin Gortat and Rasual Butler sitting not far from his bench on Monday night.

“It’s going to be contagious, I’m telling you,” he proclaimed.

The histories of both teams — now both owned by Ted Leonsis — are filled with failures in the postseason, particularly in recent times.

Since Alex Ovechkin joined the Capitals, they were only 2-5 in Game 7s entering Monday, including 1-4 at home. That includes Game 7 eliminations in 2012 and 2013 against the New York Rangers, the Presidents’ Cup-winning team that Washington will now face in the second round, starting later this week.

The Wizards, meanwhile, had never swept a best-of-seven series until doing so Sunday night, when they finished off the Toronto Raptors 125-94. And this is the first time since the 1978 and 1979 seasons that Washington had reached the second round of the NBA playoffs in consecutive years.

Capitals forward Joel Ward, who grew up in Canada, watched Game 4 on Sunday and found it uplifting.

“It was actually inspirational how they played, especially yesterday, and how they really capped (it) off and, you know, we really wanted to do that, too,” said Ward, who scored Washington’s opening goal Monday, before rookie Evgeny Kuznetsov netted the winner with less than 7 1/2 minutes left in the third period.

“When you’ve got a team on the brink of it you want to really take them out,” Ward continued, “and I thought they showed a good example of that.”

Here’s the thing about the playoffs: Even when you manage to set aside your franchise’s past demons and come through in a win-or-go-home game, as Ward and the Capitals did, there is only so much time that can be spent enjoying the euphoria.

Because there’s another opponent to start worrying about.

Asked late Monday night when he would turn his attention to the Rangers, Trotz replied: “Probably in about 35 minutes.”

Ward didn’t allot much more than that.

He said he would relish getting past the Islanders “’til 6 or 7 in the morning … until you wake up and the schedule comes out.”

Ward smiled.
“And then you’re back at it. It’s a cool feeling for us right now. It was a lot of hard work,” he added. “We know there’s not a lot of time, so we’ve got to get back on the horse.”
___
Follow Howard Fendrich on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HowardFendrich

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SRN News » Sports

13 Health Benefits of Kerson Fruit

What are eyes.


Eyes are organs that detect light, and send signals along the optic nerve to the visual and other areas of the brain Complex optical systems with resolving power have come in ten fundamentally different forms, and 96% of animal species possess a complex optical system.
The simplest "eyes", such as those in unicellular organisms, do nothing but detect whether the surroundings are light or dark, which is sufficient for the entrainment of circadian rhythms. From more complex eyes, retinal photosensitive ganglion cells send signals along the retinohypothalamic tract to the suprachiasmatic nuclei to effect circadian adjustment.

Eyes Condition:
Acanthamoeba Keratitis:
Poor contact lens hygiene often causes this rare but serious eye infection.

Allergies:
Itchy, red, swollen, tearing eyes may mean eye allergies. Get tips for relief.

Amblyopia (Lazy Eye):
Amblyopia usually develops in young children and can mean permanent vision problems if not treated early.

 Bell's Palsy:
This condition causes sudden paralysis of one side of the face. Because of inability to blink, you may develop severe dry eye.

Blepharitis:
Inflammation of the eyelids can cause chronic eye irritation, tearing, foreign body sensation and crusty debris.

Cataracts:
If you live long enough, you will eventually have cloudy vision from cataracts. Learn about causes and about cataract surgery, which replaces your eye's natural lens with an artifical one.

Eyes Diseases:
CMV Retinitis:
About 80 percent of adults have been exposed to the cytomegalovirus (CMV), but it mostly affects people with poor immune systems, such as AIDS patients.
Conjunctivitis (Pink Eye):
What you can do about redness, swelling, itching and tearing of pink eye.
Diabetic Retinopathy:
Diabetes causes sight-threatening retinal degradation.
Eye Herpes:
Ocular herpes is a recurrent viral infection that may lead to serious vision loss.
Ocular Hypertension:
High eye pressure has no symptoms, but it is easily detected in an eye exam. Take care of it before it develops into glaucoma.
Retinitis Pigmentosa:
Poor night vision and a narrowing field of vision beginning in childhood herald this rare disorder.
Stargardt's Disease (STGD):
Children and young people can develop Stargardt's disease, often leading to central vision loss.

Vision Problems:
Astigmatism:
Don't despair: distorted vision is usually correctable with eyeglasses, contacts or surgery.
Double Vision (Diplopia):
Many conditions cause double vision, including stroke and cataracts.
Higher-Order Aberrations (HOAs):
Higher-order aberrations are vision errors causing poor night vision or double images.
Hyperopia (Farsightedness):
Farsighted people can have poor near vision or blurred vision at all distances.
Myopia (Nearsightedness):
Nearsighted people can see fine up close, but distant objects are a blur.
Peripheral Vision Problems:
"Tunnel vision" can have various causes, including glaucoma.
Presbyopia:
Presbyopia means difficulty seeing close up for people 40 and older.

EXAMINATIONS FOR EYE PROBLEMS:
The following are common exams for eye problems that your eye doctor or healthcare provider may perform on you:

Fluorescein or Rose Bengal staining:
To perform this exam, your eye care professional or healthcare provider may put special eye drops into your eyes. Using a special light, they can see if there are any problems with the surface of your eyes. This may be done if eye prlblems include having eye pain, trauma, or a feeling of itchy eyes.

Ophthalmoscopy:
This is when your healthcare provider uses an ophthalmoscope, to look at the back of your eye. They can see the structures of the eye, such as the lens, retina, blood veins and vessels. Your healthcare practitioner may do this in the office, whenever you notice any eye problems.

Pupil dilation:
The pupil is widened with special eye drops, to allow your healthcare provider or eye care professional to look more closely at the back of your eye.

Tonometry:
This test is performed when the examiner wants to check the fluid pressures in the eye. It may be using a manual, hand-held device, or a more modern machine that blows a "puff" of air into your eye. Increased pressure in your eye may be a sign of glaucoma.

Visual acuity test:
Your eye examiner will use a chart to test how well you can see at different distances. This test may be performed when you are getting new glasses or contact lenses.

Things you can do about eye problems:
● To prevent or treat a blockage of the eye's drainage system: If you have a history of sinus infections, this may cause a blockage in your eye's drainage system. Make sure to seek healthcare advice if you think you are developing a sinus infection, and take oral antibiotics, if your healthcare provider suggests.
● Use warm compresses to help your eye to drain, if you have any type of eye infection.
● Surgery may be recommended for your eye problems if there is an extensive blockage. This also depends on many factors, including your health condition, and the location of the blockage. Discuss this with your healthcare provider.
● If you have tearing as a result of allergies of irritants in the air, try to eliminate them from your work or home environment. An air cleaner may be necessary.
● If you have a dry eye syndrome, ointments or artificial tears may help.
A portal for women which contain Beauty Tips in Urdu, Dress Designs, Fashion Tips, Mehndi Designs, Makeup Tips, Fashion Games and much more.

A portal for women which contain Beauty Tips in Urdu, Dress Designs, Fashion Tips, Mehndi Designs, Makeup Tips, Fashion Games and much more.

Kerson Fruit or Muntingia calabura is a fast growing tree that has a cherry like fruit with multiple health benefits: Such as lowering blood sugar, preventing cancer, promoting cardiovascular health, lowering blood pressure, and blocking pain… just to name a few. Where it Grows – Kerson trees grows in Mexico, the Caribbean, Asia, Indonesia, South America, […]
Health and Fitness | Get Holistic Health

German business confidence posts sixth straight increase

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — A closely watched survey shows German business confidence grew for the sixth straight month in Europe’s biggest economy.

The Ifo institute said Friday that its monthly confidence index rose to 108.6 points for April from 107.9 in March.

Ifo says the numbers show the “upswing in the German economy continues.”

The survey is based upon some 7,000 monthly surveys of business managers and is closely watched as a key indicator of Germany’s economic prospects.

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SRN News » Business

Health Fitness Revolution Ranks a 2016 Presidential Candidates Based on …

Houston, Texas

In credentials for a 2016 United States Presidential Election, nonprofit classification Health Fitness Revolution, founded by Samir Becic, has released “report cards” for intensity candidates formed on their possess personal health and fitness, as good as their graduation of health and aptness in a domestic agenda. The list includes Sen. Ted Cruz, who has strictly announced his candidacy for a 2016 elections, as good as all other politicians who have shown seductiveness in using for office. This news label is a initial of a kind, that commend a presidential possibilities in terms of earthy fitness, health and wellness.

Among a presidential possibilities profiled on a list are Cruz, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Chris Christie, to name a few. The list also includes a outline of any of their health and aptness habits, and how critical health programs are in their domestic platforms.

“America is one of a many portly countries in a world, and childhood plumpness is rising to epic proportions, so it is transparent that a leaders need to take movement and put an finish to this epidemic,” Becic said. “The United States is losing billions of dollars due to miss of capability and creativity, increasing ill days and low self-esteem, that is mostly due to a fact that 70% of Americans are overweight or obese. The destiny boss needs to take assign and quarrel a illness that can means a creative, intellectual, financial and troops decrease of a United States.

“Health Fitness Revolution graded a presidential hopefuls in sequence to make certain that a destiny boss is healthy and fit in sequence to urge this country, so that it can continue to be a widespread force in a universe for decades to come.”

Other lists gathered by HFR arrange a fittest senators, congressmen, and First Ladies. The HFR group spent approximately 5,000 hours researching and formulating these lists, that are a initial in a universe to fact health and aptness in each shred of politics in a United States.

These lists can be seen here:
Article source: http://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwfitness/article/Health-Fitness-Revolution-Ranks-the-2016-Presidential-Candidates-Based-on-Health-and-Fitness-20150326
UltimatePerfections » Health and Fitness

Michigan Advances STEM Endorsement for Diplomas

Two new bills unanimously approved by the state Senate could offer Michigan students the chance to have a special endorsement placed on their diploma if they earn enough credits in science, technology, engineering and math.  The endorsement would also be a part of student transcripts for use in future technical training, community college and college application review.
The endorsement would be the first of its kind in the country and supporters say it would benefit students who are working toward STEM careers in addition to boosting their college resumes.

“Michigan’s economy is growing and creating jobs, yet many of these positions remain unfilled. In fact, there will be more than 250,000 STEM-related jobs in Michigan in the next two years,” said Sen. John Proos, R-St. Joseph, who co-sponsored the legislation. “This initiative is the next step in ensuring Michigan students are prepared for success and to meet our growing skilled-workforce needs.”

Proos went on to say that Senate Bills 169 and 170 are follow-ups to legislation introduced last year that asks schools to create programs that would give credit toward college degrees or to an industry-recognized professional certificate.
In order to earn the endorsement, students would need to meet the current requirements for high school graduation in addition to six credits of math, six credits of science, at least a half credit involving technology and at least a half-credit involving engineering, writes Jonathan Oosting for Michigan Live.
Students who are home-schooled or attend a non-public school would be eligible for the endorsement if their parents or principal determine the student “has met substantially the same requirements.”
The two bill package, sponsored by Sens. Proos and Phil Pavlov, is on its way to the House for consideration.

“We recognize that education is unique to each child, and we have worked hard to ensure our schools give every student a chance for a successful career,” said Pavlov, R-St. Clair, chair of the Senate Education Committee. “STEM fields of education are rigorous areas of study that are critical to our national defense, our strong automotive industry, our economy and in preparing future generations for success.”

Governor Rick Snyder has continuously made an effort to encourage an increased focus on STEM education.

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Kristin Decarr

 

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The post Michigan Advances STEM Endorsement for Diplomas appeared first on Education News.
Education News

Comcast-TWC merge on a downhill!!

Is there anything Comcast could do at this point to save its controversial proposed merger with Time Warner Cable? According to a new report in The Wall Street Journal, the answer is “no.” Although Comcast is set to have an exclusive meeting with U.S. regulatory officials on Wednesday to offer concessions in a last-minute bid to saving the deal, the Journal's sources say that it's unlikely Comcast can offer anything that will make either the Department of Justice or the Federal Communications Commission warm to the proposed deal.

“Justice Department antitrust enforcers doubt that their concerns about Comcast's planned acquisition of Time Warner Cable could be resolved by promises about how the cable giant would conduct business after the merger, according to people familiar with the matter,” the Journal writes. “Such commitments, known as behavioral remedies, aren't usually the preferred approach for the Justice Department when it seeks to address mergers it views as problematic.”

The DOJ did accept such behavioral remedies when it signed off on Comcast's merger with NBCUniversal back in 2011 but the department apparently finds the new merger proposal to be much more problematic than that deal. Additionally, enforcing such remedies would require constant scrutiny from the DOJ, which is something the department is reluctant to commit resources for when a simpler solution would be to just block the deal.

At any rate, it looks like Comcast's plan to gain more control over the home broadband market through buying Time Warner Cable is in big trouble. And if customer satisfaction surveys are any indication, most Comcast customers don't feel a shred of pity for the cable giant.

AT&T profit beats Street estimates, shares rise

By Malathi Nayak

(Reuters) – AT&T Inc on Wednesday reported quarterly profit that beat Wall Street estimates and said its subscribers switched to other networks at a lower rate.

Shares of AT&T rose about 1.5 percent in after-hours trading. They closed at $ 32.86 on the New York Stock Exchange.

The second-largest U.S. wireless carrier posted net income of $ 3.2 billion, or 61 cents per share, in the first quarter ended March 31, compared with $ 3.65 billion, or 70 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.

Excluding items, AT&T earned 63 cents per share, ahead of analysts’ average estimate of 62 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue was $ 32.58 billion compared to $ 32.48 billion a year earlier. This was below analysts’ revenue forecast of $ 32.84 billion.

The company said postpaid churn, or the rate of customer defections, fell slightly to 1.02 percent from 1.07 percent a year ago. AT&T, which had seen this metric increase over the last two years, said its first quarter had its best-ever churn.

Faced with intense competition and deals from rivals, wireless carriers have moved from two-year contract plans to equipment financing plans, which reduce service fees and eliminate subsidies for devices.

Wireless equipment revenue rose more than 36 percent to $ 3.4 billion but service revenues fell 3.7 percent to $ 14.8 billion.

AT&T said it had added 441,000 postpaid or contract subscribers and 1.2 million new wireless customers in the quarter. The average revenue per contract phone user, fell 9.6 percent from a year earlier.

As the U.S. wireless market reaches saturation, the company has been expanding its footprint in Mexico. In January, it said it would buy bankrupt NII Holdings Inc’s [NIHDQ.PK] wireless business in Mexico for $ 1.875 billion.

AT&T plans to combine Nextel Mexico with Iusacell, which the company acquired in November for $ 1.7 billion.

AT&T is awaiting regulatory approval for its proposal to buy satellite TV company DirecTV for $ 48.5 billion. It expects the deal to close later this year.

(Reporting by Malathi Nayak in New York and Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru, Bernard Orr)

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SRN News » Business

US business group in China urges more transparency, access

BEIJING (AP) — The American Chamber of Commerce in China called Tuesday for more government transparency and fairness as the confidence of U.S. companies in the country’s investment climate deteriorates.

The chamber said in its annual white paper that its members wanted to see the government apply the rule of law and more fairly enforce business regulations. The report also called for better enforcement of intellectual property rights and greater access to the Chinese economy for foreign companies.

Over the past year, foreign companies operating in China have faced challenges ranging from anti-monopoly investigations to proposed rules requiring foreign tech companies to hand over proprietary software source codes.

Chamber Vice Chairman Lester Ross said a more open decision-making process could have helped the government avoid a backlash against the proposed rules, which also required banks to replace foreign-made technology with domestically-produced versions. The government suspended the requirement last week.

“If there had been greater transparency all along, the situation wouldn’t have reached the point that it did,” Ross said.

Among its recommendations, the white paper suggested the Chinese government make public internal guidelines governing the administration of companies and judicial decisions. The paper also advocated for an investment treaty between China and the U.S. that it said would open up market access in both countries.

In a chamber survey released in February, 29 percent of members surveyed said the investment climate was deteriorating, compared with 18 percent the year before. Nearly two-thirds of members also said rulemaking in China was not transparent, clear or consistent.

Still, chamber President James Zimmerman said Tuesday he didn’t see a general trend for more opaque decision-making.

“It’s always two steps forward, one step back,” Zimmerman said. “It’s nothing really new. We’re pleasantly surprised when there is transparency.”

Some 3,800 individuals from more than 1,000 companies operating in China belong to the chamber.

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SRN News » Business

Raptors Lou Williams wins NBA Sixth Man Award

NEW YORK (AP) — Toronto Raptors guard Lou Williams has won the NBA’s Sixth Man Award.
He was honored as the league’s best reserve Monday after averaging a career-high 15.5 points in his 10th season and helping Toronto win a franchise-record 49 games.

Williams received 78 first-place votes and 502 total points from a panel of 130 sports writers and broadcasters throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Isaiah Thomas of the Boston Celtics finished second with 324 points (33 first-place votes). Two-time winner Jamal Crawford of the Los Angeles Clippers was third with 131 points (eight first-place votes).

Williams came off the bench in all 80 of his appearances and averaged 25.2 minutes. He led or tied for the team lead in scoring 18 times, second most in the league for a reserve. The Raptors went 14-4 in those games. He also led the Raptors in free throw percentage (86.1) and made a career-high 152 3-pointers.

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SRN News » Sports

Corinthian’s Heald College Fined $30 Million Over Job Placement Claims

For-profit Corinthian Colleges has been fined $ 30 million by the US Department of Education for falsifying job placement rates of their graduates.

The fine only applies to the Heald College system, which has 12 locations in California, Hawaii and Oregon.
The department found that the San Francisco-based company inflated employment numbers for their graduates to both prospective students as well as to the federal government.

“Instead of providing clear and accurate information to help students choose which college to attend, Corinthian violated students’ and taxpayers’ trust,” said DOE Under Secretary Ted Mitchell in a statement.  “Their substantial misrepresentations evidence a blatant disregard not just for professional standards, but for students’ futures.”

According to an investigation, temp agencies were paid by Heald College to hire its graduates to work on its own campuses for as little as two days in order to be able to write that those students were employed.

While this was going on, the Department of Education argues that Heald did not release information showing that placement rates included these students.

In addition, the department said the company was inaccurately accounting for graduates who they said had found a job in their field of study, reports Tamar Lewin for The New York Times.  One example saw a 2011 accounting graduate counted as “employed in the field” due to a food service job she held at Taco Bell.  The college also considered business administration graduates in the numbers who were found positions in retail jobs at Safeway and Macy’s.

The department found a total of 947 cases of falsified placement at the Heald schools, reports Chris Kirkham for The LA Times.

Supporters say the findings show the need to hold for-profit schools accountable for such misrepresentations.

“Placement rates are a critical indicator of whether a career education program is actually doing what it’s supposed to,” said Lauren Asher, president of the Institute for College Access & Success, an Oakland nonprofit that focuses on student debt issues. “For a program to inflate its job placement rates means they’re selling students a bill of goods.”

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for Corinthian referred to the allegations as “highly questionable” and “unsubstantiated.”  He went on to say that the company was not given an appropriate length of time to respond to the allegations and that the company plans to appeal the decision.

“Heald has a well-documented track record of providing quality education and significant value to its students for more than 150 years—and should be allowed to continue to do so,” he said.

Purchased by Corinthian in 2010, the college currently enrolls 9,000 students and employs 1,000 faculty and staff.

The for-profit colleges once boasted over 100 locations across the country, but the government has forced the closure or sale of those locations after receiving allegations of high-interest loans and falsified information.

While most of the campuses have been sold to the nonprofit Zenith Education Group, that sale did not include Heald.

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The post Corinthian’s Heald College Fined $ 30 Million Over Job Placement Claims appeared first on Education News.
Education News

Asia shares sluggish in early trade, China stimulus in focus

By Lisa Twaronite

TOKYO (Reuters) – Asian shares dipped in early trading on Monday after a weak performance on Wall Street, though China’s latest stimulus to shore up the world’s second-largest economy was likely to underpin sentiment.

China’s central bank on Sunday cut the amount of cash that banks must hold as reserves, the second industry-wide cut in two months, adding more liquidity to bolster slowing growth.

“It seems that the ‘excess liquidity’ created by the U.S. Fed is now being augmented by money from China as the capital account is liberalized,” said Sean Darby, global equity strategist at Jefferies, in a note to clients.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.MIAPJ0000PUS> was down about 0.1 percent, after ascending to a fresh seven-year peak. Japan’s Nikkei stock index <.N225> percent was 0.6 percent lower, after shedding 1.3 percent last week.

Chinese regulators said on Friday, after mainland markets had closed, they would allow fund managers to lend shares for short-selling, and would also expand the number of stocks investors can short sell, in a bid to raise the supply of securities in the market.

Institutional investors including mutual fund companies and asset management businesses of securities firms are encouraged to lend stocks because the “margin financing business has been growing rapidly, but the business of short-selling has been developing slowly,” the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges said in a statement.

On Friday, major U.S. stock indexes ended with daily and weekly losses over 1 percent, dragged down by the trading regulations changes in China, renewed worries about Greece, and tepid U.S. corporate earnings.
France’s central bank chief said Greek banks may soon run out of collateral to access European Central Bank refinancing unless Athens reaches an agreement with the European Union and International Monetary Fund on economic reforms.

The euro edged up about 0.1 percent in early Asian trade to $ 1.0809 <EUR=>, off Friday’s high of $ 1.0849.

The dollar inched down about 0.1 percent against its Japanese counterpart to 118.82 <JPY=>.
Crude oil was higher as Middle East turmoil and signs of lower U.S. production lifted prices. The leader of Yemen’s Iranian-allied Houthi militia accused Saudi Arabia on Sunday of plotting to seize the country.
Brent <LCOc1> added 1.1 percent to $ 64.16 a barrel, while U.S. crude <CLc1> rose 1 percent to $ 56.31.

(Editing by Shri Navaratnam)

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SRN News » Business

Russia denies German report it is ready to sign gas deal with Greece

MOSCOW/BERLIN (Reuters) – Russia denied on Saturday a German media report suggesting that it could sign a gas pipeline deal with Greece as early as Tuesday which could bring up to five billion euros into Athens’ depleted state coffers. German magazine Der Spiegel, citing a senior figure in Greece’s ruling Syriza party, said the advance funds could “turn the page” for Athens, which is now struggling to reach a deal with its creditors to unlock new loans to avert bankruptcy. “No, there wasn’t (any agreement),” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, in comments made to Business FM radio and quoted by RIA news agency. Peskov reiterated that the Greeks had not requested financial assistance during talks in the Kremlin earlier this month between Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Naturally the question of energy cooperation was raised. Naturally … it was agreed that at the expert level there would be a working-out of all issues connected with cooperation in the energy sphere, but Russia did not promise financial help because no one asked for it,” Peskov was quoted as saying.

During his visit to Moscow, Tsipras had expressed interest in participating in a pipeline that would bring Russian gas to Europe via Turkey and Greece. Under the proposed deal, Greece would receive advance funds from Russia based on expected future profits linked to the pipeline. The Greek energy minister said last week that Athens would repay Moscow after 2019, when the pipeline is expected to start operating. Greek government officials were not immediately available to comment on the Spiegel report. Speaking in Washington on Saturday, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said he would be happy if the Spiegel report proved correct and Greece received the advance funds, but added:

“I do not think that this would solve the problems Greece has in fulfilling the commitments of the memorandum of understanding (with its European partners).”

The new government in Greece has been talking with its euro zone partners for months to try to secure aid and avert a default which could push the country out of the single currency bloc. But progress has been slow and Athens has been exploring other sources of funding.   (Reporting by Jason Bush in Moscow, Noah Barkin in Berlin, George Georgiopoulos in Athens and Gernot Heller in Washington, Editing by Gareth Jones) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com SRN News » Business

With SUVs, Chinese carmakers at last unsettle foreign brands

By Jake Spring

BEIJING (Reuters) – Two years ago, just one Chinese SUV ranked among the country’s top-10. In the first three months of this year, that number jumped to eight – a sign that Chinese automakers may have found their sweet-spot to battle foreign rivals in the world’s biggest car market.

Despite preferential government policies, local carmakers have failed to really compete with foreign automakers like Volkswagen AG <VOWG_p.DE> and General Motors in sedan sales. Shifting the battleground to the roomier sport utility vehicle segment may bring more success.

“The domestic SUV market has entered a period of enduring, rapid growth, the market scope has expanded and more indigenous brands have gained momentum,” a spokeswoman for Shenzhen-based BYD said in an emailed statement.

“Moreover, BYD, Great Wall, Geely and other indigenous brands have made enormous progress in technology, quality and service.”

Retail sales of SUVs jumped by more than a third last year to 3.82 million as Chinese drivers, who are growing wealthier and are often restricted to a single car purchase in crowded cities, increasingly opt for larger vehicles.

IHS Automotive predicts SUV sales will increase by more than a fifth this year, before 2016 growth slips into single digits.

Chongqing Changan Automobile and Great Wall Motor will launch fresh versions of their top-selling SUVs at this week’s Shanghai autoshow, while others such as BYD are expected to unveil new models in a rush to ride the rising popularity of SUVs.

SUV FOCUS
Chinese automakers have been helped by having the right products for the SUV market at the right price and well in advance of foreign rivals – just as SUV sales took off. It’s the result of years of focusing resources on developing “good enough” quality SUVs with attractive exteriors.

“Because local carmakers can’t really compete on sedans, they’ve really focused in recent years on launching more SUVs,” said Yale Zhang, managing director of Automotive Foresight in Shanghai.

    Great Wall, for example, launched three new SUVs last year, helping its SUV business grow by a quarter, while its sedan sales dropped 57 percent as it pared back production.

Overall in 2014, Chinese brands launched 18 SUV models, while foreign competitors launched 11, Automotive Foresight data show.

New entrants to China’s top-10 SUVs are built on sedan frames and are priced cheaply enough to appeal to first-time buyers in a slowing economy.

Great Wall’s Haval H2 starts at 99,800 yuan ($ 16,087) and Changan’s CS75 at 108,800 yuan. Honda Motor’s CR-V, largely comparable to a Haval H6, starts at 193,800 yuan.

Global brands have dominated car production since China’s economic opening despite strict limitations that require foreign automakers to form 50:50 joint ventures with local partners in order to manufacture in China.

Some Chinese automakers have achieved a large enough scale with indigenous SUV brands and are seen as reliable by domestic drivers, though that’s not enough to command loyalty or premium pricing, said Tom Doctoroff, Asia-Pacific CEO for ad firm JWT.

Consequently, Doctoroff says, those brands are a long way from breaking into mature global markets like Europe or the United States, where leading Chinese SUV brands – which also include those from BAIC Motor, Chery [CHERY.UL], JAC Motors and Zotye – remain virtual unknowns.

(Editing by Ian Geoghegan)

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SRN News » Business

American Success Story: Craig Ceccanti’s Pinot’s Palette Business Profit Pack

Business Profit Pack

Many people have been asking recently; why as a business coach do you sell this? What is this Business Profit Pack and What is in it?

It has led me as a business mentor, to write this article specifically about why it will help you in your business and what types of programs it has in it. To answer the first question, not all people can afford to work with a business coach and this pack gives the business owner a very similar outcome as a very cost efficient investment. Firstly there are 12 modules in total. Each module addresses a different aspect of your training and business. In the first section it outlines the importance of knowing what your numbers are in your business. As a business coach the first things we look at are the Profit and Loss statements. These are template for you as spreadsheets so that you can put in all of your expenses and costs from your business. Doing this gives you the business owner an overview and helps you to understand what types of costs come out of your account on a monthly basis. It will help you to identify what items you are selling lots of and it can help you to look at putting your prices up or even change some of the products that you sell in order to make your business more profitable.

What other valuable things can you learn; Managing your Database, Creating Strategic Alliances, Selling Against Tough Competition, The Sales Funnel, Making Appointments by Telephone, The Sales Process, The Secret Power of Questions, Turn Your Website into a Marketing Machine, Creating a team For Life, Write Compelling Direct Mail and Successful Networking Meeting. Just using one of these ideas will be able to get you more customers, increase your turnover and give you back time and return you more profits. In the work books there are over 100 templates discussed and these are provided to you on a CD so that you don’t have to remake them as well as samples of how to use them to get maximum benefit.

The pack has been produced by business coaches that have been in the business for more than 20 years and are based on their experiences working with all sorts of clients. In the further modules there are in-depth looks at how to fill the sales funnel and get more client/customers. What sort of script to use when calling people for various reasons like appointment setting. The pack explains what sort of advertising has been very effective in the past and will be in the future and how to track your advertising in order to see what your return on investment is. A business coach works with you in consultation over maybe one or two sessions on say your sales process. This is available to you in the pack on DVD, audio CD and book format so that you can go over the process as many times as you need to understand it and through a medium that works best for you.

To find out more about our programs and how we can help you create a fantastic event, head now to our website http://profitpillars.com.au/ and request a quote today.Call now for an obligation free appointment with one of our consultants Jozef 0457 755 770 Diana 0419 627 118

Profit Pillars helps business advice increase their bottom line revenue through low to no cost strategies that have been tried and proven, Business Training

FBN’s Charles Payne on this week’s American success story on Craig Ceccanti franchising his ‘Pinot’s Palette’ paint-and-sip business in America. FOX News

HGH blood testing to go into effect 2015-16 season

(Reuters) – The National Basketball Association will begin blood testing for Human Growth Hormone (HGH) under the league’s anti-drug program, effective with the 2015-16 NBA season, the league and the Players Association said on Thursday.

All players will take three random tests annually, two during the season and one in the offseason, with a positive test resulting in a 20-game suspension for a first violation and a 45-game ban for a second one.

A player would be dismissed and disqualified from the NBA for a third violation.

Owners and players had agreed to find a process for HGH testing during their collective bargaining negotiations in 2011.

The testing will begin with the start of 2015 NBA training camps.

The NBA joins Major League Baseball and the National Football League among the major North American sports leagues to implement testing for HGH.

The National Hockey League has said it plans to implement drug-testing for HGH but has not announced a program.

MLB was the first to initiate blood testing and analysis of urine samples for HGH in 2013 and has disciplined players for its use under the joint doping program with the players association.

The NFL and players union, which added HGH testing as part of the collective bargaining agreement signed in 2011, did not agree on the terms until 2014.

Random testing of a limited nature started in October of last season. Of about 790 HGH tests given in the first year of testing, there were no positives.

(Editing by Steve Keating.)

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SRN News » Sports

Nokia buys Alcatel to take on Ericsson in telecom equipment

By Jussi Rosendahl and Leila Abboud

HELSINKI/PARIS (Reuters) – Nokia is to buy Alcatel-Lucent in an all-share deal that values its smaller French rival at 15.6 billion euros ($ 16.6 billion), building up its telecom equipment business to compete with market leader Ericsson.

The deal will redefine a sector suffering weak growth prospects and pressure from low-cost Chinese players Huawei and ZTE.

With about 114,000 employees and sales of around 26 billion euros, the combined company will rank a strong second in mobile equipment, with global market share of 35 percent, behind Ericsson at 40 percent and ahead of Huawei’s 20 percent, according to Bernstein Research.

The new Nokia will have stronger exposure to the important North American market, with major AT&T and Verizon contracts.

It will also fill gaps in its product portfolio with Alcatel-Lucent’s technology in optical transmission and Internet routers, which help telecom operators handle the ever-increasing volume of data brought on by users surfing the web on their smartphones and watching Netflix at home.

While Huawei does have a complete product line across both fixed and mobile, Ericsson does not and may have to react with deal-making or partnerships, executives said.

Nokia will give Alcatel-Lucent shareholders 0.55 shares in the combined company for each of their old shares, putting 33.5 percent of the entity in Alcatel shareholders’ hands if the tender offer is fully taken up.

The deal will be finalised in the first half of 2016 and is expected to result in 900 million euros of operating cost savings by the end of 2019, the companies said on Wednesday.
Nokia shares fell 1.5 percent, adding to Tuesday’s 3.6 percent fall, while Alcatel-Lucent fell 15.5 percent, giving up most of the gains it made on Tuesday when the talks were first acknowledged by the companies.

Nokia initially approached Alcatel-Lucent about buying only the wireless business but was rebuffed, leading to the broader deal, Alcatel boss Michel Combes told Reuters in an interview.

The deal carries significant risks, however. The track record of mergers in the sector – including the two that gave birth to Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent a decade ago – has been poor. Prior deals were plagued by the difficulty of cutting costs in an R&D intensive business, rivals stealing contracts while the companies were distracted by their integrations, and struggles over power within the married firms.

Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri sought to reassure.

“This is not a joint venture, so there will be no governance issues,” he said on a call with investors.

“We will take a no politics, no nonsense approach to running the business, and have learned from past mistakes.”

FRENCH JOBS PLEDGE
Nokia pledged to keep France as “a vibrant center of the combined company” and not to cut jobs beyond what Alcatel had already planned, especially protecting research and development sites at Villarceaux and Lannion.

Economy Minister Emanuel Macron said in a statement late on Wednesday that the overall jobs pledge would hold for two years after the deal closes. He and Alcatel’s Combes also announced an extra 500 research jobs in France, adding to the existing 2,000.

Alcatel has 6,000 employees in France.

France made maintaining jobs a condition for its backing the deal, raising concerns over job cuts in Finland where Nokia employs about 6,900.

“At first the deal sounded like very good news. But given that there will likely be job cuts, and the fact that it is much more expensive to lay off people in France than in Finland, the outlook is not that bright anymore,” the head of the Finnish engineers’ union, Pertti Porokari, said.

“I truly hope that Finnish politicians would also show some patriotism here.”

The Finnish government did not demand that jobs be protected but underlined the Nordic country’s know-how in technology.

    Nokia sold its once-dominant mobile handset business to Microsoft last year after struggling to compete with smartphones by Apple and Samsung. That deal left it with the network unit, a smaller map unit and a portfolio of technology patents.

Nokia said its growth profile would be improved by the deal and predicted a sales growth rate of about 3.5 percent for 2014 to 2019. Nevertheless some investors remained concerned.

“The integration will be a difficult task, it will easily take a year or two, and the management group must focus on it heavily. For an investor seeking returns this year, it is clear that Nokia looks less interesting after this move,” said Juha Varis, a fund manager at Danske Capital whose fund owned 0.06 percent of Nokia shares as of end-March.

He also said that leaving France out of the cost-cutting program must have a negative impact on the corporate culture.

Other analysts, however, said that Nokia and CEO Suri had a good record on restructuring.

“There is no reason to doubt that this deal too wouldn’t increase shareholder value… We know that there are risks related to France and the cost cuts, but I believe that Nokia has calculated a margin of safety to the deal price,” Nordnet brokerage strategist, Jukka Oksaharju, said.

Separately, Nokia confirmed it was exploring the sale of its HERE mapping unit, which some analysts value at up to 6.9 billion euros. It also said further asset sales could be undertaken once the deal was completed.

JPMorgan advised Nokia on the takeover, and boutique investment bank Zaoui & Co. advised Alcatel-Lucent.

(Editing by Louise Ireland)

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SRN News » Business

GE to sell bulk of finance unit, return up to $90 billion to investors

By Nick Carey and Lewis Krauskopf

(Reuters) – General Electric Co will shed most of its finance unit and return as much as $ 90 billion to shareholders as it becomes a “simpler” industrial business instead of an unwieldy hybrid of banking and manufacturing.

The company on Friday outlined a restructuring plan that includes buying back up to $ 50 billion of its shares, selling about $ 30 billion in real estate assets over the next two years and divesting more GE Capital operations. GE stock jumped 8.5 percent.

“The stock has been under-owned by institutional investors, and that’s going to change now,” said Tom Donino, co-head of equity trading at First New York Securities.

The repurchase program, which will be partly funded by $ 35 billion through money returned from GE Capital, is the second-biggest in history after Apple Inc’s $ 90 billion plan. GE, which had 10.06 billion shares outstanding on Jan. 31, said it expected to reduce that by as much as 20 percent to 8 billion to 8.5 billion by 2018.

In all, GE said it planned to shed $ 275 billion in GE Capital assets. That includes the previously announced spinoff of its Synchrony Financial credit card unit, the real estate transaction announced on Friday, and future sales of commercial lending and consumer banking businesses with assets of about $ 165 billion.

The company plans to keep $ 90 billion in finance assets directly related to selling its products such as jet engines, medical equipment and power generation and electrical grid gear.

GE has forecast earnings of $ 1.70 to $ 1.80 per share for this year, including 60 cents from GE Capital, but expects profit to be “substantially higher” in 2018, executives said on a conference call with analysts. Shrinking GE Capital will reduce earnings by 25 cents per share, they said, but the stock buybacks should offset that impact.

The company already had a significant number of inquiries about GE Capital units before Friday’s announcement, said Keith Sherin, the finance unit’s chief.

Blackstone Group LP and Wells Fargo & Co confirmed that they were buying most of the assets of GE Capital Real Estate for about $ 23 billion.  

This is the biggest deal in the commercial property market since Blackstone’s acquisition of office landlord Equity Office Properties Trust in 2007 for $ 39 billion, including debt.

FOCUS ON INDUSTRIAL
The moves announced on Friday will dramatically reduce GE’s exposure to lending and other financial businesses.

GE Chief Executive Officer Jeff Immelt told investors the company would try to generate 90 percent of its profits from industrial operations by 2018. He had previously forecast that share would grow to 75 percent by 2016 from 55 percent in 2013.

“We just think the market timing is very good vis-a-vis the value of financial service assets,” Immelt said in an interview. “There have been moments in the past when there weren’t a lot of buyers. Now there are.”

Immelt and other GE executives said they planned to spend $ 3 billion to $ 5 billion a year on industrial acquisitions.

GE said it could return up to $ 90 billion to investors through a combination of dividends, the $ 50 billion in share buybacks, and completion of the Synchrony spinoff planned for late this year.

Executives gave several reasons for GE’s accelerated retreat from financial businesses. One is that since the financial crisis, it has become more difficult for GE to fund its lending operations.

GE funded many of its loans and leases by borrowing money from bond markets. During the financial crisis it lost access to that funding, bringing it uncomfortably close to running out of cash.
Lenders like GE Capital and CIT Group Inc, which cannot rely on bank deposits to fund their assets, have had to rethink the way they do business since the crisis. Many decided to either shed assets or become banks.

GE Capital’s size and the potential risks in its lending portfolio made it subject to government regulation as a systemically important financial institution. GE said it would apply to escape that oversight in 2016 as it reduces the financial business’ size.

GE said it would take after-tax charges of about $ 16 billion for the restructuring in the first quarter, of which about $ 12 billion would be non-cash.

Shares of GE were sluggish for the past year despite previous moves to reposition itself around the industrial businesses. Still, Friday’s more dramatic move away from finance caught some analysts by surprise.

“What we did not expect was the speed with which management would move to undertake this transformation,” Sanford Bernstein analyst Steven Winoker wrote. “We view today’s announcement as an overwhelming positive for the company.”

During the conference call, Barclays analyst Scott Davis told executives that while he had been a critic, “this is good stuff … I guess you can keep your jobs a little longer.”

JPMorgan Chase & Co and Centerview Partners provided general financial advice to GE, while Bank of America Corp and Kimberlite Advisors advised on the real estate deal. Eastdil Secured and Wells Fargo Securities were advisers to Blackstone and Wells Fargo.

(Additional reporting by Sagarika Jaisinghani in Bengaluru; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

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SRN News » Business

Strong turnout for world’s first glimpse at Apple Watch

By Pauline Askin and Noel Randewich

SYDNEY/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Consumers in Australia flocked to Apple Inc’s <AAPL.O> store in Sydney on Friday to get the world’s first up-close look at the tech giant’s smartwatch, which the company expects will be its next runaway hit.

The Apple Watch, CEO Tim Cook’s first new major product, was available for pre-order online and to try out in stores – but not take home.

On April 24, consumers will be able to buy it online or by reservation at retail locations including high-end fashion boutiques in Paris, London and Tokyo, part of Apple’s strategy of positioning the wearable computer as a must-have accessory.

On Friday morning Apple’s Australian flagship store in Sydney’s financial district was packed with those hoping to peek at the device, although just around 20 die-hard fans queued out front, modest by the standards of a major Apple launch.

Alexander Bock, a backpacker from Germany, stood outside the shop’s towering glass facade. He hopes to save enough money to buy the sports version of the watch, he said.

The Apple Watch sport starts at $ 349 while the standard version comes in at $ 549 in the U.S. High-end “Edition” watches with 18-karat gold alloys are priced from $ 10,000 and go as high as $ 17,000.

“I feel naked without a watch. I think I will buy the Apple watch with the sports band … I’m working very hard right now so I can buy this watch,” Bock told Reuters.

The watch marks the Cupertino, California company’s debut in a fledgling wearable technology market.

Based on recent customer interest at its stores, Apple expects demand for the watch, which allows users to check email, listen to music and make phone calls when paired with an iPhone, to exceed availability at launch, it said on Thursday.

Reviewers this week praised the watch, which also helps users monitor their health and exercise, as “beautiful” and “stylish” but gave it poor marks for relatively low battery life and slow-loading apps.
For women, the various sizes and wrist bands make this smartwatch more pleasing than earlier versions from Samsung Electronics Co Ltd <005930.KS> and others, said Kantar World Panel market analyst Carolina Milanesi, who has been wearing the watch for a few days.

At the Apple Store in Omotesando, a high-end shopping district in the heart of Tokyo, dozens of shoppers huddled around two glass displays, snapping pictures of the range of options available on the different watch models.

“I actually tried it on briefly, and it’s so light it doesn’t feel like it’s on my wrist,” 26-year-old salesman Yosuke Hosoi told Reuters.

NOT FOR EVERYONE
Sales estimates for 2015 vary widely. Piper Jaffray predicts 8 million units and Global Securities Research forecasts 40 million. By comparison, Apple sold nearly 200 million iPhones last year.
“Is it for everybody? No, but I don’t think any wearables are yet,” Milanesi said.

Apple’s watch is widely expected to outsell those by Samsung, Sony Corp <6758.T> and Fitbit, that have attracted modest interest from consumers. It will likely account for 55 percent of global smartwatch shipments this year, according to Societe Generale.

Underscoring its marketing strategy, Apple is selling the watch through a handful of high-end stores including Selfridges in London, Galeries Lafayette in Paris and Isetan in Tokyo.

Still, experts said Apple’s offering was unlikely to displace the market share of luxury-brand watch makers.

“This is just Apple’s interpretation of the watch, I don’t think watch makers should be worried at all,” Stephen Fenech, editor of the Tech Guide website, told Reuters.

“This is just Apple’s expression where they’ve combined what they are good at with the fact that it’s a watch with style so I think there’s going to be room for everyone.”

JMP analyst Alex Gauna said he and others on Wall Street would be at stores this weekend to gauge consumer reaction.

But the typically long queues at its stores on product launch days could be a thing of the past as the company emphasizes online sales, according to a leaked internal memo from retail chief Angela Ahrendts, reported by Business Insider.

“The days of waiting in line and crossing fingers for a product are over for our customers,” she wrote.
“This is a significant change in mindset, and we need your help to make it happen. Tell your customers we have more availability online, and show them how easy it is to order.”

A spokesman for Apple in Sydney declined to comment on the memo, citing company policy.
At an Apple Store in Hong Kong there was no queue, although half a dozen customers gathered near the shop door, cheering when it was opened. Demos were by online registration, after which a Reuters reporter received a demo without having to wait.

“I didn’t know it’s the first day. I am here to buy an iPad,” said a 26-year-old customer who gave her name only as Ms Jian, visiting from China’s Chongqing. “I will take a look at the watch later.”
Apple shares closed 0.76 percent higher at $ 126.56 on Thursday.

(Writing by Matt Siegel in SYDNEY; Additional reporting by Devika Krishna Kumar in Bengaluru and Teppei Kasai in Tokyo; Editing by Bernard Orr, Dean Yates and Christopher Cushing)

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SRN News » Business

Road Trip! Double-A team ready to embark on 55-game trek

PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) — Pitcher Brooks Hall won’t get on the bus without his noise-canceling headphones.

First baseman Nick Ramirez needs his PlayStation 4 and he makes sure there’s plenty of caffeine on hand.

Most players making a living in minor league baseball like Hall and Ramirez have a secret remedy or two for dealing with life on the road.

The Biloxi Shuckers are about to put those remedies to the test.

Over the next two months, Hall, Ramirez and the rest of the Milwaukee Brewers’ Double-A affiliate will embark on a scheduled 55-game road trip, one of the longest in recent memory.

The team is piling on a bus for a mammoth road swing through the Southeast: Pensacola-Mobile-Jacksonville-Pensacola-Huntsville-Jackson, Mississippi-Jackson, Tennessee-Huntsville-Chattanooga-Birmingham.

“By the end of this thing,” Ramirez said with a grin, “we might need a little break from each other.”
Welcome to the current life of the Shuckers, who play in the Southern League.

The franchise moved from Huntsville to Biloxi in the offseason, lured partly by the promise of a $ 36 million stadium. It is expected to a beautiful facility — eventually.

Due to various issues, including construction delays, it probably won’t be ready for two more months.
In the meantime, there will be a lot of bus rides, hotels and trips to Applebee’s. The expected toll: 60 straight nights in a hotel, 55 games, nine different cities and some frayed nerves.

The journey begins Thursday night when the Shuckers play the Pensacola Blue Wahoos.

“It’s a unique experience and we’ve just got to adjust as we go along,” Biloxi manager Carlos Subero said. “It’s a lot of games, so managing fatigue is going to be a feel thing for the coaching staff.

“Honestly, the thing I’m most concerned about is the lack of privacy. Sometimes you need it. You might see a few guys walking around the local mall trying to find a little alone time.”

The extended road trip is a rare situation in professional baseball, though not entirely unprecedented.

The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees — the Triple-A affiliate of the New York Yankees — played their entire 144-game schedule away from home in 2012 because of stadium renovations. But the Yankees at least had a semi-permanent base in Rochester, New York, where they played 37 “home” games that season.

The Shuckers won’t have that luxury.

They do, however, have Buck Rogers.

No, not the fictional astronaut traveling through space in the late 1970s, but the team’s general manager who is in his 19th season working in minor league baseball.

“What we’re trying to do is make sure all these guys have to do is concentrate on baseball,” Rogers said. “It’s not an ideal situation, but we want to make the best of it.”

The Shuckers’ trip will be all road games from Thursday until June 6, when the home opener in downtown Biloxi is tentatively scheduled. Even that date isn’t etched in stone.

Video updates on the team’s website show a stadium that’s far from completed. A rainy spring could delay construction even further.

Nobody wants to think about that.

“Believe me, we want to be in our stadium as soon as possible,” Rogers said.

There have been a few long Major League Baseball road trips, though nothing this extreme.

Of course, MLB players get a big-league salary to deal with road life. The lowest-paid Shuckers are subsisting on $ 1,500 a month and $ 25 per day in meal money while on road trips.

By contrast, major leaguers get $ 100.50 daily per diem and their minimum salary is $ 507,500 this season.

Rogers flew to Arizona to the Brewers’ spring training facility last week to try and answer questions from players, who were understandably anxious about the unique situation.

The GM said the Southern League’s leadership, along with other general managers across the league, have been gracious about helping the Shuckers when possible. The team has arranged to have players’ personal laundry done once in each city and Rogers has secured parking at a local hotel in Biloxi so that players can store their cars.

The team is also paying for players who are bringing families to have their own hotel room instead of the usual arrangement of two players to a room.

Subero said the most important thing is that the players don’t allow the nuisance of a long road trip interfere with their development as baseball players.

“If for some reason we lose 10 straight games, it’s because we’re playing bad baseball, not because we’ve been on the road,” Subero said.

If it’s any consolation, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre actually won its division during its nomadic 2012 season, finishing with an 84-60 record.

Shuckers pitcher Austin Ross, who is in his fifth season in the Brewers’ organization, said he doesn’t expect the trip to be that bad. His secret on the road: A few books to take his mind off the day-to-day grind.

“You get used to packing light after a few years playing minor league ball,” Ross said. “The good thing is we’re able to see the light at the end of the tunnel and we know the new stadium is going to be great.”

Until then, there are always those noise-canceling headphones.

“I’m telling you, that’s the secret,” the 24-year-old Hall said laughing. “Those things are legit.”
___
AP Sports Writer Ronald Blum contributed to this story.
___
Follow David Brandt on Twitter: www.twitter.com/davidbrandtAP

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SRN News » Sports

Senate Authorizes No Child Left Behind Act Rewrite

Lawmakers from the Senate Education Committee recently announced plans to rewrite the education law No Child Left Behind, which has been outdated for quite some time.

The legislation, referred to as the Every Child Achieves Act of 2015, would offer states the ability to create their own accountability systems, so long as they meet a certain set of federal standards, including counting all student subsets and enacting “challenging academic standards” that allow students to complete state vocational guidelines, or to be able to be admitted to a public university without the need to take remedial courses.  The secretary of education would not hold the power necessary to approve the standards.

The new Elementary and Secondary Education Act would require states to use student test scores for teacher accountability, although each state will be able to decide how much weight should be given to those scores and exactly how to use them.

Despite all the controversy surrounding the role of standardized testing in schools, the new bill would keep the annual testing in place.  Students will participate in English and math exams in the third through eighth grades and again in high school.  In addition, science testing will take place three times between third and twelfth grades.  In total, students will take 17 federally-mandated tests, writes Allie Bidwell for USNews.

“Basically, our agreement continues important measurements of the academic progress of students but restores to states, local school districts, teachers and parents the responsibility for deciding what to do about improving student achievement,” Alexander said in a statement. “This should produce fewer and more appropriate tests. It is the most effective way to advance higher standards and better teaching in our 100,000 public schools. We have found remarkable consensus about the urgent need to fix this broken law, and also on how to fix it.”

The bill would also require that student test scores, broken down by race and income, be made public.
However, the bill would end the framework that found almost all public schools across the country to be failing.  Also, an end could come to efforts by teachers to put a stop to their job performance being linked to student test scores.

In addition, the federal government would no longer be involved in how states handle schools that are repeatedly labeled as failing, reports Tamar Lewin for The New York Times.

“This is a big deal,” said Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers. “It goes back to the original intent of the law, to level the playing field for at-risk kids.”  She added, “The decreased emphasis on testing and the stakes that go along with it will help create some oxygen, so the attention is on instruction and the joy of learning.”

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The post Senate Authorizes No Child Left Behind Act Rewrite appeared first on Education News.
Education News

FedEx to buy TNT to expand Europe deliveries

By Toby Sterling and Rama Venkat Raman

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – FedEx Corp <FDX.N> is seeking to buy Dutch package delivery firm TNT Express for an agreed 4.4 billion euros ($ 4.8 billion), aiming to succeed where United Parcel Service <UPS.N> failed two years ago when its bid was blocked by competition regulators.

FedEx and TNT <TNTE.AS> said on Tuesday they did not expect significant opposition from regulators. Unlike FedEx, UPS already had a strong European network when it bid for TNT.

FedEx will offer 8 euros in cash per ordinary TNT share, in a deal that would give the U.S. firm access to TNT’s European road network and TNT access to FedEx’s global distribution platform.
The bid is 33 percent above TNT’s last closing price in Amsterdam. TNT shares leapt more than 30 percent in early Tuesday trading towards the offer price.

“FedEx has laid on the table an attractive offer price,” said ABN Amro analyst Maarten Bakker, who has a “hold” rating on TNT shares.

“With FedEx having always been the most logical predator of TNT Express, we see the chances of a competing offer as slim.”

The deal has been unanimously recommended by TNT’s supervisory board. TNT’s largest shareholder, PostNL <PTNL.AS>, said it would tender its 14.7 percent stake to FedEx. PostNL shares rose 17 percent in Amsterdam.

FedEx’s offer is below the 9.50 euro per share bid for TNT from UPS, which was blocked by European regulators. UPS is fighting that decision in court, but it is unclear when a ruling will follow.

That decision was damaging for TNT, which had been counting on adopting much of UPS’s logistics backbone. So TNT embarked on a restructuring programme, cutting costs, selling operations and investing in its road network in a bid to hold on to customers in a weak European market for business package deliveries.

TNT, which has been losing market share to competitors, warned in February it expected tough trading to continue in its main western European markets.

FedEx’s decision to bid now follows a 17 percent drop in TNT shares over the past year, versus a 21 percent rise in the benchmark Dutch AEX index.

The strong dollar may also have helped: UPS’s 9.50 per share offer was around $ 12.50 in dollar terms. Compare that with FedEx’s 8 euro share offer, worth $ 8.75 today.

TNT reported a net loss of 137 million euros for the fourth quarter of 2014. It forecast an operating profit for 2015 but expects at least 250 million in further restructuring costs over the coming two years.
($ 1 = 0.9156 euros)

(Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman; and Mark Potter)

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SRN News » Business

Maximizing Solar Power Systems Benefits

Solar energy is one of the cleanest forms of energy and initial costs are slightly in recent years. If you are seriously thinking of installing solar equipment, then this article can be a great way to start.

Needless to say that your solar equipment needs sun to produce energy. Monitor sun exposure at home for a few days, noting the dates and places where the sun hits harder. This is the place where the solar panels will face. If you find the place, but is a bit too dark because of the trees, consider trimming. No need to completely get rid of them, just a plate precise work here and there.

Now is the time to leave your latest electricity bill and see how much electricity you normally use. This will give you an idea of ​​the amount of electricity that the solar panels generate. Do everything in your house will be powered by solar energy. You can start small and work up.

If you decide to hire a contractor to install solar panels, make sure to do your homework. Make sure they are licensed, experienced and have a lot of references. This is not the time to hire the district maintenance staff. This is not a plumbing job $ 50.00. You’ve invested a lot in not for cheap now.

Once you have your panels installed and running, you will need to decide when and how to clean. Being outdoors, things like bird droppings, dirt, leaves and dirt accumulate. Dirty panels do not receive as much sun as you will not have much energy.

The actual cleaning of the panels is like cleaning car windows. Just use a mild soap and water. The hardest part will actually get in the tables if you have them on your roof. The easiest way is to actually hire someone to do it for you. Make sure they are professional, licensed, experienced and insured company. You spent a chunk of change for the panels so that a handyman inexperienced or brother-scratch or break is not necessary.

Finally, be sure to do your research before deciding which one to buy solar system. There are many options out there if you want to make sure you get one that works best for your home and your budget.

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