Terror Vision

NASAs affiliation with Michigan could increase in the coming years, officials say.

A group of five program managers, engineers and technologists from three NASA centers were in Detroit Tuesday and today to discuss partnerships and job creation opportunities with more than 80 Michigan businesses and organizations. The space agency is looking for potential future suppliers and partners, as well as companies interested in using NASA technology.

We think there are some very good matches, said Ted Mecum, senior technology transfer manager at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. Were very excited about what weve seen so far.

Mecum said while NASA has no plans to build a new space center in Michigan or anywhere for that matter at least a half dozen or so companies may be reviewed for partnerships.

Were not here for procurement, he said. Were here for partnerships and collaborations.

The two-day visit was organized by the Detroit Regional Chambers Connection Point, an economic development program founded in October 2010 with federal grant money.

HONG KONG, Dec 06, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) –
Insurers will increasingly rely on flexibility to fit themselves into
bancassurance models that are growing rapidly in Asia-Pacific markets,
according to an article in the most recent edition of BestWeek
Asia-Pacific.

Sujoy Ghosh, regional head of bancassurance at ING Insurance
Asia-Pacific Ltd., said insurers will need to adapt to the business
models of the banks they engage rather than trying to impose their own
models on banking partners.

Also in BestWeek Asia-Pacific, insurance markets in Indonesia and
Malaysia are increasingly looking to takaful, or Islam-compliant family
coverage as a growth driver. One article in the current edition of BestWeek
Asia-Pacific examines Prudential BSN Takaful’s experiences in Malaysia,
while a second outlines A.M. Best’s updating of its takaful rating
methodology.

The 6 December edition is available at
www.bestweek.com/asia
and
www.bestweek.com .

Other features of this issue include an interview with an A.M. Best
analyst on A.M. Best’s recent special report on the Middle East and
North Africa, and a Best’s Underwriting Guide snapshot of the insurance
implications related to central-station alarm monitoring services.

BestWeek is published by A.M. Best Co. for insurance
professionals. To subscribe, visit
www.ambest.com/sales/BestWeek .

Founded in 1899, A.M. Best Co. is the world’s oldest and most
authoritative insurance rating and information source. For more
information, visit
www.ambest.com .

Copyright (C) 2011 by A.M. Best Company, Inc. ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED.

SOURCE: A.M. Best Co.

A.M. Best Co.
Iris Lai, +(852) 2827 3400
iris.lai@ambest.com

Copyright Business Wire 2011

Officials from South Louisiana Community College and Acadiana Technical College signed a memorandum of understanding Wednesday to enhance the partnerships between the two schools.

?This is an effort to put this down on paper so we can talk about the benefits of this collaboration,? said Phyllis Dupuis, ATC regional director and SLCC interim chancellor.

Already, the two community colleges share human resource departments and are merging their accounting offices. Because the two Lafayette facilities are adjacent, they also share parking lots for student use.

But the schools have recently hired a joint workforce development officer who represents students of both schools to business and industry partners, and students can cross-enroll at ATC and SLCC in order to take the best advantage of what each school has to offer.

?It?s not just about the efficiency of the economics. We?re giving (students) a chance to move up even more than maybe they thought they could when they came here,? said State Rep. Bob Hensgens.

For more on this story, see Thursday?s edition of The Daily Advertiser.

Email: laurie@jaybirdcom.com
Website: http://www.7digital.com
? Vickie Nauman appointed President of 7digital-North America to expand and grow 7digital?s global business

London, UK, December 6, 2011 ? 7digital, the leading digital media company, today announced the company will be expanding its North American operation and opening US offices beginning January 2012 in response to its growing business.

Leading the stateside effort will be newly appointed President of 7digital North America, Vickie Nauman, who has been serving as Vice President since Q4 2009 when the company acquired its US and Canadian music rights. Nauman will oversee business development, strategy, partnerships, label relations, and marketing. As a partner-friendly company, 7digital seeks to expand its growing base of clients and strategic partners that currently includes T-Mobile USA, HP, RIM, Samsung, Songbird, AOL?s Winamp, and Fantrail. Through the use of 7digital?s platform, hundreds of worldwide clients have built music initiatives on 7digital?s API platform (Application Programming Interface), designed to simplify the integration of music into third party efforts.

?The last two years have been full of constant change in the digital landscape, and we?ve been steadily building our profile and partnerships in the US and Canada,? comments Ben Drury 7digital CEO and co-founder, ?Vickie has led these efforts and will now lead an expanded presence with new staff and office. We look forward to being able to provide enhanced services to our customers and partners in 2012.?

Commenting on the North American business, Nauman says, ?The US market has its own dynamics and needs, and as the digital music market evolves, it?s getting more difficult to find neutral, strategic partners, which is precisely the role we fulfill. We have now established a significant number of North American-based clients as well as a growing business selling 320K MP3s on 7digital.com. Everyone wants a best-in-class experience, a complete music catalog, and a mix of music ownership and cloud-based services, and we are uniquely positioned to deliver this globally.?

Nauman joined 7digital from Sonos, where she established global partnerships between wireless digital music system for the home with music companies Last.fm, Spotify, SiriusXM, RadioTime, Pandora, Rhapsody, Napster, and Deezer. Prior to Sonos, Nauman managed an international and media-focused consultancy CrossBorderWorks, created the online services for boutique Seattle radio station KEXP, served on the product team of MusicNet at RealNetworks, and earned a 2006 MBA through the London School of Economics, New York University, and HEC-Paris, in the collaborative executive program TRIUM.

All technology and platform operations will remain in the company?s London headquarters and a small team will manage all partnerships and business in the North American market. Nauman will remain based in Los Angeles, and the team will likely have presence on both the west and east coast as well as maintain its dedicated North American team in London.

###
Notes to Editors

About 7digital
Established in 2004, 7digital.com is a leading, globally operating digital media delivery company based in London. Through 7digital?s download store (www.7digital.com) and mobile applications consumers can access over 17,000,000 legal high quality MP3 music tracks from all major and indie labels at competitive prices across Europe, Asia-Pacific and North America.

Combining 7digital?s secure and robust technology platform with the broadest agreements in the digital media industry, the company provides comprehensive digital services to a wide range of partners around the world. 7digital partners with diverse clients across consumer electronics, carriers, music industry, artists, brands, retailers, and agencies to harness the power of digital entertainment to engage customers.

The 7digital API (Application Programming Interface) allows developers to use and license the 7digital technology platform with over 16,000,000 tracks to create new music websites, applications and devices or to integrate music into existing services.

7digital has provided digital media services to hundreds of international partners including T-Mobile USA, HP, RIM, Sony, Samsung, Toshiba, Ubuntu, Shazam, Last.fm, Winamp, Songbird, HMV, Universal Music, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music.

For more information visit www.7digital.com/business

7digital Media Contacts:

US:
Laurie Jakobsen
Jaybird Communications
Tel: 646-484-6764
Email: laurie@jaybirdcom.com

Europe:
Simon Hilliard / Roberta Main-Millar at Racepoint Group UK
Tel: 020 8811 2137 / 2132
Email: 7digitaluk@racepointgroup.com

In a sign of increasing collaboration between journalism groups, NBC on Tuesday will announce a series of partnerships between its television stations and nonprofit news organizations.

Effectively immediately, NBC’s station in Chicago will work with The Chicago Reporter blog and magazine; its station in Philadelphia, with WHYY, a public radio station, and its community site NewsWorks; and its station in Los Angeles, with KPCC, a public radio station. All 10 of NBC’s stations will at times collaborate with ProPublica, the acclaimed investigative journalism nonprofit organization.

The partnerships — which NBC said would help its stations better cover their cities — are a byproduct of Comcast’s successful bid to gain control of NBC Universal, including the 10 television stations owned by NBC. As the government considered the bid last year, Comcast made a number of promises about news coverage, one of them being that it would set up such partnerships with at least five of its stations. The proposal was modeled after the relationship between the NBC station KNSD in San Diego and the local Web site voiceofsandiego.org.

The government subsequently put the partnership commitment in writing, and NBC started a casting call of sorts last May. Somewhat surprisingly, the company did not link exclusively with Web sites like voiceofsandiego.org, which is nationally recognized for its highly local journalism. Instead, it also teamed up with radio and print outlets. The Chicago Reporter, for instance, is a blog and bimonthly magazine that focuses on race and poverty issues and specializes in data analysis. WHYY, an affiliate of NPR, operates NewsWorks, a hyperlocal news site.

“We cast a wide net,” said Valari Staab, the president of the NBC-owned television stations. She said the local stations “looked for what organizations we thought could contribute unique content we couldn’t otherwise have.”

The partnerships will in some cases allow the stations to cover more news and conduct more investigations without adding more staff directly.

“The true value of the partnerships is helping local television affiliates, which have cut back under tough times in recent years, fill their many broadcast hours with valuable public service journalism,” said Scott Lewis, the chief executive of voiceofsandiego.org. At the same time, he said, the partnerships provide nonprofit news organizations with a new outlet for that journalism and an ability to “recover part of the costs in the process.”

NBC is making a donation to each of the partners. Ms. Staab would not specify the amounts. She said she anticipated that in relationships like the ones to be announced Tuesday, “different people will bring different things to the table.”

Independent local news sites might have data-mining experts who identify trends, and then “our people will make television out of it,” she said, “and talk to the people they need to talk to and get responses to what’s shown in that data.”

NBC has taken several steps this year to shore up its 10 local stations, which suffered from financial cuts before Comcast took over the company. It has added newscasts, replaced live television trucks and hired reporters in most of its markets.

Why not civil partnerships in Anglican churches?

By Rev John Richardson
http://ugleyvicar.blogspot.com/2011/12/for-magazines-why-not-civil.html
December 6, 2011

To answer this question we must first venture into territory unfamiliar to all but a very few.

Most people imagine that this is simply a matter of inclusion, allowing the gay and lesbian minority to enjoy the privileges of the straight majority. Church ceremonies, they believe, should be open to everyone, and indeed it is the governments clear intention that this should be so.

But as experts in this field are well aware, things are far from being that straightforward. One such is Professor Adrian Thatcher, a Research Fellow in Applied Theology at the University of Exeter, and a strong advocate of change in church policy.

In a paper presented to the 2011 Inclusive Church conference, he wrote as follows:

… there are other sexualities than straight and gay. Intersex, bisexual and transgender people, are generally excluded from the rigid and inadequate frameworks within which the Church discusses sexuality …

And he added,

… sexual inclusiveness will not be complete until they too feel wholly affirmed as members of the Body of Christ. (Gender and the Gospel, Nov 2011, p1)

What Thatcher says about the Church, however, is clearly the intention of others for society in general. For them, the idea that the world divides into either straight or gay and lesbian is already outmoded. Instead, human sexuality has a multitude of expressions.

According to Thatcher, new research in Classics, New Testament Studies, Medical History and Queer Theory are revolutionizing what has until now been a sterile theological discourse.

And if youve never heard of Queer Theory, you really dont understand the current debate.

The fact is that in the long term the aim is not simply the inclusion of people in the existing institution of marriage but to go on broadening the patterns of relationships society accepts and endorses. Marriage, Thatcher notes, is a flexible institution that has incorporated many changes. The only question is whether marriage can accommodate the change that some same-sex partners want (p14). If not, then presumably other relationships will be have to be found.

It is against this background that we must understand the position of the Church of England. For Anglicans, marriage is not a flexible institution but a divinely ordered one, which ultimately reflects the relationship between God and his people.

What makes a marriage marriage is two things: covenant and sex.

Where there is no covenant – no promise to have and to hold … till death us do part – there is either promiscuity (expressed in the prevalence of sex outside marriage) or widespread unfaithfulness (leading to divorce and marital breakdown).

Within the marital covenant, however, sexual activity is properly channelled – to bearing children and building love.

But as even Adrian Thatcher recognizes, sex is inextricably linked with reproduction: Beings who reproduce, he writes, need to be sexed, meaning they must have one of the two genders (p9, his emphasis). Thus although health issues and age may impose limits on fertility, sexual intercourse is intercourse between two people of opposite sexes. Same-sex sex, by contrast, is a contradiction in terms.

The Church of England has therefore taken the view that it will only recognize and bless opposite sex unions as having the status of marriage. And insofar as civil partnerships are already widely treated as gay marriage (as any follower of Coronation Street will know), it would thus be inappropriate for Anglican ministers to conduct them in church.

Ultimately, therefore, those who question the Churchs stance need to ask where they themselves would draw the line. The answer matters not just to us but to the future of our society.

END

I recently wrote an article on the Investors View of Master Limited Partnerships (here). The article had an extremely high interest level and many readers chose to add comments. Many of the comments/questions involved whether or not MLPs are well suited for IRAs.

There were a number of comments that werent all in concert with the tax problems associated with MLPs. It seems best to devote this article to a more in depth discussion.

The problem in including an MLP in an IRA is based on a section of the IRS Code (Section 512(a)(3)) that can impose taxes on entities that are otherwise tax exempt. This is commonly referred to as Unrelated Business Taxable Income-UBTI. This tax would include entities such as an IRA or Roth (even pension and Keogh Plans). Before I go into the MLP specifics, it might be of help if we discussed what this section is about.

Lets say your local Church regularly runs a Cake Sale to raise money. After doing this successfully for a while the Church decides to open a bakery and make even more money. They hire staff and even though all the profit goes to the Church for its good work, they are in the bakery business. Now, a bakery business is quite different than a cake sale. The IRS took the position that regular engagement in a business gives tax-exempt entities an unfair advantage over for-profit business and introduced UBTI to even the playing field. They did so by imposing a tax on the earnings, even though they would accrue to the Church. This tax is imposed on tax-exempts that regularly engage in a business (with some exceptions that arent relevant to this article).

When an IRA buys units in an MLP it becomes a partner in the MLPs business. Though the units may be a very small minority interest, it is an interest nonetheless. As a result a proportionate share of the MLPs net earnings are taxed to the IRA. There is a $1,000 annual exclusion that helps somewhat.

Many readers that have MLPs in their IRAs noted that they dont seem to have much of an income to report. As a result they conclude it is not so much of a problem. That conclusion does not tell the whole story. Lets look a little closer.

Lets say that $25,000 is invested in an MLP. The distribution (return of capital) is 6% per year ($1,500). This is not subject to UBTI as return of capital is not taxable income. Now, the MLP does make money from its operations. The net income represents a pass-through to the unit holder. Your share of the gross income might be $5,000 and your share of cash expenses (salaries, interest, etc.) might be $3,500. So far, the share of the net income is $1,500. This is before application of certain accounting adjustments.

You wont see this $1,500 reported on the K-1 as net income subject to UBTI. Thats because the MLP has some accounting tools, namely depreciation, depletion allowances and similar tools that further reduce currently taxable income.

Assuming these tools provide another $1,400 in expense deductions, your taxable earnings are reduced to just $100. It is this amount that is reported on the K-1 and is within the $1,000 annual limit.

Unfortunately, there is a catch. This additional $1,400 is recaptured when you dispose of the units and classified as ordinary income. That means that though the current MLP earnings are shielded, the shield is taken off at disposition and all previous earnings that were shielded are now brought back in as ordinary income. It is this income that is now subject to UBTI.

Lets say that you held your units for 10 years and the MLP had $15,000 in earnings. Of those earnings $14,000 was shielded by these tools and is now subject to recapture.

Lets say that you then sell the units for $35,000. In your mind you have a $10,000 capital gain which is not taxed to the IRA.

In fact thats not how the IRS tallies the transaction. They would consider $14,000 as recapture subject to ordinary income and therefore UBTI. Only the balance is either capital gain or cost basis and not subject to tax. If you now withdraw these after UBTI-taxed amounts from your IRA they will be taxed again. This is not the result most people would want.

Whether anyone decides on including an MLP in their IRA is a choice only they can make. It is important that their choice be an informed choice and so they need to be aware of the possibility of current AND/OR deferred tax obligations. The investor should not be swayed just by the current K-1 because it doesnt tell the whole story.

Additional note: Though this article focused on the UBTI issues in an IRA, the same tax issues exist for MLPs in taxable accounts. That is, on disposition of the units, your sales price will include ordinary income, capital gains and cost basis recovery.

Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.

Seeking to solidify more partnerships between the federal government and religious leaders, White House staff on Tuesday descended on the city where President Barack Obama first collaborated with clergy as a community organizer a quarter-century ago.

At a conference titled Connecting Communities for the Common Good, the sixth in the country sponsored by the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Chicago-area clergy met with directors in 13 federal agencies that house departments devoted to such partnerships. They include the Departments of Justice, Education, Agriculture and Housing and Urban Development.

Organizers intended the conference at the University of Illinois at Chicago to spark a conversation on how all levels of government can partner with nonprofit groups to create jobs, promote economic development, prevent youth violence and promote healthy communities.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel said too many families are falling through the cracks between what government and faith communities have to offer. Pooling resources is essential to helping close the economic, education and employment gaps, he said.

I need the ministers to come outside the door of the church where there is warmth and bring that warmth out into the streets, said Emanuel, who met with local ministers last week. I cannot achieve the goal without the partnership of people of faith. hellip; I want the spirit of what you are doing to be part of building the city that we call home.

Conference workshops taught congregation leaders how to organize job clubs so people in low-income neighborhoods can network to find employment. Another workshop pointed churches to sources of free food for children in the summer, when schools do not provide free or reduced-price meals.

Though many participants said the conference offered little more than platitudes from politicians, others said it offered a chance to collaborate with peers.

There were people genuinely connecting, said Rabbi Michael Balinsky, executive vice president of the Chicago Board of Rabbis. That was real.

mbrachear@tribune.com

Twitter @TribSeeker

INDIANAPOLIS (BP) — Church planter Tony Manning can do a lot with a church of 60.

They can mobilize to canvass the neighborhood and pray for people door-by-door. They can host a Parents Night Out to help out young families in the area and introduce them to the church.

But holding a marriage conference to help husbands and wives in the church and broken marriages outside of it would have been a tall order for Hamilton Village Church in Fishers, Ind., just outside of Indianapolis.

Thats when one of the church plants partners, Highview Baptist Church from Louisville, Ky., pitched in to help.

We sent young couples from our church on a family mission trip to help Tony put together a marriage conference, Corey Abney, a teaching pastor at Highview who taught the seminar, recounted. We want to be there to help the church planters with whom we partner in any way they need. This was just one example of that.

Last summers marriage conference was the third mission trip by Highview members to help the church plant. Both trips involved entire families, engaging dads, moms and kids at the same time. Through the trips, Highview provided much-needed manpower for evangelistic ministry projects to help Hamilton Village disciple its members and reach its community.

Thats just been one part of the comprehensive partnership that Highview has provided to Hamilton Village. The church regularly prays and financially supports the ministry as well.

Its that kind of partnership the Send North America: Indianapolis coalition hopes to multiply among other church planters in the years to come. The coalition — consisting of local Southern Baptists, state convention partners and representatives of out-of-state churches — wants to connect church planters with strong, established churches that can help them through prayer, mission teams and resources. Send North America: Indianapolis officially launched Dec. 5.

Send North America is the North American Mission Boards strategy for assisting and mobilizing Southern Baptist churches and individuals in hands-on church planting.

Those partnerships are desperately needed in the Indianapolis area. In recent years Fishers, the suburban Indianapolis community where Hamilton Village Church is located, has become a graveyard for evangelistic church plants of all denominations. Just four years ago, all 12 elementary schools in the city had a church plant in them. Now only a few remain. Most died because of the communitys high cost of living and difficult evangelistic soil. Manning estimates that less than 15 percent of the community attends church on a typical weekend.

Thats why partners are critical, said Manning, who is also a NAMB missionary. He compares the tough-to-reach Fishers community to running a marathon.

If youve ever run in a marathon, there are water stations every so many miles, Manning said. They are there to help you get refreshed, get a burst of energy, get cooled down. Thats how we think of partnerships. Partnerships are important because they help encourage and sustain us as we keep moving in the way God is leading so this community will have a Gospel presence.

Highview is among four Southern Baptist churches — including Northside Baptist Church in Indianapolis — that have taken on the two-year-old church plant as a partner. Its been a win-win situation for families at Highview and the church plant, said Andy Crouch, who has been on family mission trips to help church planters four of the last five years. Although he doesnt always see the long-term impact of the trips on the church plant or the community, the impact they make on the families who participate is obvious.

You can see the difference that God is making in our kids lives through these trips, said Crouch, who organized the marriage conference mission trip. You can see it in the questions theyre asking and the boldness theyve shown in sharing their faith with their friends.

And at Hamilton Village Church, the influence also has been real. Of the seven local families who participated in last summers marriage conference, two came from outside of the church. The conference allowed families inside the church a much-needed opportunity for support and recharging and it yielded evangelistic fruit as well, with one of the new families having become regular attenders at the church.

While Manning and Abney focused on helping the adults through biblical marriage principles for communication, finances and intimacy, the rest of the team — 41 people of all ages — used Vacation Bible School material to teach the kids. On the Saturday afternoon of the conference, they gave the participating couples a night out by themselves to talk about what they were learning. While the parents were out working on their marriages, Highview members set up a block party atmosphere for the kids, complete with outdoor water games and food.

Our commitment is not just to go on a week-long trip, share our faith and see people converted without a place for them to grow and be discipled, Abney said. We believe that where major concentrations of lostness exist, we need to plant churches where people who are being reached can grow and be discipled.
–30–
Tobin Perry is a writer for the North American Mission Board. Churches that want to partner with church plants through Send North America: Indianapolis can visit namb.net/indianapolis and click on the mobilize me button.

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Last Thursday was World AIDS Day, the 30th anniversary of the discovery of AIDS, and a major milestone in the fight against the epidemic. On a cool winters night in our nations capital with the trains of Union Station rumbling under their feet, a packed house of public health activists and policy makers came together to celebrate progress and remember those who have died of AIDS related diseases.

That morning President Obama, joined by former Presidents Clinton and Bush, pledged millions of dollars for international and domestic HIV prevention and treatment.

The message was clear: the value and impact of prevention and treatment has been proven, and now we can get to zero new infections and zero deaths. This is a paradigm shift in how the public health community talks and thinks about the HIV epidemic. It is difficult task with over 1.7 million people living with HIV in the US and over 30 million in the world. The domestic and international AIDS research and activism must join forces, according to Deborah von Zinkernagel of the Presidents Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief, to achieve an AIDS free generation.

Keynote speaker, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius praised PEPFAR and the Affordable Care Act and was determined to create local, national and global partnerships to get to zero. As Washington squabbles over taxes and the deficit, and the Occupy movement calls for the 99 percent to fight for an end to corporate money in politics and just democracy, it was well-received to hear Sebelius declare HIV is no place for partisanship.

In July 2012 the International AIDS Conference will be coming to the US for the first time in 30 years. Washington, DC, the US city with the highest AIDS case rate, will be the host for the conference and George Kerr, executive director of the harm reduction center START at Westminister, is the co-chair of event coordination for the DC Community Coalition.

The Coalition presented its AIDS 2012 policy platform, which called for political leadership and research so that DC can gain real ground in the local fight against HIV surrounding the conference. The US was barred from hosting the international AIDS conference until 2012 because of its policy of refusing to grant visas to people who were HIV positive. The shift in that policy is a sign of hope that the United States has renewed its commitment to eradication of the epidemic.

With the giant patches of the AIDS quilt as a backdrop; the important decision-makers on the dais reaffirmed the crowds feeling that we are gaining ground on the epidemic.

The Hope for Africa Childrens Choir from Mukono, Uganda gave a beautiful performance with very frank language about the effects of AIDS that brought everyone to their feet.

The evening closed with a challenge from Kerr we now know how to end AIDS: Will we?