| New State Farm agent carrying on tradition
IRONWOOD -- The new agent heading the State Farm Insurance office in Ironwood isn't really new to the area, and, in fact, is carrying on a family tradition in the business. Pam Kauppila, who has been a State Farm agent in Marquette, will be operating full-time at the company's office in Sunnyside Plaza beginning in early May. Right now, she is working out of both offices before making the permanent move here. Kauppila's father, Ron Johnson, was a State Farm agent in Ironwood for 40 years, and her great-uncle was an agent in Iron Mountain. "A few people have asked why I'm moving here from Marquette," she said. "That's easy -- because I want to. It's a great opportunity." Kauppila says she views her work as "a mission" to provide the company's services and to help customers.
Employers to prospective hires: Here you go
Low unemployment and high housing prices are bringing out charitable streaks in employers recruiting new workers. Need help finding work for your spouse? It may happen. Ditto for school tuition and signing bonuses. By James Thorner, Times Staff Writer Published April 2, 2007 .
Andy Mackintosh: FT Services Lands A Record $1 Billion Maintenance ...
Suncor Energy Inc. and Flint Transfield Services Ltd. (FTS) have signed what is probably North America's biggest industrial maintenance contract to date, with revenue surpassing $1 billion over five years. The initiative also marks the first large-scale collaborative maintenance agreement in the oilsands. Andy Mackintosh, FTS's president and CEO, acknowledges that skepticism still dogs the concept of co-operative management on this scale between petroleum producer and contractor. "You'll hear someone say 'we tried that five years ago and it didn't work.' From experience, though, we believe otherwise. This contract is cost-reimbursable but our profitability is linked directly to improvements in Suncor's safety, plant reliability, and overall efficiency gains." To handle Suncor's turnarounds, maintenance and related engineering, along with some capital construction services, FTS anticipates hiring more than 1,000 additional employees and perhaps 200 subcontractors.
Allstate to revive vacant call center
CROSS PLAINS -- Nearly two years after Lands' End closed a telephone center here -- eliminating some 375 full- and part-time jobs -- a replacement employer has been found. Gov. Jim Doyle announced today that Allstate Insurance would be moving in and potentially bringing some 200 jobs back to Dane County. Allstate will receive up to $750,000 in state tax credits to establish an Express Claims Office in Cross Plains. The new office could create more than 200 jobs by 2008, Doyle said. "Wisconsin has always been home to some of the greatest workers, the greatest universities and the greatest companies in the world," Doyle told those gathered for the event. "It's a real pleasure to welcome a great company like Allstate to Wisconsin." Allstate said it will be retrofitting the 35,500-square-foot building interior with new furniture and furnishings.
Katrina recovery moving slowly
NEW ORLEANS - Dona Gleber mowed her grass Friday, and that was no small thing. The grass was green and fragrant, and it looked nice right there by her white FEMA trailer and the shattered concrete that once grounded her family. It is the second spring since the hurricane-provoked deluge that nearly drowned a great American city. Anguish and agony still prevail over a vast region, a sobering and instructive lesson for South Floridians and everyone else in the hurricane zone. But, if one looks carefully, tentative signs of post-Katrina rebirth can be discerned. It is the human way. We build and, when necessary and if we can, we rebuild. "Now Open" signs flower in shops here and there. Satellite TV dishes sprout from the ground, cables snaking through debris into trailers.
Verdict for $1.8M given in accident
A federal jury handed down a $1.8-million verdict last week against a local moving company as a result of an accident in North Carolina that injured a woman from New York. The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Tampa, named APS Express Inc. on 49th Street N in Clearwater and Thomas Clifton Beasley of Spring Hill in Hernando County as defendants. According to the lawsuit, Beasley was driving an 18-wheel Freightliner truck that rear-ended the car in which Indranie Sanichar was a passenger three years ago. Sanichar, 39, is a system information analyst from Queens who is back at work, said Palm Harbor attorney Wil Florin, who represented the victim along with attorney Tom Roebig. "I know she is happy to have that phase of her life over with," Florin said.
The Augusta we don't see during the Masters
When the world says Augusta -- breathy, whispery, church-of-golf Augusta -- the world always, always, means the 365 acres of this city that lie behind a 12-foot hedge of bamboo, pearlbush and red-tipped photinia. Say Augusta and the world always means one week among 52. Before commercial breaks, the CBS cameras linger in soft focus almost indiscreetly on shots of flugelhorn azalea blossoms. Those same cameras never pan to the horizon. For just beyond the privet hedge lies a world that doesn't comport with the carefully tended, Truman Show-Sponsored-By-AT&T Masters soundstage. Beyond lies a messy Augusta that can't be tamed to that precise, 3/8-inch height of the fairways. Outside that hedge is an Augusta that is by turns squalid, handsome, proud, defeated, race-haunted, yearning, mired, God-fearing and frequently utterly exasperating.
Property records at library, online
How do I research free information on the sales amount and description of houses in my Gentilly Woods neighborhood two years prior to Katrina? I need to get an idea if my Road Home appraisal was fair. What is the importance of the appraisal figure anyway?
You can research real estate data using a service called deedfax. This service is available online for a subscription fee at deed.fax.com. However, many public libraries in the area subscribe to deedfax and offer the service to their patrons for free. So check with your local library.
Another option is for you to use the free online property records database on the Orleans Parish Assessors Office Web site: www.opboa.org/Search/GenericSearch.aspx. This service only offers current real estate information. It does not contain data from prior years.
The strange death of France's 'deuxième gauche'
The once influential "second left" in France has been eclipsed in the last generation by an older left still wedded to statist solutions. Henri Astier dissects this French exception, and what it means for the presidential election and beyond. From openDemocracy.net. .
Ignagni to Discuss Low-Income and Minority Beneficiaries ...
As Congress debates budget and health care issues, the participation of low-income, minority beneficiaries in Medicare Advantage is sparking debate. Join Karen Ignagni, President and CEO of America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), at a teleconference on Tuesday, April 10 at 10:00 a.m. to discuss this important issue. AHIP recently released an analysis of the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS), which found Medicare health plans are a vital choice among low- income and minority beneficiaries because of the lower out-of-pocket costs and additional benefits these plans provide. The complete study can be found at http://www.ahipresearch.org/. WHAT: Teleconference on low-income and minority beneficiaries' participation in Medicare Advantage WHEN: Tuesday, April 10, 10:00 a.m. WHO: Karen Ignagni, President and CEO, AHIP CALL-IN: (866) 259-6033 CONTACT: Robert Zirkelbach, 202-778-8493 or rzirkelbach@ahip.org America's Health Insurance Plans -- Providing Health Benefits to More Than 200 Million Americans.
Big contracts mean NFL teams can’t miss
It wasnt just Houston that worked part time during the season and full-time in the offseason. Hall of Famers like Otto Graham, Jim Brown, Lou Groza and Dante Lavelli also had side jobs. We all had second jobs, said 77-year-old Bob Gain, who was a five-time Pro Bowl selection with the Cleveland Browns from 1952-1964. Hell, we were off Monday and Tuesday so we all went out and got jobs. I remember I told the company to pay me per day in case I didnt feel good on Monday. I could just come in on Tuesday and I wouldnt be on salary. They went along with that. But as soon as the season was over, I went to work full time. Gain remembers not even being able to catch a break during the Pro Bowl. The day I got home, the company I worked for called me and asked when I was coming back in, he said.
As legislative session wanes, plenty still left to do
ATLANTA - The tulips that set the Capitol grounds ablaze in color earlier this year are losing their petals, announcing that the 2007 session of the Georgia General Assembly should be well into its homestretch. And yet there is still plenty of heavy lifting to do. The House and Senate still have to approve two budgets: the amended one for 2007 that House and Senate Republicans have been fighting over and a "big budget" for 2008 that they're likely to fight over soon. All the substantial legislation is waiting to move, and some think the two sides are holding up the action to get leverage on the budget. There are seven legislative days left, and it's a guessing game right now how long it will take lawmakers to use them, or what will be accomplished once they're done.
Nonprofits in Del. miss MBNA
Jayvon Hale reads to Cabot, a cat from the Delaware Humane Association. The association used a grant that was restricted to helping children to fund its "Paws to Read" program. Children improve their skills by reading stories to dogs and cats, a nonjudgmental audience. (Buy photo) The News Journal/FRED COMEGYS .
The Ramen Report: Being Smart With Your Food and Money
As many of us at UCSF learned the hard way, funding higher education is no stroll in Golden Gate Park. With tuition and fees soaring to record heights, students have to be concerned with every dollar spent. Often this means recognizing that your dollar is not really a dollar, but a dollar plus the interest you will be paying on it for the next several years, or decades. To help students make smart decisions about how to spend (and not spend) their money during these lean educational years, Total Higher Education (T.H.E.), a non-profit student loan provider, has launched The Ramen Report blog, an effort to bring financial food for thought to students. The Web site (www.theramenreport.org) features postings on several topics, from the importance of maintaining good credit and surviving the holidays on a budget, to reconsidering that daily latte, which "could add an additional $51 per month to a student loan payment on a 10-year repayment plan." With a blogging format, the site is also a forum for students to share their thoughts on what has worked for them in cutting costs and saving money.
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