Even if you have enough money saved to support yourself throughout your retirement, you might still want to work for the intellectual stimulation and camaraderie a job environment offers. Many older workers would prefer to stay somewhat connected to the workforce instead of pursuing full-time retirement.

[See The 10 Best Places to Retire in 2012.]

Most older workers (65 percent) say they would ideally like to include some form of work in their retirement, according to a 2011 Harris Interactive survey of 1,001 people age 55 and older commissioned by Sun America. But only 4 percent of the survey respondents want to work full time in retirement. A quarter of older workers would prefer to work part time in retirement, and 36 percent want to go back and forth between periods of work and leisure.

Most of us would like to enjoy some time away from the hustle of the working world. And, yet, work does have positive aspects. Wouldn't it be nice to have the best of both worlds, with time to enjoy retirement as well as time dedicated to work?

Part-time retirement also allows you to address one of my biggest retirement fears, which is becoming bored as a retiree. As a part-time retiree, whenever you have had enough recharging and find yourself searching for things to do to keep busy and engaged, you can start looking for your next work opportunity. By continuing to engage with the working world on a somewhat regular basis you will meet a new group of people and assume responsibilities requiring your mental effort and learned skills. You will not have time to be bored.

[See 7 Misconceptions About Retired Life.]

However, this dynamic retirement strategy may not be for everyone and comes with risks. You will need to save up for an extended period of unemployment and could be offered a reduced salary at a new job. You also might not be able to fully enjoy your time off knowing that you will need to find another job at some point. Part-time retirees need to decide whether they want to continue to invest in learning new skills and technologies and compete with younger workers who are eager to prove themselves.

It might take some experimentation to find a role that suits you, while also allowing enough of the free time you crave. If one job does not work out you might need to find another or extend your retirement phase a bit longer. This variety and change could be exciting, and you will have a considerable amount of control over when and how you work. But part-time retirement could also be stressful if job offers are not forthcoming when you want or expect them to be.

[See 5 Alternatives to Traditional Retirement.]

For me the ideal would be a cycle of working for one year and then taking three months of retirement. During the first retirement weeks I would take care of my to-do list. Then I would take an extended journey of three to four weeks. After that I would start researching and gearing up for my next job adventure. With such a plan, there is always something new and fresh on the horizon.

Dave Bernard is not yet retired but has begun his due diligence to plan for a satisfying retirement. With a focus on the non-financial aspects of retiring, he shares his discoveries and insights on his blog Retirement-Only the Beginning.

Read more from the original source:
Growing Interest in Part-Time Retirement

DETROIT and TORONTO, Feb. 9, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Compuware Corporation (Nasdaq:CPWR - News), the technology performance company, today announced the launch of new website performance benchmarks in Canada. The new benchmarks for the automotive, banking, brokerage, and insurance industries allow companies to compare and track website performance against competitors and market leaders.

Compuware Gomez benchmarks rank the web and mobile site performance of leading companies within an industry to determine which companies are providing the best online experiences and the companies that are not meeting users' expectations. This comparative measurement helps companies gauge user expectations in their industry and make informed decisions about investing in their online operations. Benchmarking allows companies to proactively manage website performance and improve online experiences to drive increased profitability.

Online shoppers in Canada spent C$15.30 billion (US$15.02 billion) on goods and services purchased over the Internet last year, according to a report from Statistics Canada. Online channels have become the preferred way to access personal information and to carry out transactions - bank transfers and bill payment, managing an online investment portfolio, vehicle search and purchase process, and shopping for insurance. By improving website performance, businesses have an opportunity to attract new customers and forge deeper relationships by providing a better online experience.

The new benchmarks for Canada include:

Automotive: Backbone, Last Mile

Insurance (life):Backbone, Last Mile

Banking: Backbone, Last Mile and Transaction

Brokerage: Backbone, Last Mile and Transaction

"Canadian companies need to consider the performance, availability and overall quality of the online experience they're offering customers," said Jonathan Ranger, Gomez Benchmark Practice Director at Compuware. "Benchmarks not only provide valuable insight for Canadian businesses into how their website performance compares with competitors and market leaders, but also a tool for measuring performance over time."

For more information about benchmarking, download "10 Best Practices for Benchmarking Web and Mobile Site Performance." The paper provides best practices for benchmarking web or mobile site performance based on top performing web and mobile sites.

Gomez Benchmarks are an impartial, quantitative measurement of comparative web and mobile site performance and rank the web and mobile performance of companies across three key metrics:

Response Time -- measures the time elapsed while downloading a page or an entire multistep transaction process. Availability -- measures the percentage of successfully completed tests out of total test attempts for the measurement period. Consistency -- measures the standard deviation of the response time of successful tests completed.

Benchmarks are used by organizations to compare and track performance against competitors and market leaders; baseline and track performance over time; and as key indicators of success for business and IT site owners. Gomez publishes hundreds of global web and mobile performance benchmarks based on more than 20 million monthly tests across 3,000 companies in 13 countries and include:

Home Page Backbone Benchmarks: measure the performance of the website's home page from the Internet Backbone. Home Page Last Mile Benchmarks: measure the performance of the home page from the end user's desktop taking into account the real user's connection speed. Transaction Benchmarks: measure the performance of a key business process such as ordering a product or making a stock trade. Mobile Benchmarks: measure the performance of mobile site's home page on the largest carriers and top devices.

The Gomez platform is the industry's leading solution for optimizing the performance of web, non-web, mobile, streaming and cloud applications. Driven by end-user experience, Gomez provides a unified view across the entire application delivery chain, from a user's browser or mobile device, across the Internet or a corporate WAN, in the cloud, to inside the data center, eliminating blind spots from the First Mile to the Last Mile.

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Compuware Corporation

Compuware Corporation, the technology performance company, provides software, experts and best practices to ensure technology works well and delivers value. Compuware solutions make the world's most important technologies perform at their best for leading organizations worldwide, including 46 of the top 50 Fortune 500 companies and 12 of the top 20 most visited U.S. web sites. Learn more at: http://www.compuware.com.

The Compuware logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=5950

Link:
Compuware Launches New Website Performance Benchmarks for Canada

These are stories Report on Business is following Thursday, Feb. 9, 2012. Get the top business stories through the day on BlackBerry or iPhone by bookmarking our mobile-friendly webpage.

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Bankruptcies to rise
Personal bankruptcies among Canadians are expected to begin rising again this year after falling from the peak of the recession, though the toll will be much milder, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce said today.

"The likelihood is that the share of low-paying jobs in the Canadian economy will rise during the course of the year," said Benjamin Tal of CIBC World Markets.

"The soft economic environment suggests that growth rates in forced self-employment and part-time jobs are likely to accelerate in the coming quarters," he said in a new report.

"As well, a projected net decline in public sector employment in 2012 and a much weaker hiring pace in the construction sector will act as a negative for overall income growth in the economy. Accordingly, we project that the insolvency rate in Canada will start trending upward, if only mildly, over the course of the year."

Differentiating between bankruptcies and so-called proposals, a means by which debtors negotiate new terms with their creditors, Mr. Tal noted the decline in personal bankruptcies, based on the latest data. Indeed, the rate of bankruptcy, estimated at 2.8 per 1,000 people, is at its lowest since 1993.

"However, the speed of the decline in the bankruptcy rate since its peak of 2009 exaggerates the real progress in household credit performance," he said.

"Note that in recent years, the number of proposals ... has risen dramatically, with the proposal rate reaching an all-time high in 2011. That's largely due to changes to the Bankruptcy Insolvency Act (BIA) in 2008 with the most significant being the increase in the limit of the size of non-mortgage debt for qualifying for a proposal from $75,000 to $250,000 - making proposals more attractive relative to the bankruptcy route."

The overall insolvency rate, which includes both bankruptcies and proposals, has improved markedly since the slump, but remains a bit above the pre-recession level.

It's not unemployment so much, he said, but rather "the ongoing increase in the share of low-paying jobs" that's a better indicator.

U.S. banks in foreclosure deal
The U.S. government and 49 states announced today what they called the biggest federal-state civil settlement ever, a $25-billion (U.S.) deal "with the nation's five largest mortgage servicers to address mortgage home servicing and foreclosure abuses."

The agreement will see principals reduced and other loans refinanced, and will go some way to correcting the housing market. But for many who lost their homes, an estimated 750,000 of them, according to reports, the amount they're expected to get is about $2,000.

At least $10-billion will go toward cutting principal on mortgages that are either delinquent or at threat of default. Another $3-billion is earmarked for refinancing loans to borrowers who are underwater. Further, $1.5-billion will be put into a fund for people who lost their homes from 2008 through 2011 and who meet certain criteria.

Some $7-billion will go to other forms of relief, and some will go to the governments involved.

Greek leaders strike deal
Greek politicians today agreed to yet another round of austerity measures aimed at securing a further €130-billion in bailout money as it heads toward a crucial March bond redemption.

The agreement struck by the politicians today is reported to include pension cutbacks, a 22-per-cent reduction in the minimum wage and another €3-billion or so in government cost reduction.

There are still questions over details and whether the Greek agreement actually flies, but consider the cost so far.

Already the country has been beset by strikes and protests against previous rounds of austerity meant to try to bring its deficits into line and ease a debt crisis that has raged for two years now, and unions promise more demonstrations. Greece has just entered its fifth year of recession, and unemployment has spiked to almost 21 per cent.

Some observers, though, still see bankruptcy as unavoidable at some point.

"I think it's inevitable that a default will come - whether it's now or later makes no difference," said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson.

"Come April and the elections the political landscape could well change radically as incumbent Greek politicians continue to lose support," he told me today. "It's wishful thinking if the Troika think that further spending cuts will put Greece on a sustainable path. The economic data seen this week and this morning shows that the Greek economy is imploding and the appetite for austerity is fast dissipating."

Europeans hold rates
Both the European Central Bank and the Bank of England held their benchmark rates steady today, though the latter boosted its asset-buying program by £50-billion.

The ECB held its key rate at 1 per cent, and said it's seeing tentative signs of stabilization.

Some had expected the central bank to cut interest rates, given the deepening economic troubles in Europe, notably in regions such as Greece and Spain, where unemployment is above 20 per cent.

"While the ECB made no policy changes this month, Draghi didn’t rule out further moves," said senior economist Benjamin Reitzes of BMO Nesbitt Burns.

"However, with economic downside risks no longer 'substantial,'" it looks as though the economic data will need to weaken markedly before any further easing will be considered. The incoming data will be watched closely over the next couple of months, to ensure the recent signs of stabilization are durable."

ISPs not bound by broadcast rules
Canada's Internet service providers aren't bound by the country's broadcast regulations, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled today.

Cultural groups had argued that companies such as BCE Inc. BCE-T and Rogers Communications Inc. RCI.B-T that provide Internet connections to their customers should be considered broadcasters, because they distribute content, The Globe and Mail's Steve Ladurantaye reports.

Manulife swings to loss
Not the best day for Canada's Manulife Financial Corp. MFC-T.

The insurer sank to a fourth-quarter loss of $69-million or 5 cents a share, from a profit of $1.8-billion or $1 a year earlier, taking a $665-million goodwill charge related to the impact of low interest rates on its U.S. business, The Globe and Mail's Tara Perkins reports.

The company also announced that its chief financial officer, Michael Bell, will be leaving. Mr. Bell, who has been with the insurer since the summer of 2009, will be returning to Philadelphia, where he worked before taking the job in Manulife’s Toronto head office, the company said.

Canaccord strikes deal
One of Canada’s biggest investment banks is teaming with a Chinese bank to create a $1-billion (U.S.) fund to invest in Canadian resources companies, an initiative unveiled as part of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s visit to China, Globe and Mail Streetwise columnist Boyd Erman reports.

Canaccord Financial Inc. CF-T and Import Export Bank of China will create what they call the “Canada-China Natural Resource Fund.” Senior executives from the companies were scheduled signed a memorandum of understanding on the plan with Mr. Harper and Chinese Vice-Premier Li Keqiang present.

BCE boosts profit
BCE Inc. BCE-T, Canada's telecommunications giant, posted a sharply higher fourth-quarter profit of $486-million, boosted by smartphones and last year's takeover of CTV.

The 62 cent-a-share profit was up 53 per cent from a year earlier, though still shy of analysts' forecasts, The Globe and Mail's Simon Avery reports.

Bell Canada’s mobile unit delivered a strong performance in the holiday season, adding 132,000 post-paid customers, who sign contracts for multiple years. Mobile revenue rose 6 per cent, as customers spent 32 per cent more to send more video, images, texts and other data over the airwaves.

BCE also said it expects profit to be flat to slightly higher this year.

"Overall, the results show that competitive pressures in the market are accelerating," said analyst Maher Yaghi of Desjardins. "We view revenue and EBITDA growth in 2012 to be supportive of continued dividend growth."

Shoppers hikes dividend
Canada's Shoppers Drug Mart Corp. SC-T boosted its quarter dividend by 6 per cent today, to 26.5 cents, as it reported gains in fourth-quarter profit, revenue and same-store sales despite feeling the hit from new generic drug rules.

Shoppers profit climbed to $176-million or 82 cents a share from $169-million or 78 cents a year earlier, The Globe and Mail's Marina Strauss reports. Sales climbed 43.3 per cent to $2.6-billion, and presciption sales by 2.8 per cent to just shy of $1.2-billion. Same store-sales, a key measure in the retail industry, rose 3.4 per cent.

"Considering the many challenges that we faced as a Company this past year, I am encouraged by our operating and financial performance," said chief executive officer Domenic Pilla.

Kodak ditches digital cameras
The company that brought the world a camera you could hold in your hand is getting out of the business.

The announcement today by Eastman Kodak Co., which is operating under bankruptcy protection, is one of those moments (no pun intended) given how it succumbed in the digital era.

Kodak said it would phase out its digital camera, pocket video camera and digital picture frame businesses in the first half of the year, to focus instead on brand licencing and printing.

"For some time, Kodak’s strategy has been to improve margins in the capture device business by narrowing our participation in terms of product portfolio, geographies and retail outlets," said chief marketing officer Pradeep Jotwani. "Today’s announcement is the logical extension of that process, given our analysis of the industry trends."

After the restructuring, it said, it expects annual savings of more than $100-million (U.S.).

Air Canada posts loss
Higher fuel costs helped drive Canada's biggest airline to a fourth-quarter loss.

Air Canada AC.B-T today posted a loss of $60-million or 22 cents a share, compared to a profit of $89-million or 27 cents a year earlier. Revenue climbed more than 3 per cent to $2.7-billion as fuel costs surged to more than $800-million.

Separately, The Globe and Mail's Brent Jang reports, the Air Canada Pilots Association today called a strike vote, saying contract talks covering 3,000 pilots have stalled amid management demands for concessions.

Business ticker

Go here to see the original:
Personal bankruptcies set to start rising again, CIBC says

By Louis D. Johnston | Published Thu, Feb 9 2012 8:50 am

How is Minnesota doing compared to other states? Are we falling behind? Staying ahead? People ask these questions whenever I give a public talk. Those questions lie behind much of the policy discussion going on in St. Paul about the governor's job plan, right-to-work laws and tax policy.

Over the next few weeks, I'll take you on a guided tour of some data that sheds light on how well Minnesota is doing relative to other states and what these data imply about public policy. This week, I'll focus on one measure: per capita personal income. The take away: As Garrison Keillor says, we're above average, but it hasn't always been that way.

Minnesota in the long run
Per capita personal income equals the total amount of income earned by residents of a state divided by that state's population. (The complete definition is available here. In 2010, per capita income in Minnesota reached $42,847, while the national average hovered at $39,945 in 2010.

Per capita income is not in and of itself a measure of well-being. However, when adjusted properly for changes in prices, per capita income does tend to be positively associated with many things people value, including a high material standard of living, better health and life expectancies, and better education. These are the data I use in the figures below.

The figure below shows the raw data on Minnesota's per capita income relative to the national average. Notice the U-shaped pattern: Minnesota started out at the national average, fell below it, and then steadily climbed above the average.

The line is smooth from 1880 to 1920 because we do not have annual data before 1929. Our best estimates are that Minnesota was at the national average in 1880, was slightly above in 1900, then fell to about 85 percent of the national average in 1920. Annual data begin in 1929 and confirm Minnesota's position.

Terry Fitzgerald, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, first presented the data for 1929 onward in a 2003 article which tells an important story: Starting at 85 percent of the national average, Minnesota reached parity in the 1960s and has been above average since the 1970s.

How did Minnesota become above average? We'll explore this question over the coming weeks, but here's the short version: High rates of labor force participation (especially by women), investments in human capital (such as education and health care), and investments in physical capital (both by private funders and public agencies) contributed to Minnesota's strong economic performance.

Minnesota and its neighbors
We often hear of how Minnesota must compete with its neighbors for businesses and jobs. We ultimately care about these things because they help determine our citizens' standard of living. So, how does Minnesota stack up against our neighbors, namely Wisconsin, Iowa, South Dakota and North Dakota?

Let's start by smoothing the data so that we can see the long-run trend. (For those who are interested: I applied a Hodrick-Prescott filter just as Fitzgerald did in his work.) Here is what we get for Minnesota:

Now, let's compare this with Wisconsin over the same period:

Minnesota's per capita income exceeded Wisconsin's starting in the 1960s. Not only that, but Wisconsin fell relative to the national average at the same time as Minnesota rose. Comparing Minnesota and Iowa tells a similar story:

Average income in Minnesota exceeded Iowa's in the early 1960s and never looked back.

How about the Dakotas? We hear quite often how well they are doing, so let's take a look. Here is South Dakota versus Minnesota:

South Dakota certainly grew steadily over the past 25 years, but its average income still hasn't reached the national average. Further, the high points in the late 1940s, the mid-1970s and the late 2000s all correspond to periods of high prices for agricultural commodities, pointing to a potential weakness in South Dakota's economy.

The situation is even starker when we compare Minnesota and North Dakota:

North Dakota exhibits the same patterns as South Dakota; they are exaggerated by the importance of oil and gas extraction in North Dakota and thus make their economy even more subject to booms and busts.

What about some other states?

Two states to which Minnesota is often compared are Indiana and Texas. Indiana, for example, recently passed a right-to-work law and this will no doubt be cited in our Legislature's debates on this issue. Texas is known as a low-tax, small government state that its governor, Rick Perry, cited as an example that the rest of the nation could follow.

Here is Minnesota versus Indiana:

Indiana went in exactly the opposite direction of Minnesota since World War II, with per capita income about 85 percent of the national average.

How about Texas versus Minnesota?

The Lone Star State shows a pattern similar to the Dakotas, with booms and busts in oil and farm prices driving per capita incomes. And, despite low taxes and little regulation, Texas still hasn't reached the national average in per capita income.

Implications for policy
These data are only the first pieces of a larger puzzle we must assemble in order to think about economic policy in Minnesota. However, they paint a very clear picture. First, Minnesota did well since World War II both in absolute terms and relative to our neighbors. Second, Minnesota performed better than states such as Indiana and Texas that are held up as examples of low taxes and minimal government.

Obviously, the past doesn't predict the future. It could be that the factors that made Minnesota above average no longer apply in the early 21st century. But before we enact radical reforms to improve our competitiveness, let's spend some time ensuring that we have the record straight. We'll keep assembling that record in the coming weeks.

Read more:
Minnesota's per capita personal income compared to its neighbors | Macro, Micro, Minnesota

“ASAP 2012” continues to spread the love this Sunday (February 12) as its fills the hearts of viewers with a massive dose of love, romance, and passion as ASAP stars celebrateValentine’s Day “up close and personal” for the first time!

Feel the love on its purest form as Mr. Pure Energy Gary Valenciano leads the whole ASAP Kapamilya for one heartfelt and inspiring number, while Pop Royalty Sarah Geronimo’s road to superstardom continues as she conquers the ASAP stage once more with another exhilarating concert performance in ‘SOS.’

Sing your heart’s desires with Angeline Quinto on “Angeline on Q”; and the sweetest serenades from Martin Nievera, ZsaZsa Padilla, Vina Morales, Christian Bautista, Jericho Rosales, KC Concepcion, Nikki Gil, Yeng Constantino, Jovit Baldivino, Bryan Termulo,and ASAP Sessionistas. Double the rock with Next Gen Rock Idol Bamboo and Pinoy Pride Arnel Pineda sharing ultimate concert power for one rousing performance!

To make the ‘V Day’ sweeter, the lead stars of the official Valentine movie of the Philippines “Unofficially Yours” John Lloyd Cruz and Angel Locsin presents a memorable production number that sill surely cheer up everybody’s hearts. Meanwhile young superstar and Pinay Master Chef Judy Anne Santos wafts a special surprise together with the finalists of the “Junior Master Chef Pinoy Edition.” Plus “ASAP 2012” fans will surely swoon over ASAP dream valentinos John Lloyd, Jericho Rosales, Gerald Anderson, Billy Crawford, Luis Manzano, and Piolo Pascual.

Also a must-see this Sunday is the grand birthday bash for “ASAP 2012” and Star Magic’s main man, Director Johnny Manahan! Witness the star-studded celebration to be led by StarMagic’s brightest stars including Diether Ocampo, Bea Alonzo, Piolo Pascual, Jodi Sta Maria, and Angelica Panganiban.

Meanwhile, hold on to your seats as ASAP Supahdance delivers another hair raising performance with Maja Salvador, John Prats, Rayver Cruz, Iya Villiania, Bugoy Carino, Xyriel Manabat, Erich Gonzales, Enchong Dee, Enrique Gil, Sam Concepcion, Empress, Shaina Magdayao, and Kim Chiu.

Watch out also for the much awaited reunion that everyone is waiting for many years as it will happen once more right on the ASAP centerstage!

Spend your weekend with your loved ones and watch 2011 PMPC Star Awards Best Musical Variety Show and Golden Screen Awards 2011’s Outstanding Musical Program, “ASAP 2012” this Sunday, 1pm, on ABS-CBN.

Read more:
V-Day up close and personal this Sunday in ASAP 2012!

Feb. 10, 2012

Boise State Team Challenge Results Day One

Husky Classic Results Day One

TUCSON - The Arizona Wildcat No. 5 men’s and No. 10 women’s track and field teams began the first day of competition in the Husky Classic and the Boise State Team Challenge on Friday. UA started the weekend off on a strong note, setting three personal bests.

At the Husky Classic, junior Jen Bergman and sophomore Elvin Kibet ran in the 5,000-meter invite. Kibet had a personal-best time of 16:02.76, earning a 10th-place finish. Bergman had a personal best as well, clocking a time of 16:08.26 and finishing 14th.

“I’m very happy with Jen and Elvin tonight,” associate head coach James Li said. “They both had significant personal bests. It was a very, very good performance. It was a really good run for them and I think both of them have a really good chance of making it to the NCAA Championships.”

Freshman Haley Stenquist and sophomore Amanda Russell ran in the open 5,000 meters. Stenquist finished in 40th place, running her first collegiate 5K race in 17:09.47. Russell had a time of 17:23.92, good for 47th place. Freshman Patrick Zacharias ran in the men’s open 5K race. He clocked a time of 14:37.30, earning 53rd place.

Junior Taylor Freeman continued her hot streak in the weight throw at the Boise State Team Challenge, setting her fourth consecutive personal best in four meets this year. Freeman came in third, throwing 58-8.75 (17.90m). Junior Tyler Johnson competed in the weight throw and he took second place with a season-best mark 58-6.75 (17.85m).

“I thought Taylor threw very well, and Tyler did too,” assistant coach Craig Carter said. “I thought they both looked really good technically. Things are really coming along well for them. They are doing really well for the amount of time we are training for it, I’m prepping them for outdoor, that’s my goal. It is really nice that they are throwing the weight well and getting personal best marks, but the whole goal is for them to throw the hammer really well outdoors.”

Competition resumes tomorrow at the Husky Classic at 8 a.m. PT. The Boise State Team Challenge resumes at 9:15 a.m. MT. The Millrose Games begin at 4:15 p.m. ET and the USA Track and Field Classic starts at 5:15 p.m. CT.

Live results from the Boise State Team Challenge will be available at http://www.broncosports.com. Husky Classic live results will be available at gohuskies.com. Results for the Millrose Games will be available at millrosegames.org. The USA Track and Field Classic will have live results available at flashresults.com. For complete results from the events and continued coverage of Arizona Wildcat men’s and women’s track field, visit ArizonaWildcats.com.

See the rest here:
Track & Field, Cross Country. Wildcats Set Three Personal Bests On Day One

The Alabama Board of Education will discuss two-year college Chancellor Freida Hill's future at an upcoming meeting after an evaluation showed the board is sharply divided over her performance.

Of the nine board members, four -- Ella Bell, Stephanie Bell, Betty Peters and Dr. Charles Elliott -- gave Hill many low marks on an evaluation that rates her in dozens of categories grouped into four sections: goals, personal qualities, performance and key job responsibilities, and relations with the public. In addition, board members rated Hill on their personal experiences with her.

Members' criticisms of Hill include a lack of communication with the board, a fractured relationship with K-12 education, a poor relationship with the media and low morale in the two-year system.

Of the remaining board members, three -- Gov. Robert Bentley, Randy McKinney and Mary Scott Hunter -- gave Hill overwhelmingly high ratings, while Yvette Richardson's and Gary Warren's appraisals were mixed.

McKinney, the board's vice president, said he believes the board, which next meets on Feb. 23, likely will place Hill on a performance improvement plan, which will outline specific goals for her to meet and give her six months to meet them. Her contract states that upon an unsatisfactory performance evaluation, she will be given up to six months to correct deficiencies.

"Any deviation from this could be dangerous territory for this board to enter," McKinney said.

Efforts to reach Hill for comment Thursday and Friday were unsuccessful.

Bentley, who serves as the board's president, agreed that Hill's goals should be more specific and suggested the board draft them and re-evaluate Hill in six months. He rated Hill highly on the evaluation, giving her fours or fives in every category using a scale in which one was the lowest and five the highest mark she could receive.

In a letter attached to the evaluation, Bentley praised Hill for her commitment to workforce development and innovative ideas.

"She has identified several areas of need around workforce development and postsecondary access and has committed to developing creative solutions to address them," he wrote. "This is exactly the type of 'out of the box' thinking that we need in leadership roles across the state."

Opinions

Ella Bell, who gave Hill a rating of one in most categories, declined to comment, but previously has questioned whether different school board districts were receiving equitable funding in the two-year system. She represents many Black Belt areas.

"Until this matter is resolved, I really don't want to speak about it publicly," she said.

Hill began the job in December 2009, and her three-year contract expires Nov. 30. According to her contract, Hill receives an annual salary of $289,900, as well as the use of a car and a housing allowance of $24,000 a year. She also can earn up to $15,000 a year in performance bonuses, but has not received any bonuses since joining the system. She had been deputy commissioner of Georgia's technical college system before coming to Alabama.

Hill is the sixth person to lead Alabama's two-year college network since it was hit hard by a corruption scandal in 2006 that led to more than a dozen former college and system administrators and employees being charged with money laundering, theft and conspiracy.

McKinney, who said overall he is happy with the job Hill is doing, said he thinks other members' dissatisfaction comes down to a few disgruntled college presidents who are speaking to them.

A small group of community college presidents, he said, want to have their own lobbyists again, even though policies were put into place after the corruption scandal that doesn't allow that.

"Apparently, they do not like the policies that the board put in place to require more transparency and allowing no pass-through earmarks, along with other reform policies," he said. "We are now one system, and the Alabama Community College System speaks with one voice at the Legislature."

McKinney said some board members also are unhappy with personnel decisions Hill has made, but he called their response to those decisions "wrong and out of line."

"All in all, the majority of the people who work with the chancellor are happy with her," McKinney said. "She should be able to put people on her team who she wants on her team without having to answer to the board."

Board member Stephanie Bell, who gave Hill low ratings in many categories, wrote in her evaluation that morale is "extremely low within the department and throughout the system."

"Legislators have shared their concerns about a lack of communication/presence, and members of the media do not know the chancellor," Bell wrote. "Some board members have more 'standing' than others and there is a lack of communication with board members who are not informed/ invited when the chancellor is in their districts. Unfortunately, some perceive a lack of appreciation/respect for the board and its roles as trustees."

Stephanie Bell said Friday that Hill also has made some questionable decisions to hire highly paid administrators at a time when the education budget is lean.

Board member Mary Scott Hunter said she was perplexed by some of her fellow board members.

"I regret the board's discontent with the chancellor's work performance. I respectfully disagree with some of their assessments," she said. "I expect we will be implementing a performance improvement plan, and I agree with Gov. Bentley that goals laid out should be specific and measurable."

Join the conversation by clicking to comment or email Marie Leech at mleech@bhamnews.com.

More here:
Performance of chancellor for Alabama's two-year colleges Freida Hill polarizes board of education

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While making the rounds on a slow Sunday late afternoon, the NFL page at ESPN.com greeted me with this click-grabbing headline:  “Football Apocalypse?”  Given the massive withdrawal symptoms that many of us are feeling on this first Sunday without pro football since Labor Day Weekend coupled with the return of The Walking Dead, I thought the article would have something to do with the short-term disappearance of the game and its impact on the millions who wandered aimlessly around their houses today with nothing to do.

Instead, the item speculates openly on the possible permanent disappearance of the game.

To get there, Tyler Cowen and Kevin Grier (yep, I’d never heard of them, either) have cobbled together for the “Grantland” microsite an exercise in dot connection that begins with lawsuits arising from concussions and ends with football no longer existing.

I’ve got a fairly obvious bias on this one, but I still need to point it out.  I now make my living from football.  And I have a strong interest in seeing the sport become even more popular.  I also have spent nearly 40 years following the sport, and I hope to spend the next 40 (or more) doing the same.  Thus, I naturally am inclined to downplay anything that could prevent me from covering and following football.

That said, there are many flaws in the logic put forth by Cowen and Grier, starting with their efforts to set the mood for the potential extinction of football.  Here are a few of them.

“If you look at the stocks in the Fortune 500 from 1983, for example, 40 percent of those companies no longer exist,” they write.  And the NFL has continuously grown in popularity from the 30 years before and the 30 years after 1983, so what’s your point?

“The original version of Napster no longer exists, largely because of lawsuits,” they write.  Given that the original version of Napster was fundamentally premised on the illegal dissemination of copyrighted musical content, the lawsuits, and the death of the original version of Napster, were inevitable.  The original version of football (you know, the one where they didn’t wear helmets at all and grew their hair long because they thought it would protect the skull) also no longer exists.

“In the first half of the 20th century, the three big sports were baseball, boxing, and horse racing, and today only one of those is still a marquee attraction,” they write.  If any of those sports translated as well on TV as football does, they’d all still be marquee attractions.  Even before most people lost interest in boxing, whether due to an absence of compelling personalities in the sport, a chronic perception/reality of corruption, or the inherently barbaric nature of two men repeatedly punching each other in the head, the mainstream audience didn’t appreciate or enjoy the nuances of the so-called sweet science.  Instead, watching boxing was all about waiting for a knockdown and otherwise pretending to know what was happening through the flurry of activity that occurred when someone wasn’t in danger of getting knocked down.

Likewise, horse racing is an antiquated activity that can be fully appreciated only by being there, and baseball became America’s pastime in an era when there weren’t many ways to pass the time.

With the advent of television, football gradually became the most popular sport in the country, with more than 166 million tuning in for some portion of last Sunday night’s Super Bowl.  Today, as the national audience has shattered from three channels into a thousand options, only one event simultaneously pulls together a large chunk of the populace:  NFL football.

As to their contention that football is in peril, the biggest hole in Cowen and Grier’s theory comes from the presumption that the rash of lawsuits filed in recent months against the NFL automatically will spread to lower levels of the sport, and then strangle it.  Though a proliferation of civil complaints could happen, there are several important differences between lawsuits being filed against the NFL and lawsuits that would be filed against college, high school, and pee-wee programs.

First, as a matter of basic physics, the collisions are far less intense at the lower levels of the sport.  At the NFL level, the size and the speed and the intensity of the contact make brain injuries far more common.  Also, with more practices and more (and longer) games come more opportunities for impact.

Second, many of the former NFL players suing the league are motivated by resentment over the perception, legitimate or otherwise, that the men who made the game what it is aren’t receiving their fair share of the current financial windfall.  And so with no legal ability to try to strike a better deal for themselves after the fact, some players are looking for other ways to get that to which they believe they are morally entitled.

Third, while insurance policies would provide much of the compensation for any judgments or settlements at the non-NFL level, there’s not the same multi-billion-dollar pot of money to be raided.  With football more popular and successful than ever, lawyers who are in the business of staying in business target the biggest fish.  And the fish don’t get much bigger right now than in the NFL.

As to the potential death of football via the courtroom, Cowen and Grier also presume, prematurely if not incorrectly, that the lawsuits will be deemed to have actual merit.  Regardless of the maneuverings that occur before a trial begins, liability ultimately will be determined by a group of average Americans who will be at some level influenced by the reality that anyone with half a brain should know that banging the brain into other brains could cause injuries to said brains.  Though, as it relates to the NFL, there very well could be compelling evidence of secret studies that were hidden and/or twisted in order to conceal the true impact of chronic head trauma, it’s highly unlikely that any similar proof of shenanigans exists at the college, high school, and pee-wee levels.

Though concerns over head injuries could cause some helicopter parents to prevent their kids from doing anything that entails wearing a helmet of any kind (including flying a helicopter), the sport continues to thrive even after the fairly obvious link between chronic head trauma and an increased risk of long-term cognitive problems has officially become completely obvious.  Football has become a fundamental part of our shared experience, and boys, young men, and adult males will continue to be willing to assume the risk of playing.

As we’ve said before, our nation was founded by risk takers.  Millions risk their health and well-being every day in a wide variety of potentially dangerous jobs.  Others freely accept the possibility of injury and/or death arising from non-paying endeavors like riding a motorcycle, jumping out of a plane, climbing a wall of rock, and/or trying to kill with a gun a wide assortment of creatures that can kill humans without one.

But the biggest factor that Cowen and Grier ignore is that the NFL is trying to make the sport safer, from the top down.  The head is receiving more protection than ever, with perhaps the bigger risk to the NFL not the evaporation of the supply of future players but the alienation of fans who continue to want to see big hits and who complain loudly about efforts to make an inherently violent sport less violent.

Until there’s a way to identify the presence of Chronic Traumatic Encephelopathy without carving into the brain and unless there’s evidence that even mild blows to the head that cause no concussion-like symptoms nevertheless create CTE, football will continue to thrive.  Even if the parade of presumptions and possibilities put forth by Cowen and Grier ultimate come to fruition, football will make whatever changes it has to make in order to endure.

Unlike other sports that have enjoyed their moments in the sun, football has become too big to not make whatever adjustments need to be made to ensure that the game is as safe as it possibly can be.  Though the game will never be completely safe, many jobs and hobbies aren’t completely safe.  Unless we’re all destined to walk around in plastic bubbles and pay money to watch people play chess, football isn’t going away.

And the folks at ESPN who place an article speculating on that possible demise of the sport that has made ESPN what it now is know that football is here to stay, or they wouldn’t have dropped Cowen and Grier’s article in the top center of the ESPN.com NFL page.

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Plastic screw and dispensing closures dominate home and personal care closures, but pumps and triggers are the most dynamic formats. With consumers influenced by product delivery and performance, closures are increasingly a point of difference. Adding such value is especially important in mature developed economies, where growth is increasingly hard to come by. Nevertheless, plastic dispensing closures will still account for most growth, with emerging regions and BRIC countries to lead the way.

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Dosing and Dispensing Drives Home and Personal Care Closures

By Chris Hill | More Articles
February 11, 2012 |

Apple is highlighted in The Motley Fool's new report,"3 Hidden Winners of the iPhone, iPad, and Android Revolution." The report highlights three other companies that are poised to cash in on the booming smartphone and tablet trend in the United States. You can get instant access to these companies simply by clicking here -- it's free.

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