DT Fine Art

WAUPACA ? City officials are making plans to bolster fraud reporting procedures after Waupaca?s former parks and recreation director was convicted Thursday of stealing city money from the department?s accounts.

James Ash had entered a plea of no contest to a felony charge of theft from a business setting of more than $10,000.

Ash took more than $150,000 from various parks and recreation department accounts, much of it by writing out checks from a city account in his wife?s name, without her knowledge, to reimburse non-existent personal payments for city purposes.

Ash also diverted donations for numerous projects ranging from youth baseball to sporting equipment intended for senior citizens.

Waupaca Police Chief Timothy Goke said Ash took more than $174,000 from the parks and recreation department from 2005 through 2010.

?He was charged with taking $150,000 because $25,000 of the money involved thefts outside the statute of limitations,? Goke said.

Ash, 47, served as the city?s parks and recreation director from March 5, 1990, to May 12, 2010, when he resigned his post as reports surfaced of possible theft of money from a local recreation league.

Ash told the court his needed the money to support his family, saying he ?got caught in a lifestyle they could not afford.?

?I have a big mortgage, lots of debt and began to get in over my head,? Ash told investigators.

Sentencing for Ash, who was released on a $2,000 signature bond, is scheduled for June 29. He faces fines of up to $25,000 and a prison term of up to 10 years.

Goke said a police investigation into the thefts began when an employee noticed a $20 discrepancy in an account posting.

In a statement to the community, Waupaca City Administrator Henry Veleker said the city will move forward with implementing a fraud reporting policy to guide city employees in the future.

?Hindsight is always 20/20, but having such a policy in place years ago could very well have allowed employees in the department a mechanism to report suspicious activity,? Veleker said.

Ash wrote 167 checks totaling $150,772,87 in his wife?s name from the ?Waupaca Recreation Participation Account? over a five-year period. The account at Farmer?s State Bank was intended to be used for local softball association expenses.

Ash told investigators he always wrote checks in his wife?s name to keep track of the money he was taking and managed to repay about $30,000 in cash from tax returns, loans and credit cards, but could not prove it.

Ash said he felt ?good and clean? whenever he could repay some of the money.

Records compiled by investigators show that from 2006 through 2010, Ash spent $986 from his own checking account at Sam?s Club for recreation department purposes, but issued reimbursement checks from the city totaling $40,796 to his bank account.

Ash also diverted check and cash payments to the recreation department for players? fees, player insurance, youth baseball facility improvements, umpire fees and from a United Way grant.

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OPINION:

While newspaper pundits are predicting a news vacuum left behind by the imminent closure of NZPAs long-standing service, an American media researcher is bemoaning the thousands of journalism jobs lost in his homeland.

Gary Meo, an executive at United States-based media research firm Scarborough, addressed a gathering of Fairfax-ians and APN-ites at a function in Auckland yesterday as news of NZPAs demise was breaking.

Meo, formerly a marketing research manager with the Los Angeles Times, didnt have anything to say specifically about NZPAs predicament.

But his summary of the cataclysmic decline in the American print news advertising market gives us a clue about the main drivers behind local developments in the media industry.

My personal belief is that Americans are getting much less smart, but whats basically happening is they are turning to other forms of media to get news and information.

Not surprisingly traditional newspaper publishers are reacting to changing reader behaviour to ensure their business survival.

The crux of the new media business model is a term which will take pride of place amongst the industrial jargon of our time – being platform agnostic.

It means that a modern media company wants to concentrate on producing content.

That content can be disseminated to every device that the consumer might like to use, and many more that havent been invented yet.

In this vein Meo confirmed that newspaper companies were increasing their online presence where advertising revenues are actually growing – from US$1.2 billion in 2003 to US$3b in 2010.

Theyre betting on a big uptake of news readership on mobile devices – smartphones are forecast to make up half of all mobile phones in the US by the third quarter of this year while Forrester research predicts there will be 81 million tablet PC users in America by 2015.

Theyre desperately diversifying revenue streams, or in plain terms, basically doing anything they can possibly do to make money, said Meo.

And theyre cutting costs at an alarming rate.

There have been newsroom jobs cut in the thousands over the last few years where publishers traditionally, even when times were bad, were very reluctant to lay off reporters and editors – in the last three years theyve been laying them off in droves.

The costs are of course a huge determinant of business success, especially with declining revenues.

But Meo also believed there was a trend to outsource as much as possible, a symptom which sits in opposition to what NZPA – effectively an out-sourced news department – is currently experiencing.

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Covered head-to-toe in a black abaya embroidered with red and yellow flowers, Amal Abbas waits for her turn to place a deposit at Cairos Al Baraka Egypt Bank, one of Egypts two fully-fledged Islamic banks.

Although Egypt is considered the birthplace of Islamic finance, which adheres to Islamic principles banning interest and speculative trading, its growth has lagged due to past corruption scandals, while the previous government sought to enforce a more secular financial system.

But after the Egyptian revolution toppled Hosni Mubarak and his government, Muslims like Abbas are embracing Islamic banking, raising the prospect that Egypt could become another thriving centre of Islamic finance.

I prefer Islamic finance, it keeps me far from usury and I feel my money is blessed, said the 50 year-old research centre manager at the Mohandessin branch of Al Baraka Egypt Bank.

My husband has been dealing with mainstream banks for more than 30 years and all his projects failed because they were funded by unblessed money.

According to a 2009 report by consulting firm McKinsey, Islamic banking only accounts for 3 to 4% of Egypts USD 193 billion banking industry. That compares with 46% in the United Arab Emirates.

In a post-Mubarak era, the urgency of rebuilding and changing things will clash with the absence of resources and lack of money, said Ibrahim Warde, adjunct professor at The Fletcher School of Diplomacy at Tufts University.

That will likely present an opportunity for Islamic finance houses in the Gulf region, which now serves as the industrys global hub.

Egypt is going to look towards the Gulf for money and its going to have to offer Islamic options to maximise investments.

Cairo-based National Bank for Development, which is converting into a full-fledged Islamic bank, is already 49% -owned by Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank. Al Baraka Egypt is in fact a unit of Bahrains Al Baraka Bank.

Theres also keen interest in Egypt for Islamic insurance, or takaful, which makes up 5 percent of Egypts USD 1.45 billion insurance market but is expected to grow dramatically, according to a March report by Islamic consultancy BMB Islamic.

Salama Islamic Arab Insurances chief executive Saleh Malaikah said this month that demand for its products in Egypt have grown significantly since the revolution.

According to data from Bankscope and Thomson Reuters, Egypt could see Islamic finance assets grow to USD 10 billion in 2013 from USD 6 billion in 2007.

Political tool

Challenges remain, given the less than encouraging history of Egypts Islamic finance industry.

Millions of Egyptians were stung by ponzi schemes in the mid-1980s, when a number of money management companies touted Islamic investments at returns above local interest rates.

A new post-Mubarak administration is expected to show more interest in Islamic finance, despite concerns that a growing Islamic finance industry could also provide political support for Islamic opposition groups in the country of 80 million.

Egypt will need to adopt Islamic banking as one tool to appease politically active Islamic groups or face a barrage of criticism for adhering to the previous regimes hard line against the industry, said Humayon Dar, chief executive of consultancy BMBIslamic.

Egypt is a religiously sensitive country. There are a number of families and small savers who wouldnt want to use the conventional system, he said. If theres a movement towards interest-free banking, that would draw deposits.

Grassroots support is already emerging among conservative Muslims. Manal al-Moursi, another bank customer at Al Baraka Egypt Bank, said Egyptians are turning to Islamic finance, in part, to show their support for the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in 1928, was long persecuted as the main challenger to the ruling National Democratic Party in parliament and was one of the most vocal protesters during the demonstrations that toppled Mubarak on February11.

With the dissolution of the NDP and growing acceptance of the Muslim Brotherhood in mainstream politics, experts say Islamists will have increasing influence in the new Egypt and Islamic finance will serve as one way to propagate Islamic values and gain supporters.

The Muslim Brotherhood are for Islamic finance because it is related to religion, said Mohasseb Refaat, deputy manager at Bank of Alexandria. They will promote the idea so long as it is in their benefit.

Refaat said the industry is likely to gain more footing in Egypt if the Brotherhood secures a significant number of seats in the 508-member parliament in September. One leading Brotherhood figure said the group could field candidates for as many as 49% of the seats.

Even secularists calling for less religion in society may make a pre-emptive attempt to promote Islamic finance ahead of elections to reach a wider group of constituents.

Secularists will see supporting Islamic finance as a way of stealing the thunder of the Islamists by giving people an outlet to express their religiosity, Warde said. Weve seen that strategy in other markets such as Iraq and North America. Even groups that were opposed to political Islam looked to Islamic finance as a way of preventing extremism.

Britain and France, for example, have changed regulations to accommodate Islamic transactions. And Malaysia, with its thriving dual system of conventional and Islamic finance, has been the biggest success story in the industry, serving as a model for new markets looking to offer Islamic products.

Challenges remain

Decades of lost growth, however, have left Egypt lacking proper financial regulation to accommodate Islamic financial instruments such as Islamic bonds, or sukuk.

The head of the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA) said last year Egypt would issue its first regulations governing sukuk in the second half of 2010 and later delayed further to the first quarter of 2011. That deadline has passed as well as the government restructures and plans now appear in limbo.

Experts say the government will need to issue debt guidelines for sukuk issuance and remove tax barriers that make Islamic transactions commercially unviable in order to draw foreign investment from oil-rich Gulf countries.

And the revolution may spell a willingness among Egyptians to embrace alternatives, particularly if they can derive benefit from it for some of the social ills that sparked the protests.

Under the Mubarak regime, critics said the rich benefited from lending and other business opportunities while the poor were plagued by unemployment and low wages. Malik said Islamic finance with its focus on interest-free financing and ethical investments would appeal to the common man.

I think the revolution gave a good push for Islamic finance to become the banking alternative in Egypt.

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Before we start, I believe I might have been a little hard on last week?s episode. That episode was sweet, it was funny, but yes, also unexpected. Applause should be given to the writers for playing that plot point down this week, even to the point of nearly glazing over it. To recall the immortal words of Tina Turner, what does love have to do with it? In the world of Parks and Recreation, it would seem love has everything to do with story.

For the second week in a row, the main storyline has to do with inter-office relationships, but this time in a much more masterful way that seeks to bring the endless tatter of ?will they or won?t they? to a head. You see, Leslie finally summons the courage to ask budget robot Ben out for a date, yet runs into a system malfunction as he showers her with compliments before awkwardly exiting stage right.

The solution? After a desperate conversation with Ann, she suggests that Leslie try online dating. What?s great about this is that Indiana apparently has its own dating site for the hopelessly Midwestern, Hoosiermate.com. Destined to fail by writing her own profile, she gets Ann to turn such sexy statements as ?Yellow hair female likes organizing her planner and enjoys viewing a painting of flowers? into something less dorky. Like a sign from the heavens, a 98% match shows up, and that person is…Tom Haverford?

Tom N. Haverfords favorite movie is books, and he calls eye cream companies complaining of poor scented products. Against her better judgement and sanity, she agrees to go on a date to see what the worst that could happen is, thus exploring one of the last character pairings in the Parks Department. What?s next? Jerry and Ann? (Actually, let?s not go there.) During their lunch, Leslie admits amongst a sea of awkward exchanges her reasoning behind the gesture, and Tom takes the whole thing as far as it can go? all the way back to the office. After a tiff, Leslie kisses our short Indian playa? to shut him up, but unfortunately Chris walks by at the wrong time.

Speaking of Chris, the side story this week was just as strong, if not funnier, than the dating bit. Being the resident health nut in Pawnee, Chris decides to tackle the town?s massive obesity problem by instituting an ?organic food only? policy in government. Incensed about the possibility of losing the only thing he cares about, Ron takes the red meat and challenges Chris to a burger cook-off (while misunderstanding what the hell a turkey burger is.)

The gang?s visit to Chris? favorite store, Grain and Simple, proves to be the best test of character. Ron treats the visit like a trip to the zoo, observing the hipster patrons like zoo animals filling up on nature?s gifts. Andy, wholly convinced that food gives you energy, goes along with Chris to discover the wonders of food dispensers and fruit. The two share their favorite foods and we all discover that putting Skittles between Starbursts is a brilliant snacking invention.

His newly betrothed shares her apathy with Ron, and follows him around to cause pain and suffering to the store. Fresh off the sting of vegetable loaf from last week, Ron Freakin? Swanson shows an employee what he really thinks of meat-less bacon: ?No one should ever have to eat this stuff? he rips as he pines for the simpler deals of Food n? Stuff.

The strength of a show is what they can do with their characters, because without good ones the jokes fall flat. This episode was a great exploration of that fact. By pairing off characters who shouldn?t go together as they venture into the unknown adventures outside the Parks world, the dialogue was on fire. Throughout the episode, it was great to see a revolving door of men that Ann was engaging with. We even got to meet someone who even poor Jerry can make fun of!

The episode ends with a meaty bit that has as sugary sweet a resolution as Andy?s Mouth Surprise. Chris nearly suspending Leslie for her actions with Tom leads to the reveal that Ben was awkward because he wanted to ask an office mate out. In spite of the cap on inter-govermental romance, the episode ends with Ben and Leslie sharing a moment in front of her favorite wildflower mural. Aww.

(And yes, in case you?re wondering, Ron?s burgers won the fight. Turkey indeed can never beat cow. Now that?s a half-hour I cant find a beef with.)

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A bill that would require Pennsylvanias casinos to mail monthly
win/loss statements to gamblers with players club cards is gaining
steam in Harrisburg despite opposition from some Democratic
lawmakers.

The Pennsylvania House Gaming Oversight Committee on Wednesday
voted 14-11 in support of a bill introduced by state Rep. Paul
Clymer, R-145, to mandate the monthly statements.

Clymer calls it a consumer protection issue, informing
gamblers and their families about money lost in the casinos. His
bill was opposed by the committees 11-member Democratic minority,
including local state Rep. Tina Davis, R-141.

Davis said she initially sought to postpone a vote on the bill
so that lawmakers could gather more information about its
implications. I understand the intent. Clymer wants to help
addicts, Davis said. But I need to see some evidence that this
bill would actually help addicts to break their addictions.

Davis also said that members of the gaming oversight committee
had received letters from casinos, warning them that a monthly
statements program would cost millions of dollars to implement and
jeopardize tax revenues generated for the state.

Officials at Parx Casino in Bensalem declined comment on
Clymers bill or the cost to implement a monthly statements
program.

Slots machines generated $117 million in tax revenue for
Pennsylvania in March, according to the state gaming control board.
That amounts to about $3.8 million in tax revenue each day with the
55 percent assessment on all slot machines.

With the budget issues that were facing right now, Im not
going to support anything that costs the state more money, Davis
said.

Lawmakers are grappling with a $4 billion budget deficit.

Copyright 2011 phillyBurbs.com . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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HOLLYWOOD, Calif., April 21 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) Aamp;I Photographic and Digital has appointed Khodr Cherri as Director of its Fine Art Department. The move comes as the 30-year old company expands its services to cutting-edge forms of high end digital imaging while continuing its dedication to traditional photographic arts.

His two decades working with the highest caliber artists has given Khodr Cherri unique status and a wide following in the fine art world, said Baret Lepejian. We are very proud to welcome one of the most trusted authorities on photographic printing and imaging to our team.

Im really pleased to be working with Baret and Vic Lepejian and their team, said Khodr. My vision at Aamp;I is to collaborate with each artist to provide expert consultation with a hands-on approach, creating traditional-style exhibition quality Chromogenic and Giclee prints, and custom-designed photo books as well as discovering new substrates for large format that are unique to the individual photographer.

A graduate of the American University in Beirut, Khodr began his photography career as a film technician and Art Center student in Los Angeles. As production manager at the Nardulli lab, he worked with Herb Ritts, Helmut Newton, Matthew Rolston and Norman Jean Roy, among many other photographers. He has also worked with photo editors at publications such as Time Magazine, National Geographic, and Vogue. He is an expert in digital retouching and a skilled curator of work for gallery and museum exhibitions. Clients have included Sebastian Copeland, Andrew McPherson and Peggy Sirota. Prior to coming to Aamp;I, Khodr was with The Icon.

The move comes as Aamp;I has introduced large-format printing with its acquisition of an HP Scitex FB500, allowing artists to print high-quality images on a wide array of substrates including metal, tile and glass. Aamp;I Books is also leading the way in fine art print-on-demand photo books created on two HP Indigo machines, and an in-house binding department.

About Aamp;I Photographic and Digital:
Aamp;I Photographic and Digital Services (www.aandi.com), the leading photographic services provider based in Los Angeles, has a 30-year legacy of providing high-end photographic services to the worlds top photographers. The company moved into the digital realm with its acquisition in 2004 by veteran photographic printer Baret Lepejian and his computer specialist brother Vic Lepejian. While continuing to provide the finest gallery and museum print services for top artists, the addition of two HP Indigo presses expanded the business into digital book production under the Aamp;I Books banner, printing fine-art editions for such noted photographers as Herman Leonard, Melvin Sokolsky, and Joel Meyerowitz.

Aamp;I Books is the only US provider of Book Creatortrade;, a free online book design software for customized photo books. Aamp;I is allied with the Julia Dean Photo Workshops (www.juliadean.com), devoted to the traditional photographic arts, advancing the skills and increasing the personal enrichment of photographers of all experience levels and ages.

Media Contact:
Veronica Thomas
Aamp;I Marketing
323-856-5280
800-883-9088.

- Photo Caption: Khodr Cherri New Director of Fine Arts, Aamp;I.

News Source: AI Photographic and Digital :: This press release was issued on behalf of the news source by Send2Pressreg; Newswire, a service of Neotropereg;. View all current news at: Send2PressNewswire.com .

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* No export fee breaks for Vankor starting from May

* Russia to elect president in March 2012

* Fight between different camps intensifies

* Sechin stripped of chair on Rosneft board

(Changes headline, releads, adds details)

By Darya Korsunskaya

MOSCOW, April 21 (Reuters) – Russias finance ministry and a
top energy official clashed openly in front of Prime Minister
Vladimir Putin on Thursday over oilfield tax breaks,
highlighting policy faultlines before 2012 presidential polls.

During a business organisations meeting at government
headquarters, Putin asked if the major Vankor oilfield,
controlled by state-owned company Rosneft (ROSN.MM), would be
stripped of a beneficial tax regime.

Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Shatalov said it would, while
Putins aide and deputy Igor Sechin then contradicted him,
saying the export duty breaks were only being suspended, not
axed.

With presidential election in March 2012 fast approaching,
rivalry for the Kremlin keys is getting more conspicuous.

Putin, who is seen by most Russians as the paramount leader,
and his protege, President Dmitry Medvedev, have recently set
the tone for the election campaign by stressing different
priorities in domestic and external politics.

They have not yet said they will challenge each other in the
race, however.

The new Vankor oilfield in the Arctic north, set to pump 15
million tonnes this year, has been a key driver behind Russias
high oil production, now the worlds biggest.

But officials have decided to remove its duty breaks,
starting from May as crude prices have shot to their highest
since 2008. Analysts estimate an extension of the duty exemption
for Vankor would have saved Rosneft $3 billion a year.

At the meeting Sechin stepped in to contradict Shatalov.

Vladimir Vladimirovich, we didnt cancel it, its just we
dont apply it at a time of high oil prices, Sechin told Putin,
who chuckled and praised the difference of views without
favouring one side or the other.

You see, how different the opinions are in our government.
In fact, its good, it speaks volumes that in government there
are always people who speak the same language as you, he told
the businessmen at the meeting of the Russian Union of
Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP).

Putin has to sign the tax break move before it takes effect.

The exchanges showed tensions are high over tax policy on
the oil industry, which says it cannot keep pumping at current
near-record rates, much less launch new fields, without tax
breaks.

On the other side the Finance Ministry, led by the hawkish
Alexei Kudrin, has said it might redistribute but not cut the
levies on energy that make up more than 40 percent of the
budget.

Earlier this month Sechin, seen as staunch Putin ally,
stepped down as Rosneft chairman after Medvedev ordered the
government officials to quit from boards of state-controlled
companies.

The move was seen by some analysts as a sign of Medvedevs
efforts to strengthen his grip on power before the election.

Sechins clout has also been weakened by the gatecrashing of
a $16 billion share swap deal and Arctic development agreement
between Rosneft and BP (BP.L) by the British companys oligarch
partners in the Russian TNK-BP (TNBP.MM) venture.

(Reporting by Darya Korsunskaya; writing by Vladimir
Soldatkin; editing by Melissa Akin and Anthony Barker)

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Easter weekend can be a busy time at Lake Mead National Recreation Area, so a call that came into the park dispatch center at 10:39 am on Friday, April 22 provided some unwelcome news: There was a boat on fire at Boulder Beach, but the problem wasnt at a launch ramp or marina, where such situations might be expected.

This boat was reported to be afire on dry land, in the crowded Boulder Beach campground.

NPS rangers and Boulder City firefighters responded and began evacuating campers from the area and fighting the fire. The blaze, which also burned a nearby tent and surrounding brush, was contained by 11:02 am

According to National Park Service investigators, the boat’s operator was filling the trailered vessels fuel tank from a gas container when he unintentionally hit the ignition switch. Its believed this caused a spark that ignited fuel vapors.

The boat operator and family were visiting the park from Las Vegas. No one was injured.

Park spokesman Anthony Munoz noted that a buildup of fuel vapors in boats during fueling is a common occurance, especially in warmer temperatures. In August 2009, five people from Las Vegas were injured when fuel vapors ignited and their boat exploded at the Callville Bay Marina fuel dock.

The busy boating season is already underway in warm-weather parks such as Lake Mead, and will be here soon all across the country. The approach of summer is also a time when some first-time boaters are headed for the water, so well pass along a suggestion from Munoz to keep the following tips from the US Coast Guard in mind while fueling watercraft:

o Close all hatches and other openings before fueling.
o Extinguish all cigarettes and other open flames.
o Turn off engines, all electrical equipment, radios, stoves and other appliances.
o Remove all passengers from the boat.
o Keep the fill nozzle in contact with the tank and wipe up any spilled fuel. Spilled fuel can turn into vapors.
o Open all ports, hatches and doors to ventilate after fueling.
o Run the blower on the boat for at least four minutes after fueling is completed.
o Check the bilges for fuel vapors before starting the engine.
o Make sure there is no odor of gasoline anywhere in the boat before starting the engine.

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Apr 7, 2011

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Facebook is looking to strengthen its relationship with the news media and has already helped boost traffic to news websites, a top executive told journalists Thursday.

Facebook’s “like” buttons have become ubiquitous since they launched a year ago. News sites, blogs and other media outlets sometimes use the less enthusiastic “recommend,” but the effect is the same — people share stories with their friends on Facebook, and those friends click on the links to read the stories. The company credits those links for a fourfold increase in referrals to news sites.

Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said such engagement can help an industry that is looking for more ways to boost online traffic and revenue. She said Facebook wants to help by providing the technological tools to share content.

“In a world where people are spending so much time on Facebook … we want news to be a big part of that,” Sandberg told the American Society of News Editors at its annual convention in San Diego.

She said she uses Facebook for two things — connecting with family and friends and getting her daily news.

Facebook recently unveiled a Facebook page for journalists who want to use social media as a tool in their reporting and source building around the globe. The company also plans to host workshops to teach journalists how to take advantage of the social networks.

Sandberg said NPR has used social networks to tell readers what’s happening in real time. Journalists can also use it in their search for people to be interviewed for news stories, by sending out requests asking if anyone has information on an event or developing news story.

In a separate announcement earlier Thursday, Facebook said it wants to help others build startups more easily and efficiently by sharing the technology behind the servers that power its massive online social network. In turn, it hopes to benefit from others’ innovations, too.

On the Net:

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OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Gov. Chris Gregoire has signed into law a bill to enhance campaign finance disclosure, aiming to ensure voters know whos sponsoring their campaign materials.

The bill imposes stricter requirements for campaign transparency by lowering the dollar threshold for reporting contributions. It also requires that names of political action committees (PACs) include their sponsors, and strengthens the criminal and civil penalties for violating those provisions.

The measure comes after a case in the November elections when consulting firm Moxie Media used a slew of PACs to obscure the source of its campaign financing.

Supporters say voters deserve to know where information is coming from so they can make informed decisions when casting their ballots.

But some worry the final bill was watered down, and wont enforce transparency in unscrupulous groups.

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