travel partner: October 2012

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

The Spooky Truth of Obama vs. Romney Online - Rosetta Currents

Jon Pombo

Jon Pombo, a Solution Manager in Search and Media, oversees the creation and delivery of integrated online marketing strategies for clients across industry verticals, including Consumer Products & Retail, Financial Services, and B2B. Since joining Rosetta in 2009, Jon has worked with clients to understand their business objectives and how the right mix of online marketing tactics can create a solution to meet their goals. To each project he brings a deep understanding of SEO, PPC, Display, and Social and their interplay and relevancy to a client?s business. Jon also serves as a lead in the Search and Media Innovation Lab, a hub for testing new search marketing strategies and methodologies.

Chris Boggs

Chris Boggs is a specialist with 10 years experience in search engine optimization and paid search advertising. Chris joined Brulant from Avenue A | Razorfish in 2007 as the Manager of the SEO team, and Rosetta acquired Brulant in 2008. His current role involves working across channels and verticals to promote cohesive strategies and synergies between client online marketing campaigns and other Rosetta design and user experience best practices.

Chris has worked in Search Engine Marketing since 2000, both ?In-House? and with agencies. Chris has worked with organizations ranging in size from small businesses to Fortune 100, within all major industries including extensively in Healthcare/Pharmaceutical, Financial Services, Consumer Products and Retail, and B2B. Chris is experienced in strategizing and directing SEO campaigns from keyword research and content development to link acquisition, as well as guiding technical SEO recommendations for HTML, eCommerce, and Enterprise applications including IBM WebSphere Commerce/Portal, Microsoft, ATG, and more.

Chris is actively involved in the SEM Community. Chris has served on the Board of Directors of SEMPO.org, the Search Engine Marketing Professional's Organization, since 2006, and was recently elected by the Board to serve as President 2010-2011. He speaks regularly at major search marketing conferences, is a Moderator and Blogger for Search Engine Watch, and is Associate Editor for the Search Engine Roundtable blog. Chris lives in Twinsburg Ohio with his wife, son, and daughter, and enjoys golfing, soccer, and fantasy sports.

Alexandra Hughmanick

Alexandra is a Marketing Manager at Rosetta and has served the agency for eight years across Marketing, Business Development and Client Services. She oversees community management and social media marketing programs for both Rosetta and LEVEL Studios, as well as public relations for Rosetta's West Coast.

Gary Scheiner

Gary Scheiner is Rosetta?s Chief Creative Officer and leads the agency?s Creative and Customer Experience solution practice area. Gary brings big agency capabilities to Rosetta, having held executive leadership positions at TBWA\Chiat\Day, FCB and MRM Partners. Gary has worked on big brand campaigns for clients like General Motors, Michelin, MetLife, Motorola, and Schering-Plough. He has deep CRM experience, having spent nearly 18 years crafting relationship marketing campaigns for the likes of Amgen, AT&T, Capital One, IBM, J&J, and Marriott. And he has garnered extensive interactive experience working on such clients as Gerber, HP, Kraft, Qwest and The Ad Council. His deep understanding of consumer healthcare (he ran DTC business units for MRM Partners and TBWA\), financial services, automotive, technology, and travel and leisure, has made him an invaluable partner to his clients and has made him one of the most awarded creative leaders in the industry.

Follow Gary on Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/Gsssmtlj

Ned Elton

Ned leads the Financial Services vertical for Rosetta. He joined Rosetta in 2001 and has been a key figure in building the Agency?s personalized marketing capabilities. His deep content expertise comes from over twenty years running businesses and managing marketing in consumer package goods and financial services. Ned spent 7 years at Procter & Gamble in various marketing capacities most notably as Global Brand Manager for P&G's Snack Food business responsible for implementing global advertising and marketing strategies and as Brand Manager within P&G?s interactive marketing/sales team where he executed their first online promotion (increasing sales versus BAU by 55%!). He was co-founder of N2W Media, an entrepreneurial venture focused on generating trial and awareness for new products on the Internet. Ned also spent three years working for a New York based Investment Bank specializing in deriving investment return from bankrupt and distressed securities.
Ned has developed multiple Rosetta best practices while leading the Agency?s largest financial services engagements. He brings a passion for marketing analytics and consumer insights along with deep experience in translating those insights into more effective marketing campaigns. He has applied his content expertise to projects in most financial services product categories including deposit products, lending, investments, small business and credit cards.
Ned has an MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and a BA in Economics from Princeton University.

Chris Kuenne

Mr. Kuenne is the Chairman and Executive Officer of Rosetta. He founded the agency in 1998 and has been its president since the company's inception. Earlier in his career, Chris spent 10 years in marketing management at Johnson & Johnson leading the Band Aid and Tylenol Brands franchises, in addition to helping pioneer category management. Subsequently, he was a partner at First Manhattan Consulting Group where he led its retail marketing practice.
Throughout Chris' 25-year marketing career, he has been focused on driving more effective marketing through the discovery and deployment of scalable consumer insights. This obsession motivated him to found Rosetta and pilot its aggressive growth trajectory.
Chris has written numerous articles and given speeches on applying Personality-based sales and marketing to the pharmaceutical, financial services, and consumer packaged goods industries. Chris received his MBA from Harvard University with honors and his BA from Princeton University.

Jason Tabeling

Jason is an Associate Partner, Search & Media with a deep understanding of paid search marketing, online display advertising, and comparison shopping engines. He has worked with clients in the financial services and retail industries. He has successfully managed dozens of paid search campaigns during his career and has developed evolving strategies for various clients focusing on each client?s core competencies in both the online and offline channels. He has also developed detailed analysis, data models, and reporting across all search accounts. He has successfully created and managed multiple product launches and promotions for various industries.

Suzanne Galvez

Suzanne Galvez is an Associate Partner in Rosetta?s Search and Media practice. As a member of the executive leadership team, she oversees capability development and innovation for the practice. Suzanne has 14 years of experience in online marketing and brings a diverse combination of skills that span user experience, usability, conversion optimization, search marketing, and analytics. She?s worked with niche businesses and Fortune 500 in both an in-house and consulting capacity. Her involvement has resulted in increased customer satisfaction, higher traffic and conversion, and sustained revenue growth.

Suzanne has held various leadership roles in online marketing since 1996, starting at Book Stacks Unlimited, Inc., an Amazon predecessor which has been credited with the first internet transaction. In 2004, Suzanne co-founded the Search Marketing and Conversion firm, eMergent Marketing and led its Usability and Conversion practice. Suzanne continued to expand this team after eMergent Marketing was acquired by Brulant in 2006. She then managed operations across both the Search and Analytics practices before transitioning into her current role. Brulant was acquired by Rosetta in 2008.

Mark Taylor

Mark Taylor is responsible for driving Rosetta?s personalized consumer lifecycle management approach as well as strengthening the agency?s operational model. Mark oversees the team of 500 people responsible for the identification, engagement and activation of our clients? customers through all engagement channels, as well as marketing measurement and optimization. He also has executive leadership responsibilities for our Consumer Products & Retail and Distribution & Manufacturing industry verticals. Before joining Rosetta, Mark led Digital & Database Marketing Solutions at Wunderman. Before Wunderman, Mark was with Euro RSCG Worldwide. Early in his career, Mark founded and ran a technology and communications company called ?Le Mac et La Plume,? in France, where he designed and implemented database and marketing solutions.

Toni Hess

Toni leads in Rosetta's Creative and Customer Experience solution practice area, bringing a unique breadth of experience and capabilities in multiple disciplines?interactive, direct, brand, CRM and design?gained from years at leading advertising agencies like Publicis, JWT and Foote, Cone & Belding.
A creative leader for today?s marketing landscape, Toni has created both national and international brand campaigns for Diet Coke, Pam, Kleenex, Bermuda Tourism and Lipton. In the direct arena Toni has a stellar track record having done blockbuster campaigns for Qwest Communications, Hewlett-Packard, Merrill Lynch, Gevalia Kaffe. In the interactive space Toni has deep experience working on various clients such as Coach, Crane & Co., Fossil, OfficeMax and Philosophy.
To her credit, she owns Addy?s, Effie?s, Echo?s, Mercury?s and Caple?s. She has also been honored with awards from The One Show, New York Festivals, Communication Arts and the ?Best of? Art Direction for AICP.

Daniel Blackburn

Daniel Blackburn is the Vice President of Mobile at Rosetta and oversees the agency's mobile strategy practice. His leadership helps clients integrate campaigns and strategies across connected devices that deepen consumer awareness and brand interaction. Throughout his career, Daniel has collaborated with consumer brands such as Kraft, RIM, Toyota, MSN Mobile and Intel. Daniel combines a global perspective, strategic leadership, and practical execution in his client relationships. Prior to Rosetta, Daniel worked at the Hyperfactory, where he managed account development and strategy across their portfolio of North American clients. Prior to the Hyperfactory, Daniel spent two years as an independent consultant, evangelizing mobile among consumer brands and leading digital agencies. Daniel began working in the mobile marketing industry during its infancy with mobile trailblazer Enpocket before its acquisition by Nokia, overseeing west coast business development. Daniel is a frequent speaker and guest lecturer at universities across southern California on the subjects of mobile marketing and new media.

Mike Pocci

Mike joined Rosetta in June 2008, after spending just over three years as a media planner at a traditional ad agency. Mike is known throughout Rosetta as a resource for online media industry insights, research, and planning expertise as well as thorough knowledge of advanced analytics as they apply to display advertising. Mike has led several clients, specifically in the Consumer Products & Retail vertical, to success through integrated online advertising campaigns, including Helzberg Diamonds and Express, for which he has developed and overseen various direct response and brand-building media strategies to achieve the client?s on-site revenue and brand awareness goals.

Angela Risacher

Angela Risacher is a Senior Quality Assurance Liaison in Rosetta?s Quality Assurance Community of Practice. Joining Rosetta in 2008, and with over four years of online experience, Angela has a thorough understanding of the integral components necessary for a strong and competitive online presence for her clients. Her focus is on maintaining the quality of client deliverables, ranging from mobile and email to ecommerce. She is experienced in creating in-depth testing plans, test cases, testing and mitigating risk. Angela has worked with clients across industry verticals, including Healthcare, Financial Services, Consumer Products & Retail, and B2B. Her work has resulted in the standardization of testing processes, improved online deliverable quality and increased business. Angela has an MBA and MSM from Case Western Reserve University in International Management and Finance and a BA in Spanish Area Studies and English from Kenyon College.

Matt Labuda

Matt is an SEO Associate in Search & Media with a focus on the Hospitality industry. He joined the Rosetta team as a 2011 graduate from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. During his undergraduate experience, Matt worked with clients such as Black & Decker, Nielsen, and Procter & Gamble. At Rosetta, Matt has helped shape the search engine strategy for clients including Diebold, Marriott International, and Tastefully Simple.

Matt?s passions include playing the drums, playing golf, and making what he believes is the world?s best macaroni and cheese. Most importantly, he is passionate about helping others achieve their goals and enjoys putting this into action every day at Rosetta.

Maggie Barr

Maggie is a senior associate on the content team. She works with clients to produce search engine friendly content including on-page optimization, press releases and off-site articles. Her clients at Rosetta include TRIA Beauty, Crane, CIBC and Marriott. She brings five years of writing and SEO experience working in advertising and online marketing. In the past, she has worked extensively on SEO campaigns, paid search, email marketing, social media and other online activities. A graduate of Syracuse University, Maggie double majored in history and journalism. In her free time, Maggie enjoys running, reading and cooking.

Matt Saunders

Matt is a Manager in Rosetta?s Search & Media SPA with more than four years of experience in developing and implementing successful SEO campaigns for mid-size to Fortune 100 companies. Matt?s background includes extensive SEO strategic execution and he is a frequent contributor to Rosetta?s SEO Thought Leadership. His experience extends across a variety of industries and solutions including financial services, consumer products & retail, eCommerce, B2B and healthcare.

Martin O'Brien

Martin O?Brien is a Partner in Rosetta's Healthcare practice and has over 18 years of strategic leadership experience with a healthcare specialty. He has developed award-winning strategies for many top pharmaceutical and healthcare clients that drive measurable results through integrated marketing programs that acquire, convert, build and retain loyalty.

Martin was most recently leading the eight agency consolidation of Home Depot?s CRM and digital strategy that delivered a seamless customer experience across a wide variety of channels including CRM, club, site, social and mobile media.

Dave Marston

Dave is an SEO Manager in Rosetta?s Search and Media practice. He brings over 9 years of online marketing experience with a focus on search engine optimization. Dave has worked across a variety of verticals, but currently specializes in SEO for the pharmaceutical space.

Dave partners with clients to improve their website?s organic search engine visibility, traffic and conversions. This typically involves a combination of on-site optimization, off-site promotion and technical implementations. Dave manages teams that help provide strategic recommendations and deliverables that ensure the right mix of tactics are utilized to meet and exceed the goals of SEO campaigns.

Garrett Colburn

As a member of Rosetta's Marketing team, Garrett helps define brand positioning and create lead generation programs for the agency's Consumer Technology vertical, as well as their solutions for smartphones and other connected devices. In addition, Garrett manages the agency-wide relationship with Forrester Research. With 4.5 years working with consumer electronics brands, Garrett has a solid understanding of their business challenges and works closely with Rosetta business unit leads to identify ways our organization can help clients bring differentiated product to market successfully.

Annie Stocking

Annie is a Senior SEO Associate in Rosetta?s Search & Media Practice. She has over five years of digital marketing experience with a focus in search engine optimization. Annie has worked across a variety of industries, but currently specializes in financial services and retail. During her career she has managed successful SEO programs by working collaboratively with her teams. She has shown measurable impact from her tailored strategy and recommendations for each of her clients. Annie demonstrates creativity and outside the box thinking by looking for new, innovative tactics to implement and shares her learnings across the team. Prior to joining Rosetta in 2008, Annie worked for Fathom Online Marketing for two years on their SEO team. There she managed search engine optimization and online public relations programs.

Liz Smith

Liz Smith is Senior Associate in Rosetta?s Analytics and Optimization Practice. Her analytics experience spans across an array of industries, but is primarily focused in the financial services space. By entrenching herself in marketing tactic strategy, technical implementation and progressive analytics approaches, Liz delivers top quality insights that increase competitive performance across the clients that she serves. She also proactively seeks to increase the value of data through cutting edge attribution analysis that drives mixed-media insights.

Michelle Venorsky

Michelle is an Associate Partner at Rosetta and is responsible for the social media community of practice within the agency. She has nearly 15 years of consumer public relations and word-of-mouth experience, with the past six years of her career spent dedicated to the ever-changing world of social media. Over the course of her careers, Michelle has developed and implemented a variety of social marketing campaigns for CPG bands, including Nescafe Dolce Gusto, Nestl? Nesquik, Shearer?s, Troy-Bilt, Hot Pockets and Vita-Mix. Her primary focus is understanding the social and digital behaviors of the target audience, then using that insight as part of an integrated team to ideate the best way to engage, build advocacy and develop mutually beneficial, two-way relationships?relationships that ultimately deliver a strong value exchange between a brand and its customer. Since 2006, Michelle has authored the largest food blog in Ohio dedicated to local restaurants and farmers, clevelandfoodie.com.

Arnold Huffman

Arnold is a Partner in Rosetta?s Business Development group. He leads 2 major initiatives for Rosetta: Lead for new B2B and CPR BD and sales and Owner of the Partner/Alliances Strategy & Program. He joined Rosetta in 2010, coming over from the leading technology provider, Software AG, after 8 years. He has nearly 20 years of Information Technology and Consulting experience focused on enterprise value creation. He has delivered successful projects to clients across a variety of industries including Technology, Distribution, Manufacturing, Consumer Goods, Public Sector, Insurance, and Healthcare. He developed his client-first approach while working at Accenture for nearly 10 years on global giants such as DuPont and Dow Chemical. Arnold developed a deep knowledge of how to apply technology for business ROI during his tenure at Software AG. While there, he built a global alliances organization that numbered nearly 30 people, 250 partners around the world, generating $140m in license revenue over 3 years.

Since joining Rosetta, he has delivered transformational marketing programs for Fortune 500, B2B companies such as CA Technologies, ITT Corporation, and Unisource Worldwide.

Doug Klein

Doug is an Associate Partner and a seventeen year marketing veteran. From corporate marketing departments to traditional ad and interactive agencies, Doug has advised both brand and online marketers on how to create and manage results-driven integrated marketing campaigns and websites. He is a frequent speaker and leader of marketing strategies, including search engine marketing and optimization, online advertising and serving technologies, customer lifecycle messaging, buzz and viral campaigns, social media marketing, and enterprise analytics.

Jason Crawford

Jason is a Director of Digital Media and brings over 11 years of media expertise to Rosetta. His experience includes offline and digital media for Fortune 100 companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Sanofi-Aventis, IBM, General Motors, and American Express.?

At Rosetta, Jason leads the display advertising team across the Hamilton and Cleveland offices. In his role, Jason has been a strategic leader helping to develop the practice and leading key initiatives.?

Whether the campaign objective is direct response or brand awareness, he delivers unique media strategies and implements tactics that reach the right consumer, at the right time, with the right message.? He?s a proven performer that has delivered valuable impact across the Rosetta client portfolio.

Mike Brunst

Mike is an Associate Partner of Partnerships and Alliances at Rosetta. He is a technically strong global professional with proven experiences in Alliances & Relationship Management. He has over 15 years of experience in software, IT, intellectual property (IP), partnerships, alliances, 3rd party vendors, business development, operations, and marketing.

Paul Elliott

Paul Elliott is a Partner in Rosetta's Retail industry vertical and is the agency?s thought leader in interactive marketing and online retailing strategy. Paul has more than twelve years of experience in helping some of the industry?s top brands achieve significant results and return on investment from their digital marketing initiatives.
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Prior to joining Rosetta, Mr. Elliott founded eMergent Marketing in 2004, which quickly became one of the fastest growing search engine marketing firms in the Midwest. In 2006, eMergent Marketing was formally acquired by Brulant, where the search team continued to experience exponential growth under Paul?s leadership. In 2008, Brulant was acquired by Rosetta.

Before launching eMergent Marketing, Paul served as the Director of Internet Marketing for the multichannel retailer, Things Remembered, where he architected and managed all digital marketing activities. Prior to that, Paul was the VP of Sales for IdeaStar, a Cleveland, Ohio-based Web design firm, and he started his career as a business process consultant with IBM Global Services.

Jayna Grassel

Jayna is a Search Associate in Rosetta?s Search & Media Practice. Throughout her career, she has worked across a variety of industries, but currently specializes in B2B, retail, and financial services. During her time at Rosetta, Jayna has developed SEO efficiencies and has assisted with online reputation management, on-site, and off-site SEO strategies. In addition to leveraging organic search tactics, Jayna has experience working with paid search. She frequently uses her insight into both components of search marketing to provide clients with a holistic approach to online marketing. Never satisfied with the status quo, Jayna continually seeks ways improve the online visibility and revenues of her clients.

James Koenig

James is a Manager on Rosetta's Analytics and Optimization team. He creates data-driven solutions that help companies to better understand their online consumer. With deep experience in the retail industry, James has designed several customer acquisition models using multiple data sources to optimize overall program effectiveness. He brings over five years of interactive marketing experience to each client, and follows a focused goal of driving the bottom line.
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During his career, James has developed a new customer model which identifies the key acquisition channels, and the efficiency at which they run. Has been primarily used to steer client?s online strategy and marketing growth plan for years.

Roger Wong

Roger Wong is a Group Creative Director in Rosetta?s Creative and Customer Experience practice. Prior to Rosetta he worked for digital agencies like Razorfish and Organic. In his career, he has developed award-winning campaigns and digital experiences for leading brands including Apple, Cisco, Sprint, Activision, Levi?s, Nike, eBay, Microsoft, Mitsubishi Motors, Pixar Animation Studios and Sega. He is also the co-creator of an influential iPad app for designers called DesignScene and helps organize a series of design conferences called RE:DESIGN.

Jen Kocency

Jen is a Senior Associate in Rosetta?s Search & Media practice and focuses on SEO and content. She's had a passion for technology since receiving her first home-built Tandy computer when she was 9 years old. Jen has been working in marketing and sales for B2B and B2C technology-centric companies for nearly ten years and in addition to SEO and content, she?s well-versed in e-mail marketing, marketing automation, social media, copywriting and content marketing. Jen was a journalism major in college and admits to being a self-professed grammar nerd who strives to make any communication as clear and concise as possible.

Jon Delman

Jon Delman is an Associate Design Director at Rosetta as well as overseeing the Icon Design Group. He has over 16 years of experience working with brands such as Panasonic, Switzerland Board of Tourism, REALTOR.com, HP, Vizio, Cisco, Apple and RIM. Jon believes that computing should be enjoyable and designers should strive to make their work accessible to the widest audience. His passion for icons and icon design stems from the challenge of creating visual designs within such a focused, defined space that has no room for error. To balance out his hyper-focused workdays, you?ll find Jon sketching, distance running or soaking up his surroundings of California?s Central Coast. Living where most people vacation is something he cherishes and hopes to never take for granted.

Roy Bielewicz

Roy has over 14 years of experience in both digital and direct marketing in a number of industry verticals, from retail and healthcare, to academia and publishing. As a former director of internet marketing, Roy has hands-on experience managing all aspects of a successful online business, including digital marketing (SEO, PPC, affiliate, email, CRM, social media, display, etc.), brand building and PR, optimization and testing, analytics, site design and usability. As Practice Lead for Rosetta?s Analytics & Optimization practice, Roy helps to develop and deliver comprehensive strategies and solutions.

Patrick McDaniel

As a Partner in Rosetta?s Consulting Practice, Patrick works with clients to develop high-impact marketing strategies based on deep understanding of the customer. In the over five years that Patrick has been part of the Rosetta team, he has focused primarily on serving pharmaceutical and medical device clients; however, Patrick?s passion for helping clients solve critical marketing challenges has led him to partner with clients in consumer packaged goods, consumer technology and financial services.

Jennifer Friedberg

Jennifer is the Head of the Consumer Products & Retail Practice at Rosetta, an independent brand within the Publicis Groupe of global agencies. Rosetta?s Consumer Products & Retail Group holds a market leader position in Retail Commerce and serves brands such as Coach and Office Max. With over 20 years of extensive marketing and interactive experience, Jennifer has worked with a variety of leading global brands and early-stage companies to pioneer the creative use of digital technologies. She speaks regularly about marketing and business strategy and is a widely recognized industry thought leader.

Chris Guthrie

Chris Guthrie is an Associate Partner | Principal Solution Architect at Rosetta.

Curt Van Inwegen

Curt is Partner at Rosetta and oversees Rosetta?s San Jose and San Francisco offices, where he brings over 15 years of marketing leadership experience to our Silicon Valley clients.

Source: http://currents.rosetta.com/index.php/2012/10/the-spooky-truth-of-obama-vs-romney-online/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-spooky-truth-of-obama-vs-romney-online

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Gingrich: Akin win could rebuke GOP establishment

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) ? Former presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich said Wednesday that Missouri voters can send a powerful signal to "the moneyed Republican establishment" by electing congressman Todd Akin over Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill.

Gingrich joined Akin for a rally at Kansas City's historic Union Station that drew about 100 supporters and nearly as many protesters, many carrying signs referencing Akin's remark about "legitimate rape" that prompted top national Republicans to abandon his campaign. McCaskill was to campaign later Wednesday in St. Louis ? her first events since her mother died Monday.

Cheers mixed with jeers as Gingrich and Akin spoke in Kansas City, highlighting the intensity of a campaign that has remained in the national spotlight and could help determine party control of the U.S. Senate. Republicans need a net gain of four Senate seats in Tuesday's election ? or just three, if Republican Mitt Romney defeats President Barack Obama and gives a GOP vice president the power to break tie votes in the Senate ? to retake the chamber's majority from Democrats.

"No single Senate race in the country will send a more powerful signal than the election of Todd Akin," Gingrich said at the rally, first noting the potential for Republican control of the chamber. But Gingrich said there was an equally strong point to be made within the GOP.

"There is no other race in the country that will send a bigger signal to the moneyed Republican establishment that it is votes that matter and citizens that matter," Gingrich said to his most enthusiastic applause. "When people of a state make a choice, they deserve to be respected for their right to choose the candidate they want, not the candidate Washington dictates."

Akin won a closely contested GOP primary Aug. 7. But Romney and other top Republicans urged him to quit the Senate race after he remarked in a TV interview that aired Aug. 19 that women's bodies have ways of avoiding pregnancy in "legitimate rape." Akin apologized and instead forged ahead with his campaign ? even as some deep-pocketed groups that aid Republicans dropped plans to spend millions of dollars on advertising in Missouri. McCaskill has significantly outspent Akin, though Akin plans a $1 million TV ad push in attempt to nearly match McCaskill ads during the final week before the election.

Akin's campaign theme has highlighted McCaskill's support for Obama's policies on health care and government spending while noting that low-income housing firms affiliated with McCaskill's husband, Joseph Shepard, have received tens of millions of dollars of federal subsidies. That's "your taxpayer dollars that are going to her family business," Akin said Wednesday.

McCaskill has countered by portraying Akin as extreme, citing not only his "legitimate rape" remark but his opposition to the federal government's role in issuing student loans and setting a minimum wage, among other things.

Among the protesters at Wednesday's rally in Kansas City was Neil Harris, a retired college teacher and McCaskill supporter who held a sign saying, "Todd and Newt (equals) Hypocritical Mass." Harris referred to Akin as "an idiot."

"His 13th century doctrine on women shutting down the possibility of pregnancy after rape seems to be far from reality," Harris said.

Akin supporter Kiley Chaney, a union bricklayer who drove an hour from rural Garden City to attend the rally, acknowledged that Akin had "made some blunders in the campaign." But Chaney said he was more concerned with McCaskill's ties to Obama and the large national debt.

"She's going to be a yes woman for Obama," said Chaney, later adding: "It's not fashionable to be for Akin, but I'm going to vote against McCaskill."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gingrich-akin-win-could-rebuke-gop-establishment-150424690--election.html

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Beyond SEO: Inbound marketing and your 2013 online marketing ...

Turn Your Web Site Into a Magnet for Customers with Inbound Marketing

Traditional Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is dead.

There ? I said it. Not sleeping. Not pining for the fjords. Dead. As in doornail.

So should you start ignoring search engines? Not one bit; in fact, you should be paying more attention to them than ever. Let me explain.

? more ?

Let?s start with some basics.

SEO is all about taking your existing Web site and tweaking it ? changing some text, changing some code and building links back to it from other sites ??so that it appears higher in search engine results pages for keyword searches that matter to your business.

In my view ? and as it turns out, in Google?s view, too ? that focus is too narrow.

You see, when you focus so narrowly on inching your site up the Google search results you, frankly, end up doing some stupid stuff.

You end up packing the content of your site with so many keywords that it?s virtually unreadable, you end up creating hundreds and hundreds of junk Web sites in order to create links back to your site, you spam blogs with irrelevant messages about your product or service.

Just dumb stuff that doesn?t create value for anybody anywhere.

With an Inbound Marketing approach your focus is much broader ? and more tightly tied to real, meaningful business results for you.

Inbound Marketing is all about using great ??some would say exceptional ?? online content to help your prospective customers find your business, become a lead and ultimately to become your paying customer.

Search engine results ? and appearing prominently in them ? are still important. Search engines are ? and will be for some time to come ??probably the most important way for people to find products and services they?re looking for.

But in traditional SEO, the success metric is how high your site ranks for a given keyword. While in Inbound Marketing, the key metric is how effective your site content is at drawing people to it and how effective it is at converting those people into your paying customers.

Do you see the difference?

The Inbound Marketing playbook focuses on using all of the tools of online marketing, with great content at the hub:

Great, frequently updated online content improves search engine visibility and traffic to your site while it helps to educate your prospective clients
Social media tools help to amplify your message and engage your prospects
Effective content offers (again) and strong calls to action help to turn visitors to your site into leads
And more content (again), often delivered via email and social media, can help to educate those leads to a point where they?re ready to buy and more likely to buy from you than from your competitors.

In the Inbound Marketing playbook, SEO is only one small tactical element that?s at the service of bigger, more important business goals.

And it works!

Companies that use Inbound Marketing have far lower costs for acquiring each of their customers than companies using a hodgepodge of traditional marketing techniques.

And Google now rewards inbound marketers more than traditional SEO. With recent changes to the formula Google uses to generate search results, high quality, frequently updated content is now one of the most important factors in determining search engine rankings for your site.

That?s why Inbound Marketing deserves a place in your business? marketing plan for 2013.

Source: http://www.fruitioninteractive.com/2012/10/beyond-seo-inbound-marketing-and-your-2013-online-marketing-plan/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=beyond-seo-inbound-marketing-and-your-2013-online-marketing-plan

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Tiny NYC beachfront burns in floodwaters

Damage caused by a fire at Breezy Point is shown Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012, in New York. A fire department spokesman says more than 190 firefighters are at the blaze in the Breezy Point section. Fire officials say the blaze was reported around 11 p.m. Monday in an area flooded by the superstorm that began sweeping through earlier. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Homes damaged by a fire at Breezy Point, in the New York City borough of Queens smolder Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012. The fire destroyed between 80 and 100 houses Monday night in the flooded neighborhood. More than 190 firefighters have contained the six-alarm blaze fire, but they are still putting out some pockets of fire. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Damage from flooding at Breezy Point after superstorm Sandy Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012, in the New York City borough of Queens.The fire destroyed between 80 and 100 houses Monday night in the flooded neighborhood. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

People assess damage caused by a fire at Breezy Point in the New York City borough of Queens Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012. The fire destroyed between 80 and 100 houses Monday night in an area flooded by the superstorm that began sweeping through earlier. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Damage caused by a fire at Breezy Point is shown Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012, in in the New York City borough of Queen. The fire destroyed between 80 and 100 houses Monday night in the flooded neighborhood. More than 190 firefighters have contained the six-alarm blaze fire in the Breezy Point section, but they are still putting out some pockets of fire. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

NEW YORK (AP) ? A tiny beachfront neighborhood told to evacuate before Sandy hit New York burned down as it was inundated by floodwaters, transforming a quaint corner of the Rockaways into a smoke-filled debris field.

By Tuesday morning, charred foundations of from 80 to 100 buildings were left in the sand at Breezy Point, a coastal community on Jamaica Bay known for its marshland and shorebirds.

Firefighters arrived at 11 p.m. Monday to find water chest-high in the streets, and used a boat to make rescues as orange flames engulfed home after home. The water and high winds whipping the coast from Sandy kept the blaze raging for several hours as firefighters hauled hoses while sloshing in ankle-high water.

"We watched the whole place go up in flames. It was hell night. It was the devil's night," said resident Thomas Reicherter.

One firefighter suffered a minor injury and was taken to a hospital. Two civilians suffered minor injuries and were treated at the scene.

Firefighters had to rescue several more, climbing onto an awning to take trapped people from an upstairs apartment with a roof that was catching fire from the house next door. A row of about 25 businesses, including a shoe repair store, burned with apartments above many of them.

More than 190 firefighters were sent to the blaze, still putting out some pockets more than nine hours after it erupted, training hoses on the inside of a medical center.

As daylight broke Tuesday, a stone statue that appeared to represent the Virgin Mary stood next to wooden slats and debris-caked mud, surrounded by no homes. Two logs not attached to anything crushed the top of a red Ford SUV. Residents walked aimlessly through water-filled streets with electrical wires dangling down in front of them.

The neighborhood was among the low-lying areas the mayor said were a flood danger a day before Sandy came ashore, shuttering the nation's largest city and cutting power to hundreds of thousands. Gene Morizzo, a security guard at an ocean apartment complex in nearby Rockaway Park, said about half of the 300 or so residents insisted on staying behind, noting that Irene didn't hit the story hard a year ago amid the same warnings.

"I kept telling people it's a mandatory evacuation. They said, 'Oh it's nothing, Irene this. Irene that."

Residents couldn't wait to get out on Tuesday. They were directed to a nearby firehouse in Far Rockaway, but that firehouse had been evacuated because it was under 5 feet of water and had no power.

John Frawley, 57, said he made a mistake by staying behind. "I stayed up all night," he said. "The screams. The fire. It was horrifying."

Frawley lived about five houses from the fire's edge and said he spent the night terrified, "not knowing if the fire was going to jump the boulevard and come up to my house."

In September, the same neighborhood was struck by a tornado that hurled debris in the air, knocked out power and startled residents who once thought of twisters as a Midwestern phenomenon.

The community of 12,000 borders Rockaway Park, where a historic boardwalk had been strewn around the sand, popped up in some spots like an opened can and heaved 30 to 40 feet in others. The beach's lifeguard shack and restrooms were destroyed. Allison Miller stood on what was left of the buckled boardwalk in tears.

"My home is gone," she said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-10-30-US-Superstorm-NYC-Fire/id-891175d20fa248b999df2827842bbeac

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Decline in incidence of heart attacks appears associated with smoke-free workplace laws

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

A decline in the incidence of myocardial infarction (MI, heart attack) in one Minnesota county appears to be associated with the implementation of smoke-free workplace laws, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Internal Medicine, a JAMA Network publication.

Exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) is associated with coronary heart disease (CHD) in nonsmokers, and research suggests that the cardiovascular effects of SHS are nearly as large as those with active smoking, according to the study background. Elimination of smoking in public places, such as by smoke-free laws and policies, has the potential for reducing smoking and perhaps cardiovascular events.

Richard D. Hurt, M.D., and colleagues at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn., evaluated the incidence of MI and sudden cardiac death (SCD) in Olmsted County, Minn., during the 18-month period before and after implementation of smoke-free ordinances. In 2002, a smoke-free restaurant ordinance was implemented and, in 2007, all workplaces, including bars, became smoke free.

"We report a substantial decline in the incidence of MI from 18 months before the smoke-free restaurant law was implemented to 18 months after the comprehensive smoke-free workplace law was implemented five years later," the authors comment.

When comparing the 18 months before implementation of the smoke-free restaurant ordinance with the 18 months after implementation of the smoke-free workplace law, the incidence of MI declined by 33 percent from about 150.8 to 100.7 per 100,000 population, and the incidence of SCD declined by 17 percent from 109.1 to 92 per 100,000 population.

"All people should avoid SHS exposure as much as possible, and those with CHD should have no exposure to SHS," the authors conclude.

(Arch Intern Med. Published online October 29, 2012. doi:10.1001/2013.jamainternmed.46.)

Editor's Note: This study was supported in part by a grant from ClearWay Minnesota, a grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute/National Institutes of Health and a grant from the National Institute on Aging/National Institutes of Health. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.

Commentary: Extending the Health Benefits of Clean Indoor Air Policies

In an invited commentary, Sara Kalkhoran, M.D., and Pamela M. Ling, M.D., M.P.H., of the University of California, San Francisco, write: "The results of the study by Hurt et al highlight some of the potential benefits of 100 percent smoke-free policies in workplaces, restaurants and bars: significantly decreased incidence of myocardial infarction and a trend toward decreased sudden cardiac death."

"Moving forward, we should prioritize the enforcement of smoke-free policies, eliminating loopholes in existing policies as well as encouraging expansion of smoke-free policies to include multiunit housing, motor vehicles, casinos and outdoor locations," they continue.

"Exposure to SHS should not be a condition of employment, and all workers, including those of lower income and those in the service and hospitality industries, should have equal protection from SHS exposure," they conclude.

###

JAMA and Archives Journals: http://www.jamamedia.org

Thanks to JAMA and Archives Journals for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/124894/Decline_in_incidence_of_heart_attacks_appears_associated_with_smoke_free_workplace_laws

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Monday, October 29, 2012

Obama hits Romney on taxes, Massachusetts record

President Barack Obama smiles as he speaks to supporters at a campaign event at Elm Street Middle School, Saturday, Oct. 27, 2012 in Nashua, N.H. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Barack Obama gives a high five to a young supporter after arriving in Manchester, N.H. for a campaign stop Saturday, Oct. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

President Barack Obama waves to supporters as he takes the stage at a campaign event at Elm Street Middle School, Saturday, Oct. 27, 2012 in Nashua, N.H. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

NASHUA, N.H. (AP) ? President Barack Obama is seeking to win over voters in low-tax New Hampshire by criticizing Mitt Romney for raising taxes and fees when he was governor of neighboring Massachusetts.

Obama says Romney is making "a lot of last-minute promises." But he says the policies the Republican is pushing are the same ones the Democratic campaign contends hurt the middle class in Massachusetts.

The president says Romney even tried to raise fees in Massachusetts on getting a birth certificate, "which would have been expensive for me." It was a veiled reference those who have incorrectly claimed Obama was born outside the United States.

Obama spoke to about 8,500 people at an outdoor rally on an unseasonably warm October day in New England.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-10-27-Obama/id-b1ed4cb575644f6991eb7965f44fe1a6

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Friday, October 26, 2012

Insight: Bomb blast brings Lebanon's party capital to juddering halt

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Luxury yachts line the glitzy seafront marina of Beirut's Zaytouneh Bay where owners would sip champagne at sunset before stepping out for dinner - spoilt for choice between going Italian at Signor Sassi or French at Cro Magnon.

Across the street, the Whisky Mist night club at the Intercontinental Phoenicia Hotel would normally be swinging with Beiruti night clubbers. Gulf Arabs would head for the oriental Awtar night club at the Monroe Hotel for a belly dancing show.

The real estate market, meanwhile, defies not just the laws of economics but geopolitical gravity. "How people can ask for $100,000 in rent when the country is on the edge of the abyss I find extraordinary," said Michael Karam, a wine writer.

Lebanon would seem to have it all: a cosmopolitan society, beach resorts, mountains, friendly weather, good food and wine, and buzzing bars.

The party capital of the Arab world, Beirut is a freewheeling city where Gulf Arabs, expatriates and Lebanese ?migr?s fly in to enjoy its luxury hotels. But under the veneer of modernity lie sectarian demons coiled to strike.

The car-bomb assassination last Friday of intelligence chief Wissam al-Hassan - an attack almost universally blamed on Syria and its local allies - brought the merry-go-round to a juddering halt.

Gunmen and protesters filled the streets, reflecting the antagonisms fuelling the conflict in next-door Syria and reviving memories of the sectarian hatreds that sunk Lebanon into its 1975-90 civil war, a conflict whose wounds have far from healed.

It is not just the sectarian poison - reflecting the regional struggle between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims and, in Lebanon, the Christians split into alliances with both sides - but the shocking social contrasts that lie beneath the surface.

'MANY LEBANONS'

Not far from the glamour of the Beirut seafront lie shanty towns where destitute people fight for daily survival.

Two apartments in the gleaming skyscrapers overlooking Zaytouneh Bay sold only a few months ago for $18 million and $14 million. Apartments for rent were non-negotiable a month ago at a price of $100,000. Real estate agents claimed demand was high from rich Syrians fleeing the conflict at home, but now they admit they may not see such fat deals for some time.

"There are many Lebanons. We live in a true disconnect. This place is on a respirator. We live in a bubble within the bubble," said Maria, 47, an interior designer who left Lebanon aged 9 and returned after 17 years abroad.

Even before last Friday's blast, the spillover from Syria had started to have a knock-on effect in Lebanon.

Security was deteriorating as the rule of law crumbled. Bank robberies and kidnappings for ransom picked up and sectarian rumblings between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims heightened as Lebanon's main Muslim factions lined up with the opposing sides of the Syrian conflict.

Tourists who come for the Roman ruins stayed away this year, leaving frightened Lebanese to contemplate another round of sectarian strife.

The Christian-Muslim bigotry that triggered Lebanon's own war is now buried within the overarching Sunni-Shi'ite struggle convulsing the region. The battle lines in Syria are drawn between the heterodox Shi'ite Alawite minority underpinning Bashar al-Assad and the rebellious Sunni majority, with minorities such as Christians and Druze caught in the crossfire.

Like other Lebanese, Karam has had enough. He will leave the country in which he married, had children and lived through three wars and a popular revolution.

"What prompted me to say this summer that it is time to go is the fact that Syria is in crisis. I am not for one second one of those people who say the Assad regime has to stay, No, but I think while Syria is in crisis Lebanon will be in a more dangerous situation," he said.

GREAT CITY

Karam moved to Lebanon from London in 1992, two years after the war ended and the rebuilding of Beirut by former premier Rafik al-Hariri, a billionaire construction tycoon, started.

The first tremor under this resurrected Beirut shook the city in 2005, when Hariri was killed by a massive bomb. The attack was blamed on Syria and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah.

"Now my kids are 15 and 14. They want to go out and I don't want them going out because I don't want to worry every time they go out," said Karam.

Maria, the interior designer, has already sent her two sons to school abroad. A Sunni Muslim with Shi'ite kids, she said sectarianism was embedded in Lebanese life and she did not want her children to subscribe to this culture.

"For me it is a personal choice but for them they have no place in this society. They don't subscribe to the grammar of this place," said Maria.

Beirutis are in a state of shock at the renewed violence, which is reviving memories of the civil war which claimed more than 150,000 lives.

RESILIENT CITY

Like many others Karam believes that unless the Lebanese rebuild a state not based on religion, tackle the security vacuum and revive the comatose economy, the country will lurch from periods of growth and prosperity to periods of instability.

Syria is the epicenter at the moment. Sectarian hostility is on the rise across the region. It began in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein, a Sunni Muslim, and the takeover of power by majority Shi'ites. This shift in the balance of power reinforced the influence of Shi'ite Iran and revived historic tensions in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Lebanon and Syria.

That ugly side was on display last week after the car bomb that killed Hassan, a Sunni Muslim opposed to the Syrian leadership.

In Sunni neighborhoods, gunmen set up roadblocks of burning tires, stopping passers-by and asking whether they were Sunni or Shi'ite - a chilling throwback to the civil war.

A Reuters cameraman was asked about his religion. Despite confirming he was Sunni he was prevented from filming because he was told he had a "Shi'ite beard".

Sectarian anger boiled over, with protesters chanting slogans insulting Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. "The blood of Sunnis is boiling," they said.

Yet despite all its troubles, there is a resilience to Beirutis, whose city could scarcely have survived without it.

"Beirut has tremendous energy, it is a city that picks itself up in few hours. It is like a very ugly woman with lots of charm and lots of character, extremely imperfect," said Maria.

"As imperfect as it is with all these people trying to live together, for better or for worse, they attempt to," she said.

(Editing by Giles Elgood)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/insight-bomb-blast-brings-lebanons-party-capital-juddering-153836105.html

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Thursday, October 25, 2012

56 dead in new ethnic violence in Myanmar

KYAUKTAW, Myanmar (AP) ? At least 56 people were killed and nearly 2,000 homes destroyed in the latest outbreak of ethnic violence in western Myanmar, a government official said Thursday.

The 25 men and 31 women were reported dead in four Rakhine state townships in violence between the Buddhist Rakhine and Muslim Rohingya communities that re-erupted Sunday, local government spokesman Win Myaing said.

He said some 1,900 homes had been burned down in fresh conflict, while 60 men and four women were injured. It was unclear how many of the victims were Rohingya people and how many were Rakhine.

In June, ethnic violence in the state left at least 90 people dead and destroyed more than 3,000 homes. Tens of thousands of people remain in refugee camps.

The United States called for Myanmar authorities to take immediate action to halt the violence. The United Nations appealed for calm.

An Associated Press photographer who traveled to Kyauktaw, one of the affected townships 45 kilometers (75 miles) north of the Rakhine capital of Sittwe, said he saw 11 wounded people brought by ambulance to the local 25-bed hospital, most with gunshot wounds.

One was declared dead after arrival. All the victims being treated were Rakhine, but that could reflect an inability or unwillingness of Rohingya victims to be treated there.

A male volunteer at the hospital, Min Oo, said by telephone that five bodies, including one of a woman, had also been brought there. He said the injured persons were brought by boat from Kyauktaw town 16 kilometers (10 miles) away, and taken from the jetty by the ambulances.

An account by a Rakhine villager in the area suggested great confusion and tension. The villager said that when groups of Rakhine and the Rohingya had a confrontation, government soldiers shot into a crowd of Rakhine, even though, according to his claim, it had been dispersing. The villager would not give his name for fear of violent reprisals.

There have been concerns in the past that soldiers were failing to protect the Rohingya community, but the Rakhine villager's account hints that the military may have been defending the Rohingya in this case.

Curfews have been in place in some areas since June, and been extended to others due to the recent violence.

Tensions still simmer in part because the government has failed to find any long-term solution to the crisis other than segregating the two communities in some areas.

The United Nations called for calm Thursday in response to the new violence.

"The U.N. is gravely concerned about reports of a resurgence of inter-communal conflict in several areas in Rakhine State ? which has resulted in deaths and has forced thousands of people, including women and children, to flee their homes," U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Myanmar Ashok Nigam said in a statement.

Nigam said the United Nations was appealing for "immediate and unconditional access to all communities in accordance with humanitarian principles."

The statement said large numbers of people fleeing the new violence were headed for already overcrowded refugee camps currently housing about 75,000 people previously made homeless.

"Short term humanitarian support and action towards long term solutions are urgently required to address the root causes of the conflict," said the statement.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the U.S. was deeply concerned about the reports of increasing ethnic and sectarian violence in Rakhine state and urged restraint.

The unrest broke out days after the U.S. held what it described as an encouraging human rights dialogue with Myanmar ? the latest sign of diplomatic re-engagement with the former pariah state, which has also seen the easing of sanctions to reward it for democratic reforms.

The unrest is some of the worst reported in the region since June, after clashes were set off by the alleged rape and murder of a Buddhist woman by three Muslim men in late May.

The crisis in Myanmar's west goes back decades and is rooted in a dispute over where the region's Muslim inhabitants are from. Although many Rohingya have lived in Myanmar for generations, they are widely denigrated as foreigners ? intruders who came from neighboring Bangladesh to steal scarce land.

The U.N. estimates their number at 800,000. But the government does not count them as one of the country's 135 ethnic groups, and so ? like neighboring Bangladesh ? denies them citizenship. Human rights groups say racism also plays a role: Many Rohingya, who speak a distinct Bengali dialect and resemble Muslim Bangladeshis, have darker skin and are heavily discriminated against.

The conflict has proven to be a major challenge for the government of President Thein Sein, which has embarked on democratic reforms since a half century of military rule ended in 2011.

It also poses a dilemma for the opposition New Light of Myanmar party of Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, which has been reluctant to go against the tide of popular anti-Rohingya sentiment. Suu Kyi has been criticized by some Western human rights advocates for failing to speak out strongly against what they see as repression of the Rohingya.

Buddhist monks have been spearheading anti-Rohingya protests, and on Thursday staged their latest one in Yangon, the country's biggest and most important city. More than 100 staged a peaceful protest at the historic Sule Pagoda.

_____

Associated Press writer Matthew Pennington in Washington contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/56-dead-ethnic-violence-myanmar-142131674.html

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Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Corning may make job cuts as part of cost cuts

NEW YORK (AP) ? Corning said Wednesday that it will likely cut costs, which may include "modest" job cuts, to support profit in a weakening economy.

It's the latest manufacturer to warn that the slowing global growth is hurting its business. Weaker global growth hurt Corning's telecommunications and environmental technologies divisions, but the company said sales of its super-strong Gorilla glass, used in tablets, TVs and other devices, were much better than expected.

The glass and ceramics maker's stock slid 8.4 percent, or $1.13, to $12.28 in midday trading Wednesday.

The Corning, N.Y., company's third-quarter net income dropped 36 percent to $521 million, or 35 cents per share, from $811 million, or 51 cents per share, a year ago. Adjusted profit was 34 cents per share.

Revenue fell 2 percent to $2.04 billion in the July-September quarter.

Despite declines, profit and revenue still topped Wall Street expectations.

""The weakening economy is affecting sales in many of our businesses, with several not achieving the growth expectations we set for the year," said Corning Inc. CFO James Flaws. Higher expenses also hurt profit.

The company expects economic woes will continue next year, and that it will probably have to cut costs to grow profits. Savings will probably come from scaling back project spending, capital expenditures and from job cuts.

No decisions have been made on where the job cuts would be, said Corning spokesman Dan Collins. The company has operations in the U.S., China and other Asian countries, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.

The company expects to take a charge of up to $50 million in the current quarter to cover the cuts.

In the July-September quarter, price declines for LCD glass weighed on Corning's display technologies division, the company's largest by revenue, where sales dropped 6 percent. The company expects glass volumes may drop further in the current quarter.

Lower North American sales, due to the end of the U.S. government's stimulus spending and project delays, and faltering demand in Europe dragged revenue for the telecom division down 7 percent.

Sales in the division that includes Gorilla glass shot up 21 percent.

Declining demand for trucks hurt the company's environment technologies unit, whose products include diesel filters and emissions products for autos. Sales dropped 6 percent.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/corning-may-job-cuts-part-cost-cuts-130827075--finance.html

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California State Revenue, Expenditures, and Debt | UCSB Economic ...

Introduction
Governor Brown formulated his 2012-13 fiscal year state budget based on the assumption that Proposition 30 would be approved by the voters in this November?s election. This proposition would raise income tax for seven years on taxpayers with incomes of $250,000 or more, and raise the sales tax for four years by a quarter percent. To provide historical perspective, this blog examines monthly state revenue and expenditures beginning in January 1999.

Monthly State Revenues
Monthly data on total state revenue for the General Fund, as well as its sub-components, such as sales tax and income tax, is published in the State Controller?s Monthly Financial Reports. This data is in current total dollars. It was corrected for inflation and converted to August 2012 dollars using the consumer price index for the Los Angeles Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area, published by the California Department of Finance. This constant dollar data was then put on a per capita basis using annual population figures taken from the state Statistical Abstract, and interpolated to obtain monthly values. The resulting total revenue per capita, corrected for inflation, is highly seasonal, with peaks in April, June, and September, for example. To control for seasonality, year over year changes were used for each month (January 2000 minus January 1999, etc.), as illustrated in Figure 1.

Note that the year over year changes tend to be clustered around zero, with a median of $-2.80 per capita. There are several positive exceptions and several negative exceptions. Of the five negative changes, three are associated with the 2001 recession, and one is associated with the Great Recession (recessions are indicated by the shaded areas). Recessions are random events or shocks, and are not predictable. For example, none of the business economists in the Survey of Professional Forecasters?foresaw the Great Recession until it was well underway. That leaves only one exceptional negative year-over-year change without explanation.

Of the five positive year-over-year changes, two are in the big income tax month of April (2000 and 2005). The other three are in three, seemingly, unrelated months: January 2001, September 2003, and March 2010. Thus, there seems to be little predictability for exceptionally good months. The Financial Research Unit?at the Department of Finance, which is responsible for the budget forecasts, has a different view. They focus on forecasting personal income tax, or PIT.

These ten exceptional year-over-year changes, both positive and negative, can be confirmed using a visual tool known as the box diagram, developed by the renowned statistician John Tukey. The vertical line in the box is the median or middle value. The box contains 50% of the 152 observations. The upper whisker represents the largest 25% of the observations with the exception of the outliers. If any year-to-year change is greater than 1.5 times the length of the box, it is an outlier. There are five positive and five negative outliers, as depicted by the red dots (two of the positive outliers are close in value to other outliers, so only three are visually distinct).

If these ten outliers are removed from the year-over-year changes in total revenue per capita in August 2012 dollars, then the remaining 142 observations are normally distributed. From this analysis we conclude that large increases or decreases in year-over-over-year total revenue, i.e. outliers, are not predictable because of their nature. The remaining observations of year-over-year changes are positively auto-correlated, which means that while times are good they will tend to stay that way. The same goes for when times are not so good.

To gain insight into factors affecting real per capita revenue, it was regressed against seasonal indices to control for seasonality, trend, the Case-Shiller Ten City Composite House Price Index (not seasonally adjusted), and an index of the 2001 recession. All of these variables were significant.

Total Expenditures
Monthly data for disbursements from the General Fund is also published by the Controller. It is available for expenditures on state operations and on local assistance. The plot of the year-over-year changes for the sum of these two is shown in Figure 3. There are six positive outliers and seven negative outliers. There is no apparent pattern to the positive outliers, although two thirds came during or after the Great Recession. The impact of the Great Recession is even more noticeable on the negative outliers, where six out of seven came during or after this most recent downturn. The median of year-over-year changes in expenditures is $1.3 billion per capita.

Real expenditures per capita were regressed against seasonal indices, trend, indices controlling for the 2001 recession and the Great Recession, and the Case-Shiller Ten City Composite House Price Index. The Great Recession was not significant.

Figure 3: Graph showing seasonal differences in expenditures per capita from the General Fund since 1999

Budget Balance and State Government Borrowing
The difference between state government revenue per capita and state expenditures per capita, i.e. the approximate budget balance, tends to be negative. As a consequence, the state has resorted to borrowing. The amount borrowable and the amount of loans, both in billions of nominal dollars, can be obtained from the California Controller?s Monthly Financial Reports. These amounts are depicted in Figure 4 for the terms of three Governors: Gray Davis, January 1999-November 2003; Arnold Schwarzenegger, December 2003-December 2010; and Jerry Brown, January 2011 to date.

When Gray Davis succeeded Pete Wilson as Governor, California was borrowing money, but less than $5 billion in any month. The first years of Governor Davis? governorship were also the years of the dot-com boom, and by June 2000, Davis reduced the amount of loans to zero, and kept it at that level through July 2001.? By then the legislature had spent the capital gains tax windfall on permanent increases to the budget. ?Although Governor Davis had not stopped this from happening, he had warned against it. Loan amounts increased rapidly, and, by October 2002, reached $18.3 billion. The potential amount that could be borrowed had also been increased dramatically, as shown in Figure 4. In May of 2003, the loan balance of $23.5 billion was comprised of $11 billion of internal borrowing, and $12.5 billion of external borrowing. In November 2003, Governor Davis was recalled.

After Schwarzenegger became governor, he managed to reduce borrowing to zero after seven months, and kept it below $10 billion until March of 2007. He was also successful in reducing the potential amount borrowable. However, by ten months into his new term, in October 2007, state borrowing had reached $13.5 billion, and remained above $10 billion for six months. During the remainder of Schwarzenegger?s tenure, state loans trended upwards hitting a peak of $24.8 billion in December 2009. The potential amount borrowable also grew dramatically in Schwarzenegger?s second term, as illustrated in Figure 4. Since some of the borrowing was internal, i.e. from other funds, it highlights the importance of other funds as part of the state budget process. Note that borrowing tends to peak in the middle of the fiscal year, circa December, and then declines toward June (the end of the fiscal year), as other funds get paid back.

The Wall of Debt
Governor Brown refers to accumulated state borrowing as the ?Wall of Debt,? and included a listing of monies owed in his Introduction to the 2012-2013 Budget Summary, reproduced below as Figure INT-04. The state has borrowed from various constituencies, including schools and local governments. Of particular interest is borrowing from special funds, which is listed as $3.4 billion, up from $749 million in June 2008. The State Controller published a report, Cash Management and General Fund Borrowing, which explains in general terms how the state borrows both externally and internally, and how it can borrow interest free on up to ten percent of a threshold from special funds.

The Role of Other Funds in State Finance
The General Fund has been the main fund collecting revenues and spending on state operations and local assistance. However, there are about 560 special funds, most of which are financed from user fees, to be spent solely on specific purposes. In recent years, the state has resorted to borrowing billions from these special funds, which has increased their prominence in state finance. One of the largest special funds is the State Highway Account, with a balance of $1.77 billion. (A fund?s balance is the net of assets minus liabilities.) Another special fund from which the state has borrowed is the Beverage Container Recycling Fund, with a balance of $226 million. There are scores of smaller funds with zero balances, such as the Charity Bingo Fund.

In August 2012, the Legislative Analyst?s Office (LAO) published special report for the legislature, entitled Issues Concerning the Accounting of California?s Special Funds. Among the issues this report mentions is the use of $16 billion of special fund and other fund cash to pay General Fund bills during this fiscal year. The report also recommends the development of a strategy for the state to repay these special fund loans in the years ahead. One issue the LAO report did not focus on is the Mental Health Services Fund, with a balance of $1.46 billion. This fund diverts income tax dollars away from the General Fund, which exacerbates the state fiscal crisis.

The Mental Health Services Act
In the November 2004 election, California voters passed Proposition 63, The Mental Health Services Act. It imposed an additional one percent income tax on incomes in excess of one million dollars. This may sound attractive, but it was simply a diversion of state income tax away from the General Fund. As policy, it ignored fundamental economic truths. First. There is no free lunch. Second, There is an opportunity cost: the personal income tax revenue that finances the Mental Health Services Fund is no longer available to the General Fund. Third, this constrains the flexibility of the governor and the legislature to fund state services since it pigeonholes money in this specific fund, and these constraints lead to a sub-optimal allocation of the budget. It short, it was, and is, bad policy. It also diverts large amounts of money, as shown in Table 1.

?Table 1: California Personal Income Tax Allocated to the General Fund and the Mental Health Services Fund in Billions of Nominal Dollars

The fact that the state is outspending its revenue, and is looking for money and for new sources to borrow from, places local governments at increasing risk that their resources may attract state attention.

Summary
This blog has focused on the developing state fiscal crisis, which has grown during the terms of the last three governors. We found that there were a few months of exceptionally high or low revenue outliers, which were unpredictable, large swings. The same was true of a few exceptional high and low months of expenditures. This underscores the need for a ?rainy day fund,? known as the Special Fund for Economic Uncertainties (SFEU). Unfortunately, the state is so strapped it cannot finance the SFEU, and has to, increasingly, borrow billions from the special funds. This has created new issues, since these special funds usually are financed from user fees to meet specific and restricted purposes. The state can borrow up to ten percent of threshold amounts from these special funds, interest free. The state debt to these special funds is already several billions of dollars, with no clear plan, as well as no current means, for repayment.

No related posts.

Source: http://www.ucsb-efp.com/index.php/2012/10/23/california-state-revenue-expenditures-and-debt/

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