Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/246357197?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Saturday, September 8, 2012
Friday, September 7, 2012
Beals: Lesson learned by Coach Osborne applies to business, too
At the beginning of 1991, Marshall Faulk was a wanted man ? wanted by many of the nation?s most prestigious football schools. He had just finished a stellar senior season as a star high school player in New Orleans, and college coaches were camped outside his front door 24/7.
Faulk had a rough childhood, growing up in one of America?s most notorious housing projects. As a youngster, football was his passion. From an early age, he was good at the game and caught the eyes of college scouts. Recruiters courted him as a junior, and by the time he was tearing up the fields as a senior, scholarship offers were pouring in.
As the 1991 National Signing Day drew nearer, Coach Tom Osborne and his staff at the University of Nebraska were high on Faulk and confident he soon would be wearing the Huskers? scarlet and cream. After all, Faulk liked Nebraska. So did his mother, his guidance counselor, and even his English teacher, who had a great deal of influence on him.
During an in-home visit, Osborne sensed he made a connection with Faulk and his family. As an experienced football salesman, Osborne knew when personalities ?clicked? in a player?s living room. There was no doubt in the coach?s mind that Faulk felt good about Nebraska. In fact, Osborne admits that he thought it was almost a done deal ? Faulk was practically on his way to Lincoln.
On National Signing Day, Marshall Faulk signed with San Diego State University, far away from and far less prestigious than the many football powerhouses that were courting him. Osborne was surprised.
?It turned out we had been recruiting him as a defensive back, which most people had,? Osborne said. ?But Marshall deep down always wanted to be a running back.?
Of course, SDSU told Marshall they would be delighted to have him play running back, but with his blazing speed, Nebraska would have loved to have him in its backfield, too. Faulk had the talent to excel on either side of the ball.
?Although we had been thorough, and we had done our homework,? Osborne said, ?we hadn?t asked him a key question: ?Marshall, which side of the ball do you want to play on?? That?s why it?s really important to do a lot of listening. I think we could have had Marshall Faulk if we had just recruited him as a running back.?
The rest, as they say, is history. Faulk flourished at SDSU, running for 1,400 yards and scoring 23 touchdowns in just his freshman year. During a 13-year professional career, Faulk amassed 12,279 rushing yards and scored 136 touchdowns, some of the most impressive statistics in NFL history.
Surely, it must have been frustrating for Husker coaches watching Faulk?s career from afar, knowing they came so close to signing him. It?s a feeling that haunts many coaches.
It?s a feeling that businesspeople deal with too. Like football coaches, professionals must listen carefully to their ?recruits? ? their clients. How many deals does a salesperson lose because he or she talks too much and doesn?t respond to what the client really wants? How many star employees does a hiring manager miss out on, because he or she doesn?t truly listen?
So remember, always ask your clients, ?What side of the ball do you want to play on?? Then listen carefully to the answers.
Jeff Beals is an Omaha author and speaker who can be reached at jeff@jeffbeals.com.
Source: http://www.omaha.com/article/20120906/MONEY/709069940
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Thursday, September 6, 2012
Clinton seeks to boost democracy in Asia's newest country
DILI (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a short visit to East Timor on Thursday, throwing her considerable diplomatic weight behind a fledgling government trying to bring Asia's newest country closer to its booming Southeast Asian neighbors.
Clinton met President Taur Matan Ruak and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao during a brief visit to the capital, Dili, after a day of talks in China. She was due to leave for Brunei later on Thursday.
U.S. officials said the visit -- the first by a U.S. secretary of state since East Timor won independence from Indonesia in 2002 -- was an effort to help stability and growth.
"Strong democracies, we know from long practice, make more stable neighbors and capable partners," Clinton told a news conference with Gusmao.
Clinton did not bring much new financial assistance. She was set to announce just $6.5 million in funding for scholarships to help East Timorese students study in the United States.
U.S. officials hope her visit will send a signal to East Timor's neighbors, some of which have resisted suggestions it join the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) because it lags too far behind in political and economic development.
"Timor is still plagued with substantial violence ... they have a long way to go," a senior U.S. official told reporters.
U.S. officials say East Timor is still weak after more than 400 years of Portuguese colonization and a 24-year fight against Indonesian occupation, and see closer ties with ASEAN as a way to bring stability.
Gusmao won parliamentary elections in April but fell short of a majority, forcing the formation of a coalition government.
Still lacking much basic infrastructure, East Timor began receiving oil and gas revenues from fields it shares with Australia in 2005 and boasts a special oil fund with assets of more than $10 billion.
Clinton toured a USAID-funded coffee finishing plant. Coffee is East Timor's second-largest export, with U.S. giant Starbucks a major customer.
CHINA LOOMS LARGE
She also took stock of growing Chinese aid and investment, part of Beijing's push to accelerate influence in the region.
"We are not here against any other country, we are here on behalf of our partnerships and relationships with countries in the region," Clinton said, when asked if U.S. engagement in the region was aimed at China.
" ...certainly I am not going to shy away from standing up for our strategic interests and expressing clearly where we differ," she said.
China has built a number of major government buildings in East Timor. It has also signaled it is willing to partner with the United States in development projects to help East Timorese, 40 percent of whom live on less than a dollar a day.
U.S. officials said Washington hoped to step up cooperative development work with China, citing East Timor as one region in Asia where the two Pacific powers' interests could converge.
"The Chinese don't view the stakes as particularly high," the official said, although he noted that, even in cooperative ventures, China shields much of the details of development work.
Clinton said the United States would work with East Timor on concerns such as human trafficking and the victims of conflict.
The United States supported autocratic Indonesian ruler Suharto when Indonesia invaded East Timor, occupying half an island at the eastern end of the Indonesian archipelago in 1975. East Timor finally won independence after a U.N.-sponsored referendum.
Gusmao was conciliatory, noting 70 percent of East Timor's trade was with Indonesia, Southeast Asia's largest economy.
(Additional reporting by Tito Belo in Dili; Editing by Neil Chatterjee and Paul Tait)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/east-timor-clinton-seeks-boost-asias-newest-country-002918884.html
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US hiring outlook improves as jobless claims drop
In this Aug. 22, 2012 file photo, Scott Marshall, top, of Calhoun, Ga., files for unemployment, in Dalton, Ga. Fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, and a private survey showed businesses stepped up hiring in August. The data sketched a brighter outlook for the job market one day before the government reports on August employment. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)
In this Aug. 22, 2012 file photo, Scott Marshall, top, of Calhoun, Ga., files for unemployment, in Dalton, Ga. Fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, and a private survey showed businesses stepped up hiring in August. The data sketched a brighter outlook for the job market one day before the government reports on August employment. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, and a private survey showed businesses stepped up hiring in August. The data sketched a brighter outlook for the job market one day before the government reports on August employment.
Weekly applications for unemployment benefits fell by 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 365,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, ticked up to 371,250.
Unemployment benefit applications are a measure of the pace of layoffs. When they consistently fall below 375,000, it suggests that hiring is strong enough to lower the unemployment rate.
Separately, payroll provider ADP said businesses added 201,000 jobs last month. That's the most reported by the survey since March. And ADP said July job growth was stronger than first thought: Employers created 173,000 jobs ? 10,000 more jobs than the group reported last month.
"The labor market is getting better and while the pace of improvement is nothing great, the direction is clear," Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors, said in an email to clients.
Despite the positive signals, most economists tempered their expectations for August payroll growth.
The ADP survey only covers hiring in the private sector and excludes government job growth. The Labor Department's report on Friday will offer a more complete picture. The two surveys reported roughly the same private-sector job creation in July. But they have diverged sharply in previous months.
And the drop in applications likely won't affect the August jobs report, set to be released Friday. The data for that report were compiled three weeks ago. But it could signal better hiring in September.
Economists forecast that employers added 135,000 jobs last month, while the unemployment rate is expected to stay unchanged at 8.3 percent.
Weekly unemployment applications "are still stubbornly high, which is consistent with our expectations for a modest employment report in August," said Bricklin Dwyer, an economist at BNP Paribas
In July, employers added 163,000 jobs. It was the best month of hiring since February and an improvement from the average of only 73,000 per month created in the April-June quarter.
Still, the economy grew at a tepid 1.7 percent annual rate in the April-June quarter, down from the 2 percent rate in the January-March quarter and 4.1 percent in the final three months of last year.
Growth at or below 2 percent is typically too weak to lower the unemployment rate. Most economists expect the unemployment rate will remain above 8 percent through the November election.
President Barack Obama will address the Democrat National Convention in Charlotte on Thursday. Polls show most Americans regard Republican nominee Mitt Romney as better able to handle the U.S. economy.
Romney and his Republican allies have pointed to high unemployment as evidence that Obama's policies are not helping the economy. The unemployment rate was 7.8 percent when Obama took office and has been above 8 percent for the past 42 months. Most economists say "normal" unemployment is 6 percent or less.
But Obama and his allies have focused on more than 4 million jobs that the economy has added in the past 2? years.
A weak employment report could push the Federal Reserve to announce some new action after its meeting next week to try to boost growth.
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Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Video: Kim Kardashian: My Focus Is Business
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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/48917752/
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PlusNews Examines Recently Approved Grants Under Global ...
By Kaiser GH Update
PlusNews examines the recently approved grants under the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria?s Transitional Funding Mechanism (TFM), stating, ?Last week, the Fund announced that 45 new grant applications, from countries such as Burundi, Malawi and Swaziland, have been approved under the TFM.? The news service notes, ?Almost 25 percent of this combined total will go towards [tuberculosis (TB)], which represents a significant increase from the average 16 percent of funds allocated for TB since the Global Fund was created in 2002, according to a StopTB Partnership statement released in response? to the fund?s announcement. PlusNews notes, ?Unlike regular grants, which can run for up to five years, those awarded under the TFM will be limited to two years, by which time the fund is expected to have launched its new funding model? (9/4).
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PlusNews Examines Recently Approved Grants Under Global Fund?s Transitional?
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First lady's focus is drawing contrast with Romney
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) ? Michelle Obama rarely mentions Mitt Romney by name. But everything she says during this presidential campaign is meant to draw a contrast between her husband and his Republican challenger.
She implies that Romney, who had a privileged upbringing, can't relate when she tells middle-class voters that President Barack Obama understands their economic struggles because he has struggled too. And she suggests Romney would have other priorities when she says her husband's empathy will result in a second-term agenda focused squarely on middle-class economic security.
The first lady will make her case to millions of Americans on Tuesday when she headlines the first night of the Democratic Party's national convention, where two days later her husband will accept the party's presidential nomination for a second time. Her high-profile appearance underscores her key role in his re-election bid: chief defender of his character and leader in efforts to validate the direction he is taking the country.
"I am going to remind people about the values that drive my husband to do what he has done and what he is going to do for the next four years," Mrs. Obama said of her speech during an interview with SiriusXM radio host Joe Madison.
Once the reluctant political spouse, Mrs. Obama has embraced that mission to sell her husband anew throughout the summer while raising money for the campaign and speaking at rallies in battleground states.
These days, Mrs. Obama's speeches are peppered with references to the president's upbringing in Hawaii, where he was raised by a single mother and his grandparents. She talks about the student loans he took out to pay for college and the years it took to pay them back.
When Romney accused Obama of running a "campaign of hate," the first lady delivered Obama's strongest counterpoint ? without mentioning the Republican candidate.
"We all know who my husband is, don't we? And we all know what he stands for," she said, standing alongside the president at a campaign rally in Iowa.
Key to Mrs. Obama's campaign strategy is maintaining her own personal appeal.
Anita McBride, who served as first lady Laura Bush's chief of staff, said that means staying away from the vitriol that has permeated the White House campaign.
"There are plenty of attack dogs in this campaign," McBride said. "She doesn't need to be one of them."
In many ways, the first lady's challenge Tuesday night will be more difficult than it was when she spoke at the 2008 Democratic convention. Back then, her mission was to vouch for her husband's personal qualities. This time around, she also has to persuade voters to stick with him amid high unemployment and sluggish economic growth.
Many Americans didn't know Mrs. Obama and some viewed her suspiciously before the 2008 convention. Republicans had questioned her patriotism throughout the campaign because she told voters during the primary that "for the first time in my adult lifetime, I'm really proud of my country."
Her convention speech sought to put those issues to rest. She declared "I love this country" and used personal stories about her marriage to assure voters they had nothing to fear about her and her husband's values.
Since moving into the White House, Mrs. Obama has focused on tackling childhood obesity and assisting military families. She's largely steered clear of her husband's political battles, at least in public.
But behind the scenes, she's a sounding board for her husband on pressing policy matters. She also has increasingly promoted his health care overhaul after it was upheld by the Supreme Court.
Aides say she will sprinkle her remarks Tuesday with a defense of the president's policies, including the health care law and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which was the first legislation Obama signed into law. The act makes it easier for women to sue for equal pay if they earn less than their male counterparts. Obama has made the law a key part of his election-year appeal to women, who could give him an edge over Romney in a tight race.
The first lady arrived in Charlotte on Monday and informally rehearsed at the Time Warner Cable Arena. She also taped interviews for entertainment programs that will air before her speech.
Mrs. Obama is staying in Charlotte during the three-day convention and will focus on shoring up support for her husband among key constituencies. She plans to speak to the party's African-American, Hispanic and women's caucuses and address a gay and lesbian luncheon. Along with the vice president's wife, Jill Biden, the first lady will also participate in an armed services event Thursday and put together care packages for U.S. troops serving overseas.
Mrs. Obama will join a crowd of up to 74,000 people at an outdoor football stadium on Thursday night when the president formally accepts the Democratic nomination. The first lady is not expected to have a speaking role that night, but she, and possibly her young daughters, will join the president on stage, leaving voters with fresh images of the photogenic family.
___
Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/first-ladys-focus-drawing-contrast-romney-064929780--election.html
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