>>>to the drama still unfolding this morning where a suspect is holding a 5-year-old boy hostage in his
underground bunker
. gabe is there. good morning to you.
>> reporter: good morning. in that
underground bunker
, police have been working more than
36 hours
to free this 5-year-old boy. so far, he is unharmed. police have been able to bring his medicine and a
coloring book
. today, we're learning more about his alleged kidnap per. hostage negotiators have been talking with the suspect through a
pvc pipe
attached to what is described as a tornado bunker. a close source to the investigation describes him as 65-year-old
jimmy lee
dykes. a source describes him as survivalist who distrusts the government. and neighbors describe him as a loner, always menacing.
>>this man has exhibited for years signs of instability.
>>does he scare you?
>>he terrified me. he was basically a
ticking time bomb
.
>> reporter: on tuesday afternoon, the police source says the gunman boarded a stopped
school bus
near this church and demanded a few random children come with him. it's not clear why. the
bus driver
, 66-year-old charles poland junior refused to let any children go and when dykes shot poland multiple times killing him. as officers closed in, witnesses who shot this cell phone video say the suspect grabbed one of the children who had fainted and took the kindergartener to his property near by. the child has been identified simply by his first name, ethan. he turns 6 in a few weeks. in midland city, vigils wednesday night to pray for ethan and remember the
bus driver
.
>>he's definitely a hero because he did everything he could to save those children.
>> reporter: all of this shocking this small community in southeastern alabama.
>>to think that he is holding this poor innocent
little child
, it just -- it is, it's inextricably overwhelming.
>> reporter: court records show the suspect had a scheduled court appearance wednesday morning to face misdemeanor charges menacing a neighbor. police are not sure what role if any it may have played in a motive. savannah.
All Critics (214) | Top Critics (50) | Fresh (189) | Rotten (16)
It's a rom-com that succeeds in revitalizing that discredited genre where so many others have failed, injecting it with the grit and emotion of realist drama rather than with amped-up whimsy or social satire or montages of people walking on the beach.
Silver Linings Playbook tells us that happily-ever-after may depend on finding people who coexist with our lunacy, not ones who can lead us out of it. In any case, it's crazy good.
A crazy beaut of a comedy that brims with generosity and manages to circumvent predictability at every turn.
An edgy romantic dramedy that suits our anxious times.
This meaningful film keeps the laughs, giddy anxiousness and warm butterflies from the trailer and sustains it all through two full hours of a love story.
Silver Linings Playbook is a fine, funny film, and one that should charm viewers who haven't been tricked by all those Oscar nominations into anticipating it as some kind of world-changing work of art for the ages.
David O. Russell's latest buzz film straddles a fine line between farce and kitchen-sink drama before settling into a groove that gets under one's skin.
It starts to fray about halfway through as it shifts into a more conventional mode, taking on the usual trappings of the genre and making its way to a predictable resolution
Both charming and gritty... Cooper is edgy, while Lawrence is dynamite
If there's one reason why you should see this film, it's to admire the wonderful performances from Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence.
NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) ? Cyprus has been forced to reprint all 575,000 ballot slips for next month's presidential election after Guinness World Records objected to a candidate's use of its logo.
Deputy Chief Returning Officer Demetris Demetriou told state-run Cyprus News Agency on Wednesday that the government will ask Andreas Efstratiou to fork out at least ?15,000 ($20,000) to cover reprinting costs.
Demetriou said Guinness had initially permitted Efstratiou to use the logo in his first presidential run in 2008. Efstratiou, who runs a bridalwear shop, earned a Guinness Book of World Records entry for creating the longest wedding gown train (1,362 meters (4,468 feet) in 2007.
But Guinness told Efstratiou to stop using the logo in 2011 and complained to Cypriot authorities when it recently found out that he had used it again.
Our favorite Russian blogger, who's admittedly often wrong on a few little things, says he has the low-down on a new Vertu smartphone coming in February. It'd be the first release since Nokia sold the luxury brand to a private equity firm last year, and Eldar Murtazin claims the rumored switch from Symbian to Android is definitely a go-er. He also reckons the handset will cost around $4,000, which is loose change compared to some previous Vertus -- like the $27k model shown above. There are no further details to report, aside from a fleeting reference to the legacy of Nokia's 8800 slider, so don't go converting your Swiss francs just yet.
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A cell phone video broadcast this week of the police shooting of 34 miners in South Africa last year has piled more pressure on the security forces, showing officers bragging about the killings and undermining claims that they fired in self-defence.
Reuters television footage of some of the killings at Lonmin's Marikana platinum mine showed a dozen striking miners being cut down in a hail of police bullets.
The images of the bloodiest security incident since apartheid shocked the world, and dented the reputation of Nelson Mandela's "Rainbow Nation" and the ruling African National Congress (ANC), which faces an election next year.
Since then the pay strikes have abated, but turmoil in the sector has continued, with the world's biggest platinum producer, Anglo American Platinum Ltd, infuriating miners and the ANC alike with plans to mothball mines accounting for 3 pct of South Africa's workforce.
Most of the Marikana victims died in and around a small cluster of rocks - a 'koppie' in Afrikaans - about 400 metres (yards) away from the main confrontation, out of sight of reporters and television cameras.
It is here that multiple witness reports have spoken of police officers gunning down miners as they surrendered, or shooting them in the back as they fled.
The cell phone footage from the koppie, aired on Britain's Channel 4 television, shows a police officer lying on the ground behind a rock with his pistol drawn.
The images were shot by a colleague, also lying in the grass, with the barrel of his sidearm regularly moving into the frame.
"DON'T SHOOT HIM"
The first officer indicates that a miner is on the move in front of them. A voice can then be heard shouting: "Wait, don't shoot him, don't shoot him."
Gunfire is then heard, and the video cuts to the body of a man in jeans lying in the grass.
Moments later, another officer can be heard off-camera boasting about killing the man. "That motherfucker. I shot him at least 10 times," the officer says.
Channel 4 said the body had been identified and the man had been shot 12 times.
Police spokesman Dennis Adriao declined to comment on the latest footage, which was submitted by police to an inquiry into the killings in the city of Rustenburg, 120 km (70 miles) northwest of Johannesburg, according to inquiry officials.
Ian Farlam, the retired judge heading the probe, said the footage had been viewed by the inquiry in November and cautioned against reading too much into it.
"The commission is of the view that it is premature to draw conclusions from the video footage that is included in the broadcast," he told the inquiry, according to local media.
The police have said they resorted to lethal force after coming under fire from some armed miners. Post mortem reports indicated 14 of the Marikana victims had been shot in the back.
The Farlam inquiry is due to wind up in the middle of the year. Its findings are likely to be damning of the security forces and could have implications for President Jacob Zuma as he heads for an election due in just over a year.
Anglo American Platinum, which has announced plans to lay off 14,000 workers and close two mines, said on Tuesday that talks with the government and unions to mitigate the fallout had been "constructive".
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Apple announced Tuesday it is adding a higher capacity 128 GB fourth generation iPad to its tablet lineup as an attractive option for schools and businesses.
The video-sharing app released by Twitter on Thursday is off to a bumpy start for hosting pornographic content. Vine could get the boot from the App Store if it does not clean up its content.
By Steph Solis / January 28, 2013
Twitter launched a Vine app today.
Vine
Enlarge
Just days ago, Vine was getting praise from the Apple App Store as an Editor?s Choice pick. Now the mobile video-sharing app released by Twitter could get taken down for its plethora of pornographic content.
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Vine, which launched Thursday, hosts six-second videos, similar to Twitter?s 140-character-long tweets. Since its release, the app has come under scrutiny for allowing pornographic videos, many of them under hashtags like #porn, #nsfw, and #porno.
One risqu? video briefly made the Editor?s Picks list on Vine early Monday morning, according to CNET. It was quickly taken down, but the damage was done.?
A statement released by Twitter attributes the incident to human error.
?A human error resulted in a video with adult content becoming one of the videos in Editor?s Picks, and upon realizing this mistake we removed the video immediately,? the statement reads. ?We apologize to our users for the error.?
In response to concerns regarding sexual content, Twitter states it will remove all content that is flagged as inappropriate.
?Users can report videos as inappropriate within the product if they believe the content to be sensitive or inappropriate (e.g. nudity, violence, or medical procedures). Videos that have been reported as inappropriate have a warning message that a viewer must click through before viewing the video. Uploaded videos that are reported and determine to violate our guidelines will be removed from the site, and the user that posted the video may be terminated.?
The incident comes just days after the app received praise from Apple.?The App Store tweeted?on Friday that Vine was an Editor?s Choice app, mainly because of its ability to share six-second looping videos.
But Apple could remove Vine from the App Store if the app continues to feature sexual content. At least that is what happened to 500px, a photo-sharing startup based in Toronto. TechCrunch reported last week that the app was removed from the App Store due to concerns over nudity being featured in some of its images.
Rebecca Jeschke, a digital rights analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, says she is not totally comfortable with Apple being the gatekeeper of her applications.
"Some people do want a highly curated environment on their phone,? she says. ?On the other hand, if you did a quick Google search for ridiculous app removals from the store, you?ll see unbelievable stuff.?
One instance Jeschke points to is the App Store?s ban of Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist Mark Fiore?s app, which featured cartoons satirizing public figures. Apple?s reasoning? Fiore violated rules that prohibit making fun of public figures, according to Wire.
While Apple has the right to curate the products in the App Store, Jeschke says, users have the right to use another phone or to jailbreak the device. She also says it is another example of why the jailbreak exemption, which allows people to jailbreak their phones without violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, should be renewed.
?One of the reasons why that exemption is so important is because if you are in Apple?s nice, safe universe, they get to decide which apps you put on your phone and you should decide which apps you put on phone,? she says.
A view from the 5th floor of St. Anthony?s Hospital, overlooking Sloan?s Lake.
Article Highlights:
St. Anthony?s campus sells for $9.5 million.
The 629,785-square-foot hospital will be razed.
Property taxes are likely to dwarf the $136,697 paid by CHI, when the land is redeveloped into housing and retail.
The company that bought the former St. Anthony?s Hospital paid $9.5 million to Catholic Health Initiatives Colorado, according to documents obtained by InsideRealEstateNews.com.
Earlier in the month, Denver-based EnviroFinance Group announced it had purchased the hospital campus next to Sloan?s Lake in northwest Denver, but neither CHI nor the company disclosed the purchase price.
However, the special warranty deed filed with the City of Denver puts the sales price at $9.5 million. EnivroFinance Group, or EFG, created an entity called EFT-South Sloan?s Lake I LLC to buy the land, which will be redeveloped into a large urban, residential and retail community.
Neither EFG nor CHI would discuss the purchase price.
The property, east of Sheridan Boulevard and south of West Colfax Avenue, has been described as being approximately 19 acres in size.
City documents show that CHI owned 11 separate parcels in the hospital area with a total of 800,875 square feet, or just under 18.4 acres. The purchase price equates to $11.86 per square foot.
?That is a great deal,? said developer Jonathan Alpert, who is developing the nearby 28-unit Framework at Sloan?s Lake residential community, a few blocks northeast of the former hospital campus.
?The value of it, of course, is all relative to the cost of the cleanup, which will add to their cost basis,? added Alpert, principal of Imagine Infill LLC. ?I think it is a phenomenal price. To buy any land in Denver around $12 a square foot is great. They get a discount for buying such a large piece of property, of course. They are buying by the pound. To have that kind of scale in such an unbelievable site is fantastic. It is a strong location. The neighborhood is changing and only getting better.?
For a comparison, the sales price for the 30-acre, former University of Health Sciences Center at East 9th Avenue and Colorado Boulevard is $31.8 million, or slightly more than $24 per square foot.
?So this is half the price of 9th and Colorado,? Alpert said.
Alpert said the sale of the St. Anthony campus already has provided a lift to the neighborhood, including more interest in his community.
?Everybody knew this was going to happen, but the actual sale of St. Anthony?s made it real,? Alpert said. ?Ever since the announcement, interest has really picked up in the area.?
The single biggest parcel, according to city records, is the main hospital site with 618,823 square feet of land. That parcel alone equates to 77.3 percent of the entire site.?The city?s ?actual,? or market value of that parcel at 4001 W. 16th Ave., is $15.8 million and the assessed value of the land is $4.6 million.
All the CHI land on the 11 parcels has a total actual value of $19.05 million, according to city records. The land and buildings on all 11 parcels have a total actual value of $131.4 million, with $124.6 million from the main hospital site.
One person said the $9.5 million price is so much less than what the city values the property at that he wonders if there is another transaction associated with the purchase that has not yet been recorded.
A look at EFG?s proposed plan for the redevelopment of the St. Anthony campus.
The special warranty deed provides a legal description of the land that EFG bought, but not the addresses of the properties.
EFG will raze the 629,785-square-foot hospital building, which is filled with asbestos.
EFG anticipates it will take about 12 months to demolish many of the buildings on the property and prepare the site for redevelopment. Some buildings, such as a historic chapel and a large parking garage, will not be torn down.
Eventually, the campus is expected to include tinclude 900 to 1,200 new residential units and up to 300,000 square feet of commercial and retail space in a seven-block, urban-grid development.
CHI, as a nonprofit organization, did not pay taxes on the hospital itself, according to city records. It did pay a total of $136,697.82 in property taxes this year on nine of the 11 properties it owned, according to records.
Once the site is redeveloped, it is likely that property taxes generated by new construction will far exceed what CHI paid.
The median price of a home for sale in the Sloan?s Lake area currently is $500,000, according to COhomefinder.com. One home in the area that is listed at $500,000 and is under contract, has an actual value of $375,400 according to records and a tax bill of $2,512.80.
It is expected the private investment in the redevelopment will surpass $300 million.
EFG has the capability for ?vertical? buildings, that is, constructing buildings on the seven-block site.
However, EFG primarily is a land developer known for cleaning up extremely polluted properties known as ?brownfields.?
EFG likely will sell parcels to various developers.
EFG plans to raze and clear the site in the most sustainable way possible, which will including recycling and reusing much of the building material generated by the demolition. The land itself is not that contaminated, according to Doug Elenowitz, EFG?s manager for the project.
Interested in buying a home in the Sloan?s Lake area. Please visit COhomefinder.com.
To learn more about EFG, please visit EnviroFinance Group.
Have a story idea or real estate tip? Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com. InsideRealEstateNews.com is sponsored by Universal Lending, Land Title Guarantee and 8z Real Estate. To read more articles by John Rebchook, subscribe to the Colorado Real Estate Journal.
Marc Andreessen, the legendary cofounder of Netscape turned tech investor, says workplace apps that run on the Internet are making small businesses just as powerful as big ones.
He's invested in a whole bunch of companies to make that so. His portfolio at Andreessen Horowitz, the venture-capital firm he cofounded, include Okta, Cloudera, Box, GitHub, ItsOn, and Tidemark, he said in an interview with TechCrunch's Alexia Tsotsis.
Ultimately, these software-as-a-service startups mean that a company doesn't need a big IT budget to compete, he says:
"The classic was Walmart versus local retailer, right? Walmart?s advantage in logistics and in pricing and in data analytics was just so great that they could kill small retailers at will. Today all the consumerized enterprise stuff is as easily usable by the small business as it is by the large business.?In fact, it?s probably more easily usable by the small business than it is by the large business."
(Disclosure: Marc Andreessen is an investor in Business Insider.)
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Iran hostage drama "Argo" continued its trophy-winning streak on Saturday, taking the top prize at the Producers Guild Awards in the latest boost to its chances at the Oscars.
Guild picks regularly go on to win at the film industry's most prestigious event - for the last five years, the producers' choice of best-produced film has taken the best picture Oscar.
"I'm really surprised. I'm not even in the PGA (Producers Guild of America)," Argo director, producer and star actor Ben Affleck said as he collected the award for the film that tells the true story of the rescue of U.S. diplomats from Tehran after the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
"I am still acting and available," added a smiling Affleck, joined on stage by co-producer Grant Heslov. George Clooney, also a producer, did not attend the event in Beverly Hills.
The PGA prize is seen as a particularly good indicator of future success as many of the Guild's 5,000 plus members are also members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences who vote for the Oscars.
Argo was nominated earlier this month for a best film Oscar, but Affleck was snubbed in the director's category. Nevertheless, he won a Golden Globe for his direction this month and Argo also won best movie drama at the Golden Globes.
Argo won the PGA prize against nine other films on Saturday, including Steven Spielberg's presidential drama "Lincoln", musical "Les Miserables" and Kathyrn Bigelow's Osama bin Laden thriller "Zero Dark Thirty".
Also contending were Quentin Tarantino's darkly humorous slavery Western "Django Unchained", the James Bond blockbuster "Skyfall", Ang Lee's shipwreck tale "Life of Pi" and the comedy "Silver Linings Playbook".
Many of the PGA-nominated movies are also in the running for the best picture Oscar on February 24.
The PGA handed "Wreck-It Ralph," its honor for best animated movie.
Unlike the Academy Awards, both the Producers Guild Awards and the Golden Globes also give prizes to television dramas and comedies.
The HBO film "Game Change" about Sarah Palin's 2008 vice presidential bid won the outstanding longform TV prize and ABC's "Modern Family" was named best-produced television comedy. "Homeland" was named the best-produced TV drama.
"Searching for Sugar Man," a film about an obscure singer named Rodriguez who is a hit in South Africa, won the prize for best documentary.
J.J. Abrams, who grabbed headlines this week for being named director for the "Star Wars" film received an achievement award for his television work while producers Harvey and Bob Weinstein received a milestone award.
(Reporting By Susan Zeidler; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) ? Novak Djokovic returned to his dominant best to win his third consecutive Australian Open title, denying Andy Murray a second major championship with a 6-7 (2), 7-6 (3), 6-3, 6-2 victory Sunday night at Rod Laver Arena.
The top-ranked Djokovic is the first man in the Open era to win three straight Australian titles.
Born a week apart in May 1987 and friends since their junior playing days, the two played like they knew each other's game well in a rematch of last year's U.S. Open final won by Murray. There were no service breaks until the eighth game of the third set, when Djokovic finally broke through and then held at love to lead by two sets to one.
Djokovic also secured the second break of the match to take a 2-1 lead in the fourth set then went ahead by two service breaks and took a 4-1 lead when Murray double-faulted on break point.
Top-ranked Djokovic didn't rip his t-shirt off this time, as he did after his epic 5-hour, 53-minute win over Rafael Nadal last year. He just did a little dance, looked up to the sky and then applauded the crowd after the 3-hour, 40-minute match.
It was Djokovic's sixth major title and his fourth at Melbourne Park, where he is unbeaten in 21 matches.
Murray's win over Djokovic in the U.S. Open final last year ended a 76-year drought for British men at the majors. The 25-year-old Scotsman has now lost three Australian Open finals.
The NFL pressured an Indiana man to give up his quest to trademark "Harbowl," even though the man might have had a legal right to do so.
Last February, Roy Fox said he spent more than $1,000 to file for the trademarks "Harbowl" and "Harbaugh Bowl," in anticipation that Jim Harbaugh's San Francisco 49ers and John Harbaugh's Baltimore Ravens might soon play in the big game.
"Right before the conference championship games last year, I thought to myself, 'Can you imagine if these guys played each other?'" Fox said. "If Pat Riley would go through the trouble of trademarking three-peat, why shouldn't I try this?"
But in August, a couple of weeks before this season started, the NFL sent a note to Fox saying that it was concerned that his recent trademarks could easily be confused with the NFL's trademark of Super Bowl.
"There were two questions asked of him," NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said. "Was he affiliated with any NFL teams? The answer was no. And was he in any way affiliated with the Harbaugh brothers? And that answer was no."
In follow-up correspondence provided to ESPN.com by Fox, the NFL encouraged Fox to abandon the marks, citing conflict with its mark.
Fox said the league refused to provide him with any remedy. He first asked the league to reimburse him for his costs to file for the trademarks. He also asked for a couple of Colts season tickets and an autographed photo of league commissioner Roger Goodell.
He says the person within the league office he spoke to denied all his requests. After the language got increasingly more threatening, including one note that said the league would oppose his filing and seek to have him pay its legal bills, Fox eventually obliged.
In October, he sent the forms to the NFL, which were then sent to the U.S. Trademark and Patent Office. An online search shows that the trademarks were abandoned on Oct. 24, 2012.
Facebook search can find a lot of cool things, like every photo you've liked, friends who share interests, friends who share restaurants, and maybe even your next wife! (?) But it could also completely destroy someone's existence. Should we? More »
SamTrans is taking another step toward modernizing its fleet with buses that will lower emissions and improve fuel consumption. The Board of Directors has approved a contract to purchase 25 diesel electric hybrid buses. The energy-efficient buses, the first in the SamTrans fleet, are expected to be in service throughout the county by the end of the year. ? The low-floor buses use long-life, non-hazardous, maintenance-free batteries to capture and store braking energy, and advanced solid-state controllers to manage and blend power sources.
For the environment and passengers, this means reduced emissions and smoother, quieter buses. For the district, it means less fuel, which translates into improved operating costs. The new buses are expected to save $3 million in fuel costs over the next 12 years. ? The purchase is part of a $32.2 million contract for a total of 62 buses. The remaining buses will be powered by modern diesel technology. The buses will replace 1998 buses, the oldest vehicles in the SamTrans fleet. ? Vehicle modernization is part of an ongoing program to reduce emissions throughout the SamTrans fleet and meet the newest clean-air standards issued by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. ? The diesel-electric hybrid buses will produce 90 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions than the 1998 buses they replace. The fuel technology used in the new diesel buses has engine emission certification levels that are the same as those found in buses powered by compressed natural gas. ? The buses include upgrades that improve safety and comfort for riders. The wheelchair ramp has a more gradual incline, which makes it easier for riders to board the bus. The buses even offer smart technology features, such as interior, energy-efficient LED lighting, equipped with sensors that measure the ambient light. On bright, sunny days, the lights turn down and when it is dark outside, the lights are brighter. The rear door is also modernized to open automatically when a passenger stands on the exit stairs, eliminating the need for a push bar on the door. ? The buses are part of a fleet of 313 SamTrans vehicles that provide transportation for more than 40,000 people every weekday. Most SamTrans riders use the bus to get to and from school or work, and 64 percent do not have access to a car.
by Seth Merrin and Brian Walsh??|?? 9:00 AM January 25, 2013
If you were offered the opportunity to finance a high risk, low return investment, how eager would you be to write a check? That is exactly the premise of most impact investing opportunities today. Until the return outweighs the risk, impact investing will remain a small niche category. To solve more social challenges in a financially sustainable way, we need to create opportunities with safe, dependable social and financial returns. It's time to bring a proven business model to the social enterprise space: the franchise.
Franchising has a special place in our economic system. It's not sexy, but it's effective. For example, it's much less risky to franchise a restaurant than to start your own. That's what Ray Kroc did: He franchised a McDonald's, bought the company, and grew it to the largest restaurant chain in the world, with over 31,000 locations today, 80 percent of which are franchised. We need to find and support the Ray Krocs of the social sector, who can seek out promising social enterprise ideas sourced by philanthropic capital and take them to scale.
Right now we're effectively asking every social business to start from scratch. We conflate inventors with developers of social enterprises and romanticize the celebrity social entrepreneur. Instead, we should be searching for professional managers and investing in their capacity to turn a social entrepreneur's vision into a scalable, sustainable business. We should package proven social business models that motivated franchisees could copy. These business people would spend their energy building the business in a new market not experimenting with an untested model. This would provide scale to social enterprises and reliable returns to those who invest in them.
If we want to have an impact on a global level, we must stop using one-off social business models and find ways to replicate what works. Take Groupe SOS in France, one of the largest social enterprises in the world with 10,000 employees, one million beneficiaries, and $750 million in annual revenues. Over the past 28 years, they've refined nine different business models to serve traditionally excluded individuals. They're now actively working to franchise these proven models to other geographies, most promisingly in Seoul, South Korea.
To bring the franchise model to the social sector, we need to do four things:
Determine which models work. We know there are great models out there but we need to understand which have gone through the proof of concept phase and are ready to be taken to the next level. To determine which are appropriate for franchising, we need to sift through the multiple channels ? early-stage impact investing funds, academic field research, entrepreneurial competitions ? and find social businesses that are successful and scalable.
Package the essential elements of each model. A restaurant franchise buys the core elements of the business ? brand, menu, advertising. But then they adapt those fundamentals to their environment to make it successful. The core pieces of a winning social enterprise model must be packaged in a way that's portable to different environments. We aren't na?ve to think that one size fits all, but there's a lot to be gained by bringing best practices and proven strategies to new geographies in thoughtful ways.
Educate and "sell" to franchisees. Once the fundamentals of a working model have been packaged, we must help people find the opportunities. We can equip them with ready-to-launch models and the basic management skills to take them to new markets ? everything from impact measurement to supply chain management. We might consider offering a training curriculum within a university or another organization that would educate the franchisee on the business model and effective management, and then provide both start-up and ongoing support.
Support the franchises. Like a restaurant franchise that shares advertising costs, centrally develops new menu items, and shares other resources, we need to provide ongoing support for social impact franchisees. The nature of this support will vary, but this ability to spread the risk, reward, costs, and resources between the home office and independent franchisees is a core benefit. This two-way relationship will also improve the underlying business model as each franchisee provides valuable feedback on what's worked and what hasn't in his or her market.
We need to match the willing, motivated people who can change the world if they're given a blueprint with the vast amount of investment capital that wants the same. Right now we're missing a huge opportunity that's right in front of our noses. Instead of teaspoons of capital being spread across small entrepreneurs all over the world, we need to find proven models, capitalize them, train the management teams, and take them to scale. If we're willing to let go of the artisanal nature of social enterprise, we can have global impact.
Follow the Scaling Social Impact insight center on Twitter @ScalingSocial and register to stay informed and give us feedback.
Scaling Social Impact Insights from HBR and the Bridgespan Group
UAlberta researcher pinpoints prescription for successful Primary Care NetworksPublic release date: 25-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jamie Hanlon jamie.hanlon@shaw.ca 780-619-3136 University of Alberta
A newly-released study on early adoptees of the Primary Care Network initiative proposes that their success lies with three key elements: strong leadership, a redefined, inclusive workspace and allowance for creative discord.
In a paper published in Health Care Management Review, lead researcher Trish Reay of the Alberta School of Business and colleagues from the U of A, University of Calgary and Florida Atlantic University state that of eight centres that agreed to the government proposal to design and deliver comprehensive family health care, five were able to thrive by engaging in and adopting changes in standard practice.
Reay says that this reorganization of patient care into more comprehensive services reaps positive benefits for all parties the patients, the doctors and other healthcare practitioners involved in the networks, and the healthcare system itself. And with over 2500 doctors now signed on the initiative, it is a system that holds promise for improved healthcare delivery in the province.
"What the doctors I've spoken to find attractive about the PCN model is, that by bringing other professionals and creating a team, it allows the physicians to practice medicine in the way they really want to," she said.
Follow the leader: healthcare managers guide successful integration
Reay noted that healthcare managers who were hired to organize the PCNs were an important catalyst of change. They facilitated group decision-making regarding the re-organization and re-allocation of work, such as counseling diabetes patients on lifestyles, from doctors to other healthcare professionals, such as nurses. The physicians were able to focus on the aspects of the practice for which they were solely qualified. Under this framework, the care and treatment of patients truly became a team approach.
"We found that the managers had to find ways to get the physicians and those around them to actually try these new, multidisciplinary mechanisms," said Reay. "These managers had a positive attitude and they set up a number of different ways that almost made them keep trying it for awhile. As they kept trying it, they made them talk about it and really think through how it was going."
Communication, space key components
Reay says that a re-organization and re-allocation of physical space was critical in developing teamwork and facilitating communication. But, the ability to communicate and to disagree also seemed to make the successful PCNs. Those who had not made successful transition were pleasant, but she said they constantly claimed to be "almost ready" to make the change, a sign that perhaps hid underlying communications issues. Those leaders that had managed the difficult conversations and found the ability to compromise and move forward were models of success.
"(Managers) encouraged people to disagree so that you could have a more full discussion about what was going on and really think through how to manage it," she said.
PCNS provide benefit for all
Reay said the doctors she spoke with are sold on PCNs because they allow them greater freedom to practice medicine the way they want, provide for maintained contact with their patients and offer them great work-life balance. As economic issues mean that healthcare has to do more with less, she says this model permits the PCNs to focus on healthcare needs of their patient community areas such as mental health, diabetes, cardiac care, etc and work preventatively providing counseling and information to people at-risk for chronic diseases.
"Patients actually like this model. They like the fact that they see their physicians still, but they don't have to rely on those quick office visits in order to ask questions and get more information and learn about whatever it may be that they have, said Reay. "In a business world, we'd say that this model is more 'user-friendly.'
"The client has a better and, I think, more effective experience in terms of learning to manage their own life and be healthy."
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
UAlberta researcher pinpoints prescription for successful Primary Care NetworksPublic release date: 25-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jamie Hanlon jamie.hanlon@shaw.ca 780-619-3136 University of Alberta
A newly-released study on early adoptees of the Primary Care Network initiative proposes that their success lies with three key elements: strong leadership, a redefined, inclusive workspace and allowance for creative discord.
In a paper published in Health Care Management Review, lead researcher Trish Reay of the Alberta School of Business and colleagues from the U of A, University of Calgary and Florida Atlantic University state that of eight centres that agreed to the government proposal to design and deliver comprehensive family health care, five were able to thrive by engaging in and adopting changes in standard practice.
Reay says that this reorganization of patient care into more comprehensive services reaps positive benefits for all parties the patients, the doctors and other healthcare practitioners involved in the networks, and the healthcare system itself. And with over 2500 doctors now signed on the initiative, it is a system that holds promise for improved healthcare delivery in the province.
"What the doctors I've spoken to find attractive about the PCN model is, that by bringing other professionals and creating a team, it allows the physicians to practice medicine in the way they really want to," she said.
Follow the leader: healthcare managers guide successful integration
Reay noted that healthcare managers who were hired to organize the PCNs were an important catalyst of change. They facilitated group decision-making regarding the re-organization and re-allocation of work, such as counseling diabetes patients on lifestyles, from doctors to other healthcare professionals, such as nurses. The physicians were able to focus on the aspects of the practice for which they were solely qualified. Under this framework, the care and treatment of patients truly became a team approach.
"We found that the managers had to find ways to get the physicians and those around them to actually try these new, multidisciplinary mechanisms," said Reay. "These managers had a positive attitude and they set up a number of different ways that almost made them keep trying it for awhile. As they kept trying it, they made them talk about it and really think through how it was going."
Communication, space key components
Reay says that a re-organization and re-allocation of physical space was critical in developing teamwork and facilitating communication. But, the ability to communicate and to disagree also seemed to make the successful PCNs. Those who had not made successful transition were pleasant, but she said they constantly claimed to be "almost ready" to make the change, a sign that perhaps hid underlying communications issues. Those leaders that had managed the difficult conversations and found the ability to compromise and move forward were models of success.
"(Managers) encouraged people to disagree so that you could have a more full discussion about what was going on and really think through how to manage it," she said.
PCNS provide benefit for all
Reay said the doctors she spoke with are sold on PCNs because they allow them greater freedom to practice medicine the way they want, provide for maintained contact with their patients and offer them great work-life balance. As economic issues mean that healthcare has to do more with less, she says this model permits the PCNs to focus on healthcare needs of their patient community areas such as mental health, diabetes, cardiac care, etc and work preventatively providing counseling and information to people at-risk for chronic diseases.
"Patients actually like this model. They like the fact that they see their physicians still, but they don't have to rely on those quick office visits in order to ask questions and get more information and learn about whatever it may be that they have, said Reay. "In a business world, we'd say that this model is more 'user-friendly.'
"The client has a better and, I think, more effective experience in terms of learning to manage their own life and be healthy."
###
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
FILE - In this Feb. 9, 2012 file photo, a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 waits to take off at Chicago's Midway Airport as another lands. Southwest Airlines Co. says fourth-quarter earnings in 2012 fell by nearly half on higher spending for fuel, labor and maintenance. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)
FILE - In this Feb. 9, 2012 file photo, a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 waits to take off at Chicago's Midway Airport as another lands. Southwest Airlines Co. says fourth-quarter earnings in 2012 fell by nearly half on higher spending for fuel, labor and maintenance. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)
DALLAS (AP) ? Southwest Airlines Co. says fourth-quarter earnings fell by nearly half on higher spending for fuel, labor and maintenance.
The airline's revenue rose slightly, however, as the average fare climbed almost $8 higher than a year ago.
Southwest also said that bookings for the first three months of 2013 look strong. It said that based on bookings and ticket prices so far, a key revenue measure should rise by 2 percent to 3 percent in January compared with the same month last year.
Southwest, the nation's fourth-biggest airline, said Thursday that net income was $78 million, or 11 cents per share. That's down from $152 million, or 20 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding items such as fuel contracts, the net income would have been 9 cents per share, beating the 7-cents-per-share forecast among analysts surveyed by FactSet.
Revenue ticked up 1.6 percent to $4.17 billion but fell short of the $4.20 billion that analysts expected.
Expenses rose faster, however, by 3.1 percent. That includes a 4.5 percent increase in labor costs and a 13 percent jump in maintenance as the airline continued to overhaul the cabins inside many of its planes.
Spending on fuel, the airline's biggest expense, rose a modest 0.7 percent. Southwest estimated that its fuel bill in the first quarter, which ends March 31, will drop to $3.30 per gallon from $3.44 in the first quarter of 2012, which CEO Gary Kelly called "an encouraging trend."
The average fourth-quarter fare on Southwest and its AirTran Airways subsidiary was $148.02, up 5.4 percent from $140.38 a year earlier.
Passengers flew 1.4 percent fewer miles on Southwest than a year earlier, and planes were less full ? 79.6 percent occupancy, down from 80.5 percent.
For all of 2012, Southwest earned $421 million, up from $178 million the year before and its 40th straight profitable year, which Kelly said was "a remarkable feat and a record unmatched in the airline industry."
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Legendary Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa and three of his compatriots will be honored by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) next month for their lifetime of work on movies that organizers said have "given us all a taste of the sublime."
The WGA's West branch, which represents the U.S. West Coast writers of TV, films, radio and Internet programming, said that the late Kurosawa and his collaborators Ryuzo Kikushima, Hideo Oguni and Shinobu Hashimoto, will receive the Guild's 2013 Jean Renoir Award for Screenwriting Achievement on February 17 in Los Angeles.
The 94-year-old Hashimoto is the lone surviving member of the group. He is not expected to attend the ceremony.
The annual award honors "those non-U.S. writers whose work has raised the bar for all of us," said Writers Guild of America West Vice President Howard Rodman.
"These four men, working in loose collaboration, are responsible for writing many, many masterpieces - films that reflect the Japanese culture, and have given all of us a taste of the sublime," Rodman added in a statement.
Kurosawa, who received an honorary Oscar in 1990 and died in 1998, found success in many films by collaborating with Kikushima, Hashimoto and Oguni on screenplays.
With Kikushima, the duo co-wrote such classics as "Stray Dog" (1949) and "Yojimbo" (1961). Hashimoto worked with Kurosawa on the seminal 1950 film "Rashomon." Oguni, Hashimoto and Kurosawa came together on 1952's "Ikiru" and 1954's "Seven Samurai." The entire quartet wrote such films as 1957's "Throne of Blood" and 1958's "The Hidden Fortress."
Kikushima died in 1989. Oguni died in 1996.
Previous recipients of the award include the late Italian screenwriters Suso D'Amico in 2009 and Tonino Guerra in 2011.
(Reporting By Zorianna Kit; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Will Dunham)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. adults who qualify for Medicaid often must have incomes well below the federal poverty line, while adults who have no dependent children are allowed to receive benefits in only nine of the 50 states, according to a survey released on Wednesday.
The survey by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation provides a snapshot of widespread coverage gaps in national healthcare program for the poor, less than a year before Medicaid is scheduled to undergo a dramatic expansion under President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law.
Kaiser, which tracks health issues, found that Medicaid coverage in 2012 was stable for children and pregnant women, who are among the program's targeted beneficiary groups.
But eligibility for parents was limited on average to those earning no more than 61 percent of the federal poverty line, which equals about $19,000 a year for a family of three. Thirty-three states required parents to earn less than the poverty rate, with 16 restricting eligibility to less than 50 percent.
Nine states extended full Medicaid coverage to adults without dependent children while three states, Hawaii, Illinois and Minnesota, reduced eligibility for adults where it was not required by federal rules.
Medicaid, which is run by states but has federal funding and oversight, represents a major budget expenditure for state governments. Many have sought to curtail benefits and eligibility in recent years because of fiscal constraints imposed by the recession and a slow economic recovery.
Benefits and eligibility can vary widely from state to state, with many limiting Medicaid coverage to defined groups, including children and their parents, pregnant women, the very old and people suffering from certain health conditions.
Obama's reform law, known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, offers states Medicaid funding to provide health coverage for most Americans earning up to 133 percent of the poverty rate from January 1, 2014. The cut-off equals about $24,000 for a family of three in 2012 dollars.
But the expansion has encountered political resistance, mainly from Republicans. More than half of state governors have yet to support the expansion. Just over a dozen have rejected the plan as a costly and unnecessary government program and more are expected to decide whether to back the expansion in coming weeks, as they roll out budget proposals for the new year.
Even as state Medicaid programs fail to reach large numbers of the country's poor, Kaiser reported that nearly all states are pressing forward with federally funded technological improvements to streamline their Medicaid enrollment systems and provide online access under the healthcare law.
As of January 1, 37 states had an online application for Medicaid or the federal program for children, up four from a year earlier. Twenty-eight states now allow families to renew their benefits online, an increase of eight since the start of 2012.
"On balance, states made more positive improvements than adverse changes (in 2012), often capitalizing on technology to gain administrative efficiencies and reduce paperwork," the Kaiser survey said.
(Reporting by David Morgan. Editing by Andre Grenon)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Vice President Joe Biden is launching a White House campaign of road trips to promote gun control with a visit to Virginia, a state that has experienced its own school shooting tragedy yet maintains an avidly pro-gun tradition.
Biden will travel to Richmond on Friday along with other Obama administration officials and Democratic Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, the White House announced Wednesday. And on Thursday, Biden will take questions on ways to reduce gun violence during a Google Hangout, an interactive video chat that will stream live on the White House website and on the Google Plus social network.
President Barack Obama said last week that he wants Congress to require background checks for all gun sales and ban both military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines. The president conceded passage will be difficult, with support for gun ownership rights strong among lawmakers.
Biden headed the president's task force to study gun violence in the wake of last month's massacre of 20 children and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. White House aides say Obama also plans to travel to push the issue, although his destinations have not yet been announced.
Virginia lawmakers have been debating a bill to require that private sellers conduct criminal background checks on buyers at gun shows. The current law only requires dealers to conduct the checks. Some of the survivors and families of victims of the 2007 shooting at Virginia Tech that killed 32 have been leading the push for tighter gun control measures.
Gun shows are a frequent event around the Richmond area, and the Virginia General Assembly has been overwhelmingly supportive of gun ownership rights under both Democratic and Republican leadership.
ASU graduate student to build infrared camera for nanosatellitePublic release date: 23-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Robert Burnham robert.burnham@asu.edu 480-458-8207 Arizona State University
TEMPE, Ariz. Michael Veto, a third-year graduate student in the School of Earth and Space Exploration (SESE) at Arizona State University (ASU), has been chosen to build an infrared and visible light camera system that will launch on a space satellite. Veto, who earned his undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering at ASU, is a geology Ph.D. student of Philip Christensen, Regents' Professor of Geological Sciences in ASU's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
The new camera will play a central role in the payload for the Prox-1 satellite, which won the seventh University Nanosat Program (UNP) competition, sponsored by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the Air Force Research Laboratory. It will be constructed in a cleanroom at SESE's new Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Building 4 on the Tempe campus.
The Prox-1 mission is designed by students at the Georgia Institute of Technology under the guidance Professor David Spencer, within Georgia Tech's Center for Space Systems. It will demonstrate automated trajectory control in low-Earth orbit relative to a deployed sub-satellite, or cubesat.
The flight plan calls for Prox-1 to release this smaller spacecraft, which is a version of The Planetary Society's LightSail solar sail spacecraft. (A solar sail uses the pressure of sunlight for low-thrust propulsion.) Then using the ASU camera's images to guide its trajectory, Prox-1 will fly in formation with the LightSail spacecraft. The ASU camera will also take images of the LightSail solar sail as it opens.
In addition to demonstrating automated proximity operations, Prox-1 will provide first-time flight validation of advanced sun sensor technology, a small satellite propulsion system, and a lightweight thermal imager.
As the winner of the UNP competition, the Prox-1 mission will receive an Air Force launch slot as a secondary payload plus additional development funding over the next two years. The Prox-1 team will complete spacecraft integration and testing, working toward a launch in 2015.
In addition to support from the U.S. Air Force, the Prox-1 team has been supported by contributions from the Georgia Space Grant Consortium, The Aerospace Corporation, Raytheon Vision Systems, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
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ASU graduate student to build infrared camera for nanosatellitePublic release date: 23-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Robert Burnham robert.burnham@asu.edu 480-458-8207 Arizona State University
TEMPE, Ariz. Michael Veto, a third-year graduate student in the School of Earth and Space Exploration (SESE) at Arizona State University (ASU), has been chosen to build an infrared and visible light camera system that will launch on a space satellite. Veto, who earned his undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering at ASU, is a geology Ph.D. student of Philip Christensen, Regents' Professor of Geological Sciences in ASU's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
The new camera will play a central role in the payload for the Prox-1 satellite, which won the seventh University Nanosat Program (UNP) competition, sponsored by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the Air Force Research Laboratory. It will be constructed in a cleanroom at SESE's new Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Building 4 on the Tempe campus.
The Prox-1 mission is designed by students at the Georgia Institute of Technology under the guidance Professor David Spencer, within Georgia Tech's Center for Space Systems. It will demonstrate automated trajectory control in low-Earth orbit relative to a deployed sub-satellite, or cubesat.
The flight plan calls for Prox-1 to release this smaller spacecraft, which is a version of The Planetary Society's LightSail solar sail spacecraft. (A solar sail uses the pressure of sunlight for low-thrust propulsion.) Then using the ASU camera's images to guide its trajectory, Prox-1 will fly in formation with the LightSail spacecraft. The ASU camera will also take images of the LightSail solar sail as it opens.
In addition to demonstrating automated proximity operations, Prox-1 will provide first-time flight validation of advanced sun sensor technology, a small satellite propulsion system, and a lightweight thermal imager.
As the winner of the UNP competition, the Prox-1 mission will receive an Air Force launch slot as a secondary payload plus additional development funding over the next two years. The Prox-1 team will complete spacecraft integration and testing, working toward a launch in 2015.
In addition to support from the U.S. Air Force, the Prox-1 team has been supported by contributions from the Georgia Space Grant Consortium, The Aerospace Corporation, Raytheon Vision Systems, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
###
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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Public release date: 25-Jan-2013
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