New leadership ushered in for Lockheed union

by Geoff Folsom
gfolsom@mdjonline.com
The Marietta Daily Journal

MARIETTA ? The top labor union at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics? Marietta plant voted in new leadership Wednesday.

Current International Association of Machinists Local Lodge 709 Vice President Perry Gulledge overwhelmingly won in the race for president with 639 votes, more than twice the total of runner-up Johnny P. Stevens, who had 294 votes. Cornell ?Slim? Stevens had 251 votes, while incumbent President Denise Rakestraw finished last in the four-person field with 210 votes.

Gulledge, 50, said his primary focus will be representing the union in negotiations for its contract with Lockheed, which expires in March 2014. His three-year term starts Jan. 6.

?I am honored to be able to represent the most highly skilled workforce in the world,? Gulledge, 50, said Thursday.

Gulledge started with Lockheed in 1984, but went on leave from the company three years ago when he was elected vice president. He said top union officers become full-time employees of IAM.

Gulledge, a resident of the New Hope community in Paulding County, said he supported the decision by the union?s leadership committee to recommend rejecting Lockheed?s proposed contract offer and strike during 2011 negotiations. Union members ended up rejecting the recommendation and approved management?s offer with 57 percent of the vote.

Rakestraw said she didn?t know if the contract vote had an impact on the election.

?My thought would be no,? she said.

Rakestraw didn?t know of any major issues that could have impacted the race.

?I?m not sure what happened,? she said. ?Everybody gets the right to vote.?

The change in union leadership comes at a time of transition for Lockheed. The company announced earlier this week that it was moving 560 jobs, most of its F-22 operations, from Marietta to Fort Worth, Texas. Though those are non-union positions, more Lockheed jobs could be in jeopardy if Congress and President Barack Obama fail to reach an agreement on automatic across the board sequestration cuts at the end of the year that are part of the current ?fiscal cliff? negotiations.

IAM Local 709, in conjunction with the Georgia State AFL-CIO, will host a town hall meeting with U.S. Rep. David Scott (D-Atlanta) on the impact of the defense cuts at 4:30 p.m. Monday at the Union Hall, 1032 South Marietta Parkway.

In a statement, Shan Cooper, Lockheed vice president and general manager of the Marietta site, said, ?We value our partnership with the outgoing IAM Local Lodge 709 leadership team, and look forward to working with the newly elected officials as we tackle the challenges and opportunities of the new year together.?

About 3,300 of Lockheed?s 6,900 Marietta employees are IAM members. In the race to replace Gulledge as vice president, Mike Owens won with 597 votes. Steve Cottrell finished second with 321 votes, Chandra K. Williams was third with 274 votes, Belva Leigh Palmer finished fourth with 145 votes and Wanda Walker was fifth with 42 votes.

Sandy Ledinsky won the position of secretary-treasurer with 656 votes, defeating incumbent Susan Holmes, who had 616 votes. Scott Martin finished third with 120 votes.

Source: http://mdjonline.com/bookmark/21053265

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Are Mammograms Useless?

Woman Getting a Mammogram.

A new study suggests mammograms may not help in breast cancer treatment

?

Photo by Fuse/Thinkstock.

Last week, the conversation about breast cancer diagnosis and treatment moved into new and uncomfortable territory. The New England Journal of Medicine published a large-scale study concluding that mammograms may not be as helpful as most people believe in treating breast cancer. Even worse, the study suggested that more than 1 million women may have been unnecessarily treated and diagnosed.

Everyone agrees that fewer women are dying from breast cancer. We?meaning the medical community and interested women?assumed that the increased survival rates were a result of early detection and mammography. ?Early detection saves lives? is one of the main rallying cries of the Susan G. Komen Foundation-led pink-ribboned breast cancer community. But what if it doesn?t?

The study looked at breast cancer diagnoses over the last 30 years. As expected, screening coincided with an increase in detection of early stage breast cancers. But the number of metastatic cancers was unchanged. Even the number of late cancers? those that had spread to the nodes but not distant organs?did not decrease very much.

The idea of screening is to find disease early so it can be treated. People thought breast cancer was perfect for screening?that early breast cancer inevitably turns into late cancer. If this simple progression were true, then the number of increased early diagnoses we?ve seen during the last 30 years should be matched by an equivalent decrease in late diagnoses. But this did not turn out to be the case.

This study is flawed in the usual way that broad-based population studies are flawed. The claim is based only on observation and association. We just know that during the period of the study, mammogram use increased, the number of early breast cancer diagnoses increased, and late-stage cancer diagnoses barely decreased. We don?t even know whether, for example, the women with metastatic cancer even got mammograms.

If a patient never had a mammogram and then came to her doctor with a huge palpable mass, we obviously would not expect early detection by mammogram. But that patient is still in the pile of late-stage cancers the authors use to demonstrate overdiagnosis.? (A more meaningful study would only compare women whose cancer was diagnosed by mammogram.) Another reason the study can?t definitively show its touchiest suggestion?that mammograms were overdiagnosing cancers?is no one knows what is happening to these early stage cancers. The authors speculate that these cancers regress or just stay the same. But speculation is not the same as looking at the cells and watching them. That would require letting early stage cancer remain in someone?s body and sampling it over time without treating it. And at this point, when we are still aggressively treating early stage breast cancer, that study is nearly impossible to pull off.?

Since I became a family-practice resident in 1998, I have been referring women for mammograms. Until 2009, it was pretty straightforward: Any patient over 40 got a mammogram referral every year, maybe every other year. When a federal task force recommended against screening mammograms in women between 40 and 50 in 2009, the backlash was fast and harsh. There were accusations of health rationing, of setting up women to die.

Like Emily Yoffe's Dear Prudence Column on Facebook:

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=25e6d9be713134f7c50799a312ad1ee6

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US, Mexico complete trial of flying deportees home

SAN DIEGO (AP) ? The U.S. and Mexican governments have completed a two-month program to fly deportees deep into Mexico, and the U.S. is looking to the new administration of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on whether to continue the effort aimed at relieving overwhelmed Mexican border cities.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said 2,364 Mexican nationals flew on 18 flights during the trial period, all but three of them men. Nearly 2,000 had criminal convictions in the U.S.

The flights from El, Paso, Texas, to Mexico City were not voluntary, unlike a previous program to deport Mexicans arrested by the Border Patrol during Arizona's deadly summer heat.

Two days before leaving office last week, then-Mexican Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa said Mexico's new administration would work with the U.S. government on whether to continue.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-12-05-Mexico-Deportee%20Flights/id-28f0f5853a1a4fceb8458c68ad5caad8

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Asian shares slip off nine-month high on weak U.S. data

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Asian shares slipped on Tuesday after a plunge in U.S. manufacturing activity hit Wall Street stocks and the dollar, while the euro hovered near a six-week high on optimism over Greece's plan to buy back debt.

Declines in Asian stock markets suggested caution setting in after gains in recent weeks, with investors reluctant to chase shares higher amid continued gridlock in the U.S. Congress over proposals to avert the so-called fiscal cliff - $600 billion worth of tax increases and spending cuts that will be automatically triggered in early 2013.

European shares were expected to open lower, U.S. stock index futures eased and riskier assets such as commodities were also hit, with oil, copper and gold all losing ground.

"Oil markets are starting to come off on the weaker-than-expected manufacturing data and the fact that the U.S. economic outlook remains unclear," said Natalie Rampono, commodity strategist at ANZ in Sydney.

"We are also seeing mixed headlines on the fiscal cliff negotiations, so markets have already taken on a cautious outlook on that account."

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.2 percent, backing away from a nine-month high reached on Monday.

Australian shares eased 0.6 percent, while Japan's benchmark Nikkei share average fell 0.3 percent.

Financial bookmakers called London's FTSE 100 , Frankfurt's DAX and Paris's CAC-40 to open down 0.2-0.3 percent, and S&P 500 futures slipped 0.2 percent.

Global share indexes had risen on Monday after manufacturing surveys showed signs of a recovery, albeit an uneven one, in China's economy and a slower contraction in Europe. But sentiment toward equities soured after data revealed U.S. manufacturing unexpectedly contracted in November to its lowest level in more than three years.

The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said on Monday that its index of national factory activity fell to 49.5 in November, the weakest since July 2009, as companies worried about whether lawmakers in Washington could reach a budget deal in time to avert a fiscal crisis that may lead to a recession.

Heading into next week, even a hint of progress in the fiscal cliff negotiations could spawn a modest rally, said Vishnu Varathan, regional economist in Singapore for Mizuho Corporate Bank.

"Overall the euro zone noises are coming out positive and I don't see any turning around there. The only real deal-breaker, whatever will send the dollar spiking up and risk really off the table, will be if there is a complete breakdown in the Congress negotiations," he said.

"Right now there is some disappointment here and there, but overall still the consensus is that negotiations will result in some kind of acceptable compromise," Varathan said.

RBA CUTS

The Australian dollar recovered from initial weakness on Tuesday after a widely expected interest rate cut by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA). The rate was trimmed by 25 basis points to 3.0 percent, matching the previous record low.

The RBA said the full impact of rate cuts in the past had yet to be felt, and that recent data confirmed the peak in resource investment was approaching.

The Aussie rose 0.2 percent on the day and last traded at $1.0440, not far from a two-month peak of $1.0491 touched last week.

The euro was flat around $1.3060, hovering near the previous day's high of $1.3076, the single currency's strongest level in about six weeks.

The euro gained as Greek bonds rallied on Monday after Athens announced better-than-expected terms for its planned debt buy-back, boosting chances it will succeed and lead to the release of fresh aid funds.

The U.S. fiscal cliff issue remained in the minds of many investors, underpinning the Treasury market, where benchmark 10-year yields held steady in Asian trading around 1.628 percent.

Brent crude slipped 0.3 percent to around $110.60 a barrel and gold fell nearly 1 percent towards $1,700 an ounce. Copper fell from the first time in four sessions, coming off a six-week high reached on Monday to drop below $8,000 a metric ton (1.1023 tons).

The White House dismissed a proposal from congressional Republicans on Monday that included tax reforms and spending cuts, saying it did not meet President Barack Obama's pledge to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans.

The Republicans proposed overhauling the U.S. tax code to raise $800 billion in new revenue over 10 years. Obama's opening bid, outlined last Friday, seeks $1.6 trillion in new revenue by allowing the expiry of tax cuts enacted under President George W. Bush for the top two tax brackets.

"Now that the both sides have put out their plans on the table, we can say at least the negotiation is starting. But the way it looks, it will be difficult to get any deal by the second week of December. Probably it's going to take until the third week," said Tomoaki Shishido, fixed income analyst at Nomura Securities.

(Additional reporting by Ayai Tomisawa in Tokyo and Vidya Ranganathan, Ramya Venugopal and Alex Richardson in Singapore; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/asian-shares-fall-nine-month-high-weak-u-042331285--finance.html

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US seeks to drop Internet from UN telecoms talks

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) ? American envoys say they are working with other nations on a proposal to drop all discussions on possible Internet regulations from a U.N. telecommunications conference in Dubai.

The U.S. is leading calls to reject possible new codes on the Net by the International Telecommunications Union, a 193-nation body making its first major oversight revisions in nearly 25 years. U.S. representatives held meetings Tuesday on the proposal to take all Internet-related discussions off the table.

The U.S. fears any U.N. Internet regulations could complicate commerce and be used by nations such as China and Russia to justify further cyber-crackdowns.

But the head of the U.N. group, Hamadoun Toure, insists the 11-day talks will not limit freedom of expression and will mostly seek ways to broaden Internet services to developing countries.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-seeks-drop-internet-un-telecoms-talks-091155213--finance.html

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These are the 25 most common PSN trophies ? Video Games ...

Playstation Network Trophies

Recently we went through a list of the rarest PSN trophies, and now it?s time to look at the other end of the spectrum: the most common. The folks at Giant Bomb helped us compile this one with a list of 25 accolades that lots of people get, taken from their database of users with connected PSN accounts.

As before, the rarity of these trophies is relative, which means they?re based on the number of unlocks vs. the number of people playing each game.

  1. Persona 4 Arena ??You know the Midnight Channel????Tuned In ? unlocks: 581
  2. Sly 1 ? Sucker Punched!?? Enter the world of Sly Cooper! ??unlocks: 1638
  3. Shadows of the Damned ? You Go To Hell???Start a new game for the first time. (any difficulty setting) ? unlocks: 637
  4. Wanted ? I am in control ? ?Complete the 1st Tutorial ??unlocks: 172
  5. Rayman Origins (VITA) ? Betilla?s Back!???Head Nymph Betilla is Free!?? unlocks: 597
  6. Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack ??Amuse Bouche?? Eat the final cork in Level 1 ? unlocks: 589
  7. Shadows of the Damned ??You Go To Hell?? Start a new game for the first time. (any difficulty setting) ? unlocks: 290
  8. CATHERINE ??The Nightmares Have Just Begun? ? Conquer Stage 1. ??unlocks: 131
  9. .detuned ??Crank?? Use the right stick to crank up an effect. ? unlocks: 392
  10. El Shaddai ASCENSION OF THE METATRON ??The Journey Begins?? Finish Chapter 00. ? unlocks: 354
  11. GRAVITY RUSH ??Lost Kat?? Awakened in Auldnoir. ? unlocks: 581
  12. Shatter ??Shardenfreude?? Collect 95% of all fragments on any wave. ? unlocks: 1735
  13. SONIC GENERATIONS ??The Opening Act?? Race through the first stage. ? unlocks: 340
  14. TOKYO JUNGLE ??Jungle Baby?? Complete the tutorial. ? unlocks: 1270
  15. Batman: Arkham Asylum ??Freeflow Combo 5?? Complete a combo of 5 moves (any play mode) ? unlocks: 3055
  16. NOBY NOBY BOY ??BOY Quiz Expert?? Answer all questions correctly in the BOY Quiz. ? unlocks: 1991
  17. PROTOTYPE 2 ??It?s an Epidemic???Complete MEET YOUR MAKER.?? unlocks: 195
  18. Spec Ops: The Line ??They Live?? What?s lost is found. ? unlocks: 195
  19. Wheelman ??Jump in My Car?? Perform a cinematic stunt jump ? unlocks: 96
  20. Wheelman ??Venga Venga!?? Complete the Mission ? Frantic ? unlocks: 96
  21. Rayman Origins (PS3) ??Betilla?s Back! ? Head Nymph Betilla is Free! ? unlocks: 955
  22. Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2 ??Nepgear: Engage!?? Started up a new game in Gamindustri. ? unlocks: 95
  23. Dungeon Hunter: Alliance ??Executioner?? Defeat a monster with a single blow. ? unlocks: 93
  24. X-Men: Destiny ??Splicer?? Equip your first X-Gene. ? unlocks: 91
  25. Hyperdimension Neptunia ??Neptune: Engage!?? Started your journey in Gamindustri. ? unlocks: 267

As you?d expect, many of the most common trophies are most simple kind ? ones that unlock when a player completes a tutorial or even just starts a new game. From the developer?s perspective, these easy trophies are a good way to encourage new players. But when you see them all lined up together, you have to wonder whether they undermine the value of trophy/achievement systems.

Unlike the rare trophy list, where a few titles dominated the top 25, here no game appears more than twice. That fact demonstrates that a significant number of players are trying these games long enough to earn one or two trophies, but quitting before getting any further. The games on the list are widely varied in nature; the big name, multiplatform Batman: Arkham City appears right over the wonderfully bizarre downloadable Noby Noby Boy, and the remake of the classic Sly Cooper series lands way up in the #2 spot.

One achievement, Betilla?s Back from Rayman Origins, actually manages to occupy two slots ? one each for it?s PS3 and VITA versions. Arkham Asylum?s Freeflow Combo 5 trophy overwhelmingly has the most unlocks with 3,055 ? not surprising, since it was a popular game. Oddly, the next highest is Shardenfreude from Shatter (1,735), a downloadable brick-breaker game that?s about as far from Batman as you can get.

Thanks again to Giant Bomb for their help!

Source: http://www.geek.com/articles/games/these-are-the-25-most-common-psn-trophies-2012125/

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Taxes and Retirement Income ? Uncommon Financial Wisdom

Posted by shaferfinancial in Finance.
Tags: EIUL and taxation, taxe rate increases, taxes in retirement
trackback

If Congress does nothing this month here are the changes coming down the pike to taxes:

The top two income tax rates are scheduled to increase from 33% and 35% to 36% and 39.6 %, respectively.
The payroll tax is set to expire and go back to 6.2% from 4.2%.
Long term capital gains rates will go from 15% to 18% ? 20%.
Currently taxed at 15%, qualified dividend income is scheduled to increase to the taxpayer?s regular income tax rate.

Fortunately, I had thought through taxes and have structured my accounts so this only gives me a slight increase in taxes from dividend income.

Money in my EIUL or any money I might take out is not taxed.
Berkshire Hathaway investment does not pay dividends so no tax increase at this time.
I do have some dividend paying stock that will incur a tax increase.

Does your retirement strategy take into account taxation?

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Source: http://shaferfinancial.wordpress.com/2012/12/03/taxes-and-retirement-incom/

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Thousands of Tumblr users hijacked by viewing viral post

1 day

Tumblr users can breathe easily once again following a few terrifying hours on Monday, during which accounts on the blog network were hijacked if?users happened to visit the wrong post. By 1:30 p.m. ET,?Tumblr reported that its engineers had resolved the issue.

Before Tumblr started cleaning up the problem, visiting the wrong post became increasingly easy to do. Sophos, an international Internet security firm, speculates that "the worm took advantage of Tumblr's reblogging feature, meaning that anyone who was logged into Tumblr would automatically reblog the infectious post if they visited one of the offending pages."

The worm-spreading?post in question began with the words "Dearest 'Tumblr' users," a Tumblr spokesperson told NBC News.?

Describing the infected?post,?the spokesperson advised,?"If you have viewed this post, please log out of all browsers that may be using Tumblr immediately."

"If you see something on your [Tumblr]?dashboard about emo kids and suicide and bleach, don?t click it," the Daily Dot's Kevin Morris wrote, referring to the post's?aggressively?offensive?contents.

The Verge's Adi Robertson, who saw his?tech site's Tumblr blog fall to the post's malicious effects, described the messages reposted by affected accounts as "exhortation for users to commit suicide."

If you happened to open up a version of this post?from your Dashboard or followed a link to it while logged into your Tumblr account, odds are that you were affected and helped the worm spread. A?"few thousand Tumblr blogs" were hijacked by the time the blog network resolved the issue, according to Tumblr.

If you stayed logged out of your Tumblr account while viewing an affected blog, it seems that you were safe. And, despite what the malicious post claimed, deleting any copies of it through the Tumblr mass editor seemingly fixed things for your account, according to BuzzFeed's?Ryan Broderick.

A spokesperson for the Daily Dot, another major site which was affected, explains that the hacking group believed to be behind the viral post is likely "responsible for several high-profile hoaxes in the past."?Gawker's Adrian Chen, after speaking to someone claiming to be a "the PR guy" for the hacker group allegedly behind the exploit, reported?that the group says it warned Tumblr about the vulnerability weeks ago.

"This was a serious issue that needed to be fixed," the individual reportedly?told Chen. "Someone would have done a lot worse than just posting a message over and over if they didn't fix it right away."?According to the same person, affected accounts weren't actually compromised???meaning that passwords remained safe. (This shouldn't stop you from changing your Tumblr password as a precaution, especially if you were affected.)

Want more tech news?or interesting?links? You'll get plenty of both if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on?Twitter, subscribing to her?Facebook?posts,?or circling her?on?Google+.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/thousands-tumblr-users-hijacked-just-viewing-viral-post-1C7395010

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A Cartoon About Long-Term Relationships | Thought Catalog

This is a cartoon that my best friend made for Thought Catalog, using actual text messages from her seven-year-long, deeply committed relationship, in which she made vows to honor and to cherish a single man for the rest of her life. (She got married to the guy, in other words.) Here is the cartoon, which, as mentioned, uses actual dialogue from later on in their marriage:

?My friend is now divorced. TC mark

YOU SHOULD FOLLOW THOUGHT CATALOG ON TWITTER?HERE.


Source: http://thoughtcatalog.com/2012/a-cartoon-about-long-term-relationships/

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