Dear Abby: ; Mom irritated that son shares secrets with wife

DEAR ABBY: My son "Clay" has been married seven years. There aretimes I like to discuss things of a personal nature with him havingto do with our family, and I have asked him not to mention our talkswith his wife. These discussions have nothing to do with her.

The problem is whatever he tells her, she repeats to her wholefamily. I do not want our personal problems and other matters to beknown by everyone.

My other son has no trouble keeping our talks just between us,but Clay says he and his wife have "no secrets" from each other.Abby, is it OK to ask a married son or daughter not to divulgethings to a spouse that have nothing to do with her or …

Vet's Heroism Recognized 64 Years Later

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - A New Zealand Maori trooper was posthumously honored Saturday for courage in battle during WWII - 64 years after he was denied a top gallantry award despite a commendation signed by four commanding generals.

Britain's Prince Andrew, the Duke of York and second son of Queen Elizabeth II, attended functions in New Zealand's North Island city of Rotorua commemorating the bravery of Lance Sgt. Haane Manahi, who died in 1987.

Representing his mother, who is also New Zealand's Queen, the Duke handed Manahi's son, Geoffrey, a ceremonial sword, altar cloth and a citation from the Queen.

Manahi, an indigenous Maori, had earlier been awarded a …

Switzerland breaks with tradition on tax evasion

Switzerland's days as a safe haven for the world's tax evaders are numbered.

Under pressure from the United States and other troubled economies, the Swiss government announced Friday that it will cooperate in international tax investigations, breaking with a long-standing tradition of protecting wealthy foreigners accused of hiding billions of dollars. Austria and Luxembourg also said they would help.

"Against the background of the financial crisis, international cooperation has grown stronger particularly against tax crimes," Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz said.

But he insisted that the secrecy of Swiss banks would remain intact …

Eastern execs, airline enter innocent pleas

NEW YORK Eastern Airlines, the first U.S. air carrier ever toface a criminal indictment, and eight top managers pleaded not guiltyMonday to charges of falsifying records to avoid expensive flightdelays and cancellations.

U.S. District Judge I. Leo Glasser released all eight withoutbail and scheduled the next hearing for Sept. 12.

The government contends that between July, 1985, and October,1989, Eastern officials kept phony records at Kennedy Internationaland La Guardia airports in New York, Hartsfield …

Resource advocates available to help churches

Winnipeg

Mennonite Church Canada's Resource Centre just got a little bigger and more personal.

Four volunteers-Lisa Carr-Pries (Eastern Canada), Jeff Thiessen (Man.), Marion Bueckert (Sask.), and Tracy Brown Ewert (Alta.)-are in place and eager to serve as extensions of the MC Canada Resource Centre in Winnipeg. They will help congregations identify and locate faith formation and spiritual nurture resources that can be hard to find. Only one more position, in B.C., needs to be filled.

Resource Centre manager Arlyn Friesen Epp observes that congregations often work alone, trying to do outreach, faith formation and leadership training by themselves. Resource …

Oil drops below US$89 a barrel as concern over US outlook drives down stock markets

Oil prices fell sharply Monday as fears over the U.S. economy drove down stock markets in Asia and Europe.

Further pressure came from concerns OPEC won't raise crude production levels.

Light, sweet crude for February delivery fell US$1.63 to US$88.94 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by the afternoon in Europe. The contract rose 44 cents to settle at US$90.57 a barrel on Friday.

In London, Brent crude futures fell US$ 1.33 to US$87.90 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Oil prices have now retreated more than US$10 from a record above US$100 a barrel early this year on worries a flagging U.S. economy …

wastrel spirits

'Arthur" is a fairly close remake of the great 1981 Dudley Moore movie, with pleasures of its own. It shares some of the same strengths and virtues, and if it lacks Dudley Moore as Arthur and John Gielgud playing his butler Hobson, well, it has Russell Brand and Helen Mirren playing his nanny Hobson. That's not a tradeoff, but it's a good try.

The thing about Moore, who people persisted in calling "Cuddly Dudley" although he hated it, is that he was just plain lovable. The thing about Russell Brand is that he isn't, not much, and he should get credit here for at least being a good deal more likable than he usually chooses to seem. He plays the alcoholic zillionaire Arthur Bach as …

Occupational violence in general practice: a whole-of-practice problem. Results of a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Objective. To examine the experiences of occupational violence in general practitioner (GP) and non-GP staff. Further objectives were to compare prevalence of violence in GP and non-GP staff and to examine levels of apprehension and perceptions of control over violence.

Design. Cross-sectional questionnaire-based study.

Setting. A network of research general practices, New South Wales, Australia.

Participants. GPs and non-GP staff - receptionist, practice-management, nursing and allied health staff.

Main outcome measure(s). Experience of occupational violence during the previous 12 months. Other outcomes examined were workplace apprehension …

Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling to have season-ending surgery, says career might be over

Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling says he's out for the season, and his career may be over.

The 41-year-old right-hander said Friday on Boston radio station WEEI he will have shoulder surgery next week.

"My season is over and there is a pretty decent chance I have thrown my last pitch forever," he said.

Schilling's physician, Dr. Craig Morgan, confirmed to The Associated Press the surgery will be done Monday in Wilmington, Delaware.

"If you use a scale of 1 to 10 and 10 is pitching in the big leagues, I'm at about 3 right now," Schilling said.

He added: "I'm going in to make it not hurt …

Moderate not challenging Bean Republican Beaubien says congresswoman is tough to beat

He would have been the only moderate Republican in a race fillingup with conservatives, but state Rep. Mark Beaubien said Monday hewill not join the crowd hoping to get a chance to unseat DemocraticRep. Melissa Bean.

"She is going to be very difficult to beat," Beaubien said. "Shehas made some mistakes -- we all do -- but overall, she is a veryRepublican vote. She is a very, very, very hard worker. She is hereevery weekend."

Beaubien, 62, of Barrington, said he is confident he could havedefeated Bean, who ousted Republican Phil Crane in the north suburban8th congressional district last year.

But Beaubien said he does not want to give up his leadershipposition …

Ligand-Induced Conformational Change in the [alpha]7 Nicotinic Receptor Ligand Binding Domain

ABSTRACT

Molecular dynamics simulations of a homology model of the ligand binding domain of the α7 nicotinic receptor are conducted with a range of bound ligands to induce different conformational states. Four simulations of 15 ns each are run with no ligand, antagonist d-tubocurarine (dTC), agonist acetylcholine (ACh), and agonist ACh with potentiator Ca^sup 2+^, to give insight into the conformations of the active and inactive states of the receptor and suggest the mechanism for conformational change. The main structural factor distinguishing the active and inactive states is that a more open, symmetric arrangement of the five subunits arises for the two agonist simulations, …

Guatemalan ex-leader taken under guard to hospital

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — A Guatemalan judge has ordered that former President Oscar Humberto Mejia Victores to be taken to a military hospital for examination to determine if he is fit to face trial on charges of crimes against humanity.

Prosecutors' spokesman Manuel Vasquez says Mejia Victores was under sedation when the judge in the case went to his apartment to conduct …

Icy highways strand thousands in China ahead of peak annual travel period

Icy highways stranded tens of thousands of travelers Friday as snow and unusually cold temperatures continued to grip large parts of central and eastern China.

Millions of other Chinese were without heat and hot water, as thick ice brought down power lines and transport disruptions aggravated chronic wintertime shortfalls of coal, which produces three-quarters of China's electricity supply.

In Guizhou province, 28 highways and expressways were closed because of ice, leaving 27,000 travelers stuck in just two cities alone, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Thousands more were stranded in the neighboring Guangxi region, while most highways in neighboring Hunan province were closed.

The coldest, snowiest winter in decades has left millions of Chinese without heat and running water, causing mounting losses. Total damage from the prolonged cold temperatures and snow so far is estimated at 6.23 billion yuan (US$864 million; euro592.84 million), Xinhua reported.

The transport shutdowns come as millions of Chinese head home from cities for the Lunar New Year, China's biggest holiday for family gatherings, which this year falls on Feb. 8.

China's Transport Ministry on Friday ordered ports to temporarily stop loading coal for export as the country struggles to meet domestic needs amid the mounting power shortages.

The shortages were expected to continue, with forecasts predicting continued cold weather and more snowfall for many regions of central and southern China.

Who benefits?

Understanding the effects of tax incentives on the pricing of securities is crucial to investors, issuers and policy-makers

Last summer, while looking for a new fuel-efficient car, a young broker was surprised to discover that the car he wanted was selling for significantly more in Canada than in the US, even though the Canadian dollar was at par with the US currency. Furthermore, the car dealer was not offering any sweetener on the green cars as demand for them was great. When asked why the price was higher, the dealer replied that buyers of such vehicles were eligible for a tax rebate from the Canadian government through the ecoAuto Rebate program. Would the buyer actually benefit from this tax refund or was the government offering a subsidy in disguise to the car dealer or manufacturer?

Governments provide various forms of tax incentives in an attempt to achieve different socioeconomic goals. Examples include tax credits for R&D, accelerated depreciation on manufacturing equipment, as well as tax incentives on equity aimed at helping firms raise capital.

Tax incentives on equity primarily take the form of reductions in dividend or capital gains taxes, but can also be given in the form of tax deductions to investors. Who benefits the most from such tax incentives-the investor who claims the deduction, the firm or some other party? How do incentives affect asset prices? Understanding the extent to which favourable tax treatment affects the pricing of securities is a fundamental issue for investors, firms' financing decisions and for tax policy.

To illustrate, assume two firms need to raise capital through the issuance of shares. Further assume the firms are identical in terms of risk, size, project opportunities, etc., with one exception: Firm X can issue new shares, the cost of which is tax deductible to individual investors in the year the shares are purchased; Firm Y can only issue nondeductible shares. As the two types of securities have identical pretax cash flows and identical risk, it is expected that individual taxpayers will bid up the price of the taxfavoured security relative to that of the tax-disfavoured one such that the after-tax cost will be the same to some investors. For example, assume the price of the nondeductible share is $100. For taxpayers with a 27% marginal tax rate it should make no difference whether they pay $100 for the regular share or $136.99 for the tax-deductible share: that is, in paying $136.99 for a tax-deductible share, taxpayers reduce their tax liability by $36.99 and, thus, the net cost of the share is $100 (see table below). If prices adjust in this manner, these taxpayers are no better off investing in the tax-favoured shares. Although they can reduce their taxes paid explicitly to the government, a hidden tax (referred to as an implicit tax) is paid indirectly through a higher pretax cost for the shares relative to similar shares not eligible for the tax deduction. Who benefits from the favourable tax treatment? In this example, Firm X reaps the entire tax benefit as it obtains a higher price for the shares ($136.99 vs. $100) relative to Firm Y. But is that always the case?

In a recent study, we examined a setting similar to the one described above in which initial public offerings (IPO) of eligible Quebec companies received favourable tax treatment at the investor level.1 Under the Quebec stock savings plan (QSSP)2, Quebec individual residents who purchased newly issued shares of certain corporations were entitled to a generous tax deduction for Quebec income-tax pur- poses of up to 150% of the cost of the shares purchased during the year. Introduced in 1979, the initial ob- jectives of the QSSP were to provide tax relief to high-income taxpayers, to increase the participation of Que- bec residents in the stock market and to help Quebec-based businesses raise capital. Over the years, the program was modified and later streamlined to focus on small firms' capitalization needs. The objectives of the study were to examine how the tax benefit was shared between the issuing firm (existing shareholders) and the new shareholders and to identify factors that could affect the sharing of the tax benefit.

The case of the QSSP

For the period under study (1982 to 2002), individuals who were resident in Quebec at the end of the taxation year were entitled to deduct, in computing provincial taxable income, a stipulated percentage of the cost of qualifying shares purchased during the year with no adverse effect on the investors' adjusted cost base. The deduction rate could be 50%, 75%, 100% or 150%, depending on the class of shares issued, the size and type of the issuing corporation, as well as the time period considered. To benefit from the deduction, individuals had to meet certain holding period requirements; otherwise, they had to include the recapture of the amount previously deducted in their income.

Qualifying shares were generally comprised of newly issued common and restricted common shares of Canadian corporations whose central management was in Quebec or that had more than 50% of salaries paid to employees of an establishment in Quebec. Corporations faced restrictions with respect to their size, the number of full-time employees, the payment of dividends, and the use of funds. Thus, not all firms qualified for the program.

Given that certain Quebec individual investors had high marginal provincial tax rates (ranging from 24% to 33% between 1982 to 2002), it was expected that, all else being equal, some would be willing to pay a generous premium for QSSP shares compared with shares that were not eligible for the deduction, thereby lowering the pretax rate of return on these shares in a competitive market. If that were the case, investors would be considered to be paying a hidden tax associated with QSSP subsidized shares. Issuing firms could capture the tax benefit through an increase in issue prices and, thus, a lower cost of capital.

Impact of the QSSP on shares prices

To conduct our study, we collected data on 246 IPOs of Quebecbased corporations from 1982 to 2002. As in our car buyer's case, we wanted to know who was benefiting from the program. Our analysis revealed that investors paid more for IPO shares that were eligible for the QSSP deduction than they would have if the deduction was not available; that is, underpricing for QSSP shares was less severe than for non-QSSP shares. Underpricing is the difference between the offering price of the new stock and the first-day trading price of the stock following the IPO3. The first-day trading price should not be affected by the tax subsidy since only newly issued stock was eligible for the deduction.

Next, we wanted to examine the magnitude of the premium paid by investors relative to the expected premium that should be paid if, as for Firm X, the entire benefit was passed on to the issuing corporation. The figure below illustrates how the benefit was shared for corporations that issued shares eligible at the 100% deduction rate (more than 50% of corporations issued shares at this rate). We estimated that corporations captured, on average, approximately 63% of the tax subsidy, while high tax-rate Quebec individual investors retained 37%. Thus, Quebec individual investors retained a significant benefit from the program.4

The tax subsidy calculated for Firm X in the table on page 39 assumes that investors were eligible for the QSSP deduction and that offer prices were adjusted such that Quebec taxpayers in the 27% tax bracket saw no difference between purchasing nonqualifying shares and QSSP shares. However, not all investors, such as non-Quebec residents, were eligible for the tax deduction. As such, these investors should not have been willing to pay a premium for these shares. Corporations that sell a large proportion of their IPO QSSP shares to ineligible investors should have lowered their offering price in order to attract these investors. As predicted, we find that the underpricing was higher in this case and that as a consequence, the sharing of the tax benefit between the eligible investors and the corporation varied with the proportion of ineligible investors. The figure above illustrates how the benefit was shared when the proportion of the issue sold to ineligible investors was low (less than 30%) and high (more than 30%). When the proportion was low, the portion of the tax benefit retained by the corporation increased from 63% to approximately 72% whereas when it was high, this percentage was reduced to only 22%. Thus, corporations retained a greater share of the tax subsidy when the issue was sold primarily in the province of Quebec than when a large proportion of the shares was sold to ineligible investors.

Implications for investors, issuers and tax policy-makers

Understanding the effects of tax incentives on the pricing of securities is crucial to investors, issuers and tax policy-makers.

Although investors reduce their explicit taxes paid to the government when investing in assets with favourable tax treatment, they may be paying hidden taxes such that the pretax returns from these investments are lower than that on nontaxfavoured investments. In comparing returns on an after-tax basis, certain taxpayers may find it optimal to invest in nontaxfavoured assets.

Firms that issue tax-favoured securities must evaluate how the tax subsidy will affect their cost of raising capital. In our setting, firms that made their QSSP shares available to ineligible investors reaped a much lower share of the tax benefit than those who sold their shares primarily in Quebec.

Policy-makers should also take into account how their tax incentive will be shared between the parties and the factors that may affect that sharing in the design and evaluation of their programs. Our results may be of particular interest to policymakers in Quebec who replaced the QSSP program with a similar program, the SMB Growth Stock Plan. Introduced in 2005, this program has a single rate of 100%, is targeted to smaller corporations and is set to expire December 2009. Although we cannot provide conclusive evidence on the effectiveness of the QSSP program based on our study, our results suggest that removing the QSSP deduction would increase the cost of raising capital for some corporations.

[Sidebar]

The initial objectives of the QSSP were to give tax relief to taxpayers, to increase Quebecers1 participation in the market and to help Quebec businesses raise capital

[Reference]

References

1. Jean B�dard, Daniel Coulombe, Suzanne M. Paquette, "Tax Incentives on Equity and Firms' Cost of Capital: Evidence from the Quebec Stock Savings Plan." Contemporary Accounting Research 24 (3): 795-824.

2. For a technical description of the rules, see Title VI.I of the Taxation Act (Quebec).

3. Although several theories have been proposed to explain the underpricing phenomenon, most prior theory and evidence suggest that underpricing stems from information asymmetry between the entrepreneur and investors, including the level of ex ante uncertainty that uninformed investors have about the true value of an IPO firm's shares.

4. These reported numbers are based on estimated coefficients from a regression model and are estimated with error.

[Author Affiliation]

Jean B�dard, PhD, CA, is full professor in the School of Accounting at Laval University. Daniel Coulombe, PhD, CA, is full professor in the School of Accounting at Laval University. Suzanne Paquette, PhD, CA, is full professor in the School of Accounting at Laval University.

Technical editor: Christine Wiedman, PhD, FCA, School of Accounting and Finance, University of Waterloo

Shops flooded as heavy downpours lash N-east Torrential rain brought flooding to a North-east town.

Torrential rain brought flooding to a North-east town.

Parts of Elgin saw water reach two feet high as showers lashed thearea.

Shops were waterlogged, streets had to be closed and sewagespilled from drains.

Witnesses described how some shops on the town's High Street wereswamped by the rain while the water reached the top of wheels of carsparked on the road.

A Met Office spokesman said an area of low pressure close by wasto blame.

He said: "A small but very intense downpour in the Strathspeyregion is likely to have caused the flash floods in Elgin.

"The rain was localised over Cairnuish and Pikey Hill which draininto the River Lossiemouth.

"The River Lossiemouth is small so heavy localised rain wouldlikely add to the cause of flooding in the town."

Parts of Station Road and Maisondieu Road in Elgin were closedyesterday to allow surface water caused by the flooding to subside.

Charanjit Sahota, who owns CSS Newsagent on the High Street, hadto close his shop for 20 minutes because of the weather.

"When the rain was at its heaviest, the drains became blocked andthe street started to flood," he said.

"The water began to come into the shop and every time a car drovepast it would wash water on to the pavement and inside."

A clothes shop and a pub on either side of Mr Sahota's shop werealso affected.

When the water finally subsided, one onlooker described how itleft raw sewage lying on the street.

As showers lashed the region, mudslip-striken Pennan survived itsfirst heavy rainfall since residents were forced out of the village.

Downpours began on Saturday and continued throughout the night.

But locals were relieved to find the slopes behind their homes hadstayed intact.

The Met Office spokesman added: "There were localised slow-movingclouds near to Pennan which would have caused heavy rain on Saturdayand Sunday."

The Local Hero village hit the headlines last week when all 34residents had to be evacuated due to a massive landslide. Mostresidents are now back in their homes, but 10 properties which borethe brunt of the landslides are still out of bounds.

cshanks@ajl.co.uk

HOW LAST YEAR'S TOP PICKS FARED

1. Buffalo - Bruce Smith, DE: After slow start led Bills with6 1/2 sacks and was AFC defensive Rookie-of-the-Year in NFLPA vote.

2. Atlanta - Bill Fralic, OG: Played hurt much of year butstill was named Sports Illustrated's NFL Rookie-of-the-Year. Playedguard and tackle.

3. Houston - Ray Childress, DE: Most consistent Oiler DL (41/2 sacks).

4. Minnesota - Chris Doleman, LB: Started 13 games mainlybecause of Matt Blair's injury but did make 15 tackles against Rams.

5. Indianapolis - Duane Bickett, OLB: AP defensiveRookie-of-the-Year led Colts in sacks with six.

6. Detroit - Lomas Brown, OT: Played every offensive downexcept one. Exceptional quickness, accomplished drive blocker.

7. Green Bay - Ken Ruettgers, OT: Off and on starter.Improved late in season but was mild disappointment.

8. Tampa Bay - Ron Holmes, DE: Came back from early injury tolead Bucs in tackles-for-loss.

9. Philadelphia - Kevin Allen, OT: Benched after giving upeight sacks in first four games. New coach Buddy Ryan says he's outof shape.

10. New York Jets - Al Toon, WR: By end of year was bestoffensive rookie in league and getting better (46 catches, threetouchdowns, 662 yards).

11. Houston - Richard Johnson, CB: A bust. Couldn't even earnstarting nickel slot on porous Oiler defense.

12. San Diego - Jim Lachey, OT: Immediate starter. Consensusall-rookie selection.

13. Cincinnati - Eddie Brown, WR: Instant success (53 catches,eight touchdowns, 942 yards). Game breaker.

14. Buffalo - Derrick Burroughs, CB: Despite season-long ankleproblems, started eight games and intercepted two passes.

15. Kansas City - Ethan Horton, RB: Another bust. "The man didnot break a tackle," according to one observer.

16. San Francisco - Jerry Rice, WR: UPI NFC Rookie-of-the-Year(49 catches, three touchdowns, 927 yards) - but did drop some balls.

17. Dallas - Kevin Brooks, DE: Played infrequently as apass-rush specialist. Disappointment.

18. St. Louis - Freddie Joe Nunn, OLB: Played like a veteranfrom Day One. Came out in most passing situations.

19. New York Giants - George Adams, RB: Fumbled a lot early butcaught 31 passes. Could be switched to fullback.

20. Pittsburgh - Darryl Sims, DE: A total bust. Enters '86 asthird-stringer. Made only nine tackles in '85.

21. Los Angeles Rams - Jerry Gray, CB: Switch from college freesafety to NFL cornerback was doubly difficult in talented Ramsecondary. Non-starter.

22. BEARS - William Perry, DT: Refrigerate after opening.

23. Los Angeles Raiders - Jessie Hester, WR: Started every gameafter Cliff Branch's injury (32 catches, four touchdowns, 665 yards).

24. New Orleans - Alvin Toles, ILB: Appeared too small to playinside and was confused much of time. Non-starter.

25. Cincinnati - Emanuel King, OLB: Non-starter. Needs moreupper body strength.

26. Denver - Steve Sewell, RB: Closed strongly. Led all BroncoRBs with 24 receptions.

27. Miami - Lorenzo Hampton, RB: Looked good early but lostconfidence later in season. Non-starter.

28. New England - Trevor Matich, C: Played some at guard earlybut ankle injury ruined year.

Signings whet the appetite

After the European Championships provided fans in this countrywith an unexpected but welcome treat, it is back to the seriousbusiness of supporting our club sides and not anybody Germanymight be playing.

And for Bath City followers, the countdown to 2008-09 and theclub's second crack at Blue Square South began in earnest last weekwith three signings in the space of five days.

The trio - Ali Gibb, Stuart Douglas and Jamie Gosling - will joinfellow new boy Paul Cochlin and the remaining members of lastseason's squad at the University of Bath for City's first trainingsession tonight.

With the Conference releasing its fixture list early and thefirst pre-season friendlies scheduled for the week after next, theend of those barren, football-free weekends really is in sight.

And the heightened activity on the transfer front at Twerton Parkhas given fans plenty to look forward to ahead of the big kick-offon August 9.

Of course, only after that date can judgements be made about thesignings made by John Relish and Adie Britton - but the word fromthe management is that they have ticked a few of the boxes that wereleft blank in last season's narrow failure to make the play-offs.

Jim Rollo's fine performances at left-back made him an ever-present last season, but even Ronaldo needs competition to keephim on your toes and that arrives for the City skipper in the shapeof Paul Cochlin.

Stuart Douglas and Jamie Gosling will add a fresh injection ofpace and guile to the side, while Ali Gibb's crossing ability shouldfill the gaping void left by the exit of Mark McKeever.

A lack of goals cost City their place in the end-of-seasonlottery last term and the latter three men will be charged withimproving the situation.

As the only out-and-out striker to sign, all eyes are on Douglas,but he has bucketloads of confidence and the omens are on his side.

After all, Scott Partridge was an ex-League player struggling tofind the net at Weymouth when City signed him.

And nobody at Twerton Park will complain too much if historyrepeats itself.

Television Evangelist Falwell Dies at 73

LYNCHBURG, Va. - The Rev. Jerry Falwell, who founded the Moral Majority and built the religious right into a political force, died Tuesday shortly after being found unconscious in his office at Liberty University, a school executive said. He was 73.

Ron Godwin, the university's executive vice president, said Falwell, 73, was found unresponsive around 10:45 a.m. and taken to Lynchburg General Hospital. "CPR efforts were unsuccessful," he said.

Godwin said he was not sure what caused the collapse, but he said Falwell "has a history of heart challenges."

"I had breakfast with him, and he was fine at breakfast," Godwin said. "He went to his office, I went to mine, and they found him unresponsive."

Falwell had survived two serious health scares in early 2005. He was hospitalized for two weeks with what was described as a viral infection, then was hospitalized again a few weeks later after going into respiratory arrest. Later that year, doctors found a 70 percent blockage in an artery, which they opened with stents.

Falwell credited his Moral Majority with getting millions of conservative voters registered, electing Ronald Reagan and giving Republicans Senate control in 1980.

"I shudder to think where the country would be right now if the religious right had not evolved," Falwell said when he stepped down as Moral Majority president in 1987.

The fundamentalist church that Falwell started in an abandoned bottling plant in 1956 grew into a religious empire that includes the 22,000-member Thomas Road Baptist Church, the "Old Time Gospel Hour" carried on television stations around the country and 7,700-student Liberty University. He built Christian elementary schools, homes for unwed mothers and a home for alcoholics.

He also founded Liberty University in Lynchburg, which began as Lynchburg Baptist College in 1971.

Liberty University's commencement is scheduled for Saturday, with former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich as the featured speaker.

In 2006, Falwell marked the 50th anniversary of his church and spoke out on stem cell research, saying he sympathized with people with medical problems, but that any medical research must pass a three-part test: "Is it ethically correct? Is it biblically correct? Is it morally correct?"

Falwell had once opposed mixing preaching with politics, but he changed his view and in 1979, founded the Moral Majority. The political lobbying organization grew to 6.5 million members and raised $69 million as it supported conservative politicians and campaigned against abortion, homosexuality, pornography and bans on school prayer.

Falwell became the face of the religious right, appearing on national magazine covers and on television talk shows. In 1983, U.S. News & World Report named him one of 25 most influential people in America.

In 1984, he sued Hustler magazine for $45 million, charging that he was libeled by an ad parody depicting him as an incestuous drunkard. A federal jury found the fake ad did not libel him, but awarded him $200,000 for emotional distress. That verdict was overturned, however, in a landmark 1988 U.S. Supreme Court decision that held that even pornographic spoofs about a public figure enjoy First Amendment protection.

The case was depicted in the 1996 movie "The People v. Larry Flynt."

With Falwell's high profile came frequent criticism, even from fellow ministers. The Rev. Billy Graham once rebuked him for political sermonizing on "non-moral issues."

Falwell quit the Moral Majority in 1987, saying he was tired of being "a lightning rod" and wanted to devote his time to his ministry and Liberty University. But he remained outspoken and continued to draw criticism for his remarks.

Days after Sept. 11, 2001, Falwell essentially blamed feminists, gays, lesbians and liberal groups for bringing on the terrorist attacks. He later apologized.

In 1999, he told a evangelical conference that the Antichrist was a male Jew who was probably already alive. Falwell later apologized for the remark but not for holding the belief. A month later, his National Liberty Journal warned parents that Tinky Winky, a purple, purse-toting character on television's "Teletubbies" show, was a gay role model and morally damaging to children.

Falwell was re-energized after moral values issues proved important in the 2004 presidential election. He formed the Faith and Values Coalition as the "21st Century resurrection of the Moral Majority," to seek anti-abortion judges, a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and more conservative elected officials.

The big, blue-eyed preacher with a booming voice started his independent Baptist church with 35 members. From his living room, he began broadcasting his message of salvation and raising the donations that helped his ministry grow.

"He was one of the first to come up with ways to use television to expand his ministry," said Robert Alley, a retired University of Richmond religion professor who studied and criticized Falwell's career.

Pacers-Heat, Box

INDIANA (100)

Granger 8-18 3-3 23, Murphy 3-7 0-0 6, Nesterovic 5-10 3-4 13, Daniels 11-21 3-5 25, Ford 3-10 3-3 11, Rush 4-6 0-0 10, Foster 2-5 0-1 4, Jack 1-3 5-7 8. Totals 37-80 17-23 100.

MIAMI (109)

Marion 8-15 2-2 18, Beasley 6-11 4-4 17, Haslem 7-13 2-2 16, Wade 15-24 6-11 38, Chalmers 0-4 5-6 5, Cook 0-3 2-2 2, Quinn 3-6 1-1 8, Anthony 1-1 0-0 2, Diawara 1-2 0-0 3. Totals 41-79 22-28 109.

Indiana 31 29 19 21_100

Miami 20 28 31 30_109

3-Point Goals_Indiana 9-23 (Granger 4-9, Rush 2-2, Ford 2-4, Jack 1-2, Nesterovic 0-1, Daniels 0-2, Murphy 0-3), Miami 5-10 (Wade 2-3, Beasley 1-1, Quinn 1-2, Diawara 1-2, Chalmers 0-2). Fouled Out_None. Rebounds_Indiana 50 (Murphy 11), Miami 43 (Marion 9). Assists_Indiana 24 (Granger, Murphy 6), Miami 19 (Wade 8). Total Fouls_Indiana 25, Miami 22. Technicals_Miami defensive three second 2. A_18,685 (19,600).

W.Va. Senate candidate would end minimum wage

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Republican U.S. Senate candidate John Raese said the federal minimum wage is an outdated and unnecessary concept that should be abolished, while his opponent says the stance shows how out of touch Raese is with working West Virginians.

Raese, a multimillionaire running against Democratic Gov. Joe Manchin, has long said the minimum wage isn't working. It was created by the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, and Raese called it "archaic" in an interview with ABC News' Top Line posted Tuesday.

"It didn't solve any problems then and it hasn't solved any problems in 50 years," he said.

"The minimum wage is not something that you want to stay on as a permanent basis," Raese continued. "For example, if you have a minimum wage job, you don't stay there 20 or 30 years. You don't put your children through college working on minimum wage."

Government should stop micromanaging the economy, he said.

"You don't want government to set price controls, you don't want government to set wage controls," he said. "It's an archaic system that frankly has not worked."

Manchin, a popular governor serving his second term, seized on Raese's stance against minimum wage last week, launching an ad that accused the Morgantown businessman of being out of touch.

The ad also cited Raese's past support of a 23 percent national sales tax and allowing some private investment of Social Security funds.

West Virginia hasn't sent a Republican to the Senate since 1958, but the race between Raese and Manchin is tight. The GOP is spending millions on ads trying to tie Manchin the Democratic-controlled White House and Congress, hoping to snag the seat held for more than 50 years by the late Sen. Robert C. Byrd.

Raese has also said in recent interviews the he supports abolishing the federal Departments of Energy and Education, and the Internal Revenue Service. To CNN, he joked that his views are right of the Tea Party.

___

Online:

Manchin: http://www.governormanchin.com/

Raese: http://www.raeseforsenate.org/

Treasurys continue to gain on Greece debt concerns

Interest rates fell in the bond market Wednesday as investors continued to seek safety while Europe's debt crisis dragged on.

The benchmark 10-year note's yield dipped to its lowest level since December.

Market participants have been worried that Greece could default on its debt and that the trouble there would spread to other weak European economies like Spain or Portugal. There is also uncertainty about whether a $144 billion aid package for Greece will stem the growing debt crisis.

Those concerns are overshadowing upbeat domestic economic reports in the U.S this week, helping to drive up Treasury prices and push down their yields. Investors tend to bid up prices of Treasurys if they expect turmoil in other markets.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 3.54 percent in late trading Wednesday, after sliding below 3.50 percent earlier in the day. It was 3.60 percent late Tuesday. Its price rose 40.625 cents to $100.6875 on Wednesday.

The yield on the 10-year note, which matures February 2020, is linked to rates on mortgages and other consumer loans. It has dipped over the past month after briefly rising to 4 percent in April, its highest level since June.

An encouraging report on employment and tame news on the service sector did little to ease Treasury prices.

Payroll company ADP said private employers added 32,000 jobs last month. That was slightly above expectations.

The ADP report is seen an early indicator of the government's closely watched monthly employment report, which is due on Friday. The Labor Department is expected to report that April's unemployment rate was unchanged at 9.7 percent.

The Institute for Supply Management said that the services industries expanded in April at a slower pace than economists expected. Its service sector index was unchanged at 55.4 in April from March. Analysts expected an increase.

In other trading, the yield on the 2-year note that matures in April 2012 fell to 0.87 percent from 0.96 percent, while its price rose 15.625 cents to $100.25.

The yield on the 5-year note that matures in April 2015 fell to 2.28 percent from 2.38 percent. Its price rose 43.75 cents to $101.

The yield on the 30-year bond that matures in February 2040 fell to 4.39 percent from 4.42 percent. Its price rose 53.125 cents to $103.96875

The yield on the three-month Treasury bill that matures August 5 was fell to 0.14 percent from 0.15 percent. Its discount was 0.15 percent.

Israel shoots smuggler on Syrian border

Israel's army says it shot and killed a suspected smuggler in a rare incident on the frontier with Syria.

An army spokesman says another man was wounded in the incident that took place overnight Friday.

The army says the men appeared to try enter Israel through the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau that Israel seized in the 1967 Mideast war.

Both the men are Syrian nationals and the army says they will be repatriated. Two Israeli citizens were also arrested.

Emilie Bickerton

PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION Emilie Bickerton on Cultural Anthropology's FBI Files THREATENING ANTHROPOLOGY: MCCARTHYISIVl AND THE FBI'S SURVEILLANCE OF ACTIVIST ANTHROPOLOGISTS BY DAVID H. PRICE DURHAM, NC: DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 448 PAGES. $24.

LESLIE A. WHITE: EVOLUTION AND REVOLUTION IN ANTHROPOLOGY BY WILLIAM J. PEACE LINCOLN: NEBRASKA UNIVERSITY PRESS. 320 PAGES. $55.

The French anthropologist Marcel Griaule described his role as ethnographer as "sniffing out social facts ... often comparable to that of a detective or examining magistrate. The fact is the crime, the interlocutor the guilty party; all the society's members are accomplices." Dispensing with "facts" this is an appropriate allegory of the FBI's approach to anthropologists during the McCarthy era. Under Griaule, "ethnographic provocation" openly acknowledged the colonial stratification of society that allowed anthropologists authority to investigate. etait une fois: Fieldwork was never so straightforward. Today, anthropology's past as historical accomplice to colonialism is well documented, if not somewhat excessively for present students of the discipline, forced to carry the weight of reflexivity and embarrassed consciences. Other allegiances also provoke rosy cheeks: associations with espionage, collaboration with national governments during the world wars. Margaret Mead applied her anthropological training at the National Research Council's Committee on Food Habits (1941-54); Ruth Benedict's study of the Japanese, The Chrysanthemum and the Sword (1946), received government funding to provide insight into the otherwise impenetrable society of the enemy; and both women worked at the RAND Corporation on sponsored studies of Soviet personality types.

Mead and Benedict were part of the second generation of American cultural anthropologists. In contrast to the Durkheimian sociological functionalism underpinning much European anthropology, the roots of the discipline's American tradition lie in the historical particularism of German Romanticism. The German immigrant Franz Boas applied Herder's concept of Volksgeist to the study of cultures (rather than Culture), which, he argued, emerged and developed by a process of diffusion, not evolution. The ethnographer must stay close to the ground, collect data from a specific community, and dispense with overarching classificatory or comparative projects. Transferring the explanation of difference from race to culture, Boas argued that every culture is equal, but different, and must be understood on its own terms. These were the foundations of cultural anthropology, and at the beginning of the twentieth century they presented a case for racial equality, albeit one justified by cultural relativism-unhappy bedfellows that perdure in the discipline.

Students of Boas continued in a similar vein in the 19405 and '505, but the radical and liberal views would be confounded in the cold-war climate of suspicion and surveillance. This period continues to elicit a stream of murky revelations about state practices and high-profile HUAC informants, but the era's impact on the work of anthropologists makes up only a slim chapter in the history of the discipline-one now buffeted (perhaps to breaking point) by David H. Price's Threatening Anthropology. Drawing extensively from FBI documents obtained (often with difficulty) under the Freedom of Information Act, Price recounts the scope of the bureau's interest in anthropologists during the period as well as the public trials many underwent. The discipline, he suggests, was particularly susceptible to FBI attention given its dominant concerns at the time. By shifting from biological to cultural understandings of difference, anthropologists presented a direct challenge to the subordinate position of the African-American and minority populations in the US.

The Boasian perspective that frames Threatening Anthropology lays it open to a critique made by the subject of William J. Peace's biography: Leslie A. White. Based at the University of Michigan, White worked tirelessly against the particularist Boasian approach to fieldwork. It made a "fetish of induction" and suffered from a "paucity of theory ... alongside a plethora of data." Instead, White sought to revive the out-of-favor evolutionary theory originally advocated by Lewis Henry Morgan (whose biography White left unfinished on his death in 1975) in Ancient Society (1877). White's theory of cultural change-which in The Science of Culture (1949) he summarized as the greater amount of energy harnessed per capita equals the greater degree of cultural development-also drew on Marx's materialist notion of history and commodity exchange. In his forward to Marshall Sahlins's Evolution of Culture (1959), White referred to Engels's Origin of Family, Private Property., and the State (1884) to understand revolution, social change, and primitive society through evolutionary theory.

In 1954, White was placed on the FBI's security Index, though he was never brought to trial and experienced comparatively little scrutiny. Considering his theoretical tenets and pronouncements, White's late addition may appear surprising, though it is clear he was conscious of the risks of his associations, eventually burning the majority of his socialist-leaning writings. Despite this self-censorship, White's work frequently provoked hostility, especially from the church. he was also the subject of the media frenzy that followed his now-famous paper at the 1957 meeting of the American Anthropological Association. In a speech charting the evolution of religion, White alluded to the launch that year of Sputnik: "A monarchical cultural system is not likely to have a bear or a feathered serpent for a god. And a cultural system that can launch earth satellites can dispense with gods entirely." It is likely, given White's animosity toward religion, that he was voicing his approval of Soviet society and its technological and cultural sophistication. While unaware of White's writings for the socialist publication Weekly People (thirty-one articles, letters, and miscellaneous notes between 1931 and 1946, under the pseudonym John Steel), the FBI did know of his 192.9 trip to the Soviet Union and received information on his "Communistic tendencies" in 1953 from a still-unnamed source. That anthropologists with comparatively less explicit "red" connections were subjected to intense, if not careerchanging, surveillance, such as Ruth Landes, Richard Morgan (fired from the Ohio State Museum), Gene Weltfish, and Bernhard Stern (both of whom were brought to trial before Senator McCarthy), does indicate that the real threat for the US state was perceived to be as much from radicals as from reds.

Ironically, the FBI's lack of interest in White was more likely a product of the vulgar Marxism his evolutionary theory articulated; with revolution inscribed in nature, the motivation for actual mobilization was entirely diminished. Disengagement rather than radicalism is the result. The merit of White's attack on cultural relativism, demanding more theory and a broader understanding of cultures to allow for the comparative method, is weakened by the strictly evolutionary understanding of human action, cultural change, and social revolution: "It is not, of course, that knowledge will change the essential nature of civilization or alter the course of its development.... But with knowledge and understanding of social forces and laws, mankind could go forward intelligently with eyes open, instead of stumbling along the road of social evolution in blindness." Knowledge conceived of in such terms renders activism-when change is not man-made but inscribed in the logic of evolution-futile.

For White, the greatest obstacle was the intellectual opposition of his peers, whereas others suffered from the broader threats to academic freedom. Price makes this clear by revealing the nature of FBI investigations and assessing the role played by the American Anthropological Association. Transcripts from the trial of Columbia's Weltfish, for example, show McCarthy's specific concern over the implications made (pertaining to the social construction of race) in The Races of Mankind (1943), which Weltfish coauthored with Benedict. In addition, an exchange between the prosecution and Bernhard Stern reflects a lack of rigor in their investigative methods-skimming indexes for "Marx" or "USSR"-and an ignorance of the format of scholarly edited volumes. The "threatening" potential of anthropology as a discipline was thus jeopardized by these conservative strategies to maintain the status quo. Through the FBI's focus on social activists ("building red family trees" by tracking those with a family background in activism such as Landes) rather than radical theorists, the discipline suffered a "culling" of interested minds and a curtailment of critical research and thinking. Price, joining other American anthropologists, including Laura Nader, argues that the legacy of the cold war remains in the discipline today, having encouraged a reflexive turn inward; there is now a reinvention of "armchair anthropology," with increasing analysis "of the tropes of agency with language of self-referential alienation."

A particularly poor player during the period was the American Anthropological Association, which failed to investigate adequately, let alone defend, the charges made against its scholars (though in the '505 new president Ralph Beals injected "courageous aggressiveness" into the defense of anthropologists). In part, its postwar reorganization into six different scientific societies-an attempt to reflect American anthropology's subfield structure and secure new government funds offered for research-hindered its ability to act with unified conviction. The AAA claimed it was a professional body not equipped to engage in political affairs, but this stance was in itself political. The association fell silent when Morris Swadesh, Melville Jacobs, and Richard Morgan were persecuted. Forged ties with the War Department, the State Department, and the Central Intelligence Agency expose, compellingly, its allegiance with the US government rather than with the free-thinking academy. An allegiance confirmed in 1949, when AAA committee member George P. Murdock wrote to J. Edgar Hoover, offering to act as an FBI informant from within the association.

Secrecy and lies-enemies of truth and knowledge. White is notorious for using the "secretive method," which involved scheming, trickery, and "scenting out" willing informants from an ethnographer living outside the community under study. When contrasted with Griaule's ethnographie verite, the two techniques reveal how field work by European and US ethnographers was shaped by the sociopolitical circumstances each worked in. As Griaule proudly pitched his tent at the center, White hid. Open hostility from native groups was a reaction to the US government's 19208 acculturation schemes, which were failing to integrate the minority populations, provoking instead further isolation and a retreat to traditional life. Any approaching white face was thus treated with vehement suspicion.

With the release of the first substantial biography of Leslie A. White and an account of the impact of McCarthyism on American anthropology, ethical and theoretical entanglements past and present remain at the forefront of anthropological debate. However, a defense, as that presented by Price, of anthropology on the grounds of its cultural relativism and dedication to equality is an impossible bind, and one that is especially threatening to academic freedom. Currently it is cultural relativism precisely that provides the justification for the "protection" of culture in debates over indigenous rights and intellectual property. Defending academic freedom requires the expunging of relativism latent in the calls for safeguarding knowledge systems deemed irredeemably different, presented as fragile, requiring protection from outside dissemination or exploitation. It is this which flirts with a present "apartheid of the mind."

[Author Affiliation]

Emilie Bickerton is a London-based writer.

UNIFORM TO BUSINESS SUIT: Helping the Military Professional Transition to Federal Employment

"The United States has an obligation to assist veterans in readjusting to civilian life. It is the policy of the United States to promote the maximum of employment and job advancement opportunities within the Federal Government for qualified covered veterans." [1]

For professionals in the careers industry, veterans have always been a special class of clients. Veterans who want to transition directly from active duty to serve in the Federal government are an important subset of that group. I wrote this article to introduce you to the first group in general and to help you support the second group specifically. I will start by offering tools you can use to work with transitioning military clients. Then I will describe the special considerations that apply when these men and women seek Federal employment.

Limitations:

I won't describe the details of how to apply for a Federal job. However, I will summarize the special preferences and restrictions that apply to veterans. Also, space won't permit me to explain the different procedures aimed at helping disabled veterans.

Assumptions:

Because of the population we serve, I assume you will only be working with skilled and experienced military professionals from any of the Uniformed Services, particularly top three NCOs and commissioned officers with skills and security clearances useful to the Federal government in responsible positions.

Meet the military professional:

Generalizations have limitations; however, what follows is an accurate description of a typical military transition client you may want to serve. Civilians move from job to job, company to company; military members do not. On a practical level, all their jobs are with the same company. On a cultural level, each assignment is part of their calling to serve. They take on very large responsibilities very early. Those who do well are happiest with responsibilities they know are vital to the mission. Over several years, the more senior military professionals will have worked in many different career fields. They have a strong sense of morality and work ethic. The majority look for solutions inside themselves first as they tackle new problems. They believe strongly in the immediate, real, solid facts they have gathered by experience. Their thinking tends to be objective and logical and they thrive in planned, orderly environments. Those familiar with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator will recognize these clients as typical ISTJ. [2] Until January 2005, they were motivated to earn an advanced degree. [3]

Stereotypes military clients may encounter:

At the moment, the military is held in high esteem. However, because we have had an all volunteer force for nearly 35 years [4], fewer interviewers and career professionals have first hand knowledge of military life. They may hold the following stereotypic images-all false-about these clients.

Stereotype one: "Military clients are rigid. They only do things one way. Outside the military, we must be nimble, reacting to changing conditions fast." The truth: military people are trained to make the right decision in nearly any situation. Sometimes, they have seconds to act. Other times, they have taken months to develop carefully supported plans.

Stereotype two: "Military people never have to think. They just gave or take orders." The truth: I gave just one direct order in my 26-year career. That is more than almost any other senior officer I know. Today's soldiers, sailors, and airmen are too smart to accept what they hear without question.

Stereotype three: "Military people have unlimited funding and an unlimited work force. They don't understand profit and loss." The part about profit is true. But military professionals are evaluated rigorously and regularly on their ability to control cost. In addition, the military buys services through a competitive process that often pits other services against private contractors.

Potential rising demand from transitioning military professionals:

Two events combine to increase demand from military professionals. The Air Force is refining their plan to cut from 40,000 to 20,000 personnel in this fiscal year. [5] That will drive an immediate and large demand, particularly from retiring Air Force professionals, for career assistance. On a broader scale, the impact of the new National security Personnel System (NSPS) is just beginning to be felt. You will find more information below, in the section that deals with special differences and requirements.

Everyone who retires or leaves the military must attend a Transition Assistance Program (TAP) no less than 90 days before they leave active duty. [6] The Department of Labor developed the original TAP and it has improved over the years. However, many senior military professionals say the program is aimed too low for their background. Some of my clients report being the only senior person in a class composed otherwise of young airmen with vocational trade skills. Therefore, it is not surprising that we are seeing, increasingly, Executive Transition Assistance Programs at installations where many retirees end their careers.[7] However, even the advanced programs were never designed to provide the individual support many military people need.

Working with the separating or retiring military professional:

If you are a career coach, you will find military people among your best clients. They will take responsibility for their job search, carefully completing homework you assign. For them, keeping appointments is nearly a matter of honor. The few obstacles you might encounter center on preparing their resumes.

Consider the seemingly mundane business of translating job titles. There are look up tables the military uses to convert job titles to their civilian counterparts. [8] However, a simple table rarely captores all the impact. For example, your client may have been the Commander, 324th Recruiting Squadron. Dig a little deeper and you will find she was responsible for guiding 18 recruiters (sales professionals), spread over 12 counties (a sales district) to meet their (sales) goals. Your commander is really a district sales manager. You can certainly use the actual job title in the resume, but consider including the civilian counterpart, like this: Commander (District Sales Manager), 324th Recruiting Squadron, Madison, Wisconsin.

The training military clients bring can also be confusing. Often they want to take credit for all of it. But not all of it applies in the field to which they are going. A prime example is professional military education. All Services have a series of such professional schools they expect their leaders to attend. And all are designed for military needs. For example, the Air Force's Air Command and Staff College spends many hours educating its students to employ air and space power (for which there is no call in civilian life). But it also instructs about guiding employees, evaluating performance, and managing funds (for which there are great calls in civilian life). [9] Therefore, don't fall into the easy trap of listing the schools (the names are a form of jargon). Rather, concentrate on the appropriate course work.

In addition, get the most opportunity by showing how competitive these schools are. The schools exist in two versions, the distance education method and the in-residence mediod. Distance programs are open to virtually anyone who meets minimum (rank or grade) requirements. Inresidence courses are very difficult to get into. Your client can help answer questions like the following: of all the officers on active duty, what percentage attends the Air War College in residence? Of all those who attend Air War College in residence, how many leave as Distinguished Graduates? Even if your client does not know the answers, he can call Personnel to find out.

Treat awards and honors with special care too. Military people are as proud of their awards as thiey are of their training (though they rarely speak about the former). Almost all, however, receive a decoration (a medal) at the end of each assignment. Those awards recognize the totality of what the person did while in that assignment. Avoid including diem, as virtually every member gets such an end-of-tour decoration. Search for awards that were given for a specific achievement. For example, the Air Force Achievement Medal is a relatively low-level award. However, it was once given to a major for specific curricula he designed and produced. That's the recognition you are looking for, without the name of the medal: "Selected by senior management as one of very few to be recognized for specific contributions to training and development." Finally, it is usually not difficult to explain to a military client why you are not including a decoration given for valor. From your standpoint, these awards have little transferability to the civilian world. From your client's standpoint, talking about medals given for heroism and valor just is not done.

Matching military experience to the requirements of a federal resume: A quick review of forms the government required applicants to fill out yields an interesting insight. The old SF-171, Application for Federal Employment, and its successor, the OF-612, Optional Application for Federal Employment, led many applicants to concentrate upon responsibilities and give only passing attention to performance. It was not long before agencies sought better ways of finding best qualified applicants. Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs) were the result. The instructions for KSAs leave little doubt as to their importance: "Be specific. Be precise. Get to the point. Use lots of examples. State specifically what you have done. Do not try to bluff the reviewer with words. Do not borrow language from the position description." [10]

Those are wonderful guidelines to use with retiring military professionals. However, military professionals will also be quick to tell you that everything they did "was just part of my job." You can employ the military's own evaluation system to give you the Context-ChallengeAction-Results outcomes you use with your civilian clients. The Services evaluate aperformance officially and regularly. The forms and guidelines vary, but the requirement to document specific performance is constant. That is why your military client may want to bring in Officer or Enlisted Performance Reports (OPRs and EPRs). You may not find them useful as you build his or her Federal resume. Military performance reviews are very concise. The language (jargon) that fills them is entirely appropriate for another military reader, but too often unintelligible by anyone else. Therefore, use the same techniques you use with your civilian clients to get success stories from your military clients.

Your senior military clients' careers can easily stretch back more than 20 years. If you were dealing with a civilian, it would be safe to focus on recent and relevant work history exclusively. Use the same approach with your military client, but do ask about her prior assignments. The Services identify their best early on. These outstanding performers are promoted faster than others who joined at the same time. Such a promotion is so competitive mere are usually wonderful success stories tied to it. Those particular examples are not only impressive by themselves, they also prove just how effective your client has always been. Ask about these below-the-zone promotions. They are powerful indicators of potential.

An interim summary:

Your experienced military client is an ideal candidate for most Federal positions. Like their public sector counterparts, they are comfortable working in large organizations. Detailed application requirements do not put them off at all. Because these clients take responsibility willingly and seriously, they are likely to have powerful success stories the federal application system demands. Since their retirement benefits are so much stronger than applicants who come directly from the private sector, and because the idea of service is so important to them, retiring military professionals are often more willing to take cuts in salary compared to what they might make in a similar job with a private company. [12]

A view from the Federal government's side:

Many veterans have taken advantage of policy to get Federal jobs. In 2005, 25.2 per cent of the Federal work force was veterans (compared to only 8.9 per cent of the civilian labor force). [13] Even so, there are some restrictions and differences your military client should know about.

Special differences and restrictions:

Some of your military clients seek the familiarity of working within the Department of Defense (DoD). After all, they know the people, they think they know the cultore, they may even know the details of the job. However, with few exceptions, many retired members cannot be appointed to similar civilian jobs in DoD within 180 days of retirement. [14] However, it is more than the law which can cause problems. In a February 2007 unscientific survey, I sought out recently-retired military professionals who now worked for their same branch of the armed forces, but as Federal civilians. All of them were very well qualified in fields which had civilian counterparts. Some had even worked for civilian companies for a few years before they joined the Federal ranks. All of them said how important it was for them to serve in government, to "give something back to our country."

Yet nearly all of them cited the same drawbacks. They found their Federal civilian colleagues did not have the same spirit, the same closeness, military members enjoy. Several said their civilian counterparts were less responsive to the mission. And some mentioned taking significant pay cuts when compared to their military rank. [15]

In May, 2006, the Department of Defense started converting to the National Security System (NSPS). Since large numbers of veterans work as civilians in the Uniformed Services and DoD [16], it will take some work to educate your military client about this plan. This far-reaching program is too new and complex for us to assess its impact on the civilian work force yet. Nor is there room to describe the program in detail here. The managers' guide to the program is more than 50 pages long. [17]

However, the new plan has the following features. It favors applicants from the local commuting area, but announcements open to candidates outside the agency must still be posted on USAJOBS.com. There is no minimum opening announcement period, the period being based on the type of position and availability of qualified candidates. Some jobs will be non-permanent, allowing Federal hiring officials to hire our clients for specific staffing needs that do not require a full-time manning slot. In other words, the job has a predetermined life span. Close cousins to the time-limited jobs are the term appointments. The jobs filled by term appointments are not filled permanently. Terms can range from one to five years, and can be extended for an additional one year. All permanent and term employees start on probation for a year. Finally, supervisors have more flexibility when it comes to offering salary. In short, the new system ties retention to performance, considering a reduction in force the last resort. You and your client should review HR Elements for Managers Supervisors and Employees-A Guide to NSPS for details, including how the Federal government plans downsizing under NSPS. One special aspect of Federal employment for the veteran has not changed: special preference points. Details about how these points are awarded change frequently, but here are the basic qualifications your clients must meet to gain these points:

* An honorable discharge.

* Must not be retiring in the rank of major (lieutenant commander in the Navy) or above (except if disabled).

To claim the five-point preference, your clients must meet these additional requirements:

* Must have served at least 180 consecutive days (or had service prior to 1 July 1955).

To claim the ten-point preference, they must meet these requirements in addition to the basic qualification:

* Be disabled or have the Purple Heart Medal awarded, or

* Be the unmarried spouse of certain deceased veterans, or

* Be the mother of a veteran who died in service or is totally disabled. [18]

Finally, it is worth a visit to www.opm.gov to search for OPM-led seminars given at military installations and at job fairs.

Summary:

In the short term, we should see a sharp increase in the number of retiring military professionals. Many of them are unsure of how to manage their next career. And while there is a mandated transition program, its quality leaves a lot of room for the value our industry can provide. Military clients are easy to work with and have the solid and very competitive backgrounds the private sector wants, provided we help overcome some outdated stereotypes many hiring decision makers have. They will need our help as we educate them to the differences between military and civilian lives. We must be sensitive to the special preferences and restrictions that face the retiring military job seeker. Retiring military clients are drawn to Federal employment for many reasons, all of which can work to the good of those clients and the Federal work force. They are certainly a known quantity within Federal circles. Finally, there is a strong common bond between you and your military clients. We and they are motivated by the idea of helping people, by a devotion to quality work, and by a need to act honorably. I hope this short article will equip you to better serve this special class of clients.

[Author Affiliation]

About the author

Don Orlando is President of The McLean Group, Montgomery, Alabama, a career coaching service. He earned the MBA at Auburn University. He was a career coach before being a career coach was cool. In fact, he was a career coach before he knew what the industry was. He retired with the rank of full Colonel in the United States Air Force. He had successful careers in the Air Force. And no, "careers " is not a typo. While always an Air Force officer, he served as an instructor, a quality assurance expert, a curriculum developer, a public relations executive, a senior administrative assistant, a research director, a navigator and a communications consultant. He clearly had a talent for career coaching because he got nearly every assignment using resumes, cover letters and interviews-a great rarity in the military. Along the way, he helped others fashion their own careers in both military and private sectors. After 26 years on active duty, he retired from the U. S. Air Force and continued applying his career development skills to find a new career.

One day in 1993, Nina, his wife, made him an official career coach with one penetrating question. "Why is it," she said, "that you have dozens of clients, that you provide a service that no one else offers, and you are not in business?" He thought a question that good deserved a compete answer. One hundred and fifty hours of research later, he had a business plan, a name for his company, an office, some business cards, a fax machine, a telephone, a 50MHz computer, and no clients. He began a concentrated promotion program and, in his first year, was recognized by the local chamber of commerce as one of the top 30 emerging businesses. He won the same award the next year as well. Memberships in professional organizations and certifications followed. Now he has clients spread across the nation and overseas. He teaches, writes and researches in career coaching regularly. Over the last two years, examples of his work have appeared in 13 nationally published collections of the best work by career professionals. He also works with businesses to help them build solid systems to find, attract, hire and retain the best employees. Every Friday, a select listing of recruiters gets his recap of exceptional applicants.

He overhauled the accreditation examination for the Professional Association of Resume Writers. Later, Wendy Enelow, President of the Career Masters Institute [CMI], chose him as one of a handful of charter Master Team Members to help build CMI, an organization that serves and supports the entire careers industry. He is one of the first Credentialed Career Masters in the southern United States, Alabama's first Certified Professional Resume Writer, and the state's first Job and Career Transition Coach. He was the lead-off speaker for the Professional Association of Resume Writers and Career Coaches' Convention in 1998 and spoke again at their 2001 convention. He is the author of the Career Masters Institute Code of Ethics, and directed CMI's first research study. His second study appeared in 2007. He held workshops for groups as diverse as VISTA, the United States Air Force, the local Bar Association and the International Institute of Internal Auditors. His workshops have also been a feature at every major job and career fair held in Alabama's capital city. Today, he serves as a career coach who offers assessment, career development, resume writing, interview preparation, and salary negotiation. He specializes in transitioning military professionals and senior executives. He is a former columnist writing on training job seekers to find rewarding careers in the Montgomery Advertiser. He makes regular appearances on local National Public Radio and Television affiliates. He wrote the Gallery of Best Resumes: A Collection of Quality Resumes by Professional Resume Writers; Professional Resumes for Executives, Managers, and Other Administrators; and Resume Winners from the Pros.

Contact him as follows:

Don Orlando, MBA, CPRW, JCTC, CCM, CCMC

The McLean Group

640 South McDonough,

Montgomery, Alabama 36104

(334) 264-2020

e-mail: yourcareercoach@charterinternet.com

Germany dominate women's biathlon

Kati Wilhelm won the women's sprint competition Saturday, as Germany dominated the opening of a Biathlon World Championships hit by both warm weather and a doping controversy.

The World Cup leader shot cleanly and sped to finish in 21 minutes and 11.1 seconds, 9.9 seconds ahead of teammate Simone Hauswald, who also hit all targets. Olga Zaitseva of Russia was third, 27.1 seconds behind Wilhelm, also with a clean shoot.

Germany also had Andrea Henkel in sixth place and Magdalena Neuner in 8th. Neuner had the fastest course time but was set back by three missed shots.

Wilhelm cried on the podium. It was the 32-year-old's first individual world championships gold in 8 years. "The medal ceremony was quite the same," Wilhelm said, laughing. "It was a long time and I worked hard to come back on the podium in the world champs."

World champion Yekaterina Iourieva and her Russian teammates Albina Akhatova and Dmitri Yaroshenko were barred from the world championships after testing positive for banned substances in a systematic doping scheme, the International Biathlon Union said Friday.

They face possible two-year bans that could rule them out of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

"It is a really very difficult situation and of course I'm also concerned about having it in our team," Zaitseva said, declining to discuss the doping issue further. "I cannot support my colleagues, but I cannot judge them either."

Hard rain and warm temperatures on Friday depleted the race tracks in the resort town of Pyeongchang, forcing training and the opening ceremony to be canceled.

Crews worked through the night to produce more snow, using dump trucks to ferry large mounds to the track. By mid-Saturday, temperatures had retreated below zero, allowing the contest to go ahead.

"I thought maybe to change the day so we could race tomorrow, so maybe the conditions would be better," Wilhelm said. "So I was not really happy because I don't like the soft conditions. I was very nervous. But I'm very happy with the result."

Hauswald came back from health problems in January to take the silver, dedicating it to her mother, who is Korean.

"It's a very special medal for me," Hauswald said.

The men's sprint competition was to take place later Saturday.

Watchdog fears over store deal

Competition watchdogs have spelt out their concerns about anotherUK supermarket taking control of rival Safeway in a 33-point letter.

The Competition Commission is examining whether any of theproposed deals to take over Safeway, owner of four stores in theBristol area, would create an excessively dominant supermarket groupwhich would damage shoppers and suppliers.

At the heart of the bids from Tesco, Sainsbury's, Wm Morrison andWalMart-owned Asda, are local and national competition issues, pricesand the impact of the potential mergers on suppliers.

But also included in the letter are issues as varied as whetherthe Commission should consider in its inquiry competition for nonfoodsales as well as groceries, Internet home shopping and the price ofpetrol.

The number of issues identified for further consideration by theCompetition Commission highlights the sheer complexity of thecompetition situation surrounding supermarkets.

The Commission inquiry is due to report its findings by August 12.

Wife asks husband to forgive affair, but he's feeling wounded

Dear Ellie: I've been married 17 years, and we have two children,ages 4 and 12. Recently I discovered that my wife has had a longaffair with one of her ex-boyfriends.

After a lot of quarreling, she insisted that our marriage continuebecause of our kids, and she asked my forgiveness. I accepted, butunfortunately, I cannot forget. I feel my pride has been struck. Idon't know what to do.

TORN

Dear Torn: When a couple makes a joint decision to stay togetherafter an affair, both people are involved in the recovery andrebuilding. Your wife needs to tell you enough about the affair foryou to understand why it happened. Graphic details are not necessary,but some of the background on when and how it started will benecessary for your wounds to heal. Your wife is mistaken if shethinks an apology covers all that.

It's common for couples to need marriage counseling during thispost-affair process. If you both commit to the hard work of exploringwith a therapist what went wrong, what prompted her needs for outsideattention and how her past infidelity still affects you, there's hopefor a more solid union.

Dear Ellie: My son, age 9, is intelligent, empathetic and kind,but extremely sensitive. He does well in school and has a smallcircle of good friends. He can be a worrier and on the serious side,yet he's outgoing, plays sports and is usually happy, joking andplaying.

However, he cannot handle even gentle criticism. He imagines it'shappening when it isn't, such as after a recent soccer game, hecommented that the parents were laughing at him, which wasn't so. Histeachers have always commented on his extreme sensitivity and that hesometimes cries in class if he thinks the other students are criticalof him. We've looked into possible bullying, but this doesn't seem tobe the case (although if this behavior continues, we fear he'll losefriends and attract bullies). If he perceives that another child iseven slightly angry with him, he'll withdraw from the group and sulkor cry. Recently, he said he's being "tortured" by his feelings.

His behavior is worse during times of change, such as thebeginning or end of the school year. His father and I talk about hisgreat qualities, yet it doesn't get through. We've tried to give himtools for dealing with his feelings and reacting in given situations,but he gets overwhelmed by his emotions when in the moment.

Is it possible that he'll outgrow this as he matures, or should weseek professional help? All other aspects of our lives offer noobvious areas where he could be suffering from stress.

CONCERNED MOM

Dear Concerned MoM: Your son needs professional help now. Withschool starting again and his confession of feeling "tortured" bythese sensitivities, his needs go beyond the very good efforts you'vemade so far.

Help him understand that seeking therapy doesn't mean he's"weird." Experts estimate that 15 percent to 20 percent of childrenare born highly sensitive and easily overwhelmed. Because thesechildren have nervous systems that make them highly aware and quickto react, they often need special handling. The challenges ofapproaching puberty make this an important time to help him see hisnature in a more positive light.

An experienced professional can provide direction and teacheffective coping behaviors as your son encounters more complex socialrelationships. But keep stressing that he is still normal, and indeedhas special traits that help him see subtleties that others miss.

Recommended Reading: The Highly Sensitive Child: Helping OurChildren Thrive When the World Overwhelms Them, by Elaine Aron. Theauthor explores the challenges for parents and offers ways to helpthem raise sensitive children to be happy, successful adults.

Ellie's column runs Monday through Friday. Send e-mail toaskellie@suntimes.com.