Worldwide DIY Council and NRHA join forces, develop Industry Alliance Partnership to assist retailers
Hardware Retailing, Dec, 2009
INDIANAPOLIS — Recognizing that their goals are similar–helping home improvement retailers and manufacturers be more profitable and successful–the Worldwide DIY Council, headquartered in Chandler, Ark., and the North American Retail Hardware Association (NRHA), headquartered in Indianapolis, Ind., have agreed to become Industry Alliance Partners, sharing ideas and services for the benefit of members of each organization.
The two organizations will begin working together for the success of the 2011 International Hardware Association (IHA) congress, which will be hosted by NRHA and held July 13-15, 2011, in Washington, D.C. This is the first time this international conference of hardware retailers, retail associations and other industry leaders will be held in the United States. NRHA’s own annual convention will take place July 15-17, in conjunction with the IHA congress.
In addition, NRHA will attend and appear on the program of the Worldwide DIY Council’s annual meeting, which will be held in conjunction with the National Hardware Show[R] in May 2010. NRHA will sponsor a reception at that event.
The two groups have pledged to continue to explore ways to work together in the future for the betterment of the world’s retailers and manufacturers.
NRHA serves the $288 billion retail hardware/home improvement industry
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Fitch Affirms Norfolk Southern IDR at 'BBB+'; Outlook Stable
Business Wire, Dec 02, 2009
CHICAGO — Fitch Ratings has affirmed its ratings of Norfolk Southern Corporation
(NYSE: NSC) as follows:
— Long-term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at ‘BBB ‘;– Senior
unsecured rating at ‘BBB ‘;– Unsecured credit facility rating at
‘BBB ‘;– Short-term IDR at ‘F2′;– Short-term commercial
paper rating at ‘F2′.
Fitch’s ratings apply to approximately $6.7 billion in outstanding
unsecured debt and a $1 billion unsecured revolving credit facility. The
Rating Outlook is Stable.
Norfolk Southern’s ratings reflect the Class I railroad operator’s
continued financial flexibility and strong liquidity set against the
backdrop of a very weak, but stabilized, freight market. Beginning in
the latter half of 2008’s fourth quarter and continuing through this
year’s third quarter, year-over-year freight volumes declined
precipitously, leading to a steep reduction in operating earnings and
free cash flow in the first nine months of 2009. Along with the
company’s higher debt load, this has led to a weakening of Norfolk
Southern’s credit profile over the last year. However, the company’s
credit metrics remain in-line with its ‘BBB ‘ IDR, and its credit
profile is expected to strengthen in 2010 and beyond as the gradually
improving U.S. economy drives an increase in volumes over the medium
term.
Norfolk Southern’s volumes, along with those of the U.S. railroad
industry in general, plunged in the latter half of last year’s fourth
quarter and remained significantly below year-earlier levels in the
third quarter of 2009. Through Sept. 30, 2009, year-to-date volumes
(measured in carloads or intermodal units) were down 22% versus the
first nine months of 2008, reflecting weakness in all product lines.
However, sequentially, volumes in the third quarter of 2009 were up 7.8%
from this year’s second quarter, following a 3% sequential decline
between the second quarter and 2009’s first quarter, suggesting the
nadir of demand was reached earlier this year. The volume recovery
remains fragile, however, with many factors continuing to weigh on the
U.S. economy (e.g. high unemployment, continued housing weakness and
consumer deleveraging) that likely will keep volume growth relatively
tepid well into 2010.
Although the decline in volumes has negatively affected Norfolk
Southern’s operating cash flow, the effect has been partially offset by
continued growth in core pricing and a significant reduction in non-fuel
expense. In the third quarter of 2009, Norfolk Southern reported that
core pricing (which excludes fuel surcharges) increased about 6% or
slightly more than 7% when excluding the fuel component of its rail cost
adjustment factor (RCAF). Although unit revenue was down 11% overall in
the quarter, the decline predominantly was due to lower fuel surcharges
tied to the steep year-over-year fall in diesel fuel prices
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Congoleum Corporation Disclosure Statement Hearing Adjourned
Market Wire, December, 2009
Congoleum Corporation (PINKSHEETS: CGMCQ)
reported today that it had requested the U.S. District Court for the
District of New Jersey, which is presiding over Congoleum’s bankruptcy
case, to adjourn the hearing on the disclosure statement with respect to
the pending Second Amended Joint Plan of Reorganization scheduled for
December 7, 2009 until a date in the first two weeks of January to be
determined by the District Court. The request was made jointly with the
other plan proponents, the Official Committee of Bondholders and the
Asbestos Claimants’ Committee, and the request was granted by the District
Court. A revised hearing date has not yet been set.
Roger S. Marcus, Chairman of the Board, commented, “We are actively engaged
in settlement negotiations with the insurers that have not previously
settled their coverage disputes with us. If successful, the terms of any
further settlements will be described in the disclosure statement. Given
the progress that has been made in recent weeks, we and the other plan
proponents felt it was prudent to delay briefly the hearing to allow time
for the negotiations to run their course and permit the disclosure
statement to reflect their outcome. We are encouraged by these
developments and continue to hope that we could see a plan confirmed in the
first half of 2010.”
Congoleum Corporation is a leading manufacturer of resilient flooring,
serving both residential and commercial markets. Its sheet, tile and plank
products are available in a wide variety of designs and colors, and are
used in remodeling, manufactured housing, new construction and commercial
applications. The Congoleum brand name is recognized and trusted by
consumers as representing a company that has been supplying attractive and
durable flooring products for over a century.
The above news release contains certain forward-looking statements, within
the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, that
involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. These statements can be
identified by the use of the words such as “anticipate,” “believe,”
“estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” “project” and other words of
similar meaning. In particular, these include statements relating to
intentions, beliefs or current expectations concerning, among other things,
future performance, results of operations, the outcome of contingencies
such as bankruptcy and other legal proceedings, and financial conditions.
These statements do not relate strictly to historical or current facts.
These forward-looking statements are based on Congoleum’s expectations, as
of the date of this release, of future events, and Congoleum undertakes no
obligation to update any of these forward-looking statements.
Although Congoleum believes that these expectations are based on reasonable
assumptions, within the bounds of its knowledge of its business and
operations, there can be no assurance that actual results will not differ
materially from its expectations
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AccelOps Named Finalist in Secure Computing Magazine Awards
Market Wire, December, 2009
AccelOps , the integrated datacenter
monitoring leader, has been named a finalist in the 2010 SC Awards program for outstanding achievement
in information technology (IT) security. AccelOps is recognized in the
Excellence Award category as Best Rookie Startup of the Year, which
recognizes companies with superior security products that help customers
tackle today’s pressing security challenges.
“Our distinguished panel of award judges selected AccelOps as a finalist in
our Excellence Awards category — recognizing its contribution to the world
of IT security,” said SC Magazine Editor-in-Chief Illena Armstrong.
“Businesses are challenged every day with newer and more sophisticated
security threats and they rely on companies like AccelOps to help protect
their assets.”
As the industry’s preeminent awards program, the annual SC Awards has
recognized security’s key contributors and outstanding products for more
than a decade. The SC Awards are designed to honor the professionals,
companies and products that help fend off the myriad security threats
confronted in today’s corporate world. Individuals, brands and solutions
recognized in the program address not only the security challenges
prominent today, but also the emerging threat landscape of tomorrow.
IT security companies nominate their solutions for consideration in the SC
Awards and entries are judged by a panel of leading security officers from
large, medium and small enterprises from all major vertical markets –
representing the wide distribution of SC Magazine readers.
“The trend toward network and security operations convergence, combined
with increasing datacenter technology complexity and security threat
sophistication requires a more advanced and holistic approach to security
information management,” said Imin Lee , CEO of
AccelOps. “AccelOps is honored to be selected as a SC Award finalist in
recognition of our efforts to deliver an integrated and service-oriented
solution to datacenter monitoring.”
Winners of this year’s SC Awards will be announced at a gala dinner and
award ceremony to be held in San Francisco on Tuesday, March 2, 2010. The
event is an evening filled with excitement and offers an invaluable
opportunity to network with the top corporate IT professionals in
attendance. To attend the SC Awards, please register at:
http://www.scmagazineus.com/sc-magazine-awards-2010/section/1053/
About SC Magazine
SC Magazine provides IT security professionals with in-depth and unbiased
information through timely news, comprehensive analysis, cutting-edge
features, contributions from thought-leaders and the best, most extensive
collection of product reviews in the business
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Alameda woman becomes Shining Star
0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Dec 3, 2009 | by Alan Lopez
The golden arches of McDonald’s restaurants may represent tasty and inexpensive food but they also stand for charitable causes.
Alameda resident Kim Byrne has been on the board of the Ronald McDonald House Charities since 1990 and has been president since 2006. It’s part of the reason she was recently awarded the national McDonald’s Shining Star award.
The award also recognizes Byrne for her advocacy, leadership and outstanding contribution for women inside the McDonald’s system throughout the region and her community, according to a news release.
Byrne and her husband own the two McDonald’s restaurants in Alameda: on Shoreline Drive at Alameda Towne Centre and on Central Avenue near Webster Street.
From 1986 to 1990, Byrne was a member of the West Alameda Business Association board and was president from 1990 to 1993. Over the years, the Byrnes couple have supported schools and local sports teams.
“Ray Kroc (the founder of the modern McDonald’s), believed giving back to the community is good business and is something you’re expected to do,” Byrne said.
Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Bay Area, Inc. grants about $500,000 a year to nonprofit programs that support the health and well-being of children.
In addition, the Ronald McDonald Houses at Stanford and San Francisco provide temporary living quarters for families of seriously ill children receiving treatment at nearby hospitals. Ronald McDonald Care Mobiles provide oral health services, diagnosis and health education to children who would otherwise go without dental care.
McDonald’s restaurants are found in 119 countries and territories around the world, and serve 47 million customers a day, according to Wikipedia.
Two-thirds of the restaurants are independently owned and Byrne said it’s the largest network of independently owned businesses in the world. All of the restaurant owners must meet strict standards of food service, she said.
“They’re very picky,” she said. “Their field-to-counter policies are way beyond what the USDA and the FDA requires
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Jihad in Texas
National Review, Dec 7, 2009
IN time of war, an army psychiatrist who redefined his identity (born in Virginia, he called himself Palestinian), abused his profession (he tried to convert patients to Islam), prayed with a jihadist cleric (Anwar al-Alwaki, formerly of Falls Church, now of Yemen), and complained, privately and in public, about the unacceptable burdens placed on Muslims obliged to fight fellow Muslims, shoots several dozen people, most of them servicemen and -women, murdering 13.
So how did our politicians and commentators react to Maj. Nidal Hasan’s attack at Fort Hood? Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said that what we most have to fear now is a possible wave of anti-Muslim sentiment. Journalist Michael Tomasky said that we should not draw any inferences from “Allahu akbar,” the killer’s battle cry before he opened fire, because it’s just something that votaries of the religion of peace say in moments of stress. Everybody and his brother attributed Major Hasan’s rampage to PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), not that he ever experienced any trauma himself–but presumably he heard tales of it from his patients during the intervals when he was not trying to convert them to Islam.
This was the same political correctness that cocooned Major Hasan throughout his Army career. Fellow soldiers noticed his strident and unbalanced behavior: NPR reported that top officials at Walter Reed (his previous posting before Fort Hood) debated whether he was “psychotic.” But no one ever reported him, for fear of discriminating against him–or being rebuked for discrimination. “They’re afraid of getting an equal-opportunity complaint that can end careers,” one Hasan classmate told Time. When Gen. George Casey, Army chief of staff, worried lest “diversity ..
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Fire guts Provo apartment, displaces 4 families
0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Dec 1, 2009
PROVO — Robert Rojas smelled something like burning paper as he left his apartment around noon Monday. But since he frequently gets a whiff of smoke from cookouts next door, he thought nothing of it.
“I thought it was the same thing, so I didn’t even bother to check,” Rojas said.
Unfortunately, this time the smoke was from a fire that gutted his neighbors’ apartment. Fire officials believe the blaze started when something was left on the stove.
The blaze caused roughly $200,000 in damage and displaced four families in the apartment complex at 557 W. 100 South. Three apartments sustained smoke and water damage, and Rojas showed a gaping hole in his closet that firefighters chopped open so they could spray water above the ceiling and isolate the flames.
Nobody was home when the fire started, but Provo Deputy Fire Chief Gary Jolley said it appears a tenant had started to cook something and left the apartment.
“It’s probably just an accident due to somebody forgetting something on the stove,” Jolley said. “We’re just glad nobody got hurt.”
The fire was reported by an alarm in the home at 12:32 p.m. and was extinguished at 12:44 p.m., Jolley said. He said a city building inspector will check the structure due to damage to two roof trusses.
The American Red Cross is assisting the four displaced families with food, clothing and shelter
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Secure64 DNS Signer Earns FIPS 140-2 Level 2 Security Certification
PR Newswire, Dec 1, 2009
Product Meets Stringent Cryptographic Security Standards Required for Federal Agencies
DENVER, Dec. 1 /PRNewswire/ — Secure64 Software Corporation today announced that the company’s Secure64 DNS Signer software appliance will receive FIPS 140-2 Level 2 certification from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC). Secure64 DNS Signer is the first commercial DNSSEC software appliance certified to Level 2. U.S. federal agencies are required to utilize only FIPS-certified products in any federal system that uses cryptography to protect sensitive or valuable information.
“This FIPS certification recognizes the security inherent in Secure64’s architecture, which is able to store sensitive information online safely. By combining this security with high speed cryptography, our DNSSEC signing software is able to offer better cryptographic security and performance than other software solutions without the added cost and complexity of cryptographic hardware,” said Steve Goodbarn, Secure64 CEO.
FIPS 140-2 is a NIST standard for cryptographic security that defines four levels of compliance ranging from Level 1 to Level 4. Level 1 certification provides assurance that the most basic security requirements have been met, while security requirements become more stringent as the certification levels increase. DNSSEC products use cryptographic digital signatures to protect the DNS, so FIPS 140-2 certification is a good measure of the degree of private key protection provided. No software cryptographic module has ever been certified to Level 3 or 4.
“FIPS certification is increasingly an important foundational technology requirement to drive adoption across the federal government marketplace,” said Rishi Sood, Research Vice President at Gartner.
Public key cryptography is commonly used in computer systems to ensure the authenticity, integrity or confidentiality of data communicated across a network. Trust in the security of network communications depends on the degree of security those computer systems provide to protect their cryptographic keys. Without sufficient security, messages could easily be forged or confidential information intercepted.
“Most of our competitors simply use the cryptographic module that ships with the underlying operating system, or an OpenSSL cryptographic module,” said Joe Gersch, Secure64 COO and nationally-recognized DNSSEC expert. “These modules may have been certified by NIST to Level 1, but the version of the module that was certified may or may not be the one actually used by the vendor. In contrast, Secure64 DNS Signer actually met the requirements for Level 3 in four of ten categories, and provides mitigation of attacks beyond what is required for certification. This means our software provides significantly more cryptographic security than any other commercial DNSSEC signing software available today.”
For more information about DNSSEC and Secure64 DNS Signer, visit http://www.secure64.com/.
> About Secure64 Software CorporationHeadquartered in Greenwood Village, Colorado, Secure64[R] is a software company offering high-performance DNS server software that makes the DNS trustworthy and secure
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Ray Potter Joins Hodes Weill & Associates to Expand its Property Underwriting and Due Diligence Capabilities
Business Wire, Dec 02, 2009
NEW YORK — Hodes Weill & Associates (Hodes Weill), a global advisory and
principal investment business focused on the real estate private equity
and private funds industry, today announced that Ray Potter has joined
the firm as a Principal. Mr. Potter will focus on the firmsproperty
underwriting, due diligence and principal investment activities.
We are excited to welcome Ray to the firm, said Doug Weill, Co-Founder
and a Managing Partner of Hodes Weill. Given his considerable
experience in various aspects of the commercial real estate industry and
his strong property underwriting skills, we expect Ray to have an
immediate impact on our advisory and restructuring engagements, as well
as our principal investment business.
I am delighted to join the growing team of professionals at Hodes Weill
& Associates, said Mr
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The late Jane Austen’s niece eventually destroys the manuscript of her own novel
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