Daily Archives: June 28, 2012

Freedom Communications Lays Off 66 Workers

Posted: June 28, 2012 at 8:22 pm

The other shoe has dropped in Freedom Communications' recent flurry of newspaper sales--including that of Santa Ana flagship the Orange County Register. Actually, the pink slips 66 employees just received may have to eventually be fashioned into shoes given the shitty job market they are entering. Freedom has granted mandatory employment freedom to the 66 who work at Irvine headquarters or the corporate online department housed in the same building as the Register, whose staff is not included in this round of layoffs. The sale of the Reg to a Boston investor is still pending.

Here are the recent sales that prompted the corporate downsizing:

Orange County Register Sold to Boston Investor

Freedom Fire Sale Continues as Register Owner Dumps Florida and North Carolina Papers

Freedom Communications Sells MORE Papers That Are Not the Register

Orange County Register's Freedom Overlords Sell 8 TV Stations to Conservative Concern

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Let (Work) Freedom Ring; 86% of Micro Service Entrepreneurs Want to Declare Job Independence, Global Fiverr Survey …

Posted: at 8:22 pm

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL--(Marketwire -06/28/12)- Millions of workers around the world are seeking additional income, freedom and fun by embracing alternative career paths and starting their own businesses, according to new research. In the spirit of Independence Day, Fiverr, the leading global marketplace for micro services, today announced the results of its international "Road to Job Independence" survey. More than 1,100 Fiverr sellers revealed their motivations to start a business on the world's largest marketplace for the freelance service industry, providing new insights into the flourishing economy of micro-entrepreneurs.

The freedom of the Internet now allows people to work where they want, when they want, how they want. Around the world new types of entrepreneurs are channeling their talents, passions, interests and skills to replace or supplement traditional 9-to-5 jobs. Fiverr makes it easier for anyone to make money doing what he or she loves.

According to the Road to Job Independence survey, most Fiverr sellers are successfully able to increase their income by offering unique services (Gigs) not available anywhere else:

Fiverr's survey discovered 6 out of 10 (57%) of all sellers have joined in the last 6 months as they seek the site's freedom to work at their own time, pace and place. These new sellers are already making money, with 40% reporting they've earned over $100 through Fiverr. And they're making money through a large variety of gigs, including graphic design, writing, personalized greetings, voice-overs, video production, expert advice, software and web development, advertising and marketing, music and much more.

Fiverr opens a world of possibilities for global commerce, removing the need for office space, set commerce hours and a business payment structure. Fiverr provides liquidity to the global network of service providers, connecting sellers directly with interested buyers. It gives burgeoning entrepreneurs all the tools they need to get started and be successful.

A vast majority (86%) of Fiverr sellers seek job independence, and 1 in 5 report their goal with Fiverr is to quit and work for themselves. Frustration with traditional 9-to-5 jobs is high, at more than 80%. The top 6 frustrations respondents have with their current job situation include:

"Creativity and freedom are the core drivers of today's new entrepreneurial economy. Anyone, anywhere can use Fiverr to quickly and easily start their own businesses -- we give people the platform and the tools to harness their skills, resources and creativity to make money on their own terms," said Micha Kaufman, co-founder and CEO of Fiverr. "Our goal is to offer people an alternative from the traditional work structure and become their own boss. As sellers gain experience and a positive business reputation, they can charge more for their services. Now 1 in 3 gigs sell for more than the base price, and 34% of sellers report they're getting an average of 5 or more gigs per week."

So why do people turn to Fiverr?

Since launching in early 2010, Fiverr has grown rapidly and now lists close to 1,000,000 gigs priced between $5 and $150. Sales on the site have increased 600% since January 2011, and continue to rise rapidly.

An infographic of the results can be found here: http://fiverr.com/financial-freedom.

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Let (Work) Freedom Ring; 86% of Micro Service Entrepreneurs Want to Declare Job Independence, Global Fiverr Survey ...

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Freedom in Lefrak City

Posted: at 8:21 pm

When walking around Lefrak City with Freedom, its hard not to notice the love the neighborhood gives him. Passersby frequently shake his hand, shoot the breeze and shout out Freedom! from across the street. To the Bedford-Stuyvesant transplant though, its nothing but expanding brain power.

Knowledge is infinity, its always to meet more and more people in Lefrak, Freedom says as we walk down 57th Avenue.

Having lived in Lefrak City for a quarters century, the proud activist is not only a community staple, but just one of many giving back to that community. Freedom hires talented artists from all over New York to help him paint murals on the walls of businesses in the area, specifically walls featuring wanton, cluttered graffiti. He was instrumental in the creation of the murals at the Food Bazaar and has his eye on a wall with clustered tags on 96th Street and renaming it the Music Wall as a tribute to musical legends such as Billie Holiday and Nat Turner.

[Its] to bring up the community, give them something to look at. Theyre taking the walls and then marking up graffiti and all that. Im against that. Im here to destroy that. And once they see my art, theyll say, Oomph! Freedom was here, he said, motioning to the mural behind him, which originally filled the entire wall.

He was instrumental in the murals completion in 1994. When a Popeyes replaced the previous store, the mural was painted but later taken down. The fast-food chain, recognizing its importance to the community, later restored the mural in a compacted, hanging form. In the far right section, near paintings of President Barack Obama and Kenny Anderson, is Freedoms own face. According to him, this particular block is named in his honor as well.

If you look around Lefrak City, its a very beautiful community. We just have to get out and stop the violence, the former paperboy for the Amsterdam News said. Violence will always be here, but maybe a little art might change their thinking capacity. I was a child out of the street and I had the old timers to wake me up.

The Nation of Islam member doesnt want people to think he despises graffiti art, though. Walking us across the street to another wall filled with RIP messages and a small shrine to a local young man recently shot to death, he makes an exception here. This wall is also getting a Freedom-style remake and will feature pictures of young people killed much too soon with the tags intact.

This right here, this is a young boy who just passed away, Freedom noted. I respect the dead, and all the young kids wrote all over the wall. Out of respect, I dont wanna take the art out of this, because theres art in it. Art is art. You dont destroy art.

Another block over, we find ourselves outside the Food Bazaar. The sidewall features a mural of King Tutankhamen and a stone mask face, with messy graffiti tags spliced in between. Its set to become the Falling Soldiers wall sometime this year. When its done, other departed kings and queens will join King Tut.

Another small section of wall with clustered, sprayed-on scribbles behind us isnt safe from Freedoms creative wrath either. Im going to put something over there. Were gonna put art on any wall we go to.

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Freedom in Lefrak City

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ATK Signs Teaming Agreement for Liberty Transportation Service

Posted: at 8:21 pm

ARLINGTON, Va., June 28, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- ATK (ATK) and Astrium North America have signed a teaming agreement with NanoRacks, LLC, for NanoRacks to market opportunities for both astronaut explorers and the experiments they plan to carry into space on board the Liberty Transportation Service.

"NanoRacks is a world leader in understanding the emerging commercial market for low Earth orbit utilization," said Kent Rominger, ATK's Liberty Program Manager. "Jeff Manber and his NanoRacks team will bring the tremendous capability of the Liberty Transportation Service to this community worldwide. The prospects are very exciting."

The Liberty Transportation Service offers researchers world-wide the opportunity to fly into low Earth orbit with their researcheither to the International Space Station, to other on-orbit space craft for human-tended operations or to use a Liberty mission on-orbit as their own unique research platform. The Liberty team will work with NanoRacks to develop Liberty missions that allow use of low Earth orbit by non-NASA individuals, such as astronauts from other countries, as well as the delivery of innovative solutions for NASA commercial crew and cargo missions.

This teaming agreement allows NanoRacks to market to explorers from around the globe a Liberty mission consisting of transportation into low Earth orbit, on-orbit operations and a safe return to Earth for up to seven people and their research and/or equipment.

The Liberty team selected NanoRacks because of its proven performance and unique history of innovatively managing a number of International Space Station payloads and commercial astronaut programs. NanoRacks is already working with Astrium North America to provide quality hardware and services for the U.S. National Laboratory on board the International Space Station.

NanoRacks has developed and deployed two research platforms onboard the International Space Station's U.S. National Laboratory, which can house plug-and-play payloads using CubeSat. NanoRacks has a signed customer pipeline of over 50 payloads including domestic and international educational institutions, research organizations and government organizations.

"The possibilities with Liberty are exponential," said Jeff Manber, CEO of NanoRacks. "For the first time we are offering people across the globe an opportunity to use Liberty to create their own missions of exploration and discovery. This will greatly expand the use of the ISS for research and also create novel missions using Liberty in low Earth orbit."

"We look forward to expanding our work with NanoRacks as it brings Liberty to new customers worldwide for commercial missions to ISS and other LEO missions," said John Schumacher, President of Astrium in North America. "This builds on research and human space flight-related operations we have done in Florida and Texas with the NASA team for over a decade."

Liberty is a complete commercial crew system that includes a human-rated composite spacecraft, advanced abort system, a reliable, affordable and capable commercial launch vehicle to low Earth orbit and ground and mission operations, which were all designed from inception to meet NASA's human-rating requirements.Unmanned test flights are planned for 2014 and 2015, followed by the first human flights in 2015 with a Liberty flight crew flying to the International Space Station.

ATK is the team lead, with Astrium and Lockheed Martin serving as major subcomponent providers. Additional subcontractors for Liberty include Safran, Moog Inc., Honeywell, Astrotech Space Operations (ASTC), Aerojet, Reynolds, Smith and Hills, Dynamic Concepts, Inc, Hamilton Sundstrand, L-3 Cincinnati Electronics and Teledyne Brown.

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Liberty Star Announces CEO Briscoe to Meet With Shareholders Throughout USA on a Whirlwind Trip

Posted: at 8:21 pm

TUCSON, Ariz.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Liberty Star Uranium & Metals Corp. (Liberty Star or the Company) (OTCBB: LBSR) is pleased to announce that starting July 5th Liberty Stars CEO, James A. Briscoe, will visit 19 cities throughout the United States to present and discuss the future outlook of the Companys various projects in Alaska and Arizona.

Invitations to the Companys shareholders were mailed via US Postal Service. Included with the invitation are Mr. Briscoes schedule of appearances and an RSVP. Interested parties are invited as well:

Dear Liberty Star Shareholder and Interested Parties,

This is an exciting period for Liberty Star Uranium and Metals Corp. As you have seen by our latest news releases (NR 124 & NR 125) our S-1 application to the SEC has been approved and our financing agreement with Fairhills is now active. This gives us the right to draw down $10 million over the next 36 months at our discretion. But this agreement is non-exclusive so we also have the right to do any other financing deal or joint venture with any party we might choose. And we are not obligated to draw down money from Fairhills unless we choose to do so.

We have been working diligently over the period starting with the company inception to define drill targets. I will make a presentation that will review the current status of our projects. We are now to the point that we could start drilling . . .

View the entire letter on the Liberty Star website under the J.A. Briscoe Whirlwind Trip tab. You can RSVP to the event in/near your city on the website or email info@libertystaruranium.com.

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Kensington producer’s musical  about Statue of Liberty debuts this week

Posted: at 8:21 pm

At last: A musical about the Statue of Liberty that a Kensington theater producer has championed for four years will make its debut.

A girl in a copper-brown gown will step onto the stage of the Warner Theatre in Torrington, Conn., Saturday and sing the story of how Lady Liberty an immigrant, like so many New Yorkers came to America.

Shes a young person on a journey to find herself, said Theresa Wozunk, producer of Liberty: A Monumental New Musical.

In 2008, Wozunk bought the rights to produce the show commercially because shes fascinated with the iconic statue. Her interest was inspired by family tales about her Italian grandpa.

Enrico Ciampoli joined the Army at age 17 and fought in World War I for his new country, where hed settled the year before against his parents wishes.

He was completely devoted to America, said Wozunk, 50. He taught himself English by reading the newspapers and never uttered another word of Italian in public.

Lady Ls got dramatic tales to tell, too.

She was almost deported, said Wozunk.

The U.S. government cut the funding for the statues pedestal and had nowhere to put her, and nearly sent her back to France. She sat in 300-plus crates on what is now Liberty Island.

P.S.: Lady Libertys gown isnt green in the musical because it took 20 years for the copper shes made of to turn that color.

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ATK Completes Software TIM for Liberty under NASA's Commercial Crew Program

Posted: at 8:21 pm

ARLINGTON, Va., June 28, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- ATK (ATK) completed its Liberty software technical interface meeting (TIM), which was held to support further development of the Liberty space transportation system under the company's Space Act Agreement (SAA) with NASA for the Commercial Crew Development Program.

The software TIM was conducted to evaluate Liberty's software development plan with the NASA Liberty team. The plan governs the software process used by Liberty and its subcontractors throughout development, integration, test and flight.

"Understanding how your system will work together throughout the mission is critical in reducing risk and schedule delays," said Kent Rominger, ATK Vice President and Program Manager for Liberty. "Holding this TIM provides us valuable insight into expertise provided by the NASA team and ensures there are no issues we are overlooking."

The development of software is critical for understanding the entire system to support Liberty's test flights. Unmanned test flights are scheduled for 2014 and 2015, followed by the first crewed flights in 2015 with Liberty astronauts.

The TIM was held this month at Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.'s Boulder campus and the Lockheed Martin Waterton facility near Denver.The team also toured both facilities, including the integration and test laboratories where Liberty's flight and ground software will be checked out prior to its test flights.

Team members involved with Liberty's software development include ATK (first stage and ground support equipment (GSE)), Lockheed Martin (spacecraft subsystem support, launch vehicle ascent control and spacecraft GSE), Ball Aerospace ((Situation Awareness Fault Evaluation (SAFE) and Subsystems)), Astrium (second stage) and L3 Communications Cincinnati Electronics (Integrated Avionics and Flight Safety Systems), and Teledyne Brown (cargo carrier).

The CCDev-2 Liberty unfunded SAA enables NASA and the Liberty team to share technical information related to the Liberty Transportation System during the preliminary design review phase of the program. ATK has completed four milestones and held three TIMs, all on internal funding. The fifth and final milestone under the agreement is schedule for July.

"This SAA with NASA's Commercial Crew Program has enabled us to further advance development as we receive valuable feedback from a team of experienced human space flight experts," said Rominger. "As a result, we are able to offer a complete commercial crew service, and provide safe, reliable, cost-effective crew transportation to low Earth orbit."

ATK announced last month it had developed Liberty into a complete commercial crew transportation system, including the Liberty composite spacecraft, abort system, launch vehicle and ground and mission operations, all designed from inception to meet NASA's human-rating requirements.

Additional subcontractors for Liberty include Safran/Snecma, Moog Inc., Honeywell, Astrotech Space Operations (ASTC), Aerojet, Reynolds, Smith and Hills, Dynamic Concepts, Inc. and Hamilton Sundstrand. More information on the Liberty system can be found at http://www.libertyspace.us

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Liberty second stage one step closer to production

Posted: at 8:21 pm

ARLINGTON, Va., June 28, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Astrium, the number one company in Europe for space technologies and systems, has successfully completed a set of tests on tank structures proving that key design and manufacturing processes used for Ariane launchers are ready for production of the Liberty commercial launch vehicle second stage with ATK (ATK).

Download film of the tests at: http://46.218.194.177/astrium/ASTRIUM_LIBERTY

The tests covering load-carrying cryogenic tanks demonstrate that existing Astrium processes can be leveraged to confirm the overall Liberty schedule and enable a speedy entry into service and into orbit. Astrium is also working on leaner production processes for the second stage to bring best value to the Liberty launch vehicle.

Liberty is a complete commercial crew transportation service, including the spacecraft, abort system, launch vehicle, and both ground and mission operations, designed from inception to meet NASA's human-rating requirements with a planned first test flight in 2014 and Liberty crewed flight in 2015. Astrium, as a major subcontractor, will provide the second stage of the Liberty launch vehicle - based on the liquid-fuelled cryogenic core of the Ariane 5 vehicle powered by the Safran-built Vulcain 2 engine. The Ariane 5 launcher, for which Astrium is the Prime Contractor, was developed under the aegis of the European Space Agency and is operated by Arianespace. With 48 consecutive successful missions over nearly nine years, it is the world's most reliable launcher. This includes the launch of three Autonomous Transfer Vehicles to resupply the International Space Station in the last four years. During this time, the Ariane 5 has launched more commercial satellites into orbit than any other launch vehicle in the world.

A film from the Astrium site in les Mureaux, near Paris (France), shows the work done to complete the stage testing. It shows the machining, forming, computerized automatic welding and inspection of cryogenic tank elements to provide the increased thickness and stiffened profiles necessary for the Liberty second stage. An additional tank panel of increased thickness is welded and tested in a cryogenic environment at the Euro Cryospace facilities (an Astrium and Air Liquide joint-venture). These successful tests demonstrate that Astrium's manufacturing technology has the capability to process panels that are several times thicker than those of Ariane 5. These panels meet the needs for the strengthened cryogenic tanks of Liberty's second stage.

Alain Charmeau, CEO of Astrium Space Transportation, said: "These tests take the Liberty second stage one step closer to production. They demonstrate conclusively that our proven processes can manufacture thicker and stiffer cryogenic tanks for the Liberty second stage.

"Welding, machining, and forming space hardware is a highly sophisticated industrial process. Our extensive experience in manufacturing all Ariane launchers has given us comprehensive and unmatched capability that we can now utilize for a new commercial space transportation system Liberty. We are proud to be a valued partner alongside ATK and Lockheed Martin and look forward to the success of Liberty," he continued.

"Astrium's world-class commercial launch team provides unique vehicle and systems capabilities to Liberty," said Kent Rominger, ATK program manager for Liberty. "These tests by our Astrium teammates demonstrate how our flight-proven Liberty team is hard at work and keeping Liberty on schedule for first launch in 2014."

For additional information on the Liberty Transportation Service please visit the Liberty website at: http://www.libertyspace.us/

About Astrium

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Stolen Valor ruling a win for free speech, common sense

Posted: at 8:18 pm

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Todays Supreme Court decision in United States v. Alvarez is a victory for free speech and common sense.

The Supreme Court in a 6-to-3 vote struck down the Stolen Valor Act, which made it a crime to falsely claim military honors. The Court concluded that the act violated the First Amendment by criminalizing lies without a showing of fraud or other criminal conduct.

Permitting the government to decree this speech to be a criminal offense, whether shouted from the rooftops or made in a barely audible whisper, would endorse government authority to compile a list of subjects about which false statements are punishable. That governmental power has no clear limiting principal. Our constitutional tradition stands against the idea that we need Oceanias Ministry of Truth, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the plurality opinion.

That reference to George Orwells novel 1984 is appropriate. The Stolen Valor Act would have given government the right to weigh the truth or falsity of someones statement and prosecute the person even if no one had been defrauded and the liar had obtained no material benefits.

Xavier Alvarez, the defendant in the case, has quite a track record of lying. He once claimed to have played hockey for the Detroit Red Wings and to have married a starlet. But those paled in comparison to his biggest lie: claiming to have been awarded the Medal of Honor.

Thats when he ran afoul of the Stolen Valor Act, which proponents claimed would uphold the honor of those who legitimately received the medal.

But the law ran afoul of the Constitution by requiring no more than an untruthful statement about military honors, regardless of setting, audience or whether the liar intended to defraud.

The Supreme Court reviewed the rare instances in which mere speech can lead to prosecution in this country. Content-based limits on free expression are tied to criminal fraud, perjury, incitement of violence or defamation of others. Self-aggrandizement is not on the list.

A public database of Medal of Honor winners would have much the same deterrent effect as this flawed law, Kennedy noted. People claiming honors they didnt earn could be quickly exposed, and liars would face the appropriate penalty: public humiliation.

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High Court: Free Speech Trumps Insulted War Heroes

Posted: at 8:18 pm

The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.

The Constitution's guarantee of free speech for all Americans outweighs a law created to punish liars who insult the nation's most-decorated war veterans, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

In striking down the Stolen Valor Act of 2005, the high court determined the law was too strict and lacked a legal cut-off valve. Justices warned that had the Valor Act been upheld, the government legally could have brought charges against individuals who merely told white lies over beers with a buddy about getting a military award.

"Fundamental constitutional principles require that laws enacted to honor the brave must be consistent with the precepts of the Constitution for which they fought," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion.

"The government's argument simply lacked a limiting principle. Perfectly respectable people sometimes lie to protect their privacy, avoid hurt feelings, make others feel better, duck minor obligations, or protect themselves and others from prejudice," says Jameel Jaffer, deputy legal director at the ACLU. "If the court had endorsed the government's sweeping argument, the government could regulate all of these false statements--and even criminalize them."

[Photos: At the Supreme Court.]

Xavier Alvarez in July 2007 told those assembled for a local California water district meeting that he was a "retired Marine of 25 years" who in 1987 "was awarded the Congressional Medal of honor" after he "got wounded many times."

It soon surfaced that none of that is true. Federal investigators soon came looking for Alvarez, and charged him with violating the Stolen Valor Act, created by Congress to penalize individuals who falsely claim to have earned a military citation.

The six Supreme Court justices who ruled to overturn the law made clear in written opinions released Thursday their collective feelings about Alvarez. (Three justices voted to uphold the 2005 law.)

"Lying was his habit. Xavier Alvarez...lied when he said that he played hockey for the Detroit Red Wings and that he once married a starlet from Mexico," Kennedy wrote. "But when he lied in announcing he held the Congressional Medal of Honor, respondent ventured onto new ground."

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