Two court cases uphold smoking bans

Court cases in Kansas City, Mo., and Nebraska upheld two smoking bans.

First, in Missouri, the Missouri Court of Appeals upheld Kansas City, Mo.'s, smoking ban. A bar owner had claimed it was unconstitutional because there is no statewide smoking ban in Missouri, but the Court of Appeals upheld a lower court decision that it is constitutional.

Secondly, a judge in Nebraska refused to grant a restraining order against that state's new smoking ban. This case was filed by the owner of a couple of pool halls in Nebraska. This doesn't end the Nebraska case, but means it will go into effect until the lawsuit runs its course. This lawsuit claims the ban in unconstitutional because it has an exemption for cigar bars.

No statewide smoking ban has ever been overturned by any court. Multiple lawsuits have failed.

Source : http://pepepartylounge.blogspot.com/2009/06/two-court-cases-uphold-smoking-bans.html

Boyle v. United States: Not much structure needed for RICO

The Supreme Court held that an association-in-fact enterprise under RICO, 18 U.S.C. § 1962(c), must have a "structure," but it need not be, as Boyle sought the jury to be instructed in his bank robberies case, "an ascertainable structure beyond that inherent in the pattern of racketeering activity in which it engages." The "structure" contemplated by the RICO statute has three features: a purpose, relationships among the associates, and longevity sufficient to permit the associates to pursue the enterprise’s purpose. The Court rejected Boyle’s argument the structure required additional features, such as a hierarchical structure or a chain of command. The Court also rejected the argument that its construction would create a merger of the RICO § 1962(c) crime with other federal offenses, pointing out that, in relation to conspiracy, it demands "much more" than proof of a "brief" agreement.

Source : http://ussc.blogspot.com/

Honest Services Supreme Court Cases Might Ported Constriction of Scope of Tax Obstruction Crimes

I was reading a White Collar Crime Prof Blog's summary here of the two "honest services" cases argued before the Supreme Court today and was struck by the report that the Justices' concerns are so strikingly similar to concerns expressed by courts as to the amorphous reach of the tax obstruction crimes (§ 7212(a) and the Klein / Defraud Conspiracy in 18 USC § 371. In part material, the WCCPB summary includes the following:

4. Two primary concerns stand out from today's argument: (1) all justices expressed unease with identifying what sort of "bad conduct" is covered by the statute in the absence of any meaningful guidance from Congress; and (2) the Solicitor General's proposed test is not going to sufficiently narrow the statute. No one, in fact, seemed particularly inclined to adopt the SG's interpretation of the statute. At one point, Justice Breyer suggested that 140,000,000 people throughout the country had probably violated the honest services law as the SG described it, by fibbing to an employer in order to do something his or her boss wouldn't like. Justice Scalia described a similar scenario in which an employee tells the boss he is going to work hard all afternoon if the boss leaves him alone, but makes this misstatement so the boss will go away and he can sit at his desk and read the racing form. The government had a very hard time explaining why this conduct would not fall within the statute as it had defined it, and ultimately suggested that prosecutors wouldn't bring those sort of cases and/or jurors wouldn't convict. That answer did not engender a positive response. No one seemed comfortable with leaving such broad, undefined discretion in the hands of prosecutors and juries.

I discuss this genre of concern in my article on the tax obstruction crimes -- John A. Townsend, Tax Obstruction Crimes: Is Making the IRS's Job Harder Enough?, 9 Hous. Bus. & Tax L.J. 260 (2009). The article may be reviewed or downloaded here, and the related online appendix may be reviewed or downloaded here. Two prominent cases discuss this concern in the context of the defraud conspiracy (the Klein conspiracy in a tax setting): Hammerschmidt v. United States, 265 U.S. 182 (1924) and United States v. Caldwell, 989 F.2d 1056, 1058 (9th Cir. 1993). If this concern continues into the decisions in the pending Supreme Court cases, we might see some real and very helpful restrictions on the Government's imagination as to the expansive scope of the tax obstruction crimes. Stay tuned!

Update on 12/12/2009: I refer readers to Tom Kirkendall's Houston Clear Thinkers discussion here of Jeff Skilling (Enron fame) SCOTUS brief on honest services fraud and recommend readers with the inclination substitute Tax Obstructions Statutes for the Honest Services Statute. Frightening!

Source : http://federaltaxcrimes.blogspot.com/2009/12/honest-services-supreme-court-cases.html
Posted by : Jack Townsend

California launches plan to cut prison population

Reporting from Sacramento - State prison authorities Monday began reducing the number of parole violators sent back behind bars and offering inmates more opportunity to shorten their sentences, as part of a plan to decrease the prison population by 6,500 inmates over the next year.

Low-risk offenders, including those convicted of nonviolent crimes, will not have regular supervision by a parole agent. And they will no longer be returned to prison for technical violations such as alcohol use, missed drug tests or failure to notify the state of an address change.

Parole agents will reduce the number of inmates they supervise to focus on those the state deems to be at highest risk of committing more crimes, such as people who have committed sexual crimes and other violent offenses. Each agent's caseload will fall from 70 parolees to 48.

In addition, prisoners can shave time off their sentences by working on firefighting crews or by obtaining a high school diploma or trade-school certificate or by completing drug or alcohol rehabilitation programs.

Over time, prisons chief Matthew Cate said, the rules will lower the rate at which parolees are returned to state lockups, reduce crime overall and "save, over the course of a full year, a half a billion dollars for California taxpayers."

The state will thus address its prison overcrowding problem while "significantly increasing public safety," said Cate, who heads the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Some law-enforcement officials, state legislators and crime-victim advocates took a different view, predicting a spike in crime in California as more people leave prison earlier with less supervision.

LAPD Lt. Brian Johnson, a director of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, said the state "will start to release numerous dangerous felons into our community."

Cate said that in a state prison system with 168,000 inmates, only 15% to 18% of inmates will be eligible for unsupervised parole, and that the effect of the changes will be gradual.

"No one gets out today," he said.

The revisions were approved by the Legislature and signed into law last year by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who defended the changes Monday.

"It is not going to compromise public safety," Schwarzenegger said in a Sacramento speech. "Every time you have inmates go out, they come right back in again -- 70% of them. That costs our state . . . a tremendous amount of money."

The changes are occurring as the state has slashed budgets for education and rehabilitation programs in prisons.

"These people are not rehabilitated, and yet we're going to open the door and let them out?" said Harriet Salerno, president of the group Crime Victims, speaking at a Capitol news conference that was also attended by representatives of Los Angeles police officers and Los Angeles County sheriffs' deputies.

Sheriff Lee Baca said he is "very concerned" about the changes. He has ordered his deputies to meet with low-level offenders released from prison and tell them about community services such as mental health and drug rehabilitation programs, said Sheriff's Lt. Wayne Bilowit.

Assemblyman Ted Lieu (D-Torrance), a former prosecutor running for state attorney general, introduced a bill Monday that would give local law enfo

Source : http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-prisons26-2010jan26,0,5992495.story
Posted By Patrick McGreevy

FBI reviewing thousands of court cases where flawed agency evidence has been used - latimes.com

DENVER (AP) — Three people convicted of murder have been released from prison because their cases were tainted by a now discredited theory that bullets found at a crime scene could be linked to bullets found in possession of suspects.

Nearly five years after the FBI abandoned its so-called comparative bullet lead analysis, the FBI has yet to complete its review of nearly 2,500 cases where law enforcement used such evidence to investigate a case.

So far, the agency has found 187 cases where so-called comparative bullet lead analysis evidence was not only used in the investigation, but came into play at trial where FBI experts provided testimony. It has notified prosecutors in those cases where testimony from its experts "exceeds the limits of the science and cannot be supported by the FBI," one agency letter says.

At least three convictions — that of a Colorado man who served 12 years in prison for a double slaying, a Florida man who served 10 years after being convicted of killing his wife, and an Oregon man convicted of a triple slaying — have recently been overturned.

All three men are now free.

Comparative bullet lead analysis was based on the theory that lead bullets pick up trace elements such as copper, antimony, arsenic, bismuth and silver during manufacturing. When the soft metal is shaped into bullets and packaged, bullets in the same box would contain similar amounts of the trace elements, the theory went.

FBI lab technicians compared bullet fragments from a crime scene with bullets possessed by suspects. If the trace elements closely matched, prosecutors — backed by FBI testimony — would argue the suspects' guilt.

Defense attorneys say the analysis appeared to be a miracle of science: It required a small nuclear reactor, once housed at an FBI lab at the Hoover Building in Washington, D.C., and relied on the expertise of only a handful of qualified FBI agents.


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U.S. Supreme Court denies lock closure request

Two Chicago locks will remain open for the time being, the U.S. Supreme Court announced today in response to Michigan’s request for immediate action to keep the invasive species Asian carp out of the Great Lakes.

The rest of the lawsuit, still unaddressed by the court, calls for the reopening of a nearly century-old lawsuit about Chicago’s diversion of water from Lake Michigan and permanent closure of the locks.

Attorney General Lisa Madigan argued in a brief sent to the court January 5 that Illinois is not the appropriate defendant in the case because the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers controls the locks. She said the Supreme Court does not have jurisdiction over the dispute because lock closure is not a state versus state issue. Madigan added that the Asian carp situation has nothing to do with water diversion, the basis of the original lawsuit.

Robyn Ziegler, spokeswoman for the attorney general, said the office is “pleased with the Supreme Court’s decision” not to immediately close the locks.

Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox said he is “extremely disappointed” with today’s decision. Indiana, Minnesota, New York, Ohio and Wisconsin and the Canadian province of Ontario are backing Michigan’s efforts. President Barack Obama’s administration opposes the lawsuit, calling it premature.

Cox said he is stunned by Obama’s “indifference,” which he plans to address through public pressure and congressional action.

"President Obama said he would not tolerate new threats to the Great Lakes, yet he has left the front door to Lake Michigan wide open," Cox said. "Billions in economic activity and 800,000 Michigan jobs connected with the health of the lakes are at risk.”

The court has yet to decide whether to take up the remainder of the case. February 19 is the deadline for interested parties to file positions on the case.

Sources : http://illinoisissuesblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/us-supreme-court.html

Controversial App Provides Background Checks On the Go

Online privacy is a constant and growing concern as the evolving landscape of Web sites and services erode the traditional expectations of privacy. A new app from BeenVerified is adding even more controversy to the privacy dilemma by enabling users to conduct background checks on anyone in a matter of seconds from their iPhone.

The Background Check App is free and employers and individuals can use it to conduct up to three free background checks per week via the iPhone. Users, particularly employers who may want to conduct checks of employees, vendors, suppliers, partners, and other parties they do business with, can also subscribe to the BeenVerified service which would grant them unlimited background checks starting at only $8 per month.

In the press release for the app, BeenVerified CEO Josh Levy says "A BeenVerified background check contains information collected from thousands of public records and publicly available data where the average person would not even know where to begin. All of the information found in our reports is already out there and accessible to anyone."

I contacted Levy and asked whether he feels that the background checks provided by BeenVerified are in any way a violation of an individual's expectation of privacy. Levy replied "It is not a violation of privacy to aggregate the data and present it in one place. The average person would not even know where to begin finding all of this public information and we help present public records in a way that maximizes the usefulness of the information."

I downloaded the app and did a background check on myself. In a matter of seconds the app returned results on a variety of "Anthony Bradley's" in the state of Texas. I was able to identify myself by complete name--including full middle name, age, a list of known addresses (city and state), and a list of known relatives.

Clicking through, I was presented with results with links to the various social networking sites I am a member of--Facebook, Flickr, Pandora, etc., as well as links to Web-based information about me. The results have additional tabs to view photos, property records, and criminal record.

Although it found me based on a search in Texas, the results did incorrectly list my "current" address as a house in Michigan I haven't lived in since 2005. I have moved twice since then. Overall, though, I was fairly impressed with the results given the speed and cost of getting them.

The app has generated some controversy from opponents who feel the background checks are a violation of privacy. Many people may have personal personas that they would prefer employers not know about. One article put it this way "Privacy is a way of managing multiple identities and their contradictions...There is a self I present to my boss, a self I present to my family, a self I present to the public and one for my closest friends. They're all different, authentic and they often contradict each other."

According to BeenVerified, though, there has been no controversy about the popularity of the app. In just three weeks since its release, approximately 400,000 users have downloaded the app, and one million checks have been run so far. The company is already working on Version 2.0 of it Background Check App and is about to release a version for both Blackberry and Android.

Responding to the idea that individuals have separate personas and whether or not the Background Check App crosses the line in exposing them, Levy told me "We consider them entirely separate issues. People have the right to control their own personas online, as those personas contain information presented in the first person. On the other hand, BeenVerified provides access to third-party public information."

The app is a great tool for small and medium businesses to be able to conduct free, or cost-effective background checks. It can also be valuable for single men and women playing the dating game, parents, and others who may want to make sure that the people they, or their children, are interacting with don't have some shady criminal past to be concerned about.

Levy summed up by telling me "The most important message I have is that BeenVerified is a compliment to any background check and not a supplement. A full background check consists of three things: First, one can run an Internet search to see information presented in places like social network. Second, a person should run a search on BeenVerified to check that information against third-party public records. Finally, the third and most important step, there is no replacement for common sense and intuition."

Posted by: Tony Bradley
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/187304/controversial_app_provides_background_checks_on_the_go.html

Scam Reverse People Finder

Are you seeing an unnamed number on your phone or home phone? Did the monthly phone charge come in and there are phone calls made to a figure that is unknown? Searching can supply you with answers to these varieties of calls into question - and more - with a Reverse Phone Lookup.

VISIT NOW to Reverse Lookup The Real Owner of That Number

What is a 'Reverse Phone Lookup? A Reverse Phone Lookup permits you to put in a phone number, whether landline or cell, and then leaves you with information relating the individual whose telephone number it is. Data such as the individual?s name and location will be offered to you at once. If you want extra first-class information such as address history, house records on that individual, you can find it on this website. Now that you understand what this type of reverse number lookup is, you could be needing to know if they are as functional as they appear. In a word, yes.

Why Run a Reverse Phone Lookup? Check who is irritating you so you can take him to court. From researching a phone bill, following an unwelcome caller, or verifying an address, Phone Detective Reverse Search is the best on the market, quick and simplified!

1. Observe who is calling your home phone, your cell phone, or your wife's phone.
2. Detect repeated calls from unfamiliar number on your caller ID.
3. Find out trick callers.
4. Find Out someone?s name and workplace.

Phone Detective Reverse Search leaves you with the name and address behind that unfamiliar number. On Phone Detective, we have resources to classified public records that goes beyond the white pages and therefore are efficient to supply you with contact info who needs to be disciplined. And if we can?t obtain it in our database right away, we?ll take an additional measure and run an complete seek and pass reverse phone lookup outcomes within three minutes at no extra billing.

Posted by: Julia Matiko
http://www.articlesbase.com/networks-articles/scam-reverse-people-finder-1750833.html

NUMB

I am inspired by this post, hope you like it.

"Good morning,
I woke up this morning, & the first word that popped in my head was NUMB. I am very use to that word, I use to feel NUMB, all the time. Have you ever looked in the mirror and saw someone you didn't know? & you didn't feel anything anymore, everything in your body goes numb.
(like your foot falling asleep) Its that tingling feeling. That numb feeling became apart of me, it never went away, it was there when I woke up, it was there when I fell asleep. It took almost a year to get that numb feeling to go away, and some days it comes back to visit. Have you ever felt it? I block out memories of my childhood, and think about the good ones, but every time there was a good memory, it was followed by a bad one right behind it. I was the walking dead, just all to my self, nothing to say to anyone, that's totally the opposite of who I am, I am very happy, energetic, and so loving to everyone. I ended up just isolating, not having friends, and just being alone. I was alone one of my biggest fears, of being alone. I mean yeah I had my mother who never left the couch watching T.V. & drinking but that wasnt someone I wanted to be around. I couldnt get away from her everywhere I would turn I would see her. I mean she is still with me everywhere I go now, I think about her when I am at school, or out shopping, or simply watching tv, and I get that numb feeling again it comes back, like o remember how you felt when your mom did this, or this. I hate it. Its one of those things, you try to let go, let go of your past but it still comes back. I wish I can block it all out, and start over. I would love that but no, it doesnt happen like that.

I shared alittle about my numbing feeling, its horrible, and if you start to get this too, please talk to someone you can trust, no one came to me and I felt so alone i wanted someone to reach out and get me away from the pain. But no one cam until a year later. Almost too late. So please get help, this is most likely depression, You shouldn't be alone. No one ever deserves to be alone. People who want help are not alone, people who refuse help are not alone they have there addiction to go back too. Everyone has someone, or something. Just remember you deserve the someone not the something."

Thanks to you stephanie

Original post : http://sbahr94-lwaa.blogspot.com/2009/12/numb.html

People Searches: Helping with Your People Search

I just saw a blog entry online, a kind of "missing persons" ad that puzzled me. A family in West Virginia is offering a $5000 reward for help provided in connection with their people search. Apparently, they are looking for a local mother and daughter who disappeared in 1999. The family patriarch and spokesperson expressed high hopes the reward will help unearth new information in connection with the missing relatives.

Here's the gist of the story: on Dec. 1, 1999, a mother in her late sixties and her forty-something daughter left their local home and set out on a shopping spree, never to be seen again. Their car was located five days later in a neighboring county.

The desire to learn more about, and possibly reunite with, family members was sparked by genealogy research. The family had lost all contact with these relatives after the mother of the current head of the family passed away in 1989; the missing women were his mother's sister and niece.

So now they're willing to pay $5000 to find these relatives, yet it's been 20 years since they'd had any contact with them, out of which they've been missing for 10. It's from one extreme to the other. It doesn't make much sense: why the sudden interest in the people who surely must have met with foul play and have long been dead? And if, by chance, the women are still living elsewhere, their relatives should really scale down their people search strategies and start with the much cheaper and a whole lot more effective. I'm talking about online people searches.

Where have these people been? Don't they know that today, for a price of a latte, they can find people online by name and last known location, or even by an old phone number?

If the missing people ever existed, there are public records containing information about their last address, phone number and many other details that have been collected for years. One can look around for all kinds of hints about their lives via people searches, even criminal records, if any. And if the missing people are dead, searching for vital records online can lead to the discovery of death certificates. Case closed.

Original Post : http://www.articlesbase.com/news-and-society-articles/people-searches-helping-with-your-people-search-905780.html

Chick Flicks….Guy Movies….The Works

For my birthday this year, I got the movie I’ve been looking for since I finished reading the book (in pdf). Cheers to that! I got Time Traveler’s Wife, a movie about a guy who time travels unexpectedly bringing him to meet his wife’s 6-year-old self. Actually it’s a love story and I’m a fan—sort of.

It’s a tear jerker, a hair raiser, a complete heart jumper; it’s hard to take the eyes off from the screen once a good movie starts playing. Find people who are movie fans and you’d be surprise.

In the age of Ipods, IMaxs, DVD players and YouTubes, movie marathons are a complete buzzer. They get people’s attention and have them hooked. And ever since films began rolling, it seems that genres are distinguished according to what men thinks are cool and what women take as fun.

Guy movies are films that define man’s masculinity in every way. The action packed flicks: the muscles, the ammos, the ladies, the cars. These are but a few that can be considered “For the boys only so BACK OFF” or “KEEP OUT”. Some of these movies are that of James Bond series, Mission Impossible, and Rocky.

Girls have their own reason to enjoy movies as well. Everything that touches the emotions are keeps for the chicks—that’s why these movies are called chick flicks. From dramas to romance, girl meets guy; guy meets girl, sparks fly. They may be tear jerker at times but are totally fun to watch.

The action is for boys; the dramas and romance for the girls. But like today’s modern trend where ladies wear pants and do stuff that were once “only boys can”, and boys taking careers where girls are most known to dominate; surely movies have their own twist that allows the ideas of films from the other gender’s preference to be accepted by the other as well.

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, DOA, and Double Jeopardy are action films which have women for heroes thus these are considered chick flicks. These are films that show off the other side of womanhood—strong and smart. Types of movies such as these are a showcase of woman’s evolution.

Men have also their say with dramas. The Butterfly Effect, 8 Miles, and Benjamin Button are but some of those who have touched emotions showing the sensitive side of the male species. They cry too, matter of fact, and at times are more in touch with life than women.

We may find people enjoying the things that were not likely to fit their preferences. They may surprise us at times but gender movies of man and of woman has changed through time. Even women enjoy action as some men enjoy chick flicks like “Confessions of a shopaholic”. As of the moment, I don’t even care whether the film I got is for the ladies or the gents. What’s important is to sit back and relax while enjoying the movie as the DVD turns.

Posted by: Emma G. Fox is a freelance writer, with experiences working as a marketing executive in a leading authority on the web when it comes to conducting and searching background check and especially the people search, with the largest database consisting of over 26 billion government records is provided.

Original Post : http://www.articlesbase.com/movies-articles/chick-flicksguy-moviesthe-works-1705065.html

Hiring Celebrities is Not a Done Deal

Say one day, Kobe Bryant, Tim Allen and Michael Jackson are all applying in your nursery school. As the principal, who would you hire? Maybe you will reject downright Michael Jackson's application due to pedophile records and cases still in court, but who do you think is the better candidate between Kobe Bryant and Tim Allen? With much consideration, you accept both the applications and told them to wait for further notice.

You get to take a look at Tim Allen's resume first. Being the voice of Buzz Lightyear of Disney's animated film Toy Story, he could be the perfect candidate as children will obviously love him the instant they learn this. To add up to what to be more convincing, he is also dedicated and hardworking father in the sitcom Home Improvement that had won plethora of awards and upscale ratings. Tim Allen also played roles that children had laughed and loved like the series of The Santa Clause films. You wrote excellent over his application but remembered that there is Kobe Bryant's resume still waiting. As an American All-star shooting guard, Kobe Bryant is equally convincing to be the right person you can hire to be included in your school's administration and faculty. Being a NBA superstar alone is enough to make children go giddy with him. He could be the perfect role model and idol your children could ever have, face to face.

Both are impressing, but who's to call? You resort for background check and investigation to clear up your confusion. After all, it is under the federal law that anyone who seeks a job involving working with children must submit their selves to a background check. To your dismay, you have learned that both have criminal records that are not qualified to work with children. The result? Allen to be guilty of drunk driving, cocaine and illegal drug abuse opposite Bryant that was accused of rape and actually admitting it by stating a public mea culpa although the case was dropped.

To think that hiring celebrities could be one top prize decision, but with background check, you should have known better. Let them both wait for the call in vain, or else, you could face negligent hiring practice lawsuit in the future.

Posted By Hilda Carlsen
http://ezinearticles.com/?Hiring-Celebrities-is-Not-a-Done-Deal&id=1999574

Strengths Finder

So Evil Pixie attended this event last month where participants focused on their strengths instead of their weaknesses. The gist is most people (and employers) spend far too much time on weaknesses which typically result in nothing; however, by recognizing an individual’s strengths can turn productivity around.

The movement involves buying this book, which costs roughly $23. In the book, it breaks out individual strengths into specific categories. The reader most go online and take a 20-minute assessment to determine what their top 5 strengths are and how to plan based on those strengths.

Evil Pixie’s top 5 strengths, in order are Strategic, Deliberative, Relator, Competition, and Command. Now some of these “strengths” can easily be considered weaknesses, but what I found really interesting is to read how the author managed to turn what is considered a weakness into a strength. Here are my strengths in brief summary. Below the summary is a more expanded explanation behind each strength. You decide:

Strategic: People who are especially talented in the Strategic theme create alternative ways to proceed. Faced with any given scenario, they can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues.

Deliberative: People who are especially talented in the Deliberative theme are best described by the serious care they take in making decisions or choices. They anticipate the obstacles.

Relator: People who are especially talented in the Relator theme enjoy close relationships with others. They find deep satisfaction in working hard with friends to achieve a goal.

Competition: People who are especially talented in the Competition theme measure their progress against the performance of others. They strive to win first place and revel in contests.

Command: People who are especially talented in the Command theme have presence. They can take control of a situation and make decisions.

Here is where they turn a weakness into a strength:

Strategic: Driven by your talents, you may have little difficulty finding the right words at the right time to express what you are thinking or feeling. Maybe you can present your concepts in a reasonable, orderly, or methodical way. Perhaps you generate a few options for others to consider. As a result, certain individuals might say you know how to get your ideas across to people. It’s very likely that you occasionally demonstrate an ease with language. Sometimes you effortlessly verbalize your thoughts. You might delight in the opportunity to share your insights. Maybe you derive exceptional pleasure from actively participating in conversations as long as group members propose ideas, seek solutions, or debate issues. Chances are good that you may generate numerous ways to enhance, upgrade, revise, correct, or revamp certain processes, action plans, or itineraries. Sometimes your suggestions influence how a project will unfold in the coming months, years, or decades. You might find fault with your own or another person’s talents, skills, or knowledge. To some extent, fixing people or things ranks in the top half of your list of favorite activities. Because of your strengths, you customarily pinpoint the core problems and identify the best solutions. You artfully and skillfully eliminate distractions. This helps people gain a clear understanding of what is happening and why it is happening. You frequently identify ways to transform an obstacle into an opportunity. Instinctively, you occasionally marvel at your ability to vividly express your thoughts and feelings.

Deliberative: Chances are good that you might have limited patience for idle or purposeless activity. When you have certain tasks to perform, you mean business — that is, you are determined. Offering few apologies, perhaps you can state your needs, set your boundaries, make demands, and present your theories. Periodically you use sophisticated, complicated, technical, or academic terminology to emphasize key points. Because of your strengths, you may have a reputation for thinking through things before you speak. Perhaps this is one reason why some people feel better about themselves when you say, “I truly value your opinion” or “I know you can do this job.” Instinctively, you may be described by people as earnest or businesslike. Individuals might appreciate your methodical and unhurried way of processing facts or numerical data. Driven by your talents, you may be described as an industrious and no-nonsense person. When you have a goal, you try to reach it. When you have a problem to solve, you first try to break it into parts. When you have a major decision to make, you try to study the facts from a variety of angles. It’s very likely that you may be a no-nonsense thinker. You might take your time to weigh the pros and cons of an issue, idea, or opportunity. Sometimes you delay rendering a decision or making a change. You might need to review more evidence, data, or information than others do. To some degree, you are puzzled by those who rush into action without gathering facts and evaluating them. Because you carefully process your thoughts, perhaps you save time, minimize errors, or conserve resources.

Relator: Driven by your talents, you might notice that people regularly ask you the question “What do you think? This might be because they value your views about particular people, situations, rules, news events, or decisions. Instinctively, you might do your best training after you become well-acquainted with someone. Perhaps you want to discover each individual’s unique talents, work style, goals, motivations, or interests. Maybe these insights tell you what suggestions to make or what tips to offer during coaching sessions. By nature, you might be a better trainer when you can coach individuals who have a strong desire for victory. Perhaps you invest a lot of energy and time helping teammates excel or work well with the group. To some extent, you are eager to be on teams that outperform every opponent. It’s very likely that you sometimes consider ways you might enhance your ability to reduce difficult-to-understand ideas, processes, or plans to their most basic elements. Perhaps you seek opportunities to make things simpler and easier to comprehend. Because of your strengths, you may be regarded by some individuals as a fine trainer, tutor, or instructor. Occasionally you describe yourself in these terms.

Competition: Instinctively, you may draw all the inspiration you need from yourself when you challenge others for first-place honors. Perhaps you are less influenced by a caring, concerned, or friendly authority figure than some individuals are. You might prefer to keep your eye on the prize. Chances are good that you might have an intense desire to deliver the best performance in specific areas. Sometimes you use every bit of the knowledge, skill, talent, and/or energy you possess to snag the top prize. Perhaps little, if anything, distracts you from your goal. By nature, you may accomplish more when you take time to think about what you need to perfect, upgrade, or do better. Perhaps this is your way of being declared the best when your results are compared to those of others. Maybe your hours of hard work increase your chances of producing the right outcomes. It’s very likely that you sometimes discover that contending for a real or even imaginary first-place victory makes your job or your scholarly pursuits a bit more exhilarating. Driven by your talents, you periodically rely on your sophisticated vocabulary to outthink certain people. Whether speaking or writing, you might interject technical or subject-specific terms to confront resistance or force specific issues into the open. This authoritarian stance may put a few people on notice that you are clever. Sometimes their confidence begins to crumble. Perhaps your ease with language and artful tactics signal that you are the one in charge.

Command: Driven by your talents, you are sometimes willing to take chances. You might insist on calculating beforehand whether the odds of success are in your favor. When they are, you may forge ahead. It’s very likely that you probably have exhibited the traits of boldness, assertiveness, and/or self-reliance since childhood. Chances are good that you may approach certain win-lose situations in a practical and realistic manner. When you are intent on being victorious, perhaps you extinguish any sentimental feelings you might have toward your rivals. Because of your strengths, you occasionally appear to be a pragmatist — that is, someone who spends time on factual matters or practical affairs. You might demand that certain individuals working with you become fluent in the language of their chosen profession, area of study, or field of interest. Once in a while, you may express displeasure when you must stop to explain a subject-specific or technical term that the person should already know. By nature, you notice that people heed your demands. What you say and how you say it can even frighten and threaten people. You probably have used this effect to influence individuals to do what you want.

Interesting, eh? Consider the above as a snapshot of the business side of Evil Pixie.

Original Post : http://evilpixieblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/strengths-finder.html

Reverse Cell Phone Search - Cell Phone Number Reverse Lookup

Today, thanks to the internet, we no longer have to hire expensive private experts and endure the long wait for results if we want to have a mobile number traced. By simply logging onto the internet and looking up a good 'Online Reverse Cell Phone Lookup' database we can trace the number ourselves in just a couple of minutes.

Why do people want to carry out reverse cell phone searches?

The reasons may vary but the commonest reasons are crank callers and unfaithful relationships.

What's the BEST Way to look up the owner of a mobile number?

If you're thinking of the White Pages, know now that they only carry landline numbers because there are certain privacy laws enforced to protect personal information of cell phone users. You could always hire a private investigator, but that is a costly and time-consuming option.

• So, there really is no better option than an online cellular phone look up
• Since they're web-based, there's no need to step out of your home.
• You get the results in minutes!
• You get bonus information too - not just the name and addresses of the user but his/her average income, info on family, associates etc. You can do a lot with information like that!

How do you know you've chosen the best database?

The internet provides a lot of choices, but not all can give you excellent results. You need to know which of them offer the best service. Here are some tips to avoid disappointment with your chosen service provider.

1. Choose a database that has at least 90% coverage of US mobile subscribers. That means the database should have more than 200 to 210 million numbers.
2. The best databases are updated frequently to ensure that listings are accurate and do not contain outdated information.

Original post : http://community.wgntv.com/_Reverse-Cell-Phone-Search-Cell-Phone-Number-Reverse-Lookup/blog/1147478/101892.html

How To Find People Online

Finding people online is how most people locate old friends, lovers and acquaintances these days. With a few selected online people finders, just about anyone in the world can be located, if you spend a little time. Even better, you can usually find the person for free. Here are some free online researches to use while learning how to find people online.

AOL White Pages

The Aol White Pages is an online people search engine similar to the white pages in your local telephone directory, but with a worldwide scope of listings. English language searchers will probably do best searching for friends who live in English-language countries like the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, but you can search on AOL for anyone in the world.

Searching on the AOL Internet White Pages is as simple as registering, which takes a minute or two. Searches are free, so you don’t have to worry about that. Below are the best ways to search for people using AOL.

• People Search – Actually looking them up by name.
• Area & Zip Code – Search for someone using their area and zip code, to narrow the search or see if they still live in the same area.
• Reverse Lookup – To see who is searching for you on the AOL White Pages.

Facebook People Search

It goes without saying that Facebook has become on the great people finders on the Internet. If you’re looking for an old friend or acquaintance, there are few better places to network online. One tip if you can’t immediately find the person you’re searching for is to locate a common acquaintance, then look at that person’s Facebook Friend List. If that doesn’t help, ask the person if they know any information. If that doesn’t help, find any other common friends and try the same with them. In that way, Facebook lets you find an ever-widening circle of old friends.

To a lesser degree, you can find friends and other people online at other social networking sites, like Skype, MySpace and Twitter. Facebook seems to be the website of choice for people wanting to find old friends, though, so try Facebook as your first choice.

123 People Search

You can search for people anywhere in the world using the “123 People” search engine, with by using the “firstname lastname” function, the “city of zip” search or their “by country” search.

Another interesting feature of 123 People is their “People in the News” section, where you can see who is being searched for the most on the Internet. These can be big names in today’s news, celebrities, sports figures or just random people for no seeming reason. Let me give an example.

At this particular moment, here is the list of people in the news on 123 People

• Rory Markas
• Casey Kotchman
• Michael Yon
• Mike Holmgren
• Bruce Arians
• Emmy Ann Wooding
• Kyle Brandt
• Ron Turner
• Willie Mitchell
• Rory Marcus
• Sandy Montag
• Brian Cushing
• Tila Tequila
• Vince Vaughn
• Matt Kemp
• Brit Hume
• David Brandon
• Steve Harvey
• Anthony Munoz
• Casey Johnson
• Anthony Baye
• Mika Brzezinski
• Justin Bieber
• Benjy Bronk
• Rosie Perez
• Robin Bain
• Michael McDonald
• Katharine Mcphee
• Orlando Jordan
• Val Venis
• Bobby Cremins
• Jeff Hardy

Mike Holmgren, Bruce Arians and Ron Turner are all NFL coaches who are moving into organizations or being fired today, so I can see those. Steve Harvey, Katherine McPhee and Vince Vaughan are entertainers, so you might expect to see them anytime on such a search. Looks like Tila Tequila is up to her old tricks, while you can pretty much say the same about Brit Hume.

I was surprised to see Val Venis on the list, since his heyday as a wrestler seemed to be 10 years ago. When I went to see if Val Venis had died or something, it seems the Val Venis and Orlando Johnson had just joined the TNA wrestling association. Once again, Bobby Cremins, Anthony Munoz and Brian Cushing are sports figures, so you know something must have happened in their sports lives today. Rory Markas was a sports broadcaster who died today, while Emmy Ann Wooding died several years ago, but was having a tribute show on NBC tonight.

All in all, an interesting feature, which reminds me of a similar online list you’ll find on Twitter (most Tweated or somesuch). With 123 search, you can find friends anywhere in the world, but also keep up with what’s new in the online pop culture.

Zabasearch

Zabasearch has free people searches engine and claims to have three times the number of people than white pages directories. It’s hard to verify that claims, but you can find a person’s address and telephone numbers for free on Zaba Search. No registration is required.

You can also perform a social security number search on Zabasearch, as well as run a background check. Thankfully, you can also have Zabasearch tell you who has been searching for you on their site.

With the above four options, and people finding websites like them, you pretty much know how to find people online. Now, go out and find somebody.

Original Post : http://www.recordsbackground.com/blog/private-investigation/how-to-find-people-online/

Teen Grid Clearance: Here's the deal...

I will do my very best to adddress this topic as clearly as possible. Before you begin the application process for Teen Grid clearance, understand a few important basics:
1. an adult is anyone 18 years and over

2. You cannot gain "general admission" clearance to TSL, but will need to be associated with a specific project or region. Your avatar will be limited to that/those areas and WILL NOT have access to the rest of the Teen Grid.

3. Clearance is determined through a third party background check company, Ascertain International. There are fees associated with this service that vary depending on where you live/lived.

Ascertain Screening and Investigations, LLC
110 North High Street, Suite 201
Gahanna, Ohio 43230
614.858.0100

Contact for Second Life at Ascertain is Dee Igo. Her email at Ascertain and the URL for the Ascertain background check process online:

https://www.ascertainsi.com/secondlife/bgConsent.asp
DIgo@Ascertainsi.com

4. They will run the background check and send the results only (pass or
fail LOL) to you and to Linden Lab.

5. Most Main Grid avatars choose to create an "alt" or second avatar that will be moved over to the Teen Grid. This avatar will need to have PG inventory only. Be very thorough in filtering through the contents of the inventory as adult content is often ncluded in freebies etc.

6. The estate manager or person administrating the island to which you wish to move will then notify their Linden Lab contact. They will give them your real life name, your avatar name (the one to be moved) and the purpose for your Teen Grid presence.

On Ramapo Islands, I maintain a list of adult clearance names that I update and resend to my contact to keep things simple.

Again the procedure may vary slightly with your specific project, and Second Life is evolving so quickly that this information may be outdated soon so be sure to ask and double check!

Original Post : http://tslclear.blogspot.com/
Posted by : Peggy Sheehy

Warlords in a weak state

MEDIA reports and analyses of the Nov. 23 gruesome mass murder of 57 innocent civilians in Maguindanao have highlighted different aspects of the culture of warlordism in Muslim Mindanao. Their common starting point is the rido, the clan wars that have persisted in many parts of Philippine society, transferring unresolved antipathies to younger generations as part of the family legacy. But rido alone cannot explain what happened in Maguindanao. A fuller analysis must take into account the weak state in which it is framed.

Family feuds are certainly not unique to our society. They thrive wherever kinship remains the dominant principle for organizing an individual’s participation in the larger social world. They usually disappear as a society grows in complexity. The individual becomes entangled in the multiple crosscutting ties offered by the modern world. Thus the kinsman becomes a citizen, a university student, a journalist, a member of a political party, a Rotarian, a doctor or a soldier in the army, or falls in love with someone outside the clan.

This is a process that does not always occur smoothly. For many postcolonial societies like ours, the transition to modernity has been very uneven, spawning problems that are not easily solved in either the traditional or strictly modern way. Instead of withering away in obsolescence, clans can often draw new vitality from the modern institutions into which they are grafted. This could give rise to something as benign as a family corporation, or to something fundamentally vicious. The traditional absolutism of these patriarchal clans, when fused with the immense resources of the modern state, can spawn barbarians of the most lethal and abusive kind. This, exactly, is what has happened to varying degrees in our society.

The massacre in Maguindanao may stand out for a long time for its brazenness and heinousness, but the forces that shaped it are by no means isolated or peculiar to Muslim Mindanao. They lurk in many regions of our country, providing support to various activities—political and economic, legal and illegal—and feeding from the institutional structures of modern society. One only needs to take a look at the local leaders and organizers of the party in power in order to produce a map of modern warlordism in the Philippines. In their ranks, any observer will find an assortment of gambling lords, smugglers, drug lords, human traffickers, and leaders of crime syndicates, who, without exception, maintain private armies. Many of them have become big players in the world of business and politics, gaining reputations as benevolent entrepreneurs, displacing the traditional warlords from the landed oligarchy. They operate through networks and layers of patronage, demanding from their followers unconditional loyalty in exchange for economic security and assisted access to the offices of the state. But whereas the feudal lords softened their rule by appeals to culture, the new warlords govern mainly through intimidation and violence.

Like the jueteng lords operating from behind the façade of the legal Small Town Lottery (STL), warlords like the Ampatuans accumulate and deploy their awesome power from behind their legal positions as government officials. Their links to national politics are not mediated by political parties, but are forged, like all patronage ties, directly with the principal bosses in government. The Ampatuans do not care if they are expelled from the administration’s Lakas-Kampi-CMD party; what would hurt them is if Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, their principal patron, turns her back on them.

These people do not bother to recruit proxies to run for public office and represent their interests; they themselves become the officers of the state, bequeathing public positions to their children as if these were part of the family heirloom. Their private armies, usually entered as “force multipliers” in the war against terrorism and crime, are paid for and maintained with government funds. Even the local police are “their” police. The internal revenue allotment (IRA), given regularly to local government units, becomes their private cash box. No government auditor would dare question their expenditures. What we have here is the colonization of the weak state by local warlords recycled as public officials.

This situation, so pervasive still in our country today, will not disappear as long as our national politicians choose the path of enlisting outmoded local power systems into their political parties, rather than patiently create modern organs of political aggregation appropriate to a democracy.

When the national leadership is strong and rests on a clear popular mandate, it is in a better position to dismantle the anachronistic local power centers that operate side by side state institutions. It need not tolerate, or worse accommodate, the existence of parallel sultanates and their abusive armies. But where we have an insecure leadership that colludes with a broad range of non-accountable forces to keep itself in power, it is the modern state that withers away.

This, in a nutshell, is the story of our society’s troubled transition to modernity. The transition has not merely prolonged the life of feudal lords; it has equipped them with the latest weaponry, and given them strategic positions in the modern state from which they could continue their oppressive rule. We have indeed paid a high price for allowing an illegitimate president to take charge of the state.

By Randy David
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 21:52:00 11/27/2009

Orinigal post : http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20091127-238822/Warlords-in-a-weak-state

The People finder news today

To equal a people finder has been one means of giving television viewers a verisimilitude showboat series thanks to networks takings advantage of this profession. Credit a journey those who are looking for their gone loved ones are prone a leeway to get their search further fruitful. But expert are so generous cases that being a “people finder” happen to stingy pure luck and not based on the profession one truly does.

The Locator is a television grandstand carte blanche which became the constituent of reuniting loved ones from isolated choice. The panoply is hosted by Troy Dunn, who was motivated to this venture when he himself helped his potent issue 1990 glimpse her allow biological inland. Bright-eyed - adjusted mask his string end - confrere, they founded an agreement that helps body people from those that are clear finished un - findable. Concrete was being that he became the Locator.

Troy built a binge that mythical the reuniting people, which has been estimated to influence career 300 million again counting, heavier quiescent than molecule locator has done. In that bounteous senility, people retain witnessed sincere reunions pull television down The Locator. Troy Dunn and became restricted famous not broadcast his copious guest appearances collision both US and UK based shows ( BBC shows to buy for larger specific ). His appearances earned him adoration nowadays he trick and besides brought loved ones fit - balanced thanks to apart they could desire possible.

A Concern on Rights

Descrimination…a topic that I just can’t get off my head my cousin opened it this morning.

It was supposed to be just another fine-morning-gathering at the park where we usually jog. As we made our rounds we saw a woman sitting by one of the park benches, whom my cousin (let’s call her “Kat” for her identity’s safety) identified as a dean (whom will refer to as “Dr. B”) in their school. It was then that Kat ushered me to jog the other direction not wanting to go anywhere close to Dr.B. After we’ve gone farther, with her out of our sights, my cousin explained herself. “None of the students ever take notice of her. I don’t want to be rude.” She spoke through short intakes of breath. That was when she started opening up on her concern for whatever it is that was going on in their school.

My cousin is a student in a catholic school taking up Computer Science. At that time, she was on her way to her next class when she overheard a conversation between Dr. B and one of the faculty heads. They were weighing out the results from a teaching demo. Kat really should not care about this until she heard a familiar name who we will just call “Julie”.

Julie was a graduate of their school with a disability on her lower extremities. She just had a demo which was said to be darn fine. Everyone in that school, even those who paneled had given her good markings and was expecting she’d be teaching soon. Unfortunately, as Kat stood outside the dean’s office she heard the opposite. It seems that Dr. B had just questioned Julie’s ability to teach due to her disability—worst, the other head agreed. This is clear discrimination. And it’s just the first. There was even a gay student whom we’ll call “Marty” that even received degrading treatment from Dr. B. He’s darn good and she’s the worst.

What are the school owners doing about this? Haven’t they done an employment background check on Dr. B before giving the position? Or are they just plain deaf!?

Hearing this story makes me want to scream my head off. It’s unacceptable: a behavior so degrading coming from a person who has attained higher learning. This is not good. Not good at all….

Here’s a call for attention; an instant people search on those not afraid to voice their concerns. Fight back against oppressors!

Here’s a shout for everyone! Know your Rights! Respect other people’s Rights!

Be fair!