Monthly Archives: March 2017

Premier’s engagement used by Liberals to woo email addresses – CBC.ca

Posted: March 17, 2017 at 7:45 am

Brian Gallant and Karine Lavoie aren't the only ones getting engaged.

The New Brunswick Liberal party is using the news of the premier's impending marriage to "engage" with voters by gathering their email addresses.

But it's not to invite them to the wedding. It's to send them pro-Liberal messages.

The party is asking people to use a form on the Liberal website to "join us in congratulating" the premier on getting engaged to Lavoie.

The form doesn't work unless the well-wishers submit their email address, and Liberal party president Joel Reed acknowledged Thursday it's so the party can send them Liberal promotional material in the future.

"It's probably evident that if you submit your email address voluntarily to a political party, we're going to assume that you're interested in our activities and try to stay in touch with you," Reed said.

Reed said "all parties" place a lot of importance on gathering email addresses.

He noted that Barack Obama and Justin Trudeau have both used "these sorts of outreach tools quite effectively and extensively. Gathering information is now vital to everyone's campaign strategy."

Reed also said most visitors to the Liberal website "are most likely supporters, or at least interested in the party. A very significant proportion would be existing members, and this allows us a quick and convenient way to update their contact information."

The web page includes a photo of Gallant lifting Lavoie off the ground in an apple orchard, the same photo he tweeted on March 13 when he revealed the couple was engaged. There's no date yet for the wedding.

The request doesn't break any rules, and it doesn't use any government funding.

Liberal party president Joel Reed said all political parties place a lot of importance on gathering email addresses. (LinkedIn)

The page also has a link to the party's privacy policy, which clearly says an email address can be used "to communicate with you about the New Brunswick Liberal Party and its activities, as well as to provide you with news and information."

Reed said people who submit engagement congratulations can also unsubscribe from the Liberal emails once they start getting them.

He said the premier's office wasn't involved in the decision to solicit the congratulations and emails but said Gallant was probably asked for permission.

A few hours after the New Brunswick Liberal party tweeted a link to the congratulations page, Gallant used his own Twitter account to thank people who had sent their best wishes. He didn't link to the Liberal web page.

Author Susan Delacourt says Gallant is "following in the path of many other political leaders who do this."

In 2014, the president of the federal Liberal party went online to ask for congratulatory messages for Justin Trudeau and his wife Sophie on the birth of their third child messages that required the senders' email addresses.

And then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper invited visitors to the Conservative party website to wish his wife Laureen a happy mother's day in 2013, while submitting their email addresses and postal codes.

"It's all about the same thing. It's about collecting email addresses, which are way more valuable to political parties than membership fees," said Delacourt, the author of Shopping for Votes, a book about how political parties have adopted retail marketing technique.

"Once you've got an email address, you've got a foot in the door to their lives," she said.

Journalist Susan Delacourt believes Canadians' relationship with their politicians has changed since the consumer boom of the 1950s. Consumers have wants, she says. Citizens have needs - a theme she explores in her book Shopping For Votes. (Adam Scotti)

Delacourt said parties are especially interested in engaging with voters with only a passing interest in politics, because they're easier to sway with direct, targeted messages.

"Often email and Facebook and all those places are where politicians are finding people," she said.

Reed said he didn't have any numbers on how many people have used the web page.

Delacourt said people who wish Gallant and Lavoie a lifetime of happiness are likely to receive a lifetime of emails from the Liberals, including requests for donations, notices of what Gallant is doing as premier, and information on his election platform next year.

"Data is now the way people win elections, and email addresses are the way they collect that data," she said.

And despite Reed's assertion that recipients will be able to unsubscribe to the emails, Delacourt said "it takes a lot to get off" party email lists once you're on them.

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Victorian Liberals face financial crisis ahead of state election – The Age

Posted: at 7:45 am

The Victorian Liberal Party faces a financial crisis ahead of next year's state election, with leaked documents revealing a string of budget blowouts, rising debtsand lost fundraising revenue from majordonors.

Figures seen by The Age confirm the party is struggling to balance its books, adding to tensions in the already bruising battle for state presidency between Liberal stalwarts Michael Kroger and Peter Reith.

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27-year-old Marcus Bastiaan and his outspoken partner Stephanie Ross have torn like a tornado through the Liberals' Victorian branch, aligning with figures such as Michael Kroger along the way.

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A 22-year-old woman was allegedly raped repeatedly outside the St Vincent's Hospital after the stranger followed her off the tram on Thursday morning. Vision courtesy: Seven News Melbourne.

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63-year-old Channel Seven commentator Bruce McAvaney has revealed he was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) over two years ago. Vision courtesy: Seven News Melbourne.

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Nicholas Davison was sentenced to 11 years' in prison on Friday for killing Sydney woman Tanami Nayler, 24, in a hit-run crash in West Melbourne on July 30 last year. Vision courtesy ABC News 24.

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CEO David Herman talks about his plans for Lort Smith, the only animal hospital in Australia, and how he has brought his experience from the private sector to a charity he is passionate about.

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One person has died in a multi-vehicle smash on the Calder as two separate car fires across Melbourne bring peak-hour traffic to a standstill. Courtesy Seven Melbourne.

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Unit Controller John Soles will probably be forced to retire after 18 years working at Australia's dirtiest coal-fired power plant, which officially closes at the end of March.

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A court viewed a YouTube video made by Brendan Davies who was found guilty of five counts of arson, after long and drawn-out trial.

27-year-old Marcus Bastiaan and his outspoken partner Stephanie Ross have torn like a tornado through the Liberals' Victorian branch, aligning with figures such as Michael Kroger along the way.

Internal documents reveal the Victorian branch is expected to clock up about$1.73 million in losses by the end of this financial year, with an expected $1.52 million revenue hit from a major donor, the Cormack Foundation, and a further $233,000 in losses from an Enterprise Victoria fundraisernot being locked in as originally budgeted.

A deficit of $1.16 million was posted in the eight months to February 28, and the Liberals havealso taken on $1.72 million in debt to helpstay afloat with the possibility of more to come.

"We are borrowing to keep the lights on," said one furious Liberal source.

The figures are likely to raise questions about the party's financial management at a time when it should be building an election war chest for Opposition Leader Matthew Guy to fight the Andrews government.

In a sign of the underlying tensions,Mr Guy's parliamentary team have nowsetup their own fundraising account, separate from the administrative wingof the party, which contains almost $250,000 in donated funds to go towards their efforts at next year's poll.

Some insiders have blamed the party's financial woes onMr Kroger, who took on the presidency two years ago promising to shake-up the party's culture, decentralise power from head office to local branches, and significantly improvecampaigning and fundraising.

Since then, his critics argue, the result has been mixed: branches have been plagued by allegations of branch stacking centred on ally Marcus Bastiaan;the Liberals have flirted with the idea of a preference deal with One Nation; and the president has beenlocked in a dispute with the Cormack Foundation over internal governance issues, which has led to the withholding of funds.

State director Simon Frost insisted the party's financial status would not hinder the Liberals' election campaign against Daniel Andrews, saying: "The secretariat is closely monitoring our short-term financial situation. We have in place the systems and personnel to build a substantial war-chest to help make Matthew Guy the premier at the 2018 state election."

While MrKroger declined to comment, his supporters point to the role he played in uncovering the $1.5 million fraud by former Liberal state director Damien Mantach, and the positive federal election result the Liberals had in Victoria last year, where the Turnbull government snatched the seat of Chisholm from Labor.

Insiders say that the party might be able to break even if it can resolve the dispute with the Cormack Foundation andlock in another major fundraiser with the Prime Minister before the end of the financial year.

But the revelations of the Liberals' financial woes are set to intensify the battle for control of the Victorian branch, which will come to a head in April when Mr Kroger defends his presidency from a challenge by Mr Reith, a former industrial relations minister in the Howard government.

The contest has divided the party with federal ministers such as Josh Frydenberg, Michael Sukkar and Alan Tudge backing Mr Kroger to stay in the role, while others, such as Mr Guy, federal Liberals Scott Ryan and Kelly O'Dwyer, and most of the state parliamentary team, endorsing Mr Reith.

Declaring his support for Mr Reith earlier this month, Mr Guy said: "It's a 50-50 ball game in Victoria. We've got to be focused, ready and determined. We need to not, coming into an election, be focused on internal matters."

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Trump Budget Guru, Long a Fiscal Hawk, Now Has to Sell Spending – New York Times

Posted: at 7:45 am


New York Times
Trump Budget Guru, Long a Fiscal Hawk, Now Has to Sell Spending
New York Times
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all 1,523 news articles »

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Trump Budget Guru, Long a Fiscal Hawk, Now Has to Sell Spending - New York Times

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Trump Seeks $30B More in Fiscal 2017 to Rebuild Military, Fight ISIS – Department of Defense

Posted: at 7:45 am

WASHINGTON, March 16, 2017 In a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan today, President Donald J. Trump asked for another $30 billion for the Defense Department in this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, to rebuild the armed forces and accelerate the campaign to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

The fiscal 2017 budget amendment provides $24.9 billion in base funds for urgent warfighting readiness needs and to begin a sustained effort to rebuild the armed forces, according to the presidents letter.

The request seeks to address critical budget shortfalls in personnel, training, maintenance, equipment, munitions, modernization and infrastructure investment. It represents a critical first step in investing in a larger, more ready and more capable military force, Trump wrote.

The request includes $5.1 billion in overseas contingency operations funds so the department can accelerate the campaign to defeat ISIS and support Operation Freedom's Sentinel in Afghanistan, he said, noting that the request would enable DoD to pursue a comprehensive strategy to end the threat ISIS poses to the United States.

Continuing Resolution

At the Pentagon this afternoon, senior defense officials briefed reporters on the on the fiscal 2017 budget amendment. The speakers were John P. Roth, performing the duties of undersecretary of defense-comptroller, and Army Lt. Gen. Anthony R. Ierardi, director of force structure, resources and assessment on the Joint Staff.

Our request to Congress is that they pass a full-year defense appropriations bill, and that the bill includes the additional $30 billion, Roth said. We are now approaching the end of our sixth month under a continuing resolution, he added, one of the longest periods that we have ever been under a continuing resolution.

Crying Needs

The continuing resolution run for the rest of the fiscal year, Pentagon officials would find that extremely harmful to the defense program, Roth said.

We are essentially kind of muddling along right now in terms of borrowing resources against third- and fourth-quarter kinds of finances in order to keep things going, he said. But that game gets to be increasingly difficult as we go deeper into the fiscal year.

Under a continuing resolution, the department has to operate under a fiscal 2016 mandate, creating a large mismatch between operations funds and procurement funds, Roth explained. The department cant spend procurement dollars because theres a restriction on new starts and on increasing production, he said, but we have crying needs in terms of training, readiness, maintenance ... and in the operation and maintenance account.

The continuing resolution expires April 28, so before then, we would want a full appropriation and, of course, a full appropriation with this additional $30 billion, he said.

The Next Challenge

Roth said much of the money in the fiscal 2017 request is funding for operations and maintenance.

We're asking for additional equipment maintenance funding, additional facilities maintenance, spare parts, additional training events, peacetime flying hours, ship operations, munitions and those kinds of things, said he told reporters. This is the essence of what keeps this department running on a day-to-day basis. It keeps us up and allows us to get ready for whatever the next challenge is.

The officials said full support from Congress is key to improving warfighter readiness, providing the most capable modern force, and increasing the 2011 Budget Control Act funding cap for defense.

(Follow Cheryl Pellerin on Twitter @PellerinDoDNews)

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Fiscal junks appeal of ex-mayor | SunStar – Sun.Star

Posted: at 7:45 am

Fiscal junks appeal of ex-mayor | SunStar
Sun.Star
After a careful review of the case, it is clear that respondent's remarks were made in exercise of his right of freedom of expression. Meanwhile, Osmea said Rama should undergo drug rehabilitation instead of denying he is a drug addict. Osmea ...

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Alberta marches forward, on boggy fiscal footing – Macleans.ca

Posted: at 7:45 am

CeciandNotley in the legislatureearlier this month(CP)

For budget speechwriters, a common ploy is to begin and end the finance ministers address with a specific charactera compellingindividualwith a captivating personal story, whose needs and challenges perfectly encapsulatewhat the budget is trying to achieve. For a government investing in health care and seniors care, it might be Deborah, the sandwich-generation single mom whose son has a rare disease and whose mother needs home-care service. For the belt-tightening minister, theresoldtimer Dwight at the small-town coffee shop, who worries about the debt burden his grandchildren will pay. For a province that wishes to tout a new skills program: Mo the plumber, from Syria.

Alberta now has the perfect individual to help frame the Rachel Notley governments vision and fiscal narrative. His name is Straw Man.

Straw Man wants to write budgets with machetes, with deep cuts to public services, Finance Minister Joe Ceci says near the start of his address. Straw Man wants to give grandparents second-class health care. Straw Man will cram as many kids as possible into a classroom, Ceci says near his monologues end. Straw Man gives tax cuts to his corporate friends, he added in his news conference. Straw Man is not named thusly in the speech. The opposition Tories and Wildrose arent named in this 2017 budget speech eitherand nor is Jason Kenney, the man who will become Tory leader Saturday and try to fusetwo parties into one conservative monolith. But Straw Man is clearly a composite character.

Albertas budget is designed to knock down this villainous figures sinister plans. Its a fairly modest spending plan of lowered public school fees, hospital projects and a slow, optimistic climb to balanced budget early next decade. The plan, to the Notley cabinets credit, lacks wildly ambitious new programs, and through some restraint measures allows operations spending to grow by 2.2 per cent. Thats the slowest rate since the days when the premier was Ralph Klein (the Straw Man avatar of bygone NDP rhetoric) during the cuts of the 1990s and after the post-9/11 crash. This years budget does not let the premiers right-leaning foes depict her as a wild-eyed socialistthough both partisan sides like to play with strawbut the plan does place the long-term and possibly even the short-term future of Albertas public-sector system atop a dangerously flimsy foundation.

RELATED: The line item that shows the NDP cant clean up Albertas balance sheet

The provincemay finally be crawling out of itsdeepest recession since the dreadful 1980s, but its a slow crawl, and years will pass before the economy makes up the ground it lost. The provinces oil and natural gas revenue is projected to shoot up by 54 per cent to the highest level in three years, but those three years combined will beequal to what a good year used to be for Albertas coffers.

The deficit will be $10.3 billion, which isbarely lower than last years record mark. The province stakes most of its future balanced-budget hopes on comfortably higher oil prices than might be realistic: $55 US per barrel this year when theyre now below $50, and a rosy-seeming $68 in two yearsfor every dollar theyre off, add $310 million to the deficitand the timely completion of oil pipelines which could be held up by various challenges and resistance. The accumulated debt will soar to $71.1 billion in two years, compared with the $20-billion debt when the NDP took in 2015, and approaching triple the size of liability that Klein inherited a quarter-century ago, when he branded the situation a grave crisis demandingrevolutionary action.

(Theres a charming chart in the budget book that shows Alberta with the lowest provincial debt-to-GDP ratio, at six per cent. The fine print shows these are 2015-2016 figures. On that same page one can find the real 2017 ratio, 13.8 per cent, set to grow to 19.5 per cent by 2019, still lower than most provinces but ahead of British Columbia and Saskatchewan.)

Notley and Ceci seeno real crisis, despite warnings frombond-rating agencies whocould again slash Albertas credit rating, already below its formerly sterling AAA. To the NDP, the crisis is whatever the opposition parties wishto unleash. But heres the problem: the last time province was approaching fiscal basket-case territory, when Klein took over in 1992, even his Liberal opponents were pledging austerity to restore some alignment to the money Alberta spent and the money Alberta took in. The Notley government has already done plenty to increase revenues, including corporate tax hikes, bigger rates for high-income earners and a much-maligned new carbon tax. Any further taxes would solidify the political doom that polls suggest theyll face in the 2019 election. But on spending, theyre unwilling to go farther than they have so far, with measures to freeze civil service managers pay, target a few Crown agency executive packages and find ill-defined savings worth 0.3 per cent of the current budget.

Contrast this with Newfoundland and Labrador, where the Liberals responded last year to financial shambles with much higher taxes and fees, and Saskatchewan, where Premier Brad Wall wants to scrub a deficit by demanding a 3.5-per-cent cut to public sector compensation, through lower salaries or unpaid days off being dubbed Wallidays.

Ceci hopes Albertans like his plan to maintain services and lower school costs, but isnt sure how voters will receive a future $71.1-billion debt after the good, old Tory-ruled days of high oil prices and debt freedom.I just want to win this press conference actually; so Im focused on that, joked to reporters before his budget speech.

Whatever white knight of the right faces off against Notley in two years (Kenney? Wildrose Leader Brian Jean?)he or she will undoubtedly campaign on restoring fiscal sanity, fending off the straw-man claims that they will ravage public health and education. But the worse the situation they inherit shouldthey win,the more the budgetary beast rages untamedby the current government, the tougher the fiscal conservatives will eventually have to be.

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Attorney General: Decree Restricting Importation Of New Cars Is Unconstitutional – Q Costa Rica News

Posted: at 7:45 am

It restricts the freedom of commerce and implies an intrusion into the market, says Attorney General

Q COSTA RICA It restricts the freedom of commerce and implies an intrusion into the market, says Costa Ricas Attorney General, Julio Jurado, commenting on the decree emitted by the government last August, that prevents importers of new vehicles from introducing into the country late-models before the month of September.

This year, for example, 2018 models cannot be in the market before September.

The Attorney General considers the government decree restrictive of freedom of trade, unconstitutional, and lacking the legal authority.

Jurado presented his written arguments before the Constitutional Court or Sala IV as it is commonly refered to, that is studying the action of unconstitutionality presented by the Asociacin de Consumidores Libres (ACL) Association of Free Consumers against the decree promulgated by President Luis Guillermo Solis and the Ministry of Finance in August 2016.

Jurado added, the restriction cannot be classified as a reasonable and adequate measure to achieve uniform fiscal (tax) values.

According to the Attorney General, the decree is also unreasonable because the Tax Administration has extensive powers, which would allow it to seek alternative mechanisms that are proportionate to address the situation it seeks to regulate by decree.

The government and the Ministry of Finance argue that the early importation of late-model vehicles, devalues the rest of the vehicles in the country, in effect lowering their fiscal (tax) value. Since the fiscal value is used to calculate the property tax payable for the year, included in the cost of the Marchamo (circulation permit), the lower values will mean a lower tax revenue.

For its part, the Association of Free Consumers argued before the Constitutional Court argues that the decree violates freedom of trade, freedom of contract and freedom of enterprise, as well as the rights of choice, among other points of law.

Rogelio Fernndez, vice-president of the Association of Free Consumers, said he was happy that the Attorney General is on their side. We are hopeful the action will finally be declared valid (accepted by the Court), because the State lawyer himself is concluding, like us, that the decree is unconstitutional, he said.

For his part, Fernando Rodrguez, Deputy Minister of Finance, said he was surprised at the Attorney Generals position.

There is no date for the Constitutional Court to decide on the merits of the action. Such processes may take several months or even years.

Source La Nacion

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theFIREstarter – Financial Independence. Retire Early

Posted: at 7:44 am

Greetings!

Welcome to theFIREstarter! If you are interested in themes such as Financial Independence, Retiring Early, Downshifting, or simply just working less and living more then please stick around, I think well get on just fine

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If you'd rather have a poke around first then by all means do so! You can always subscribe later by using the link at the top right of the menu above. If you want to get the full story you can start from the very first post here or for a more casual read, just see what catches your eye on the list of all posts page.

My thoughts and plans have slightly changed in the few years since I set up the blog, you can learn a little bit more about me and the main points on what those plans were and how they've changed here, here, here, here and finally here.

If you'd like to keep a track of new developments, money saving tips, money making tips, my adventures in attempting self sufficiency and simple living, free financial hacks and spreadsheets, and my general musings on Financial Independence, Personal Finance, investing, and the occasional humorous rant, then please consider following along. Those links again:

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TFS.x

I have many more pictures of horses in store for you

Welcome to part ii of my Cheltenham diary, inada matched betting styleeeee.

Apologies for that and any subsequent outburts Its getting late into Day 2 evening now as I write and my brain is frazzled with bets and offers.

Its certainly been a tale of 2 different days for me so far so lets look at how the results have gone so far, but first a bit more about what I was trying to attempt, which I explained briefly in part i earlier today yesterday

Just to give you a better idea of my strategy as briefly laid out in part i, I was aiming to dutch the field on the first race as that is the one each day that has the most offers on, and then hoping to hit as many free bets on that as possible to just use for the rest of the days races. I also then randomly put some other bets on when I felt like it and when there were good odds or I thought a particular offer might cop.

Dutching is where you back more than one horse, normally to get an even win. For exampleyou might put 10 on a horse at 5/1 and 5 on one at 10/1 to give you a 50 win if either wins. Dutching the whole field does obviously not guarantee you a win (otherwise everyone would do it and the bookies would go bankrupt) but instead guarantees you a loss (similar to how when you back then lay you normally guarantee yourself a small loss). However by dutching the whole field I dont have to bother laying any of the bets.

This saves me one headache of putting the odds into the lay calculator, going to the exchange, and laying, but gives me another, possibly even bigger, headache of working out exactly what stakes to put on each horse to make sure the qualifying loss is as close as possible.

In short This is impossible, mainly because I am working in the max free bet increments for most offers of 10, 20 and 25. I just decided to get it as close as possible and make sure there wasnt too big a loss on any given horse when there was and Id run out of offers to do, I just stuck a few quid on the exchanges to level things up a bit better

*Other no lay dutching mega strategies areavailable

Enough of the theory already, onto results

Please note winning prices are official SP not necessarily what I backed them at (if I did at all). Also some of the race names are a right old mouthful so Ive shortened them to what I deem a less stupid length.

13:30 Supreme Novices Hurdle winner Labaik 25/1 P+L: -72

So the first race of my dutching career! Exciting.

My Average qualifying loss on this race was actually in the positive at an 8.90 win, I am guessing this is because the bigger odds horses are easy to get into the positive (i.e. winnings) and with the double odds boost from Grosvenor sportsbook, it makes it possible to get a win rather than a loss here. I also had a free bet with Coral which helped too.

However the good news ends there because the horse that won I actually left a gaping hole with the horse that won it in the end with a joint largest loss of 72. Damn! And as I said it is so easy to get the higher price horses into the profit zone with dutching so lesson learnt there. This horse was 50/1 on Betfair exchange when I was looking at it so it would have only taken a 2 bet to take me into profit on that horse, but hindsight is a wonderful thing isnt it.

Anyway not the best start but not disastrous, as I copped a few free bets on the Betway and Skybet offers to use for the rest of the day.

14:10 Arkle Novices Chase winner Altior 1/4 P+L: -70

I backedCharbell each way because it was an each way arb, it duly fell at the 2nd to last (I think) while right in the mix. Also backed another horse with William hill for their High 5 offer but no joy there either.

14:50 Ultima Handicap Chase winnerUn Temps Pour Tout 9/1 P+L: 0

This was one of those races with ahuge field and many bookies paying out extra places on it, so I backed a few each way here including some with free bets. Managed to get Noble Endeavour (10/1) and Young Master (22/1) in the top 6 so a bit of cash back there. Also did the Betstars offer (laid this one of due to the high 50 stakes which was good as none of those bets won!). All told this producedan outcome of breaking even, but 2 x 50 free bets scored from the Betstars offer. If you cant remember each offer by the way please refer to part i again where I explained them all briefly.

15:30 Champion Hurdle winnerBuveur Dair 5/1 P+L: 101

I went to town on this one with the Paddy Power (PP) and Betfair (BF) offers along with doing some each way shots with Betway free bets. Imanaged to hit the winner with one at 11/2 with BF, so got a 25 on top of the winnings, and also got Sceau Royal (33/1) and My Tent or Yours (price?) in the frame as well for a decent profit on the race.

16:10 Mares Hurdle winner Apples Jade 7/2 P+L: 202

A friend of mine who knows far more about equine matters than I do tipped up Apples Jade at 9/2 so I backed it with both PPand BF, which came in! Thank you friend! A decent profit and another 25 free bet acquired.

16:50 Amateur Riders Novices Chase winner Tiger Roll 16/1 P+L: -45

Backed Genie in a Bottle on advice from said friend (no joy this time, came 5th) with BF and PP again. Did both the Betstars50 free bets on Beware the bear and Edwulf both of which came nowhere although were pretty much the favourites. Its annoying when I do this sort of thing as normally pick higher prices for a higher potential win, although the safer option is always to try to go with say, the first three in the betting as you will get winners more often and smooth out the variance. Of course this is just gamblers remorse kicking in and there is no evidence to suggest I would have picked the winner if the stakes of the free bets were not so large and I were left to my own devices (so to speak) `anyway, although I really do like Tiger Rolls so maybe I would have ;). If I get another 50 free bet though I will probably use it on a much smaller field race, or one with better each way value at least, or I might even just lay it off and take the easy 35-40.

17:30 Novices Handicap Chase winner Tully East 8/1 P+L: -60

Backed a few for the Betway offer and also PP, none of which came anywhere. A damp squib to end the day on.

Final Day One P+L: 56

I have to say I was a little disappointed with this result having spent a good 4 hours putting bets on Monday night then sneaking a few more throughout the day at work. However the main thing was that it wasnt a loss! And to just keep thinking, variance, volatility, whatever you want to call it, if you arent laying, you have to eat shit like that for breakfast.

This is where things got interesting!

13:30 Novices Hurdle winner Willoughby Court 14/1 P+L: 20

Went hard at it again with all the offers and dutched them a bit better than yesterday (helped by using up some of the free bets I had from yesterday) and didnt leave too many glaring holes, especially on the higher priced horses! I also decided to go each way on the Grosvenor double odds ones as realised this give you massive value on the each way part as well (but you can only do 5ew). Anyway the winner wasnt the best (that would have been Bon Papa for a 300+ win!) but wasnt the worse either so I made a very small profit while importantly triggering a few Skybet, Betway, and also a Paddys (Neon wolf 2nd) and BF (backed the winner with them) free bet.

14:10 RSA Novices Chase winner Mite Bite7/2 P+L: 52.50

Realised Id totally forgot about the Sunbets free bets from yesterday, luckily they are valid until Friday unlike what it made out to be from their T&Cs which made it sound like you could only use them on the day they were issued. Phew! Anyway I managed to back the winner which was the favourite and came away with a nice profit.

14:50 Coral Cupwinner Supasundae16/1 P+L: 68

Did the Betstars offer again but no joy there so lost a bit on the qualifying losses. Used my Skybet free bets on some bigger each way prices as they were doing extra places again (this seems to be the strategy to go for with free bets if you can, use them in the extra place markets!). Managed to get Scoir Mear and Taquin du Seuil in the top 6 for a modest profit.

15:30 Queen Mother Champion Chase winner Special Tiara 11/1 P+L: 800

Yes you read that right eight freaking hundred pounds!!! How!? Im glad you asked.

There was a very short priced horse in this race called Douvan, which skews all the other prices and means there are loads of each way arbs on offer. I read on OddsMonkey that you can often dutch the rest of the field backing them all each way and guarantee a profit, this technique is sometimes called each way scalping. If you need more info then Id advice signing up to OddsMonkey and checking out their forum! They alsohave a tool called the each way matcher which you can use on specific horses rather than dutching the field if that works better.

Anyway, I decided there was bigly each value on offer here so was going to try my hand at dutching all of the horses. Ill give you an example, the second favourite, Fox Norton was backable at 9/1 with place terms of top 3 and 1/4 the odds, which implies a chance of placing is (9/4 +1 = ) 3.25, but this was available to LAY on Betfair exchange (in the top 3 market) at about 2.1 if I remember correctly. This is a huge, huge arb. Obviously you have to back the win part as well to get the each way arb so its only worth going for it if there is mega value on offer, and in this case there was. Every single horse was pretty much double the price on the Betfair exchange place market, so I steamed in and backed them with Boylesports, BF sportsbook, PP to also take advantage of their 2nd/3rd place and 3/1+ winner offers, as well as Betstars who offered fallers insurance.

Anyway the result could not have been better, as well as getting a huge priced horse Sir Valentino in the top 3 which is what were really after here (you assume the fav is going to win of course!) it turned out that the Fav did not win and did not even get into the top 3!

I couldnt believe my eyes, and always thought hed make a come back until the race was pretty much over with. I did some quick calculations and Id backed the winner at 20/1, Sir Valentino at 40/1 and Fox Norton at 9/1 for an amazing profit of 800 and also kicked in a couple offree betsas the icing on the cake (Fox Norton PP 2nd place offer, BF sports book 3/1+ winner offer).

There is one importantpiece of advice here which is get your bets on early using this strategy for races like this, as I noticed that when it got nearer to the race the prices went totally rubbish! (Hence me getting the winner at 20/1 when it went off only 11/1!)

16:10 Cross Country Chase winner Cause of Causes7/2 P+L: 125

I used up a few free bets here and fancied the second fav Cause of Causes (got on at 4/1) for no particular reason really, as well as a few other ones which lost of course, and came away with a nice 125 profit.

16:50 Fred Winter Handicap Hurdle winner Flying Tiger 33/1 P+L: 0

Used up the rest of my Sunbets free bets but didnt hit any winners of places. Gamblers remorse time again I had flagged up Flying Tiger in my brain earlier in the day when I looked at this race but when it came to place my free bets I totally forgot about it! Gah! I felt like I missed out on a 33/1 winner but of course I know that this is just a silly cognitive bias at work, so I quickly chilled out afterwards especially given the bigger picture of the days events.

17:30 Champion Bumperwinner Fayonagh 7/1 P+L: 25

Placed a few bets with Betway for their First/Last race of the day offer and managed to hit the winner so made a slight profit and got a few other free bets to use up tomorrow as well. A very nice end to day two of the festival!

Final Day One P+L: 1,022.50

Whoo! Thats all there is to say really. And, I just realised I forgot to do the Stan James free bet offer today but I can stomach losing out on a couple of free fivers I think in the grand scheme of things

It is probably worth noting that all of the above P+Ls are pretty rough, I am too lazy to record exactly every bet but have done so by very quickly noting bets down in a spreadsheet, sometimes I forget the price etc so the profits are estimated, but should be in the right ballpark (+/- 10 were talking about I reckon) and if in doubt I am being pessimistic on what returns I had rather than trying to paint a rosier picture than what might have really happened.

Although I undoubtedly got lucky with my first each way scalping attempt, if I were to have laid all those bets off it would have been a lot harder work and a much smaller profit, so I think the no lay thing has been at least slightly validated here. It will now be pretty much impossible to lose on the festival as a whole (unless I go crazy and turn into a rampant mug punter all of a sudden, which I wont!!!!) but it will be interesting to see if I can grind out a profit on the final two days, or even hit another big win with some of my free bets etc Stay tuned to find out!

Good luck again for the final two days and let me know how youve all been getting on in the comments below?

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theFIREstarter - Financial Independence. Retire Early

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SeaLand To Establish Corporate Headquarters In Miramar …

Posted: at 7:44 am

News Items

In January of 2014, Maersk Line, the worlds leading ocean transportation company and a unit of the A.P. Moller-Maersk Group, announced the formation of a regional, containerized shipping company SeaLand dedicated to the intra-Americas market.

With a structure similar to Maersks other successful regional carriers, including intra-Asia carrier MCC Transport and intra-Europe carrier Seago Line, SeaLand will feature knowledgeable, local sales and support personnel positioned in North, Central and South America, as well as the Caribbean, to meet the unique needs of customers throughout the region. This agile framework will provide greater flexibility and a higher-level of customer-focused service to these local markets. Maersk Lines existing Intra-Americas service network will be the foundation for SeaLands ocean products.

Craig Mygatt, SeaLands CEO said, We are excited to base our headquarters in Miramar, Florida. The SeaLand headquarters will act as the main hub for our business which spans throughout North, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. This location is ideal for our operation and will serve us well as we focus on delivering world-class shipping service for all of our customers throughout this vital region of the world. We believe Florida offers great opportunities for our team and their families. We thank Governor Scott, Secretary Swoope, the State of Florida, Enterprise Florida, and our local partners for their outstanding support on this project.

Governor Rick Scott said, The opening of SeaLands headquarters in Miramar is great news for area families, and the 65 new jobs that will be created will help more families live the American Dream here in Florida. Since December 2010, we have created 651,300 private-sector jobs and we will continue working to create an opportunity economy where every Floridian who wants a job can get one.

SeaLands decision to locate in Florida validates the states success in maintaining a business climate that supports not only Floridas extensive logistics industry, but our headquarters sector as well, said Gray Swoope, President/CEO of Enterprise Florida. Floridas resources, including a strong workforce, expansive infrastructure and strategic partnerships, have created one of the top business climates in the country. Were excited to see SeaLand take advantage of Floridas assets and I congratulate them on this establishment.

This project was made possible through the close partnerships of Enterprise Florida, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, CareerSource Florida, the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance and Broward County. CareerSource Florida provides performance-based partial reimbursement grants to qualifying new or expanding businesses for customized employee training through the Quick Response Training program.

Florida is a global trade hub and businesses that specialize in logistics, like SeaLand, thrive here, said Jesse Panuccio, Executive Director of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. This administration is focused on diversifying our economy and building our trade, transportation, and logistics industries so we can bring more jobs to our state for Florida families. With the creation of 65 new jobs over the next year by SeaLand, we are continuing to grow our opportunity economy.

CareerSource Florida strongly supports the growth of Floridas target industries through training grants that facilitate high-skill, high-wage jobs, said CareerSource Florida President/CEO Chris Hart IV. With the location of SeaLands new headquarters here, our beautiful state further strengthens its growing international reputation as the global hub for trade and logistics operations.

We are proud to welcome SeaLand to our city and commend the company for partnering with us as we work to sustain a strong economic base for our community, said Miramar Mayor Lori C. Moseley.

SeaLand is yet another example that Broward Means Business. The company has a long distinguished reputation in the marine industry, which is a prime targeted business and we thank them for bringing jobs and a considerable investment to Broward County, said Broward County Mayor Barbara Sharief. Broward County continues its widespread effort to bring new companies to our area and we are pleased to welcome SeaLand to Miramar.

The Alliance is excited that SeaLand has located in Miramar. The companys rich history and bright future in marine and logistics is a perfect match and strong addition to two of Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward Countys targeted industries. We wish the company continued success, said Alliance CEO Bob Swindell.

SeaLands 13,000 square foot headquarters in Miramar at MetLifes Huntington Centre is a highly significant leasing deal in terms of economic impact, said Taylor & Mathis Director of Leasing, Donna Korn. The company will be an outstanding asset to Broward County. Korn, along with Jennifer Gemma, brokered the lease transaction on behalf of landlord MetLife.

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Sealand in Miami, Florida with Reviews – YP.com

Posted: at 7:44 am

Helpful ReviewsJunk Removal EcsMark H.rated

Some Businesses are started because an Entrepreneur comes up with a great idea and then some businesses are started from necessity and just trying to make other people's lives easier. This business is of the later. Hi I am Mark Horton and a few years ago my father past from at the early age of 76. It was a stressful time not only was the man who I loved dearly now gone from this world, I was confronted with the task of cleaning out his estate. Over the next 4 months I would travel from Miami Florida to Baltimore, Maryland every other week working to get my father's home cleaned out. This would require multiple airfares, car rentals, eating out day and night; yes, the expenses were piling up. My back was sore and I didn't know what I was doing. It was emotionally draining wanting to hold on to almost everything. I had nowhere to keep this old stuff and all I would have been doing would be moving it from his house to collect dust at my house. Many, many thousand dollars later I had it done. But the house needed cleaning and fixing in order to sell. I needed a low cost way to get the house ready to be sold at top dollar. This required even more time. Fixing, Cleaning, Painting and bring the house to code. Finally, the house was ready, several more thousand dollars later, a lot of lost wages and a sore back. There must be a better way? A more cost effective way? An easy way that the surviving family members could afford and that would eliminate so much stress? Ultimately, a company that would allow consumers like you to get a great "Return On Investment" from ECS removing your trash, Junk, cleaning the home, repair minor things, professional painting, new flooring and assistance with finding a great Realtor.

My husband and I bought an apartment in the Brickel area. We needed to change and update the whole bathroom. We were looking for a special kind of marble called the 'Volakas spider'. We were so amazed to find SASA Stones a few blocks away from our apartment. The price for this marble was incredibly good (back in August 2014); we paid $9.38/sq.ft. (24x24). They also installed, re-disigned, and re-did all my bathroom in no time, and at a very reasonable price. The quality of the materials they used was amazing, and the finished work was very professional. I recommend any related services offered by this company. The show room has a lot to choose from, and for every budget. The customer service team is also very friendly, and knowledgeable of their products.

Dear Donna, Thank-you so much for taking such good care of my daughter Jillian in her hunt for the perfect apartment. I know that you went ABOVE AND BEYOND what realtors normally do and I want you to know how much I appreciate it. She appears to be living in the place of her dreams and thus, if she is happy, I am ecstatic! You have been professional and caring at the same time and I will not hesitate to recommend you to anyone who is in need of your services. Thanks again. Best regards always, Rozi Rice

I walked into this store not knowing what i was going to get into and i must admit, the results were AMAZING!! Great prices, A VAST selection, and they have the most friendliest and professional staff I've ever witnessed. This is THE spot in Miami for all your Tile/Granite/Marble/Porcelain needs! Request for Jose or Elizabeth Morales! -Jorge Acosta

We recently changed to WindsorKent during the second quarter and it has been a great experience. They actually answer the phone when we call (an actual live person that knows what they are talking about)!!! Transitions are never easy, but they made every effort to accommodate us. I highly recommend them

Great guys!! and Very professional, gave us really good price. Will buy again. When got to their shop I was confused about what to do but their advice made it easy for me. Now I'm happy!

tHIS COMPANY DID AN EXCELLENT JOB IN ACQUIRING ME A MORTGAGE LOAN FOR MY HOME, I AM VERY SATISFIED AND HAPPY. "THEY ARE THE BEST" JOSE GUERRA.....!!!!

They gave me a receipt with all the charges listed in detail, first time I get this service since I have been filing my taxes. Keep it that way guys...!!!

I had a great experience with this company, prompt response, very knowledgable and super friendly staff.

it's the best place to find what need you about computer

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Sealand in Miami, Florida with Reviews - YP.com

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