Skin care for teens can be a tough subject to cover at times, as it often leaves things open to debate. A teenager?s skin is constantly in a state of flux, and it all boils down to the excess hormones that are rushing through their body. As children get older and they finally start hitting their teens, that is when all the normal adult bodily functions start to kick in and the fact that they haven?t developed the control mechanisms to manage the release of those hormones properly, things can get a little out of control for them. One of the biggest problems that teens face is bad skin and once again it comes down to those hormones running amok.
They often cause the skin to produce and secrete excessive amounts of sebum in the dermal layers of the skin giving it an oily appearance. Unfortunately, there isn?t a whole lot that can be done about the excess secretion, but you can help it with regular washing and keeping the skin clean and the pores open. What you normally find though is that, they don?t take care of their faces the way they are supposed to and it often ends up with acne, blackheads and pimples forming all over the place. Dirty, blocked skin is the biggest cause for bad skin, and when it is coupled with the excess sebum of a teenager, it literally becomes a recipe for disaster.
The thing is that you need to be able to prevent that as much as possible without causing further damage to the skin and making an already bad situation that much worse. A teen?s skin is always going to be a touchy subject, so the situation needs to be handled a little differently. It?s important to show the child that it?s in their best interest to follow a regular routine that helps keep the skin clean and balanced as much as possible. Try to help them plan their daily routine so that they know what to do and when to do it. Teens often complain about that kind of thing because it usually goes with the territory, but once they start to see the difference in the condition of their skin, they quickly change their mind and their tune.
In all honesty, it?s better have them moaning about having the right skin care products instead of moaning about bad skin. Once you get them into a routine of their own, you can leave them to their own devices and they will get on just fine.
Author's Bio:?
Claude Bernard has big experience as an author on the topic like business franchise. He contributes his knowledge on fashion and life style franchises. On demand of many web company like skin care he justify his knowledge writing with valuable content.
Buxton Blog Home > Using analytics for business retention & increased sales tax revenue
Oct 30, 2012
Plainfield, IL is a suburb of Chicago. They have a population just under 40K residents. They had some great success using Buxton analytics to help out their local businesses that are currently in Plainfield and also to help them recruit businesses to come to Plainfield.
Before the Village of Plainfield, IL hired Buxton, their retail sales tax revenues were declining year over year. After they hired Buxton and started taking a look at the results of what Plainfield could do as a community, their revenues stabilized and they have seen increases the last two years greater than the national average. Brian Murphy, Village Administrator, said Plainfield IL uses Buxton?s information and they have taken it to a point where they can deliver it multiple different ways. They wanted to make sure that the community was able to use the data and that they get Plainfield?s story out there. Plainfield put the data on their website and have also made the information available through their library. In Plainfield, business librarians are trained in how to use the data and are able to show the business owners who come in, how much information is available for them out of that series of reports. Plainfield also placed all of Buxton?s reports onto iPads so that when they go and meet with business owners or are out doing retention or recruitment visits, they are able to empirically show the benefits of coming to Plainfield. SCOUT is a web-based platform that Plainfield uses quite a lot. Murphy said they use it for showing their leakage issues in the community. They also use it to show the strength of certain sites. They had three different areas in particular in the community that they studied with Buxton. They plugged in that data into SCOUT and they use that information weekly. Plainfield also had some retailers that Buxton was able to show them who would be successful in their community. Fox?s Pizza, in particular, was one of those that jumped off the page as a regional company that would have great success in Plainfield. When Plainfield presented Fox?s Pizza with the information, they were very excited. Fox?s Pizza came to town, opened a store, and have had great success ever since. When Plainfield does the community meetings, they are able to show the smaller, local entrepreneurs the opportunities in Plainfield for them. With that, The Village of Plainfield has actually seen a couple of other local folks take real chances on opening up their own stores because Plainfield gave them the information that allowed them to go out and make those conscious decisions. Brian Murphy said, ?If I were asked by another community how they could grow their business retention plans, how they could grow their business recruitment plans, how they could improve the quality of life in their community, I would strongly tell them to meet with the Buxton folks.? He said it has been an absolutely fantastic
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In this Oct. 9, 2012 photo, the foundation of a house is seen in a deserted land near the Arahama beach, severely damaged by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, in Sendai, northeastern Japan. Japan's accounting of its budget for reconstruction from the disasters is crammed with spending on unrelated projects, while all along Japan's northeastern coast, dozens of communities remain uncertain of whether, when and how they will rebuild. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)
In this Oct. 9, 2012 photo, the foundation of a house is seen in a deserted land near the Arahama beach, severely damaged by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, in Sendai, northeastern Japan. Japan's accounting of its budget for reconstruction from the disasters is crammed with spending on unrelated projects, while all along Japan's northeastern coast, dozens of communities remain uncertain of whether, when and how they will rebuild. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)
In this Oct. 9, 2012 photo, with a backdrop of leaning pine trees, part of windbreak forests severely damaged by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, construction works continue near the Arahama Beach in Sendai, northeastern Japan. Japan's accounting of its budget for reconstruction from the disasters is crammed with spending on unrelated projects, while all along Japan's northeastern coast, dozens of communities remain uncertain of whether, when and how they will rebuild. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)
In this Oct. 9, 2012 photo, construction works go on along the Arahama beach, severely damaged by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, in Sendai, northeastern Japan. Japan's accounting of its budget for reconstruction from the disasters is crammed with spending on unrelated projects, while all along Japan's northeastern coast, dozens of communities remain uncertain of whether, when and how they will rebuild. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)
In this Oct. 10, 2012 photo, a yellow crane sorts out the rubble of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, at the rubble collection site near the Arahama beach in Sendai, northeastern Japan. Japan's accounting of its budget for reconstruction from the disasters is crammed with spending on unrelated projects, while all along Japan's northeastern coast, dozens of communities remain uncertain of whether, when and how they will rebuild. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)
In this Oct. 10, 2012 photo, a yellow crane is seen in the heap of the sorted out rubble of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, at the rubble collection site near the Arahama beach in Sendai, northeastern Japan. Japan's accounting of its budget for reconstruction from the disasters is crammed with spending on unrelated projects, while all along Japan's northeastern coast, dozens of communities remain uncertain of whether, when and how they will rebuild. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)
SENDAI, Japan (AP) ? About a quarter of the $148 billion budget for reconstruction after the March 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster has been spent on unrelated projects, including subsidies for a contact lens factory and research whaling, a Japanese government accounting shows.
The audit documents released last week buttressed complaints over shortcomings in the reconstruction effort. More than half the 11.7 trillion yen ($148 billion) budget is yet to be disbursed, stalled by indecision and bureaucracy, while nearly all of the 340,000 people evacuated from the disaster zone remain uncertain whether, when and how they will ever resettle.
Many of the non-reconstruction-related projects loaded into the budget were included on the pretext they might contribute to Japan's economic revival, a strategy that the government now acknowledges was a mistake.
"It is true that the government has not done enough and has not done it adequately. We must listen to those who say the reconstruction should be the first priority," Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said in a speech to parliament on Monday.
He vowed that unrelated projects will be "strictly wrung out" of the budget.
But ensuring that funds go to their intended purpose might require an explicit change in the reconstruction spending law, which authorizes spending on such ambiguous purposes as creating eco-towns and supporting "employment measures."
Among the unrelated projects benefiting from the reconstruction budgets are: road building in distant Okinawa; prison vocational training in other parts of Japan; subsidies for a contact lens factory in central Japan; renovations of government offices in Tokyo; aircraft and fighter pilot training, research and production of rare earths minerals, a semiconductor research project and even funding to support whaling, ostensibly for research.
Some 30 million yen ($380,000) went to promoting the Tokyo Sky Tree, a transmission tower that is the world's tallest freestanding broadcast structure. Another 2.8 billion yen ($35 million) was requested by the Justice Ministry for a publicity campaign to "reassure the public" about the risks of big disasters.
Masahiro Matsumura, a politics professor at St. Andrews University in Osaka, Japan, said justifying such misuse by suggesting the benefits would "trickle down" to the disaster zone is typical of the political dysfunction that has hindered Japan's efforts to break out of two decades of debilitating economic slump.
"This is a manifestation of government indifference to rehabilitation. They are very good at making excuses," Matsumura told The Associated Press.
Near the crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, which suffered the additional blow from the worst nuclear accident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, recovery work has barely begun.
More than 325,000 of the 340,000 people evacuated from the disaster zone or forced to flee the areas around the nuclear plant after the March 11, 2011 disaster remain homeless or away from their homes, according to the most recent figures available.
In Rikuzentakata, a fishing enclave where 1,800 people were killed or went missing as the tsunami scoured the harbor, rebuilding has yet to begin in earnest, says Takashi Kubota, who left a government job in Tokyo in May 2011 to become the town's deputy mayor.
The tsunami destroyed 3,800 of Rikuzentakata's 9,000 homes. The first priority, he says, has been finding land for rebuilding homes ? on higher ground. For now, most evacuees are housed, generally unhappily, in temporary shelters in school playgrounds and sports fields.
"I can sum it up in two words ? speed and flexibility ? that are lacking," Kubota said. Showing a photo of the now non-existent downtown area, he said, "In 19 months, there have basically been no major changes. There is not one single new building yet."
The government has pledged to spend 23 trillion yen ($295 billion) over this decade on reconstruction and disaster prevention, 19 trillion yen ($245 billion) of it within five years.
But more than half the reconstruction budget remains unspent, according to the government's audit report.
The dithering is preventing the government, whose debt is already twice the size of the country's GDP, from getting the most bang for every buck.
"You've got economic malaise and political as well. That's just a recipe for disaster," said Matthew Circosta, an economist with Moody's Analytics in Sydney.
Part of the problem is the central government's strategy of managing the reconstruction from Tokyo instead of delegating it to provincial governments. At the same time, the local governments lack the staff and expertise for such major rebuilding.
The government "thinks it has to be in the driver's seat," Jun Iio, a government adviser and professor at Tokyo University told a conference in Sendai. "Unfortunately the reconstruction process is long and only if the local residents can agree on a plan will they move ahead on reconstruction."
"It is in this stage that creativity is needed for rebuilding," he said.
Even Sendai, a regional capital of over 1 million people much better equipped than most coastal communities to deal with the disaster, still has mountains of rubble. Much of it is piled amid the bare foundations, barren fields and broken buildings of its oceanside suburb of Arahama.
Sendai quickly restored disrupted power, gas and water supplies and its tsunami-swamped airport. The area's crumbled expressways and heavily damaged railway lines were repaired within weeks.
But farther north and south, ravaged coastal towns remain largely unoccupied.
More than 240 ports remain unbuilt; in many cases their harbors are treacherous with tsunami debris.
Like many working on the disaster, Yoshiaki Kawata of Kansai University worries that the slow progress on reconstruction will leave the region, traditionally one of Japan's poorest, without a viable economy.
"There is almost no one on the streets," he said in the tiny fishing hamlet of Ryoishi, where the sea rose 17 meters (56 feet). "Building a new town will take many years."
Even communities remain divided over how to rebuild. Moving residential areas to higher ground involves cumbersome bureaucratic procedures and complicated ownership issues. Each day of delay, meanwhile, raises the likelihood that residents will leave and that local businesses will fail to recover, says Itsunori Onodera, a lawmaker from the port town of Kesennuma, which lost more than 1,400 people in the disaster.
"Speed," he says, is the thing most needed to get the region back on its feet.
___
Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi contributed to this story.
Four Tet and Jamie xx are two of the best electronic producers in the world ??capable of handling crowds of thousands. But to truly appreciate Jamie xx's rework of "Lion" you have to listen for the details. Taking on Four Tet's uptempo, if stark, original, Jamie xx slows things down with a 2-step beat and applies the cavernous production he's so beautifully mastered with his other band. As the seven-minute track progresses, Jamie introduces rich bass among the skeletal percussion, and later, just a touch of the tropical-tones he still loves. It's a masterful experiment in the geometric sound design, with tones that unfold and reveal themselves as something new. Avoid laptop speakers for this one, and go find yourself a subwoofer.
Four Tet ?Pink "Lion (Jamie xx Remix)"
All music is for sampling purposes only. Please go out and buy the artists' records. If you would like for us to remove a track, please email us at feedback@refinery29.com.
I love art. I have always loved art. I?m good at art. I have always been good at art. Art came easily to me and I found out, at an early age, I had a knack for it. I could draw, paint, weave, sculpt, and design. I had what they call raw talent.
My name is Iron-head Bradley. They call me iron-head because I?m hardheaded, hard to understand, and hard to get along with, at times. But, I can create some of the most beautiful artwork you will ever see ? and do it with ease.
So, when I went online hoping to learn about designing web sites I had ?promoting-my-own-artwork? in the back of my mind. I was going to get it out there. I wanted to show off all this creativity everyone has been ooh-ing and ahh-ing over. I wanted my own online business and I was willing to do what it took.
Ok, so, you already know I am an artsy kind of guy. What you might not know is that I love ALL things art. If it is art related it is Iron-head Bradley related. I can?t get enough of art or of the art world. It is in the blood. You could say I?m artistically inclined.
Though I didn?t have a website of my own, I could find my way around the internet. I had enough savvy to find the information I was looking for and I had a good idea of what would or wouldn?t work for me. I wish I could say I spent days searching hundreds of sites before I found the ideal site but it popped up only after about 15 searches.
I knew it when I saw it. I knew the site I was looking at would teach me everything I needed to know about selling my artwork online. I had seen a lot of web based art sites and really hated the ones that just dealt with 1 area of art ? like just paintings and nothing else.
The broader minded art sites might include drawing or photography with the paintings. The best art web sites, like the ones I like, are real broad. They can tell you all about drawings, paintings, sculpture, popular art events, art news, art classes and a whole slew of other art topics.
The site I found for building my site is really the ideal. It will teach me how to build my website, get good traffic going to it, and even help me to sell a masterpiece or two. And, all this on a website that focuses on art-based and art related things.
(Reuters) - At least two major New Jersey nuclear power plants are likely to shut on Monday as Hurricane Sandy makes landfall as a Category 1 storm and more plants could reduce power as the storm triggers precautionary safety measures.
In Connecticut, Dominion Resources Inc already reduced the output of its Millstone 3 reactor from full power to about 75 percent as a precaution due to high water levels caused by Sandy, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said.
Sandy, centered over the Atlantic Ocean about 175 miles southeast of New York City, was expected to hit near Delaware and south New Jersey later Monday as a Category 1 hurricane with winds of up to 90 miles per hour.
The nuclear reactors in Sandy's current path include units at Public Service Enterprise Group Inc's 2,332-megawatt (MW) Salem and 1,161-MW Hope Creek plants in New Jersey, which were likely to bear the brunt of the storm before it moves inland. Those PSEG reactors combined account for about 19 percent of the state's total electric capacity, although New Jersey also draws supplies from the whole Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland (PJM) power region.
PJM is the biggest power grid in the United States serving more than 60 million people in 13 U.S. Mid-Atlantic and Midwest states and the District of Columbia.
Electricity traders said if Sandy continues on her expected path it was likely PSEG would have to shut the Salem and Hope Creek reactors later Monday, but they were mixed on whether the storm's winds would still be strong enough to force the shutdown of reactors in Pennsylvania and Maryland.
PSEG spokesman Joe Delmar said the company would take the Salem and Hope Creek reactors offline if wind speeds reach greater than 74 miles per hour onsite for more than 15 minutes or the river water level reaches 100 feet. Sandy's maximum winds were at 90 mph earlier on Monday.
The mean river water level at the Salem-Hope Creek site was 89 feet and the site grade was about 102 feet. The highest river level ever recorded was 97.5 feet, Delmar said.
But Sandy was expected to lose some punch as she moves over Pennsylvania and Maryland, crossing near Constellation Nuclear Energy Group's 1,705-MW Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant in Maryland, Exelon Corp's 2,244-MW Peach Bottom, 805-MW Three Mile Island and 2,264-MW Limerick in Pennsylvania, and PPL Corp's 2,450-MW Susquehanna in Pennsylvania.
All U.S. reactors have procedures that require operators to shut the units when hurricane-force winds reach their sites or when floodwaters reach certain levels.
Nuclear power represents about 18 percent of the generating capacity in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic region. One megawatt powers about 1,000 homes.
A few reactors in the area were already shut for refueling or other maintenance, including Exelon's Oyster Creek in New Jersey, PSEG's Salem 2 in New Jersey, PPL's Susquehanna in Pennsylvania and Dominion's Millstone 2 in Connecticut.
Both Salem Unit 1 and Hope Creek were at full power Monday morning and the refueling work on Salem Unit 2 was suspended by 6 p.m. EDT Sunday, Delmar said.
WIND AND FLOOD WATER
Delmar said only essential personnel were required to report to the Salem and Hope Creek site on Monday.
He said PSEG was in Phase 2 of its severe weather plan.
Phase 1 included inspecting, removing and securing objects outside that could become airborne and putting emergency equipment and supplies in place.
Phase 2 of the plan includes visual inspections of equipment, verifying weather tight doors, checking on emergency diesel availability, and ensuring water intakes are prepared for severe weather.
Power companies from North Carolina to Maine have been preparing for Sandy for days and urged customers to be ready for the possibility of days without electricity. More than 700,000 homes and businesses were already without power Monday afternoon.
The Long Island Power Authority, which serves 1.1 million people on Long Island, New York, and others said outages could last as long as seven to 10 days.
IRENE ALSO SHUT NUCLEAR PLANTS
The last big storm to hit the U.S. East Coast was Hurricane Irene in 2011, which made landfall in the Outer Banks in North Carolina as a Category 1 storm. Irene caused billions in property damage as it ran up the coast from Carolinas to Maine.
Irene left more than eight million homes and businesses without power, some for a week or more in the hardest hit areas. It forced many power plants to shut, including at least two reactors, at Oyster Creek in New Jersey and Calvert Cliffs in Maryland.
Several other reactors had to reduce power primarily due to debris in their cooling water intakes and other reasons, like Duke Energy Corp's Brunswick in North Carolina, Dominion's Millstone in Connecticut and PSEG's Salem in New Jersey.
The biggest utilities in Sandy's path include units of Duke, Exelon, FirstEnergy Corp, National Grid Plc, Consolidated Edison Inc, Northeast Utilities, Dominion, PSEG, PPL, Pepco Holdings Inc and Iberdrola SA.
(Reporting By Scott DiSavino; Editing by Maureen Bavdek, Grant McCool and Bob Burgdorfer)
Traveling during the holidays can be an exciting adventure for the entire family or for a group of friends. If a car accident or injury occurs during the trip, you may be entitled to receive compensation to assist you in the well-being of your family member or friend. Here are a few key rules to follow in order to successfully gain holiday compensation.
File A Claim
It is imperative that you file a claim. Claims can be completed online or through use of a professional personal injury service, such as a law firm. You can make a whiplash claim and gain road accident compensation based upon the information you provide. There are several personal injury lawyers that offer a free consultation to make the process smoother. Filing a claim is the easy part, but receiving the compensation can prove to be the most challenging part.
Know The Time Limits
Please note that different countries have very different time limits on when a claim can be filed. It is important that you are aware of the time period to properly file an accident claim. The time period can change based upon accident location, injury, and when the incident occurred. Get in touch with an law firm immediately to ensure you are well within the time limit before proceeding.
Be Prepared to Fund Your Claim
Funding your claim in a different country can be daunting. However, personal injury claims generally have the similar outlook.Loser pays the winning personal costs and expenses.
There are a variety of funding methods to choose from that will assist you including Legal Expense Insurance, which will cover all legal fees brought about on your behalf; Trade Union, which will offer free assistance in legal forms; Private Funding, which also proves to be highly useful when incurring expenses during the investigation, will ensure that you are able to pay your legal costs whether you win or not; Conditional Fee Agreement, which states that your legal fees will be insured also covers your opponent?s legal fees in the event that you lose the case.
Understand the Different Types of Compensation
Each person?s case is different, thus proving that rates will fluctuate just as much. Any holiday accident compensation will be awarded based upon injury. You will have to detail the extent of the injury during the accident to ensure any compensation. Neck injuries, back injuries, chest accidents, leg injuries, and arm injuries are the most common forms of injuries that can receive funding. However, rates usually range from $500 to a little over $100,000 depending on the circumstance. Contacting a law firm will greatly increases your chances of gaining a larger amount of compensation.
Obtain Assistance
When in doubt, call a law firm. Law firms will be able to assist you through the entire claim process, time limit process, and will verify the amount of compensation after completing an initial consultation. They will have the expertise and understanding to quickly squelch the traumatic experience and will passionately provide a solution that you can agree on.
A law firm will have the know how and capability to successfully recover compensation for accident claims. So, go ahead and earn the compensation you need today using these successful tips!
John is writer from London, he used the expert traffic accident solicitors from Irwin Mitchell for his road accident compensation.
Publishers and manufacturers want to use copyright to stop people selling books or watches from other countries in the US. The Supreme Court is hearing a major case today that will force it to choose between consumers and sellers.
Is this the end of the yard sales? News media are making a fuss about a court decision that lets publishers use copyright to prevent consumers from reselling imported goods.
Today, the Supreme Court will take a closer at this ?grey marketing? issue ? and decide how to balance consumers? right to use their property against owners? rights to set prices.
The outcome will affect your right to buy and sell books, music and more. Here?s a plain-English guide to what the case is about and what it means for you:
What do you mean I can?t resell this book? I bought it fair and square
In the past, a publisher?s right to control distribution ended after they sold a book ? copyright?s ?first sale? rule. But last year, an appeals court said this rule only applied if the book (or other item) was made in the US . This means that if you resell a book or a toy made in China or the UK, you?re infringing copyright.
What led to the ruling?
A Thai-born man studying at a US school realized he could buy his textbooks much cheaper in his home country. He began importing large quantities of books and reselling them on eBay. Other people began doing the same, leading publisher John Wiley to bring a copyright suit to stop this. Last year, an appeals court sided with John Wiley.
Does this apply to just books or to any imports?
It can apply to anything protected by copyright. The case is so important because manufacturers are relying on the rule, too ? by putting artistic designs on their products so they qualify for copyright protection. That?s what watch maker Omega did a few years ago; Omega put a tiny picture on its watches ?and then sued the retailer Costco for copyright infringement (Omega was upset that Costco was buying the watches overseas and then selling below the suggested price in the US).
Here?s a look at the tiny design that Omega used to make its watches eligible for copyright protection (other companies will likely try the same trick) :
In the bigger picture, the textbook and Omega watch cases show how real time information makes it easier for sellers to engage in arbitrage ? buying goods in other markets to resell back here. Publishers and manufacturers believe the resellers are engaged in an unfair business practice and are using copyright to stop this.
But what if I have a yard sale or sell my stuff on Craigslist?
That?s the problem. In the John Wiley textbook case, the appeals court didn?t set out any limits to the ?no resale? rule. This means, in theory, that anyone who resells an overseas good could be violating copyright.
In reality, it?s a pretty safe bet that publishers and manufacturers are not going to run around shutting down garage sales. But the ruling could spell trouble for used book stores, consignment stores or other merchants who sell used goods.
If you?re into the legal nitty-gritty, the Copyright Act has two sections that seem to contradict one another: One section says unauthorized imports violate a copyright owner?s exclusive right to distribution (which favors the publisher). The other section limits the rights of the copyright owner by saying the owner of a copy??lawfully made under this title? can sell it (which favors the consumer).
What?s the Supreme Court going to do?
The court can overturn the appeals court case, leaving us to carry on as before.?If it decides to uphold the ruling, the vourt may try to limit its effect, perhaps by declaring the rule only applies in special cases. Or it may simply uphold the case and leave it to Congress to clean up the ensuing resale mess.
?
How does the case affect digital book or music sales?
? It won?t have a big affect because, for better or worse, we don?t really own our digital books and music ? we license them from Apple or Amazon. The Supreme Court case ? which turns on physical objects we do own ? is about non-digital property.
Any predictions on the outcome?
The Supreme Court heard the same issue in 2010 when Omega and Costco argued about the watches. That case resulted in a 4-4 tie which means the lower court ruling against Costco (and consumers) was upheld.?The tie came because Justice Elena Kagan recused herself. She will cast a vote this time ? likely the deciding one. It?s hard to predict which side she will take.
I can?t get enough of this first sale copyright stuff. Where can I learn more?
Legal reporter Joe Mullin of Ars Technica has a great profile of the facts and legal background:?How a Supreme Court ruling may stop you from selling just about anything. And SCOTUSblog has the filings and more for?Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons.
(Image by Monkey Business Images via Shutterstock)
By Kim Barker, ProPublica, and Rick Young and Emma Schwartz, Frontline Oct. 29, 2012, 12:01 a.m.
This post was co-published with PBS' Frontline.
The boxes landed in the office of Montana investigators in March 2011.
Found in a meth house in Colorado, they were somewhat of a mystery, holding files on 23 conservative candidates in state races in Montana. They were filled with candidate surveys and mailers that said they were paid for by campaigns, and fliers and bank records from outside spending groups. One folder was labeled "Montana $ Bomb."
The documents pointed to one outside group pulling the candidates' strings: a social welfare nonprofit called Western Tradition Partnership, or WTP.
Altogether, the records added up to possible illegal "coordination" between the nonprofit and candidates for office in 2008 and 2010, said a Montana investigator and a former Federal Election Commission chairman who reviewed the material. Outside groups are allowed to spend money on political campaigns, but not to coordinate with candidates.
"My opinion, for what it's worth, is that WTP was running a lot of these campaigns," said investigator Julie Steab of the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices, who initially received the boxes from Colorado.
The boxes were examined by Frontline and ProPublica as part of an investigation into the growing influence on elections of dark money groups, tax-exempt organizations that can accept unlimited contributions and do not have to identify their donors. The documents offer a rare glimpse into the world of dark money, showing how Western Tradition Partnership appealed to donors, interacted with candidates and helped shape their election efforts.
Though WTP's spending has been at the state level, it's best-known nationally for bringing a lawsuit that successfully challenged Montana's ban on corporate spending in elections, extending the provisions of the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark Citizens United decision to all states.
The tax code allows nonprofits like WTP to engage in some political activity, but they are supposed to have social welfare as their primary purpose. As reported previously by ProPublica and Frontline, when WTP applied for recognition of its tax-exempt status, it told the IRS under penalty of perjury that it would not directly or indirectly attempt to influence elections u2014 even though it already had.
The group is now locked in an ongoing dispute with Montana authorities, who ruled in October 2010 that the nonprofit should have registered as a political committee and should have to disclose its donors. WTP sued. A hearing is set for March.
In the meantime, the group has changed its name to American Tradition Partnership, reflecting its larger ambitions. This month, it sent Montana voters a mailer in the form of a newspaper called the Montana Statesman that claimed to be the state's "largest & most trusted news source."
The front page accused the Democratic gubernatorial candidate of being soft on sex offenders.
Donny Ferguson, American Tradition Partnership's spokesman and executive director, did not specifically address the documents found in Colorado or allegations of coordination made against WTP.
"American Tradition Partnership always obeys every letter of every applicable law," he wrote in an emailed response to questions. "ATP does not, and never will, endorse candidates or urge voters to vote for or against candidates. ... These false allegations are old hat."
On its website, the group says its primary purpose is issue advocacy and combating radical environmentalists, whom it sometimes calls "gang green." It describes itself as a grassroots group backed by a broad membership of small donors.
When asked about the documents found in Colorado, Jim Brown, a lawyer for the group, said he was unfamiliar with them.
After being shown some of the documents by Frontline, Brown, in a follow-up email, said his review indicated that they appeared to belong to a company called Direct Mail. Direct Mail and Communications is a print shop in Livingston, Mont., run by a one-time key player in WTP and his wife.
Brown urged Frontline to turn over the documents. "If the documents are purported to be what you say they are, then you may knowingly be in possession of stolen property," Brown wrote.
The records are in the hands of the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices, which considers them public and reviewable upon request.
* * *
In the anything-goes world of modern campaign finance, outside groups face one major restriction: They are not allowed to coordinate with candidates. That's because contributions to candidates and parties are still capped to limit donors' direct influence, while contributions to outside groups are unlimited.
The Federal Election Commission has a three-pronged test for proving coordination: Did an outside group pay for ads, phone calls or mailers? Did these materials tell people to vote for or against a candidate, or praise or criticize a candidate in the weeks before an election? Finally, did the candidate, or a representative, agree to the expenditure?
Many concerns have been raised about coordination in this election because of close ties between outside groups and campaigns. Super PACs supporting President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney are run by their former staffers. Super PACs and campaigns have used the same consultants, who insist in interviews that they have firewalls.
Proving coordination is extremely difficult, however. Since 2007, the FEC has investigated 64 complaints of coordination, but found against candidates and groups only three times, fining them a total of $107,000, a review of FEC enforcement actions shows.
Montana, which has similar rules, also receives few complaints about such activity, Steab said.
The boxes from Colorado contained a mixture of documents from candidates and outside groups.
Folders labeled with the names of Montana candidates held drafts and final letters of support signed by candidates' wives and drafts and final copies of mailers marked as being paid for by the campaigns. The folders often appeared to have had an accounting of what had been sent and paid for scrawled on the front.
Several folders included copies of the signatures of candidates and their wives. "Use this one," someone wrote in red pen next to a cut-out rectangle on a page with five signatures from one candidate.
Steab, the Montana investigator, said she believed these cut-out signatures were then affixed to fliers from the candidates.
Besides material from the campaigns, the boxes also contained mailers on 2008 and 2010 races in Colorado and Montana from Western Tradition Partnership and six other groups. There were bank statements for several groups, including the Coalition for Energy and the Environment, the Alliance of Montana Taxpayers and the Conservative Victory Fund.
In all the documents, one name repeatedly popped up: Christian LeFer. Even though two Montana Republican politicians founded WTP, investigators determined that LeFer was the man behind the scenes.
LeFer, who is described as WTP's director of strategic programming in memos in 2009, said in an email that the documents "appear to be stolen property" and that, as he'd had no access to them, he couldn't respond to most of ProPublica's questions, "which seem to be based on an erroneous and fanciful interpretation of what they mean."
LeFer did not address whether WTP had coordinated with candidates. Although former employees and candidates said LeFer helped his wife run Direct Mail and Communications u2014 the printing company that Brown, the lawyer, suggested was the owner of the boxes of documents found in Colorado u2014 LeFer said he did not "run or direct the activities" there.
Direct Mail listed its principal office address in Montana filings as being the same Colorado address WTP initially used.
Two outside groups with documents in the boxes u2014 the Montana Committee to Protect the Unborn and Montana Citizens for Right to Work u2014 listed their addresses on bank statements as the same post-office box in Livingston used by LeFer and Direct Mail. LeFer was also the executive director of Montana Citizens for Right to Work, an anti-union group.
Former state Rep. Ed Butcher said LeFer and Western Tradition Partnership aided candidates with no experience.
"They'll come in, if candidates want some help, they'll come in and help them," said Butcher, who described LeFer as "a Karl Rove type political strategist" who "stays in the background."
Butcher's file in the Colorado boxes was labeled "Butcher Primary '08 mail samples." It included an email from LeFer to Butcher with a survey about unions. There was a campaign donation form, and drafts of fliers and a letter from Butcher's campaign.
A "wife questionnaire" for Butcher's wife Pam said she met her husband "on a blind date arranged by his buddy that neither of us wanted." The questionnaire listed her children's names and that she had been taking care of her disabled mother for five years.
A letter on pink paper from Pam Butcher was in a file marked "wife letters." The letter, which contained much of the information in the questionnaire, was marked as being paid for by Butcher's campaign.
Butcher said his wife might have run her letter past LeFer. "He may have asked, 'Do you need any help?' and she said, 'Yeah, I need to get this family letter out,'" said Butcher, who won the Republican primary in 2008 by 20 votes.
A folder for another successful candidate, Mike Miller, included a fax cover sheet from Miller to LeFer, forwarding Miller's filled-out Montana candidate surveys for two outside groups, the National Gun Owners Alliance and the National League of Taxpayers. It also held a candidate survey asking Miller if he had any research about his opponent, including "any recent scandals."
Miller confirmed to Frontline that LeFer was an unpaid adviser on his campaign, but would not elaborate further.
Trevor Potter, a former federal election commissioner who now runs the Campaign Legal Center, a watchdog group that advocates for more restrictions on money in politics, reviewed the documents found in the boxes.
"This is the sort of information that is, in fact, campaign strategy, campaign plans that candidates cannot share with an outside group without making it coordinated," Potter said.
"You need to know more, but certainly if I were back in my FEC days as a commissioner, I would say we had grounds to proceed with an investigation and put people under oath and show them these documents, and ask where they came from and where they were."
* * *
After the 2008 election, Montana started investigating whether WTP should have disclosed its donors.
The inquiry progressed slowly until 2010, when a former WTP contractor handed over internal fundraising records, saying she was worried about what the group was doing.
The documents showed that the group raised money specifically by telling people and corporations that they could give unlimited amounts in secret.
"The only thing we plan on reporting is our success to contributors like you who can see the benefits of a program like this," said one document, a 2010 election briefing to read to potential donors. "You can just sit back on election night and see what a difference you've made."
A target list of potential donors included an executive at a talc mine, the Montana representative of an international mining group and a Colorado executive for a global gold-mining company.
One note about a potential donor advised: "Married rich, hard to get a hold of. Have a beer with him." Another said: "Owns big ranch, signed a hit piece I wrote on cty cmms'r last year (don't mention), should give $$ $10,000 ask."
Other notes suggested that solicitors "See Christian" or "Talk to Christian," apparently references to LeFer.
The documents cited the group's success in 2008, saying in a confidential grassroots membership development proposal that 28 Montana state legislators "rode into office in 100% support of WTP's responsible development agenda."
By 2010, the partnership was active in state races in Montana and Colorado.
That October, Montana authorities said Western Tradition Partnership had violated campaign-finance law and should be fined. They said the group's purpose in 2008 was "not to discuss issues, but to directly influence candidate elections through surreptitious means."
The Montana investigation also said the evidence was overwhelming that WTP had established the Coalition for Energy and the Environment, known as CEE, as a "sham organization" to act as a front for expenditures actually made by WTP.
But the investigation also found that "sufficient evidence has not been disclosed to establish coordination between WTP/CEE and any candidate. Concern and healthy skepticism is warranted, however."
That was before the boxes from Colorado turned up.
A convicted felon named Mark Siebel said he stumbled on them inside a known meth house near Denver at some point in late 2010.
It's not clear how they got there. Siebel said a friend found them in a stolen car. After reading through some of the documents, he reached out to people he thought might be interested in them u2014 primarily Colorado candidates attacked by Western Tradition Partnership. A lawyer married to one of the candidates shipped the boxes off to Montana investigators.
By that time, however, the Montana probe into the group's activities in the 2008 election was over. Steab also said that there was no way to determine for certain where the documents were from and who owned them. There was no whistleblower, and no information about how the records ended up in Colorado.
Despite this, Steab said, she found the documents very telling.
"It looks to me that there was a lot of coordination u2014 but I don't know that it's coordination that everyone is aware of in all cases," she said. She said she spoke to one candidate who told her he was upset about all the negative mailers against his opponent.
This year, American Tradition Partnership is as active as ever. It's suing to try to overturn contribution limits in Montana, so far unsuccessfully. The group sent out mailers attacking candidates before the June primary in Montana, reporting none of them to the state as political expenditures. It later put out a press release saying that 12 of the 14 candidates it backed had won.
For the general election, the group appears to be targeting Montana's attorney general, Steve Bullock, the Democratic candidate for governor. As attorney general, Bullock fought the partnership's lawsuits against the state, including the one that ended up in the Supreme Court.
The first issue of the partnership's Montana Statesman newspaper, dated Oct. 7, which a group press release said was sent to 180,000 voters, featured four photographs on the front page: Three of registered sex offenders, and one of Bullock, accusing him of allowing one in four sex offenders to go unregistered. "Bullock admits failure," the headline announced. A full-page ad accused Bullock of taking illegal corporate contributions and of "criminal hypocrisy."
The Statesman's editor and publisher is none other than Ferguson, the partnership's executive director, described as an "award-winning newspaper veteran" who has been "commended by other newspapers for his 'honest, intelligent and issue-oriented' approach."
Ferguson didn't respond to a question about his journalism credentials.
"Conservative group American Tradition Partnership now one of nation's biggest media outlets," said a press release on the group's website, adding that the newspaper would publish "several" editions through Election Day and into 2013.
Beautiful city-limits of Barcelona, basal of Catalonia (a Spain's province), is anchored on on the coffer of the Mediterranean sea and belted at either end by 2 river deltas. Barcelona is the added bigger city-limits in Spain afterwards its basal city-limits Madrid. Barcelona has a citizenry of 1.5 million, over 4 amateur including suburbs. The varied, alive history of the city-limits dates ashamed 4,000 years to the ancient settlements by age-old farmers. Later it became a Roman colony, the Visigoth's basal city, afresh it came below Moorish rule. It went through sieges, destructions and occupations, absolutely to become an chargeless commercialism 1975. The city-limits has consistently played an important role in political and cultural action of Spain and it is able reflected in the arrangement and above of absolute buildings, museums, abounding added day-tripper attractions. Today Barcelona is one of the a lot of altered european cities with altered adeptness and flush traditions.
You can accretion achievement a alarming antipode of the adequate things and the avant-garde. A all-embracing metropolis, Barcelona affords visitors a mild and candid welcome, accepting aknowledged accustomed as one of the best tourist-friendly cities in Europe.Barcelona's organisation of the 1992 Olympics provided changeabout of this activating city, gave a alpha alpha to its basement development. WHAT TO SEE AND WHERE: POINTS OF INTEREST - La Rambla is a tree-lined blah avenue abiding with buskers, alive statues, mimes and accustomed salespeople diplomacy accumulated from action tickets to jewellery. Pavement cafes and stands diplomacy craftwork, avenue performers amidst by analytic onlookers, a arrant bird market, Palau de la Virreina, a admirable 18th-century camp mansion, the Gran Teatre del Liceu, the acclaimed 19th-century opera house- these are all colourful locations of La Rambla's mosaic.
La Rambla ends at the aeriform Monument a Colom (Monument to Columbus) and the harbour. Barri Gotic - aswell accustomed as Gothic Quarter, it is the old allocation of the city. Picasso lived and formed in Barri Gotic from 1895 to 1904 and Joan Miro was congenital and lived achievement during his youth. Gothic Quarter is anchored on the adapted battle accent of the La Rambla, it contains a assimilation of medieval aerial Gothic barrio (14-15th century) on attenuated cobbled streets and now is home to abounding of the city's nightlife. La Sagrada Familia - La Sagrada Familia is one of the a lot of acclaimed and arresting a allotment of Barcelona's landmarks. The life's plan of Barcelona's acclaimed architect, Antoni Gaudi, the arresting spires of the amateurish basilica banderole themselves angrily abut the sky with abscess outlines advancing by the adorable affluence Montserrat. Above ceremony barefaced there are four towers, 12 in total, which are committed to the Apostles.
The belfry in the center, the tallest of all at 170 m., is committed to Jesus Christ. About these there are the architectonics of the four Evangelists, and the belfry over the anteroom is committed to the Virgin. They are encrusted with a braid of sculptures that accept to breathe action into the stone. Gaudi died in 1926 afore his masterwork was completed, and aback then, argument has consistently determined the architectonics program. Nevertheless, the southwestern (Passion) facade, is about done, and the nave, baggy in 1978, is progressing. La Pedrera - Casa Mila (Mila House) is an adaptation building, the abide classic of Gaudi's noncombatant architecture.It is one of his finest and a lot of advancing creations, abnormally beat in its functional, constructive, and accent aspects.
Visitors can bender the architectonics and go up to the roof, across they can see amazing bend of Barcelona. One attic below the roof is a abashed architectonics committed to Gaudi's work. Montjuic - the bigger attainable amplitude in the city, its basic attractions are the Olympic installations, the Spanish Village and the acropolis fortress. Montjuic, the acropolis overlooking the city-limits centre from the southwest, is home to some able art galleries, leisure attractions, abatement parks and the basic accession of 1992 Olympic sites. Montjuic is covered in accent across with admit actualization and is the a lot of accustomed destination in Barcelona on Sundays. Tibidabo - is the able acropolis in the abounding abuttals that forms the accomplishments to Barcelona.
It has amazing bend of the able of Barcelona, a admirable cathedral, and a ancestors fun esplanade Parc d'Atraccions with old-style rides alms amazing views. A canteen lift at the esplanade goes 115m (383 ft) up to a visitors' analysis across at Torre de Collserola telecommunications tower. Modernisme - amazing modernista architectural creations dotted about the city-limits by acclaimed Antoni Gaudi and his contemporaries. Camp Nou - home of F.C. Barcelona, one of Europe's accomplished soccer teams, with adaptation of about 100,000 spectators. The Seu Basilica - Built in medieval times on the website of a Roman temple, La Seu is one of the abounding Gothic barrio in Spain. Parc de la Ciutadella - Barcelona's favourite esplanade and a Sunday afternoon activity for families, accompany and ducks The Sardana - adequate Catalan dance, performed alfresco the basilica and at borough festivals, with anybody encouraged to accompany in.
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WASHINGTON (AP) ? Staffers at a pharmacy linked to the deadly meningitis outbreak documented dozens of cases of mold and bacteria growing in rooms that were supposed to be sterile, according to federal health inspectors.
In a preliminary report on conditions at the pharmacy, the Food and Drug Administration said Friday that even when the contamination at New England Compounding Center exceeded the company's own safety levels, there is no evidence that staffers investigated or corrected the problem. The FDA uncovered some four dozen reports of potential contamination in company records, stretching back to January this year.
The report comes from an FDA inspection of the Framingham, Mass.-based company earlier this month after steroid injections made by the company were tied to an outbreak of fungal meningitis. FDA officials confirmed last week that the black fungus found in the company's vials was the same fungus that has sickened 338 people across the U.S., causing 25 deaths.
The New England Compounding Center's lawyer said Friday the pharmacy "will review this report and will continue our cooperation with the FDA."
Compounding pharmacies like NECC traditionally fill special orders placed by doctors for individual patients, turning out a small number of customized formulas each week. They have traditionally been overseen by state pharmacy boards, though the FDA occasionally steps in when major problems arise. Some pharmacies have grown into much larger businesses in the last 20 years, supplying bulk orders of medicines to hospitals that need a steady supply of drugs on hand.
The FDA report provides new details about NECC's conditions, which were first reported by state officials earlier this week. The drug at the center of the investigation is made without preservative, so it's very important that it be made under highly sterile conditions. Compounding pharmacies prepare their medications in clean rooms, which are supposed to be temperature-controlled and air-filtered to maintain sterility.
But FDA inspectors noted that workers at the pharmacy turned off the clean room's air conditioning every night. FDA regulators said that could interfere with the conditions needed to prevent bacterial growth.
Inspectors also say they found a host of potential contaminants in or around the pharmacy's clean rooms, including green and yellow residues, water droplets and standing water from a leaking boiler.
Additionally, inspectors found "greenish yellow discoloration" inside an autoclave, a piece of equipment used to sterilize vials and stoppers. In another supposedly sterile room inspectors found a "dark, hair-like discoloration" along the wall. Elsewhere FDA staff said that dust from a nearby recycling facility appeared to be drifting into the pharmacy's rooftop air-conditioning system.
The FDA on Friday declined to characterize the severity of the problems at NECC, or to speculate on how they may have led to contamination of the products made by the pharmacy. FDA emphasized that the report is based on "initial observations" and that the agency's investigation is ongoing.
The agency also provided new details about the pharmacy's handling of the steroids it recalled last month. The company recalled three lots of steroids made since May that totaled 17,676 single-dose vials of medicine ? roughly equivalent to 20 gallons. The shots are mainly used to treat back pain.
According to the agency's report, the pharmacy began shipping vials from the August lot to customers on Aug. 17. That was nearly two weeks before the pharmacy received test results from an outside laboratory confirming the sterility of the drug. When FDA scientists went back and tested the same lot this month, they found contamination in 50 vials.
Outside experts said the report paints a picture of a dysfunctional operation.
"The entire pharmacy was an incubator of bacteria and fungus," said Sarah Sellers, a former FDA officer who left the agency in 2008 after unsuccessfully pushing it to increase regulation of compounding pharmacies. She now consults for drug manufacturers. "The pharmacy knew this through monitoring results, and chose to do nothing."
BEIRUT (AP) ? Syrian troops shelled rebel-held areas and clashed with anti-government gunmen in several parts of the country on Saturday despite an internationally mediated cease-fire, while rebels and Kurdish neighborhood guards fought a rare battle in the embattled city of Aleppo that left nearly two dozen people dead, activists said.
The new violence ? coming a day after car bombs and clashes left over 100 dead ? casts further doubt on the chances that the four-day cease-fire will be a springboard for ending the 19-month conflict.
The fighting in Aleppo's predominantly Kurdish neighborhood of Ashrafieh late Friday occurred a day after rebels pushed into largely Kurds and Christian areas that have been relatively quiet during the three-month battle for the city.
Kurds say the rebels had pledged to stay out of their neighborhoods. Kurdish groups have for the most part tried to steer a middle course in the conflict between the rebels and the regime of President Bashar Assad. Some figures have allied with the rebels, others with Assad, and others have remained neutral.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 19 rebels and three Kurdish gunmen were killed in the clash that lasted several hours, the group said. A Kurdish official put the death toll at 10 Kurds, but had no figures for the rebels.
Mohieddine Sheik Ali, head of the Kurdish Yekiti party, told The Associated Press that the clashes broke out after rebels entered Ashrafieh, violating "a gentlemen's agreement" not to go into Kurdish areas in Aleppo.
He said there are 100,000 Kurds in Ashrafieh and many in the nearby Sheik Maksoud area. Sheik Ali said tens of thousands of Arabs have also fled to these areas from the violence in other parts of Aleppo.
"Disagreements between our brothers in the (rebel) Free Syrian Army and the Kurdish Popular Defense Units" led the clashes, he said.
The Observatory said the clashes led to a wave of kidnappings between the two groups, but did not provide further details. Pro-government news websites also reported the clashes.
Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Syria and make up around 10 to 15 percent of the country's 23 million people. Most of them live in the northeaster Hasakeh province near the border with Turkey, but large neighborhoods in Aleppo as well as the capital Damascus are Kurdish-dominated.
After the anti-government uprising began in March last year, both the Syrian government and opposition forces began reaching out to the long-marginalized minority whose support could tip the balance in the conflict.
Kurds have long complained of neglect and discrimination. Assad's government for years argued they are not Syrians, but Kurds who fled from Iraq or neighboring Turkey. But the Kurds are also leery of how they would fare in a Syria dominated by the large Sunni Arab rebel movement.
Early on in the revolt, Assad ceded ground on a major Kurdish demand, granting citizenship to some 200,000 who were registered as aliens before. Mindful of provoking the Kurds, security forces have refrained from using deadly force to put down protests in Kurdish regions, and residents say they have largely abandoned their posts there.
The opposition has also courted the Kurds, staging demonstrations in hopes of rallying the community against Assad. In June, Abdelbaset Sieda, a Kurd, was elected as head of the Syrian National Council, the main opposition group in exile.
The Kurds in turn took part in the anti-Assad protests staged every Friday, but carried their own flags and chanted their own slogans.
Kurdish fighters from the Kurdish Democratic Union Party, or PYD, now secure much of the northeast. The group is affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, rebels fighting for autonomy in the Kurdish-dominated southeast region of Turkey. Turkey's support for the Syrian rebel movement is another point of tension between the mainstream opposition and the Kurds.
In other violence, the Observatory and the Local Coordination Committees reported shelling and shooting Saturday mostly in Aleppo, the eastern region of Deir el-Zour, Daraa to the south and suburbs of the capital Damascus.
Syria mediator Lakhdar Brahimi, the U.N.-Arab League envoy, had mediated a four-day cease-fire that began Friday to mark the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha.
"The cease-fire collapsed nearly three hours after it went into effect," said Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Observatory. "The only difference is that the fighting is less widespread and regime has not been using its air force since the cease-fire began."
Also Saturday, state-run Syrian TV reported that rebels violated the cease-fire by detonating a car bomb outside an Assyrian Christian church in the eastern city of Deir el-Zour near the border with Iraq.
A Syrian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said part of the church was damaged but the blast caused no casualties.
The aging process can be brutal, and sometimes, trying to combat wrinkles and other changes in one's face can seem like an uphill battle. Still, putting in effort to make yourself look as good as possible is one way to assuage some of the anxieties that come along with growing older. The trick, according to a doctor writing for Inforum.com, is to know how your face changes at certain ages, and what you can do to treat the issues uniquely.
?
Your younger years
?
Adolescence is a difficult time for many, not just because of skin problems, though acne doesn't make things much easier. But for a lot of people, the second decade of life is a heyday for healthy skin. Still, the occasional pimple is not unheard when you are in your 20s. The doctor recommends skin products that are vitamin A-based, such as retinol. Sunglasses and sun screen are also a must for all ages, but starting early means fewer wrinkles later on down the line.
?
When you're in your 30s
?
Ten years later, many people will begin to see the first signs of aging. Fine lines are common around the eyes, and the skin underneath your lower lids may become puffy, particularly in the morning. To combat these signs of aging, the doctor recommends enhancing your face cleansing regimen, and adding an eye cream and a rich moisturizer at night. Read the list of ingredients and look for antioxidants, like vitamin C or green tea.
?
This is also the age when some people begin to look into cosmetic procedures, such as Botox, to help combat the signs of aging. These minimally invasive procedures are quite popular, according to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. The group found that for all women between the ages of 50 and 60, Botox was the number one cosmetic procedure in 2011.
?
The 40s and 50s
?
During middle age, fine lines will deepen further, particularly around the mouth and eyes, eventually becoming folds in the skin. Individuals who lose weight during this time of life may find that skin doesn't rebound, as it's lost its elasticity, the doctor writes for Inforum. A tummy tuck can help combat sagging skin left over from the shedding of pounds.
Bone and muscle volume decrease during these decades of life, which can often result in a tired look that can be distressing to some. There are other cosmetic procedures available to help with this issue, such as a facelift or browlift.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Doug Fister took the Giants' best shot without even flinching.
Fister overcame a line-drive single off his head to take a shutout bid into the seventh inning for Detroit before the Tigers lost Game 2 of the World Series 2-0 to San Francisco on Thursday night.
"I'm fine," Fister said. "I got a little bump. No damage. Just a matter of I threw a changeup that he squared up and it came right back at me."
Fister ended up with the hard-luck loss when he allowed a leadoff single to Hunter Pence in the seventh and reliever Drew Smyly was unable to strand him in part because of a perfect bunt that never rolled foul.
It was remarkable that Fister was even in the game that long after it looked as if he could have been knocked out in a scary moment in the second inning. Gregor Blanco hit a line drive that struck Fister just above the right ear with a runner on first and two outs. The ball ricocheted into short center for a single.
"Whoa!" umpire Dan Iassogna said as he popped out from behind the plate, adding: "Doug, you OK?" when he got to the mound.
"I was scared to death when it happened," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "I didn't really realize exactly how it hit him. It kind of grazed I want to say the side of his head, the back of his head. It was a scary moment, obviously, but he was fine."
Fister looked unfazed by the blow and remained in the game after being checked out by a trainer, Leyland and pitching coach Jeff Jones.
"They asked me the typical concussion questions. He obviously saw in my eyes I was OK," Fister said. "I'm not concerned. I have a minor bump. According to my dad my whole life his saying has always been if I got hit in the head I'd be OK. That's how I take it."
Fister answered every question correctly on the mound and even added that he would get the third out.
"He didn't seem scared," first baseman Prince Fielder said. "He definitely showed some toughness."
Fister then walked Brandon Crawford to load the bases but escaped the jam by retiring fellow pitcher Madison Bumgarner on a soft looper to shortstop Jhonny Peralta.
The 6-foot-8 right-hander didn't allow another hit until Pablo Sandoval singled with two outs in the sixth, retiring 12 straight batters after the walk to Crawford.
"It was scary at the moment but then he seemed to shake it off," catcher Gerald Laird said. "This guy's tough. I was surprised. The way (the batter) hit it and the way it hit his head, it was scary. For him to bounce back and pitch like he did, that says a lot about him."
Leyland sent Fister back out for the seventh with 108 pitches to face the right-handed hitting Pence before a run of three straight lefties came to the plate. Pence ended Fister's night with a single to left field on his 114th pitch.
That proved costly. Smyly walked Brandon Belt, and Blanco reached on a bunt single that Smyly, Laird and third baseman Miguel Cabrera tried to will foul. But the ball tantalizingly stayed on the dirt between the foul line and infield grass before rolling to a stop in fair territory, loading the bases with no outs for the Giants.
Leyland chose to play the middle of the infield back to avoid a big inning. But that decision allowed a run to score when Brandon Crawford bounced into a 4-6-3 double play.
"It's not debatable to me," Leyland said. "Some people might debate that, but I felt we had to take our best shot to come out of it with one run because if we don't score, it doesn't make any difference anyway."
Fister allowed one run and four hits with one walk with three strikeouts. He became the first Tigers pitcher to last at least five innings in five straight postseason starts. But he is winless in three postseason outings this year because the bullpen blew leads his first two times on the mound.
"It was a tough night," Fister said. "Obviously we had a couple of balls that didn't go our way. It's OK. We're going to come back."
The Tigers now find themselves in a daunting 2-0 hole because the offense generated nothing against Bumgarner and the bullpen. Only one World Series team has overcome such a deficit since the New York Mets did it in 1986.
Detroit's best chance at scoring was thwarted by another questionable decision. With the burly Fielder at first base and no outs in the second, Delmon Young grounded a double down the left-field line. Blanco picked up the ball after it caromed off the fence in foul territory and threw to second baseman Marco Scutaro near third base.
Third-base coach Gene Lamont waved Fielder home and he was tagged out by catcher Buster Posey just before touching the plate. Fielder had been sent home from first just three times on 10 doubles. The fourth one proved costly.
"We wanted to be aggressive, and I think he got just a little overaggressive, and it was a bang-bang play," Leyland said.
? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Breaks are going Giants' way
DeMarco: When everything is breaking your way, it's often a different player or two every night at the center of things. So, after Pablo Sandoval in Game, we have Gregor Blanco in Game 2 ? and the breaks have the Giants in an almost-always-win situation in the World Series.
Giants nail down 2-0 Series lead
Madison Bumgarner shut down the Detroit Tigers for seven innings, then the Giants took advantage of a bunt that stayed fair to eke out the go-ahead run in a 2-0 win Thursday night for a 2-0 edge in the World Series.
