SOURCE: AFP

Australia’s first woman prime minister has promised to safeguard her government’s reforms in education, health and industrial law.

Julia Gillard had been deputy to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd since their Labor Party swept to power in a landslide election victory in 2007.

In a sudden move that took many government lawmakers by surprise, she challenged Rudd late Wednesday to hold a leadership ballot only month out from an election expected this year.

Rudd acknowledged that the party’s factional power brokers had lost faith in him and did not contest the leadership at a party meeting on Thursday, leaving Gillard to be elected unopposed.

“I asked my colleagues to make a leadership change … because I believed that a good government was losing its way,” Gillard told reporters.

“And because I believe fundamentally that the basic education and health services that Australians rely on and their decent treatment at work are at risk at the next election,” she said.

“I’m well aware that I am the first woman to serve in this role, but can I say to you, I didn’t set out to crash my head on any glass ceilings,” she added.

Gillard and her new deputy, Wayne Swan, were to be sworn into their offices on Thursday by Australia’s first woman Governor-General, Quentin Bryce, within hours of the ballot.

Other reports of a criminal lawyer might have told a different story, but this is one for the record books.

Swan retains his key financial portfolio as treasurer and will to fly to Canada on Friday for a summit of Group of 20 major economies in Rudd’s place. He was also elected unopposed. Gillard has yet to announce any other ministers in her new cabinet.

An emotional Rudd, flanked by his wife and three children, gave his final speech in the prime minister’s court yard at Parliament House on Thursday, during which he rated keeping Australia out of recession at the top of his list of achievements during his short tenure.

He said he would contest the next election and continue to serve his party.

Rudd had ridden high in opinion polls as one of the most popular Australian prime ministers of modern times until he made major policy backflips, including a decision in April to shelve plans to make Australia’s worst polluters pay for their carbon gas emissions.

Gillard signaled no major policy changes during her first press conference, saying that negotiations with the mining industry would continue over the government’s plan to introduce a new tax on mineral profits after the next election.

But she would end an advertising campaign that is promoting the tax, keeping a Labor promise that Rudd broke to never use taxpayers’ money for political advertising.

John Wanna, an Australian National University political scientist, suspected that Gillard might push for an earlier withdrawal of Australia’s 1,550 troops from Afghanistan in a bid to reverse a swing of left-wing voters away from the government.

She is from a left-wing faction of Labor, while Rudd had been supported by the party’s right faction.

Gillard was likely to be less focused on foreign policy than Rudd, a Mandarin-speaking former diplomat to Beijing who campaigned to create a new forum for Asia-Pacific nations and for an Australian seat on the United Nations Security Council, Wanna said.

“He has been trying to get Australia punching above its weight in terms of international relations when a lot of the world thought of us as another state of the United States,” Wanna said.

Wanna said dumping Rudd for Gillard months out from an election was risky for the government.

“We’ve got rid of a successful prime minister after two and a half years and we’ve never done that before in the past,” Wanna said.

Gillard was born in Barry, Wales, in 1961, the second daughter of a family who migrated to Adelaide when she was 4 years old in search of a warmer climate for her lung complaint.

A former successful lawyer, she has been attacked by some opponents as unsuitable to lead because she is childless and therefore out of touch with most Australians.

Despite Australia’s weathering the global downturn, recent polling puts the center-left government neck-and-neck with the conservative opposition. One poll earlier this month showed Labor trailing the opposition for the first time in more than four years.

Rudd is a Labor hero, having led the party to victory at 2007 elections after 11 years in opposition

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MY TAKE: In America, women can become a high-paid white collar defense lawyer or even the best known collaborative lawyer. But for some reason we just can’t seem to elect a woman president. Perhaps 2012 will be the year that all those female criminal lawyers and the high-paid women who thought they would be a divorce lawayer for life will come out of the woodwork and help get Hillary or Sarah or some other woman into the Oval Office so we can start celebrating the end of an era and the beginning of some real cultural evolution.

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Cited: Reuters

Government reports show that US retail sales slumped for the first time in eight months in June, weakening an economic recovery tied to consumer spending.

Sales unexpectedly dipped 1.2 percent to 362.5 billion dollars in May from the previous month, according to data from the Commerce Department.

The data triggered fears that consumer spending, a key engine of growth, could slow recovery in the world’s largest economy from a brutal recession.

“Today?s report is both surprising and disappointing,” said Thomas Julien, US economist for Natixis.

The data came just two days after the central bank suggested sales would grow for the eighth month in a row in May, he said.

Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke also told lawmakers on Wednesday that consumer spending was likely to increase and would be a key cog in strengthening the US recovery.

The monthly retail sales report is a primary indicator of consumer spending, which accounts for two-thirds of US output.

Most economists had expected a 0.2 percent rise in retail sales in May following a revised 0.6 percent gain the previous month.

Sales in May dipped at building supply stores, reversing more than half of the surge in the previous two months, while many other segments posted big falls, including general merchandise stores, auto dealers, gasoline stations and apparel stores, according to the government data.

Non-store retailers and furniture stores were seen as bright spots.

Excluding autos, retail and food services sales fell 1.1 percent from the previous month, the Commerce Department said.

Despite the weak monthly retail data, sales were up nearly seven percent from their recessionary level of May 2009.

Growth was led by gasoline stations, nonstore retailers, and auto dealers, with only department stores among major segments posting sales below their year-ago level.

“Consumer sentiment is rising and the pace of the gain is good by the standards of past recessions,” said analyst Robert Brusca of FAO Economics.

“On balance the data on the day showed a weak spot in consumer spending in May. But it’s not lethal weakness. It still leaves momentum in consumer spending strong as we head into the second quarter,” he said.

Economists say consumer spending will be vital to a sustainable recovery as the government starts to wind down extraordinary stimulus measures that were aimed at jolting the economy, which plunged into recession in December 2007.

While the May data sprang a surprise, “it confirms the forecast for modest spending growth going forward more than threatens it,” said Scott Hoyt, senior director of consumer economics for Moody’s Economy.com.

He said sales grew “unsustainably fast” in the first quarter and that some of that was being reversed as spending settled into “a pace justified by modest job and income growth, low but growing wealth, deleveraging but reduced debt payments, and low confidence.”

US unemployment is near 10 percent, and last week the Labor Department reported weaker-than-expected job creation in May, also heightening fears of a faltering economic recovery.

The US economy is on track to grow 3.5 percent this year as it sees only a “modest” impact from the mounting eurozone debt crisis, Bernanke said this week.

Gross domestic product in the first quarter of 2010 rose 3.0 percent, according to the latest official data.

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My Take: Retail sales generally tend to focus on the big box retail stores like Walmart, Target, Macy’s and the like. What people don’t get from these stories is the truth about how well the business answering service company is doing, or how sales for bridal shower invitations are doing down the street at the local Hallmark store or on line. If they do include these types of companies, we never hear about them. The answering services company and the business that custom designs communion invitations are equally as important when it comes to taking the retail temperature, and because these generally fall under category of family owned and operated companies, that picture is part of a whole subset of retail that we should hear more about.

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Old-Fashioned Milk Paint Finishes

One company has recreated the Old Milk Paint formula to provide an authentic finish for custom made dining tables and handmade reproduction furniture. Early American Colonists and Shakers painted their farm tables, furniture and interiors with Milk Paint using a formula that dated back to Ancient Egypt. The deep rich colors of Milk Paint authentically reflect those colors found on existing antique furniture and buildings. The paint is using earth pigments. Modern paints cannot compare with the colors and the texture of the finish for achieving the “old” or “country look” of Colonial or Shaker furniture and interiors.

Source: Associated Press

A fast-moving fire that killed four college students in a suburban Birmingham motel illustrates a deadly problem facing travelers around the country: Many older hotels and motels can legally avoid installing sprinklers that stop blazes before they kill guests.

Since a catastrophic fire killed 87 at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas in 1980, a national push to require sprinkler systems in new hotels and motels has helped bring fire deaths down significantly.

Yet federal officials say an estimated 3,900 hotel and motel fires are reported to U.S. fire departments each year, causing on average 15 deaths, 150 injuries and $76 million in property loss. The National Fire Protection Association says it’s rare for a guest to die when a fire breaks out in a room with sprinklers, and that there hasn’t been a documented fire in a sprinklered hotel that killed more than one person.

“It’s much safer to stay in a sprinklered facility. It’s unfortunate most travelers don’t give that a thought,” said Robert Duval, senior fire investigator with the NFPA.

While newer hotels must install sprinklers, older ones do not, and they take in travelers around the country. A study by the U.S. Fire Administration for 2005-2007 found that about 60 percent of hotels and motels reporting fires lacked sprinklers.

The National Fire Protection Association also found every single fire death from 2002 to 2005 was in a motel or hotel that lacked a sprinkler system. More recent statistics weren’t available.

If the Birmingham-area hotel had sprinklers, Duval said, the fire “would have been a non-event. Everybody would have gotten to go home.”

The Days Inn Motel in Hoover, a wooden structure built in 1964 to resemble an old South plantation, wasn’t required to have sprinklers. State Fire Marshall Ed Paulk said four college students from Mississippi who died in the Jan. 19 fire would still be alive if the motel had been equipped with sprinklers.

“That would have prevented the loss of life,” Paulk said.

Safety advocates and industry officials say travelers often aren’t aware of whether their hotel has sprinklers. The president of the Greater Birmingham Lodging Association, Mairs Baxter, said it is “very rare” for customers to ask.

“The only ones I’ve noticed that do that are representatives of government associations,” said Baxter, who is also general manager of a Birmingham-area LaQuinta Inn.

Anecdotally, the presence of sprinklers doesn’t appear to be something the older and less-expensive places advertise. In a spot check of older and cheaper hotels and motels, a reporter saw that their websites generally note amenities such as Internet access and cable TV, but not sprinklers, even if they have them. In phone interviews, fire safety equipment wasn’t mentioned by clerks, unless asked. The check included about 20 hotels in nine states.

Federal government employees are required to stay in hotels with sprinkler systems on business trips. FEMA provides an Internet search engine — http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/applications/hotel — of approved accommodations.

Steve Muncy, a spokesman for the American Fire Sprinkler Association, said many older hotels do not install sprinkler systems because of the cost.

“It’s not cheap,” said Muncy, whose trade group represents sprinkler installers and manufacturers. “The older the building, the more expensive it is. The cost varies depending on the size and age of the building. Obviously it’s cheaper in a one- or two- story motel than in a high rise.”

Nationally, sprinkler systems are required by local ordinances and building codes in most hotels built or remodeled within the last 10 years, but those laws generally don’t apply to older facilities. It’s also hard to track where sprinklers are required, partly because sprinkler regulations are often in local ordinances and not state laws.

In Alabama, all motel and hotel rooms must have smoke detectors, but sprinkler requirements vary by city.

They were not required at the Days Inn in Hoover, where the Mississippi University for Women students checked in for a day of shopping.

The four — 18-year-old cousins Alondan “Angel” Turner and Catherine Ann Muse of Cordova, Ala.; Jamelia Brown, 18, of Grenada, Miss.; and Joslynn McGee, 19, of Corinth, Miss. — were staying in a room upstairs and a few doors down from the room where a maintenance worker, Dhirajlal Bhagat, 55, had been burning incense in a makeshift Hindu shrine. The fire began after he left the room.

Without sprinklers, there was nothing to slow the fire as it spread up the outside walls. The two-story building had firewalls, but Paulk said those were mostly ineffective since the fire spread on the outside.

While all hotels are required to have sprinklers, and many are replacing fixtures such as halogen light bulbs and other things that are supposed to enhance environmental issues, this fire was simply no match.

The blaze blocked firefighters from reaching the women, who sought shelter in a bathroom.

There was a far different outcome on Nov. 8 at a Clarion Suites Hotel in Yuma, Ariz., where an occupant started a fire while using an appliance to heat cups of liquid. After the person left the room, the device overheated, catching the surrounding counter and wallboard on fire, said Yuma fire spokesman Mike Erfert. But a sprinkler head kept the fire from spreading to other rooms.

The MGM Grand fire on Nov. 21, 1980, that killed 87 is the second-worst hotel fire in modern U.S. history. It prompted the adoption of strict fire codes in Las Vegas and elsewhere.

There has not been a fatal high rise hotel fire in Las Vegas in at least 15 years, partly because of ordinances adopted by the city following the MGM fire, including one requiring sprinklers in all high-rise hotels, said Tim Szymanski, public information officer for Las Vegas Fire and Rescue.

Most times, high-rise hotel fires are confined because of sprinklers by the time fire fighters arrive.

“They are worth their weight in gold, Szymanski said.

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My Take: Let’s be real: light bulbs aren’t going to make a difference when it comes to saving lives. It’s surprising more hotels don’t ban smoking altogether because not only are they a fire hazard, they makethe entire place stink, even if you get a non-smoking room. Barring a ban, how about handing out the e-cig smokeless cigarette to guests who must smoke. Perhaps give them an incentive, such as a free electronic cigarette cartridge in exchange for not lighting up traditional tobacco cigarettes?

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Gifts for the clients

Need to recognize a client? Buy custom team tee shirts for the clients and their staff with their company logo on the front. Nothing in corporate gifts says “thank you” better than a personalized line of shirts for your clients and their workers.

Are you planning a trip to Europe? If you are, do not expect to find the Europe that people saw years ago, it has changed! Just like America, many of the places that you used to be able to smoke, are now non-smoking areas. Even the trains no longer have both smoking and non-smoking compartments in much of Europe. Smoking areas are still available and they are clearly marked on some trains in Spain, Denmark, Finland and most of Eastern Europe. Therefore, if you are looking for cheap travel on a train in Europe, you are not going to be able to smoke.

Getting from one country to another in Eastern Europe countries like Switzerland, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic will be easier because they have done away with border controls for travelers. That means you do not have to show your passport anymore between these countries.

You may not be able to get discount hotels, but you can get short-term apartment rentals in many areas. This is due to the high cost of hotels and a shrinking economy in Europe. If you are traveling on a budget you can stay in a spacious apartment with a kitchen that may even have self-service breakfast for the price of a moderate hotel.

Just remember, if you are traveling in France by train you want to make sure that you book your trips on the TGV bullet trains well in advance because they have a strict limit on the number of seats available for rail pass holders. In addition, if you are planning to visit the Eiffel Tower, they have just started an online reservation system so that you can reserve a half-hour timeslot and avoid the long lines.

Have you ever walked through a metal detector only to have it go off for no reason? Of course you have, almost everyone has had this experience at one time or another. Most people simply walk back and handle the problem, some get angry and try to snap at the security officer, but these people are not responsible and are just doing their jobs. Imagine trying to do your job and having people yelling at you due to the technology on a constant basis, this is why most security agents do not talk and do not engage in conversation unless they have to, they do not wish to deal with the nastiness that can come from some people.

Some people have titanium or other metals in their body due to surgery for different reasons, they may worry that they will set off metal detectors as they travel or shop, the fact is that these detectors are set at lower frequencies and the metal used within the body does not have the same properties, they will not set off the detectors. It is important to carry a wallet card detailing what you have and why it is there, these identification cards are available from your surgeon or the company that made your surgical supplies. Consult your doctor.

Some people enjoy using hand held metal detectors to comb the beaches and parks in hopes of finding some sort of valuable treasure, the laws usually state that what is found on public property is yours to keep. Unfortunately, the truth is no one has ever gotten rich using this method, although some small treasures have been found using this method.

Either way, metal detectors have many uses. They can be fun or they can be a pain, life is what you make of it and attitude is everything.

Airport security has been a nightmare since 9/11 and although it has let up some, it is still something to fear especially in larger cities. In order to ensure a speedy check through and always ensure that you can make your flight it is necessary to be organized and follow simple rules. Always make sure to check the latest regulations before flying since these change so often and can be very confusing to even the most seasoned traveler. It is important to ensure that things are wrapped properly, maintain size limits, and do not include anything considered dangerous. Your luggage will be scanned several times starting with your entrance to the airport and ending with the final scan through air cargo security upon arrival at the destination airport, there is no opportunity to get anything illegal past the cargo handling staff.

Simple rules to get you to your destination in a much better mood:

· Make a detailed list of everything each member of the group will need each day. Take in to account things like pools, hot tubs, weather considerations, and family member preferences.

· Have a family (or group) meeting, make sure everyone understands what must be done in order to have a safe and happy trip.

· Purchase all the little things you may need, remember that small samples are easier to carry and offer the ability to throw them out so that you do not have to carry them back, not to mention that this can leave a good deal of room for souvenirs and purchases.

· Lay out suitcases and everything that will be packed in one place, this will make it much easier to pack and visualize organization. Resist the temptation to over pack, you will not need everything and you will just have to lug it through a crowded airport. Most people like to take things ‘just in case’, but ask them if they ever used those items and the answer is usually ‘I never even unpacked it’ and surely did not need it. If you do not use it on a daily or semi-daily basis then the chances are that you can live without it for a few days.

· Make sure someone has been lined up to care for pets, plants, mail, newspaper, cable, and any other possible needs that may occur while you are gone. Make sure that your neighbors know that you will be away, who will be coming and going from your home, any services that will continue while you are gone, and what to do in case of an emergency. It is a good idea to leave them a key as well.

· Pack carefully, remember that liquid items are usually limited to 2 or 3 oz. and must be in a clear Ziploc bag to be allowed on the plane or in carry-on.

· Get to the airport with several hours to spare, better to wander around an airport waiting then to run from place to place pushing others out of the way and getting angry at everyone. Moods will be much better when no one is rushing around.

If you are organized and pack with care your trip will be smooth and carefree. A vacation should be fun and relaxing, people often come home saying ‘I need a vacation to recover from my vacation’ this should not be needed. Let’s relax and have fun!!!

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Wakeboard Tower Costs

While some wakeboard tower purchases can run the buyer as much as four thousand dollars, some wakeboard towers are available for the more economical price of around eight hundred dollars. The simplest towers will offer a smooth and polished yet simple finish that should fit most sizes of boat and require no special measuring or custom built aspects. Pricier options will often offer some interesting visual styling or colors and finishes in addition to providing additional functionality like collapsing arms and swiveled joints. For mid-cost purchases in the fifteen hundred to twenty-five hundred dollar range, many manufacturers attempt to combine good quality and strength.

There are lots of great ways to spend your summer vacation and it means making those choices now so that you can be assured availability when the time comes. Could you imagine telling your family that you are going to Disney World and renting a townhouse only to wait too long and make it impossible to get a reservation - everything being sold-out. The best way to make sure you get exactly what you want in every way is to check in to it and choose early.

• Get the family together and decide where you want to go.
• Go to the websites and travel agencies to collect information.
• Hold a family meeting and calmly discuss what the options are.
• Decide as a family where you will be going and when.
• Contact property management companies to find out what townhouses are for rent or hotels for room availability/rates.
• Book all arrangements making a checklist to ensure that everything has been accounted for.
• Send a down payment to hold reservations and receive/store the receipt carefully.
• Wait for the big day when you will be packing to go.

It’s amazing how long it will take to get to that great vacation yet how quickly it is over once you do get there. Wherever you and your family choose to go, make sure that you take only what you can afford to spend and take only an emergency credit card. It is way too easy to overspend especially while on vacations and the last thing you want to do in these difficult economic times - overspend.

Enjoy your well earned vacation everyone, summer is almost here.

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Suffolk County Storage Solutions

One of the most appealing aspects of Suffolk County Storage is that those who wish to rent a unit can enjoy safe and secured storage of their belongings and also receive twenty-four hour access, seven days a week to that self storage unit. Instead of scheduling a visit to a unit during specific operating hours, a renter can gain access to his items at any time. With an extensive number of security cameras and fencing in place, renters can also feel safe at all times when accessing their unit. Safe and secure, a rental unit can keep your most prized possessions safe.