May 20th, 2012
ALTOONA, Pa. (AP) Bill O’Brien has quickly put to rest any notion that he plans to stick around as long as the last Penn State football coach.
Don’t expect his tenure in Happy Valley to last 46 years.
”I can tell you that 46 years from now, I’ll be 88 years old. I promise you that … I’ll start taking golf lessons when I’m about 70,” a straight-faced O’Brien said Monday morning. ”Hopefully I can last until I’m 70 on this job.”
With that question out of the way, the Nittany Lions’ new leader can go on introducing himself to the team’s massive fan base before he ever coaches a game.
O’Brien’s comments before about 200 alumni in Altoona started Week 3 of the Penn State coaches caravan. Traveling on a bus retrofitted with the school’s blue and white color scheme, the rookie head coach has embarked on an ambitious effort to connect with alumni from Connecticut to Virginia, New York to Ohio.
It’s a public relations campaign and media blitz mixed in with a pinch of staff bonding. Other Penn State coaches have boarded the bus, too, including men’s basketball coach Patrick Chambers and women’s basketball coach Coquese Washington. Hockey coach Guy Gadowsky and men’s volleyball coach Mark Pavlik joined O’Brien in Altoona.
But only O’Brien has been at every event, and he’s going straight through until the 18th and final stop Wednesday night in Buffalo, N.Y. After each event, fans still anguished in part over the end of the Joe Paterno era appear to be coalescing behind O’Brien.
”I think considering everything that’s happened over the last year that this is an occasion for Penn State to get together and look ahead,” Nicholas Roslevege, a 1988 graduate, said last week before O’Brien spoke in Hazleton. ”People are wishing him the best of luck up there. … I think that’s what people are feeling overall right now.”
The Associated Press was allowed to accompany O’Brien on one leg of his caravan last week for stops in Hazleton and Bethlehem and has also covered stops in New York. This story looks at the different roles played by O’Brien at a critical juncture in the school’s storied football history.
—
THE COACH NEXT DOOR: The black SUV pulled into the parking lot with 10 minutes to spare before the bus was scheduled to depart to Hazleton. Out stepped O’Brien from the driver’s seat with a white towel draped over his right shoulder, sporting a look that called to mind another well-known coach.
He wasn’t paying homage to retired Georgetown coach John Thompson. It’s just a habit that O’Brien said he picked up while coaching on the sideline at his previous stop as offensive coordinator for the New England Patriots. This day, O’Brien was coming from a workout at the gym.
Barely a few seconds into a chit-chat with the bus driver, and O’Brien started poking fun at himself, about how his back hurts after a new workout regime.
Other times, he’ll jokingly lament about his receding hairline, or the time he brought a cheesesteak to a brown-bag lunch with fellow Penn State coaches who were eating salads.
”He’s just a funny guy,” Washington said. ”I always find myself laughing when he says something. Maybe it’s the way that he says things that makes it really funny.”
The sense of humor goes back to his childhood growing up in the suburbs of Boston, the youngest of three boys in an Irish Catholic family
”A lot of (the laughs) were at my expense. So it was a little bit of chop-busting. It’s definitely a Boston sense of humor,” O’Brien said in an interview with the AP. ”These guys are getting used to it, but they all know it’s in good fun.”
O’Brien was hired in early January, but he didn’t take over full time until after the Patriots lost the Super Bowl to the New York Giants a month later. He has been a near-constant presence since then on campus and around town, from showing up at basketball games and handing out cupcakes at the student union to giving speeches at community events.
Now he’s taken that tireless energy on the road to sign autographs, take pictures and offer his vision for Penn State football. His friendly demeanor and self-deprecating sense of humor have helped him connect with fans.
Unless, of course, he’s encountering a fan wearing a New York Jets jersey with cornerback Darrelle Revis’ name, as happened while O’Brien left the stadium after the Blue-White spring game last month. The Jets and O’Brien’s former employers, the Patriots, are bitter AFC East rivals, so O’Brien gave a terse response when the fan asked for two autographs and a picture.
Recounting the story in Altoona, O’Brien jokingly snapped. ”I said, ‘No, no and no!”’
—
AMBASSADOR O’BRIEN: The prospect of replacing Paterno, Division I’s winningest coach with 409 victories, was tough enough even before the crisis that engulfed Penn State last November.
The child sexual abuse scandal involving retired defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky added a new layer of problems unseen before in college athletics. Sandusky, who is scheduled to stand trial next month, has denied the charges. Paterno was ousted as part of the fallout from the scandal. He died in January at 85, less than three months after being diagnosed with lung cancer.
Despite numerous efforts by university leadership, many alumni remain hurt by how Paterno was let go. It was evident especially in Bethlehem, where four or five questions or comments from fans in an interactive session with O’Brien referenced Paterno or the scandal.
”Thank you for bringing healing to the Penn State family,” one fan said, drawing hearty applause.
O’Brien has turned into an ambassador for Penn State’s future while various investigations continue to sort out the past. Instead of shying away from potentially touchy subjects like Paterno’s legacy – tensions between university leadership and the Paterno family have been high since his ouster – O’Brien embraces the issue head-on.
He has stressed that football is a part – albeit a big part – of the athletic program and the university as a whole, echoing comments made by school leaders. Some critics, especially outside Penn State, have questioned whether football had too much influence at the university in light of the scandal.
At the same time, O’Brien has also been the most vocal voice at Penn State about honoring Paterno, who was held in high regard in the community for his philanthropic and off-field efforts along with his football resume.
”Whenever I meet lettermen, and the effect he had on their lives, I can only hope to fulfill just a small part of that in my career,” O’Brien said Monday. ”We have a tremendous amount of respect for what coach Paterno did here. … I can tell you that we will keep his honor, what he stood for and everything he built here. In many, many ways, we’ll keep it going because we have so much respect for what he did here.”
Most in the crowd of 200 at the Penn State-Altoona gym immediately applauded.
—
THE NEW PENN STATE CEO: Any lingering doubts in Bethlehem about who was in charge were likely erased after O’Brien’s talk before a crowd of about 400.
With the lights dimmed except for spotlights on the stage, O’Brien spoke passionately on various issues before emerging from behind the podium to offer his vision for the program’s future – complete with a PowerPoint presentation. It had the look and feel at times of a motivational speech for a corporate retreat.
”It’s very, very important that you leave tonight with that vision. Whether you agree with everything or not, that’s not up to me, that is up to you,” O’Brien said. ”What’s up to me is to tell you the vision that we have and the direction that we’re going.
One slide identified the four cornerstones of O’Brien’s program: academics, football, respect and integrity.
”What is important to me is that the foundation of this program stays,” O’Brien said. ”What built this program, what people believed in this program will never change, and it’s built on four cornerstones.”
Acting athletic director David Joyner said O’Brien’s preparation and organizational skills were evident from early on in the interview process. A few weeks after being hired, O’Brien handed Joyner a white, spiral-bound booklet about a half-inch thick that contained his policies and procedures for the program.
”I think he’s been working on his plan for being a head coach for a long, long time,” Joyner said at his campus office.
An assistant coaching veteran, O’Brien cites stints at Georgia Tech under George O’Leary and with the Patriots under Bill Belichick as influences for fulfilling a lifelong pursuit to become a head coach.
The questions about football itself? O’Brien doesn’t mind answering them one bit, even if it’s about the ongoing saga over the starting quarterback race.
But for some fans like Susan Docker, a 2004 graduate and paralegal from Easton, what happens on the field is the least of their concerns.
”I wouldn’t care so much about how the football team does. I just hope that he can restore some semblance of normalcy and moving on in the wake of this situation,” she said. ”Never to forget what happened, but to move forward.”
Posted in Information | No Comments »
May 20th, 2012
KATMANDU, Nepal — A 73-year-old Japanese woman climbed to Mount Everest’s peak Saturday, smashing her own record to again become the oldest woman to scale the world’s highest mountain.
Tamae Watanabe reached Everest’s 8,850-meter-high (29,035-foot-high) summit from the northern side of the mountain in Tibet on Saturday morning with four other team members, said Ang Tshering of the China Tibet Mountaineering Association in Nepal.
Watanabe had climbed Everest in 2002 at the age of 63 to become the oldest woman to scale the mountain. She had retained the title until she topped herself a decade later.
Tshering said Watanabe and the other team members are in good condition and are on their way back to the base of the mountain.
Watanabe and her team left the last high altitude camp located at 8,300 meters (27,225 feet) Friday night and climbed all night before reaching the summit Saturday morning.
Weather conditions have improved on the mountains this week.
Teams have begun reaching the summit even from the Nepalese side in the southern of the mountain, according to Nepal’s mountaineering department.
The first teams from the Nepalese side reached the summit on Friday, and many more reached the summit on Saturday morning.
Weather conditions on the mountain have been challenging this year, prompting several expeditions to cancel their plans to try to reach the summit.
May is considered the best month to climb Everest, when climbers get about two windows of good weather for their bid for the summit.
The oldest person to climb Everest is a Nepalese man, Min Bahadur Sherchan, who climbed Everest in 2008 at the age of 76.
World Records:
Posted in Information | No Comments »
May 17th, 2012
ALTOONA, Pa. (AP) Bill O’Brien has quickly put to rest any notion that he plans to stick around as long as the last Penn State football coach.
Don’t expect his tenure in Happy Valley to last 46 years.
”I can tell you that 46 years from now, I’ll be 88 years old. I promise you that … I’ll start taking golf lessons when I’m about 70,” a straight-faced O’Brien said Monday morning. ”Hopefully I can last until I’m 70 on this job.”
With that question out of the way, the Nittany Lions’ new leader can go on introducing himself to the team’s massive fan base before he ever coaches a game.
O’Brien’s comments before about 200 alumni in Altoona started Week 3 of the Penn State coaches caravan. Traveling on a bus retrofitted with the school’s blue and white color scheme, the rookie head coach has embarked on an ambitious effort to connect with alumni from Connecticut to Virginia, New York to Ohio.
It’s a public relations campaign and media blitz mixed in with a pinch of staff bonding. Other Penn State coaches have boarded the bus, too, including men’s basketball coach Patrick Chambers and women’s basketball coach Coquese Washington. Hockey coach Guy Gadowsky and men’s volleyball coach Mark Pavlik joined O’Brien in Altoona.
But only O’Brien has been at every event, and he’s going straight through until the 18th and final stop Wednesday night in Buffalo, N.Y. After each event, fans still anguished in part over the end of the Joe Paterno era appear to be coalescing behind O’Brien.
”I think considering everything that’s happened over the last year that this is an occasion for Penn State to get together and look ahead,” Nicholas Roslevege, a 1988 graduate, said last week before O’Brien spoke in Hazleton. ”People are wishing him the best of luck up there. … I think that’s what people are feeling overall right now.”
The Associated Press was allowed to accompany O’Brien on one leg of his caravan last week for stops in Hazleton and Bethlehem and has also covered stops in New York. This story looks at the different roles played by O’Brien at a critical juncture in the school’s storied football history.
—
THE COACH NEXT DOOR: The black SUV pulled into the parking lot with 10 minutes to spare before the bus was scheduled to depart to Hazleton. Out stepped O’Brien from the driver’s seat with a white towel draped over his right shoulder, sporting a look that called to mind another well-known coach.
He wasn’t paying homage to retired Georgetown coach John Thompson. It’s just a habit that O’Brien said he picked up while coaching on the sideline at his previous stop as offensive coordinator for the New England Patriots. This day, O’Brien was coming from a workout at the gym.
Barely a few seconds into a chit-chat with the bus driver, and O’Brien started poking fun at himself, about how his back hurts after a new workout regime.
Other times, he’ll jokingly lament about his receding hairline, or the time he brought a cheesesteak to a brown-bag lunch with fellow Penn State coaches who were eating salads.
”He’s just a funny guy,” Washington said. ”I always find myself laughing when he says something. Maybe it’s the way that he says things that makes it really funny.”
The sense of humor goes back to his childhood growing up in the suburbs of Boston, the youngest of three boys in an Irish Catholic family
”A lot of (the laughs) were at my expense. So it was a little bit of chop-busting. It’s definitely a Boston sense of humor,” O’Brien said in an interview with the AP. ”These guys are getting used to it, but they all know it’s in good fun.”
O’Brien was hired in early January, but he didn’t take over full time until after the Patriots lost the Super Bowl to the New York Giants a month later. He has been a near-constant presence since then on campus and around town, from showing up at basketball games and handing out cupcakes at the student union to giving speeches at community events.
Now he’s taken that tireless energy on the road to sign autographs, take pictures and offer his vision for Penn State football. His friendly demeanor and self-deprecating sense of humor have helped him connect with fans.
Unless, of course, he’s encountering a fan wearing a New York Jets jersey with cornerback Darrelle Revis’ name, as happened while O’Brien left the stadium after the Blue-White spring game last month. The Jets and O’Brien’s former employers, the Patriots, are bitter AFC East rivals, so O’Brien gave a terse response when the fan asked for two autographs and a picture.
Recounting the story in Altoona, O’Brien jokingly snapped. ”I said, ‘No, no and no!”’
—
AMBASSADOR O’BRIEN: The prospect of replacing Paterno, Division I’s winningest coach with 409 victories, was tough enough even before the crisis that engulfed Penn State last November.
The child sexual abuse scandal involving retired defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky added a new layer of problems unseen before in college athletics. Sandusky, who is scheduled to stand trial next month, has denied the charges. Paterno was ousted as part of the fallout from the scandal. He died in January at 85, less than three months after being diagnosed with lung cancer.
Despite numerous efforts by university leadership, many alumni remain hurt by how Paterno was let go. It was evident especially in Bethlehem, where four or five questions or comments from fans in an interactive session with O’Brien referenced Paterno or the scandal.
”Thank you for bringing healing to the Penn State family,” one fan said, drawing hearty applause.
O’Brien has turned into an ambassador for Penn State’s future while various investigations continue to sort out the past. Instead of shying away from potentially touchy subjects like Paterno’s legacy – tensions between university leadership and the Paterno family have been high since his ouster – O’Brien embraces the issue head-on.
He has stressed that football is a part – albeit a big part – of the athletic program and the university as a whole, echoing comments made by school leaders. Some critics, especially outside Penn State, have questioned whether football had too much influence at the university in light of the scandal.
At the same time, O’Brien has also been the most vocal voice at Penn State about honoring Paterno, who was held in high regard in the community for his philanthropic and off-field efforts along with his football resume.
”Whenever I meet lettermen, and the effect he had on their lives, I can only hope to fulfill just a small part of that in my career,” O’Brien said Monday. ”We have a tremendous amount of respect for what coach Paterno did here. … I can tell you that we will keep his honor, what he stood for and everything he built here. In many, many ways, we’ll keep it going because we have so much respect for what he did here.”
Most in the crowd of 200 at the Penn State-Altoona gym immediately applauded.
—
THE NEW PENN STATE CEO: Any lingering doubts in Bethlehem about who was in charge were likely erased after O’Brien’s talk before a crowd of about 400.
With the lights dimmed except for spotlights on the stage, O’Brien spoke passionately on various issues before emerging from behind the podium to offer his vision for the program’s future – complete with a PowerPoint presentation. It had the look and feel at times of a motivational speech for a corporate retreat.
”It’s very, very important that you leave tonight with that vision. Whether you agree with everything or not, that’s not up to me, that is up to you,” O’Brien said. ”What’s up to me is to tell you the vision that we have and the direction that we’re going.
One slide identified the four cornerstones of O’Brien’s program: academics, football, respect and integrity.
”What is important to me is that the foundation of this program stays,” O’Brien said. ”What built this program, what people believed in this program will never change, and it’s built on four cornerstones.”
Acting athletic director David Joyner said O’Brien’s preparation and organizational skills were evident from early on in the interview process. A few weeks after being hired, O’Brien handed Joyner a white, spiral-bound booklet about a half-inch thick that contained his policies and procedures for the program.
”I think he’s been working on his plan for being a head coach for a long, long time,” Joyner said at his campus office.
An assistant coaching veteran, O’Brien cites stints at Georgia Tech under George O’Leary and with the Patriots under Bill Belichick as influences for fulfilling a lifelong pursuit to become a head coach.
The questions about football itself? O’Brien doesn’t mind answering them one bit, even if it’s about the ongoing saga over the starting quarterback race.
But for some fans like Susan Docker, a 2004 graduate and paralegal from Easton, what happens on the field is the least of their concerns.
”I wouldn’t care so much about how the football team does. I just hope that he can restore some semblance of normalcy and moving on in the wake of this situation,” she said. ”Never to forget what happened, but to move forward.”
Posted in Information | No Comments »
May 17th, 2012
In a setback for his defense against federal payroll fraud charges, former Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard has lost his demand to see employment records from the U.S. attorney’s office. U.S. District Judge Hayden Head denied the request Tuesday because defense attorney Robert Jenkins had demanded the employment policies and personnel records under the Freedom of Information Act. That law may not be used to seek evidence in a criminal case, Head wrote.
Though Jenkins has not returned messages seeking comment, the phrasing of his request made it appear he planned to show that the procedures used by federal prosecutors for employees were similar to the ones that landed Broussard in trouble.
Broussard and former Parish Attorney Tom Wilkinson face 38 federal charges each connected to the hiring of Broussard’s love interest, Karen Parker. In October 2003, Wilkinson hired Parker as a paralegal supervisor after Broussard was elected parish president but before he took office. Wilkinson then erased the three-month gap in Parker’s parish employment, from when she was working for Broussard’s campaign. The move let Parker continue receiving longevity benefits, and Broussard allegedly rewarded Wilkinson with major pay raises.
Broussard and Parker, dating since 2001, married in May 2004 and divorced in October 2009.
Parker and Broussard’s former top aide, Tim Whitmer, have pleaded guilty to their roles in the case and are cooperating with prosecutors. Broussard and Wilkinson are scheduled to face trial in October.
Tuesday’s developments weren’t all defeats for Broussard.
The judge allowed him to add attorney Charles Cusimano III to his defense team. Head initially denied Cusimano’s hiring in April because Jenkins, Broussard’s lead attorney, hadn’t signed off on it. Cusimano’s father is a justice of the peace and a former state district judge.
Head also gave U.S. Attorney Jim Letten until May 25 to respond to Broussard’s request that local prosecutors step away from his case. Letten recused his office from the investigation of the River Birch landfill, a separate case in which both Broussard and Wilkinson were interviewed. The U.S. Justice Department took over that case after the outing of one of Letten’s senior prosecutors, Sal Perricone, as an anonymous commenter on the River Birch case and other federal matters under the moniker “Henry L. Mencken1951″ on the NOLA.com website.
Jenkins has argued that the case against Broussard and the investigation of River Birch are too intertwined for Letten’s office to be allowed to prosecute his client.
Posted in Information | No Comments »
May 14th, 2012
The Greater Memphis Paralegal Alliance will hold a continuing legal education meeting Wednesday, May 16, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the University Club of Memphis, 1346 Central Ave. Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich will present “Pursuing the Guilty and Protecting the Innocent.” Cost is $20 for members and $25 for nonmembers. R.S.V.P. to gmpa.reservations@gmail.com by Monday, May 14, at noon.
The Memphis Union Mission Heritage Classic golf tournament will be held Monday, May 14, at 1 p.m. at Windyke Country Club, 8535 Winchester Road. Lunch and registration begin at 11:30 a.m. All proceeds benefit MUM. Cost is $150 per individual or $600 for a team of four. Register at memphisunionmission.org.
The Young Life Golf Tournament will be held Monday, May 14, at 1 p.m. at Mirimichi, 6195 Woodstock Cuba Road. Lunch and registration begin at 11:30 a.m. Proceeds benefit Memphis Urban Young Life. Cost is $250 per individual or $1,000 for a team of four. Call 726-0054 to register.
The Memphis chapter of the International Association of Administrative Professionals will meet Monday, May 14, at 6 p.m. at the Hilton Memphis, 939 Ridge Lake Blvd. Chapter president Charlotte Doyle will speak. Cost is $22. Contact Sharon Gardner at sharon.gardner@asentinel.com or 752-6213 for reservations.
The Methodist South Stroke Group will meet Monday, May 14, at 6:30 p.m. at the Methodist South Hospital Outpatient Rehabilitation office, 1251 Wesley Drive, suite 1251. Visit methodistsouth.org or call Patricia Morgan at 516-3726 to register.
The Better Business Bureau breakfast series will continue with a seminar on fraud risks facing small businesses Tuesday, May 15, from 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. at the BBB, 3693 Tyndale Drive. Cost is free for BBB members and $10 for nonmembers. R.S.V.P. to Cheryl Stewart at cstewart@bbbmidsouth.org or 757-8603.
The Memphis Rotary Club will meet Tuesday, May 15, at noon at the University Club of Memphis, 1346 Central Ave. Shelby County Trustee David Lenoir will speak on the county’s financial health. Cost is $18 per person. Email Taylor Hughes at taylor@memphisrotary.org for reservations.
Posted in Information | No Comments »
May 14th, 2012
Alleged fan counts can refer to paid attendance, even if a much smaller number of fans shows up. Some counts include free tickets given out, and possibly used. Or not. Usually it is anybody’s guess what was really counted.
Yet however unreliable, alleged attendance numbers are routinely announced, often right at the games. So when some local critics of the Baltimore Oriole’s Spring Training deal with local government asked Sarasota County for attendance numbers for Orioles’ games at Ed Smith Stadium, I was surprised at the response from Sarasota County government spokeswoman Crystal Pruitt.
Under the contract with the team, Pruitt said, the Orioles are “under no obligation to provide Sarasota County the data.”
That seemed an odd response. As an Orioles’ spokesman told me, the Orioles had already announced the numbers. They said 106,398 people had attended its spring games this year, averaging about 7,093 per game.
Of course, Pruitt has no idea if those are real numbers. Neither do I. Maybe that is what she meant.
But a flurry of email resulted, including a note from County Commissioner Jon Thaxton. He suggested that the county should be interested in getting good stadium use figures, too. No matter anyone’s opinions of the Orioles’ relationship with the county, he wrote, “these figure are important bench marks and potentially good investment indicators.”
Right. After all, the expensive tax-paid stadium renovation that got the Orioles to come to Sarasota was always justified with an argument that the team and a snazzy new Ed Smith would be a tourist magnet and provide a major boost to the economy. And though calculating economic impact is a slippery matter, even taking a stab at it requires reliable attendance numbers.
So Michael Barfield, a local paralegal helping “Sarasota Citizens for Responsible Government” in the quest to get better numbers, said he had what he first thought was a good plan, based on the contract with the Orioles.
It says that since the county will have to pay for future stadium repairs and such, the Orioles are empowered to collect a surcharge from fans, from between $1 dollar to $2.50 per ticket. The deal says the Orioles have to pay the county at least $125,000 a year, even if the surcharge fees collected come up short.
But if more is collected, the county gets the surplus. Got it?
So, Barfield figured, the county is now entitled to audit ticket sales to confirm the Orioles are paying the county correctly.
And wasn’t that a savvy move by the county getting that into the contract, to assure that strong attendance means extra money in the the repair fund? And won’t we all soon be able to get those real figures via a public records request to the county?
No. None of the above.
Why? Because the Orioles’ surcharge collection, so far, has been a grand total of zero dollars, with future estimates projected to be exactly the same.
How can that be?
Well, because the Orioles are doing the savvy thing to make sure the taxpayers don’t get a dime more than the $125,000 minimum. The contract, after all, never told the team it has to collect a surcharge. So they don’t. They charge whatever they think the market will bear and don’t designate even a penny of that ticket price for the county.
And so, the fund gets only the $125,000 minimum the Orioles must pay, no matter how many tickets are sold.
This also leaves the county with no financial basis to demand reliable paid attendance numbers. There is nothing for the county to audit.
And, it means citizens making a public records request for certified attendance records find there are none to be had.
It’s a triple play!
As Barfield said, “Once again, everything is in the Orioles’ favor.”
Tom Lyons can be contacted at tom.lyons@heraldtribune.com or (941) 361-4964.
Posted in Information | No Comments »
May 11th, 2012
We hope she’s moving to China.
This month, a huge batch of 20-somethings will be loosed upon the country with shiny new degrees in hand. We’ve crowd-sourced advice for the graduates of 2012 from our host of writers based on their areas of expertise. Here are 25 pearls of wisdom from Forbes. Spend them wisely.
Via Monte Burke, who covers the world of sports and is, of course, a player on the Forbes “Capitalist Tools” softball team:
1. Remember your sporting endeavors in college, be it intramural or Division one? Keep playing. Join the company softball team. Play soccer in the park. Sometimes, there’s no better way to network and make new friends.
2. Volunteer as a youth coach. Most youth leagues—be it soccer or baseball—need more coaches. Admit it, you always wanted to be Tony La Russa.
3. Schedule at least one get-together a year with your best college buddies. Every year, I get together with 12 of my former classmates for an event we rather grandly call “the Olympics.” We pick teams, wear uniforms and play seven different events (mini golf, tennis, punt-pass-kick, bowling, soccer, bocce, touch football). We have a trophy that is half the size of the Stanley Cup, with each year’s winners engraved on the side. It is one of the most anticipated weekends of each year, a sort of mini-college reunion.
Via Markets writer Abram Brown:
4. Encourage well-wishers to buy you Facebook stock.
Via our editor for Asia John Koppisch:
5. Look for your first job in Asia. Economies are booming and companies are often desperate for educated and skilled job seekers. English-speaking cities such as Hong Kong and Singapore, especially, have almost no unemployment and quickly absorb anyone qualified who lands on their shores. Often you can get hired by a Western company, quickly get promoted because of the fast growth, and then after a few years move back to the States with that company.
Daniel Fisher, our expert on the world of law, says:
6. Pick where you want to work and take any job you can get there. Smart people will rise in any organization.
Via our expert on Anonymous, Parmy Olson:
7. Be annoyingly proactive to land your first job. Don’t just send a CV, but follow up with a phone call, and give the person that answers examples of how you will actually help their organization. This requires doing some extra work but is worth it in the end.
8. Never, ever burn bridges. You may despise certain folks at college or on an internship, but thanks to karma and coincidence those connections will come in handy further along your career.
9. Don’t worry about not knowing what you want to do. This is very normal and means you are human. You may not know for sure till you are 30 or even 40, but ensure that indecisiveness doesn’t stop you from trying different jobs. Your career is a journey, so enjoy the experience of learning new things and meeting new people.
Tech writer Connie Guglielmo offers advice on maximizing your LinkedIn profile:
10. Customize your URL on LinkedIn. LinkedIn will automatically assign you a URL, which is random and has nothing to do with your name necessarily. Click on “Edit profile,” then, “Public profile.” In the right-hand column, select “Your URL” and type in a URL that reflects who you are.
11. LinkedIn Keywords: Keywords are how recruiters do job searches. Understand what keywords you should be using to describe yourself.
12. Don’t exaggerate your credentials on your resume or on LinkedIn. Ask Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson about the downsides of that.
Recent grad Miguel Morales on landing your dream job:
13. Go out for drinks with friends, even when you don’t want to. Your dream job isn’t going to fly through your bedroom window. Chances are it’s coming from one of your friends.
Via Ashlea Ebeling and Deborah Jacobs who cover the complex world of tax and personal finance:
14. Once you have earnings, start saving for retirement through an employer-based 401(k) account and/or an individual retirement account (a Roth IRA or a traditional IRA). For 2012, you can sock away up to $17,000 into a 401(k) and up to $5,000 into an IRA.
15. If you can, make your 401(k) contributions Roth IRA-style rather than traditional. When you withdraw the money in retirement (many, many years from now) you will not have to pay income tax on it. So you get many years of tax-free appreciation.
16. Don’t go to law school unless you really think you will love being a lawyer. If you’re not sure, work as a paralegal for a couple of years to get a better idea of what lawyers really do.
Posted in Information | No Comments »
May 11th, 2012
We hope she’s moving to China.
This month, a huge batch of 20-somethings will be loosed upon the country with shiny new degrees in hand. We’ve crowd-sourced advice for the graduates of 2012 from our host of writers based on their areas of expertise. Here are 25 pearls of wisdom from Forbes. Spend them wisely.
Via Monte Burke, who covers the world of sports and is, of course, a player on the Forbes “Capitalist Tools” softball team:
1. Remember your sporting endeavors in college, be it intramural or Division one? Keep playing. Join the company softball team. Play soccer in the park. Sometimes, there’s no better way to network and make new friends.
2. Volunteer as a youth coach. Most youth leagues—be it soccer or baseball—need more coaches. Admit it, you always wanted to be Tony La Russa.
3. Schedule at least one get-together a year with your best college buddies. Every year, I get together with 12 of my former classmates for an event we rather grandly call “the Olympics.” We pick teams, wear uniforms and play seven different events (mini golf, tennis, punt-pass-kick, bowling, soccer, bocce, touch football). We have a trophy that is half the size of the Stanley Cup, with each year’s winners engraved on the side. It is one of the most anticipated weekends of each year, a sort of mini-college reunion.
Via Markets writer Abram Brown:
4. Encourage well-wishers to buy you Facebook stock.
Via our editor for Asia John Koppisch:
5. Look for your first job in Asia. Economies are booming and companies are often desperate for educated and skilled job seekers. English-speaking cities such as Hong Kong and Singapore, especially, have almost no unemployment and quickly absorb anyone qualified who lands on their shores. Often you can get hired by a Western company, quickly get promoted because of the fast growth, and then after a few years move back to the States with that company.
Daniel Fisher, our expert on the world of law, says:
6. Pick where you want to work and take any job you can get there. Smart people will rise in any organization.
Via our expert on Anonymous, Parmy Olson:
7. Be annoyingly proactive to land your first job. Don’t just send a CV, but follow up with a phone call, and give the person that answers examples of how you will actually help their organization. This requires doing some extra work but is worth it in the end.
8. Never, ever burn bridges. You may despise certain folks at college or on an internship, but thanks to karma and coincidence those connections will come in handy further along your career.
9. Don’t worry about not knowing what you want to do. This is very normal and means you are human. You may not know for sure till you are 30 or even 40, but ensure that indecisiveness doesn’t stop you from trying different jobs. Your career is a journey, so enjoy the experience of learning new things and meeting new people.
Tech writer Connie Guglielmo offers advice on maximizing your LinkedIn profile:
10. Customize your URL on LinkedIn. LinkedIn will automatically assign you a URL, which is random and has nothing to do with your name necessarily. Click on “Edit profile,” then, “Public profile.” In the right-hand column, select “Your URL” and type in a URL that reflects who you are.
11. LinkedIn Keywords: Keywords are how recruiters do job searches. Understand what keywords you should be using to describe yourself.
12. Don’t exaggerate your credentials on your resume or on LinkedIn. Ask Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson about the downsides of that.
Recent grad Miguel Morales on landing your dream job:
13. Go out for drinks with friends, even when you don’t want to. Your dream job isn’t going to fly through your bedroom window. Chances are it’s coming from one of your friends.
Via Ashlea Ebeling and Deborah Jacobs who cover the complex world of tax and personal finance:
14. Once you have earnings, start saving for retirement through an employer-based 401(k) account and/or an individual retirement account (a Roth IRA or a traditional IRA). For 2012, you can sock away up to $17,000 into a 401(k) and up to $5,000 into an IRA.
15. If you can, make your 401(k) contributions Roth IRA-style rather than traditional. When you withdraw the money in retirement (many, many years from now) you will not have to pay income tax on it. So you get many years of tax-free appreciation.
16. Don’t go to law school unless you really think you will love being a lawyer. If you’re not sure, work as a paralegal for a couple of years to get a better idea of what lawyers really do.
Posted in Information | No Comments »
May 8th, 2012
by Kathy Para, The JBA Pro Bono Committee chairwoman
Jacksonville seniors are more prepared for their futures thanks to a team of volunteers who helped them create advance directive documents at Riverside Presbyterian House on April 21.
Attorney-paralegal and attorney-student teams assisted a group of seniors with preparation of end-of-life documents, including designations of health care surrogates, durable powers of attorney, designations of pre-need guardians and living wills.
The Advance Directives Pro Bono Project for Senior Citizens is a two-day event. Pro bono attorney Pat Vail visited the residents at the Department of Housing and Urban Development facility April 17 to explain the purpose and importance of various advance directives. After the presentation, seniors were given the opportunity to register for appointments to create these documents free of charge on the second day of the event, April 21.
Before attending the second day, residents individually completed questionnaires listing the names and contact information of the designees for their advance directives documents. This preparation allowed the volunteer team to get straight to work upon their arrival.
The team of volunteers included six attorneys, six paralegals, two Jacksonville Area Legal Aid staff members, and, of course, the Riverside Presbyterian House Service Coordinator, Kathy Rhoden. The Jacksonville Bar Association, JALA and the Northeast Florida Paralegal Association collaborated to make the event possible.
Pro bono attorneys on the scene included Bruce Duggar, Camelia Ruffin, Debbie Lee-Clark, Catherine Michaud, Jamica Littles and Vail.
Paralegals Gloria Alford, Michelle Ramirez, Ruth Lucas, Donna Hoffman, Valentina Chapman and Regina Colbert all served as scribes, witnesses, notaries and interviewers.
There is wonderful spirit about this event. The seniors are served by patient, friendly professionals and were very grateful for their time and effort, said Rhoden.
The Advance Directives for Senior Citizens Pro Bono Project enables the legal community to reach out to senior citizens interested in planning ahead for health failure and end-of-life decisions. Many of these local residents would not have the opportunity to meet with attorneys to create these vital legal documents outside of this volunteer event.
These pro bono volunteers serve as examples of passion and commitment to providing legal services to an underserved community in Jacksonville. Numerous opportunities exist outside of the Advance Directives Pro Bono Project for Senior Citizens for attorneys to serve low-income and other vulnerable persons.
For information pro bono projects in throughout the Fourth Judicial Circuit, contact Kathy Para at kathy.para@jaxlegalaid.org, chairperson, The Jacksonville Bar Association Pro Bono Committee.
Posted in Information | No Comments »
May 8th, 2012
|
<!——-
Comment
——–>
Comment: AILA Elections – Online voting for the 2012 Elections for the AILA Board of Governors and Executive Committee will start this Friday, on May 4th. Thirteen candidates are running for several open Director positions, and two candidates are running for Secretary. Immigration Daily issued invitations to all fifteen candidates to submit their campaign statements, six have done so far, and these appear below. If other candidates submit their campaign statements, we will be pleased to carry them. ILW.COM never has, does not, and never will, receive any money from the candidates to carry campaign statements – it is a free service to members of the bar to understand issues of importance to the bar and choose among different views represented by the candidates. The main page for the 2012 Elections (for AILA members only) is here. The candidate statements are here: Sarah Peterson Stensrud, Sarah Z. Brown, Nita J Itchhaporia, Stephen W. Manning, Jeff Joseph, Jeffrey Devore.
Article: The BIA Issues A Decision That Is One Giant Leap Backwards In Refugee And Asylum Law by Jonathan D. Montag
Article: The Dangers Of The “Self” I-9 Audit by Ann Cun
Bloggings: Beautiful People Seeking Asylum by Jason Dzubow
News: Executive Order Prohibits Transactions With Foreign Sanctions Evaders Of Iran And Syria
Focus: The EB-5 Workshop – Early Bird Registration
The EB-5 Workshop will be
held on Wednesday, June 13 in Nashville, TN. The curriculum is as follows:
Session 1: An Economist’s View – EB5 Projects from Inception to Completion
- The role of the economist
- Overview of regional economics and input-output modeling
- Working within USCIS parameters: NAICS codes, regional center boundaries, what a TEA should look like, which “jobs” count
- Current challenges
Session 2: Securities Law Issues
- EB-5 Projects as securities
- Purpose
- Investor Qualifications
- Reg. D. and Reg. S. Exemptions
- Disclosure Requirements
- Broker – Dealer
- Right of Rescission
Session 3: Perfecting the I-924 Petition
- Basic Information
- Avoiding Requests for Evidence (RFE’s)
- Responding to RFE’s
- Recent Developments
Session 4: The EB-5 Program from the point of view of an established regional center
- History and past rpojects
- Recent changes and looking into the crystal ball
- Immigration law issues consistently seen from a Regional Center perspective
Session 5: Perfecting the I-526 Petition
- Basic Information
- Avoiding Requests for Evidence (RFE’s)
- Responding to RFE’s
- Recent Developments
Session 6: Source of Funds
- Source documentation and tracing
- Tax and licensing complience
- Currency control restriction
- Curent trends and challenges
Session 7: Perfecting the I-829 Petition
- Basic Information
- Avoiding Requests for Evidence (RFE’s)
- Responding to RFE’s
- Recent Developments
Session 8: Removal Issues in EB-5
- The interplay of EB-5 and Removal
- Agencies involved in EB5 Removal issues
Session 9: Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility
- When to co-counsel and when to use experts
- Avoiding and managing conflicts of interest
- Advising (or not advising) clients about investments
- Finder’s fees
- Professional liability insurance considerations
For details on curriculum, speaker bios, and registration information,
please see: http://www.ilw.com/workshops/june2012eb5.shtm. For the fax form,
see here.
Don’t delay, act today! This offer is available only until May 11, 2012!
Headline: Why wave of Mexican immigration stopped http://ow.ly/aBs89
Headline: Immigration Attorneys File Civil Rights Complaint Against Border Patrol Agents Acting As Interpreters http://ow.ly/aFTKz
Headline: Video: Border patrol refers to immigrants with derogatory term http://ow.ly/aG4eN
Headline: Immigration Movement Weakeninghttp://ow.ly/aFTC4
Headline: Justice Department Submits Correction to Supreme Court on Immigration Case http://ow.ly/aG4m2
Headline: May Day protests push for immigration, labor and education reform http://ow.ly/aEntw
Headline: Feds considers changing deportation policy http://ow.ly/aG4yZ
Headline: Immigration issue won’t create a stir in Wyoming http://ow.ly/aEnjX
Headline: Beyond MayDay and marches, an evolving immigrant rights movement http://ow.ly/aG4K1
Headline: May 2 – A Dozen Years http://ow.ly/aEYOJ
Headline: Parenting Without Papers http://ow.ly/aG4VC
Headline: Immigration law opponents hold rally http://ow.ly/aEncQ
To submit an article or a news item to Immigration Daily, write to editor@ilw.com. Follow ILW.COM on Twitter.
Miami, FL – Miami Beach Immigration Law Firm is seeking Experienced Business Immigration Paralegal. The ideal candidate must have a bachelor’s degree and 3+ years of experience preparing and filing business and employment based cases (H, L, E, TN, EB2, EB3 and PERM). Must be dependable, detail oriented, organized and able to work independently, while managing some administrative work. Excellent oral and written communication skills in English and Spanish are required. Some experience with Excel and INSZoom immigration program desired.
Interested applicants please send resume and writing sample to churwitz@bklawgroup.com.
Multiple Locations – Proskauer Rose LLP is seeking immigration paralegals for the Newark, NJ and New York offices. Recognized by Chamber USA as one of New Jersey’s top labor and employment firms, the firm provides a full range of labor and employment services to businesses of all sizes in the New Jersey/New York Metropolitan area, throughout the United States. The ideal candidates will have 3+ years of experience in business immigration law, including H-1B, L-1A/B and blankets, TN, E-1/2, E-3, O-1 and PERM, with excellent English written and communication skills. Overtime is required and schedule flexibility is a big plus. This is a fast paced environment with excellent employee benefits and growth opportunity. Please send your resume to Angela Houghton at ahoughton@proskauer.com.
New York, NY – Prominent midtown Manhattan immigration law firm is seeking paralegal with 1+ years of experience in employment based immigration, with an emphasis on PERM filing. Applicant will work in a high volume team environment and have client contact. The ideal candidate should have good writing, communication and organizational skills. Please send resume to resumes@wildesweinberg.com.
New York, NY – Long-established, mid-sized New York immigration law practice is seeking a suitable practice for merger opportunity. All replies kept in confidence. Reply to lawfirm_merger@hotmail.com.
Classes offered both online and in-person. Master the complex and ever changing maze of immigration policies and regulations with the Immigration Law Studies Certificate Program offered by CUNY’s School of Professional Studies. This graduate-level certificate program, consisting of (3) three-credit classes, offers students who complete it a comprehensive understanding of the laws, regulations, and processes surrounding the status of immigrants in the US, including family and employment-based immigration and deportation defense. It is designed for individuals working in law firms, companies, government agencies and nonprofit organizations where they interact with immigrants and immigrant legal concerns on a regular basis and would therefore benefit from greater knowledge of the laws and regulations surrounding immigration. For more information on class schedules, tuition and fees, course applications and to register, see here
To place a classifieds ad in Immigration Daily, see here
Letters of the Week: Jim Nichols, Kenneth Rinzler, T V Krishnamurthy, R.Yang, Diallo Alassane, Susan Faulkner(2), Letty Gamez, John J. Branningan, Matthew U., Diane Schneider, ALi Campbell, Joseph Whalen, Lorine Cjmielewski, June Hill, Kenneth Rinzler, Don Crocetti, Rudolph DeLa Cruz, Stan Shafer, Gladys C Farris(2), EJ, Rita Lacroix
May 10-11, Columbus, OH – The Ohio State University is pleased to invite you to the ‘Immigration: Moving Forward’. The event includes two sessions: Session 1: Historical Policy Issues and Session 2: Contemporary Policy Issues. For more information, see https://immigration.osu.edu/upcoming-events/academic-core/spring-2012-conference
Readers can share professional announcements (up to 100-words at no charge), email: editor@ilw.com.
An Important disclaimer! The information provided on this page is not legal advice. Transmission of this information is not intended to create, and receipt by you does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship. Readers must not act upon any information without first seeking advice from a qualified attorney. Copyright 1995-2012 American Immigration LLC, ILW.COM. Send correspondence and articles to editor@ilw.com. Letters and articles may be edited and may be published and otherwise used in any medium. The views expressed in letters and articles do not necessarily represent the views of ILW.COM.
|
Posted in Information | No Comments »
|
|
