Category: Business

Michael Gross Joins The Lapin Group

Kudos to Michael Gross who has joined the professional team at Jenkintown-base The Lapin Group, LLC.

“Mike has 15 years of experience working with nonprofits, including serving as executive director of a community organization,” said Avrum Lapin, the organization’s founder.  “His areas of expertise include government relations, fund raising, community outreach, leadership training and development, marketing, and strategic planning.  He has worked with people from many sectors including business, government, labor, faith, and community.  He has an MA in Environmental Studies from the University of Pennsylvania and a BA in Public Policy Studies from Duke University.”

The Lapin Group provides targeted and comprehensive fundraising consulting and management services for US-based and international nonprofits.
Michael Gross Joins The Lapin Group

Michael Gross Joins The Lapin Group

Pennsylvania Ranked Second In Emigrants

The United Van Lines 2014 National Movers Study shows that Pennsylvania was second in states from which people were leaving, reports IJReview.com.

Only Illinois ranked higher.

IJReview also notes that a Gallup survey showed Pennsylvania residents were in the second tier of those wishing to move to a different state. This indicated an above average desire to flee.

The top tier consisted of just Illinois, Connecticut and Maryland and indicated the “highest desire to move”.

Twelve other states – including New Jersey and New York — were in Pennsylvania’s tier.

Eleven states were in the below average desire to move.

The six states in which there was the lowest desire to move where Texas, Montana, Oregon, New Hampshire, Maine and, understandably, Hawaii.

Pennsylvania Ranked Second In Emigrants

Pennsylvania Ranked Second In Emigrants

Dow Wow Boom Times Now

The Dow Jones industrial average set a record, yesterday, Dec. 23, closing at 18,024.17.

It was the first time it close over 18,000.

That’s almost 2,000 points higher than it was in mid-October.

Golly, what could have happened since then?

In truth, the economy has been humming along since April driven by falling gas prices.

Thank you frackers everywhere.

Just the same, there has been a feeling of optimism through the summer that a brake is going to be put on the bizarre regulatory policies of the Obama Administration and that significant reforms (repeal?) loom for the disastrous “Affordable” Care Act.

Dow Wow Boom Times Now

Dow Wow Boom Times Now

High GPA Now Liability

It appears a high grade point average from a top school is now a liability.

At least at Google. The web goliath has spent years analyzing who succeeds at the company and have learned it isn’t the know-it-all with the pedigree, reports QZ.com

Apparently those with high grades lack the integral “intellectual humility”.

In other words, they take credit for when something good happens and blame all but themselves when something otherwise happens.

Further many schools don’t deliver on what they promise. A whole lot of money seems to be going to waste.

Google is now looking for people with learning ability — which means be able to process on the fly and pull together disparate bits of information — and the skill to argue passionately for a point yet be able to concede that someone else has a better idea.

It is turning out that often  the most exceptional people are those without college, says QZ.

High GPA Now Liability

High GPA Now Liability

 

Canada Freer Than U.S.

Elizabeth Stelle of Comonwealth Foundation published an article on Dec. 2 in which she points out that only Texas would make the top five with regard to economic freedom if one includes the provinces of Canada.

That’s heartbreakingly embarrassing.

Pennsylvania would rank 30th on the continent.

She says that more economic freedom translates to a $7,000 boost in income per person.

She says that the study shows that the most-free states averaged $55,000 per-capita in 2012 gross domestic product compared to roughly $48,000 for the least-free states.

Canada Freer Than U.S.

Canada Freer Than U.S. and freedom equals wealth

EEOC Sues ACA Wellness Programs

The Quisling crony capitalists who gave aid and comfort to the passage of the Obamacare disaster have been stabbed in the back and are as angry as wet hornets.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)  is suing them — well Honeywell International and two smaller firms anyway but all are in its sights — for the “wellness programs” that were instrumental in getting the bossy-types on board for the “Affordable” Care Act.

It should be understood that the EEOC is under the auspices of the President.

Wellness programs give corporations a chance to question workers about the details of their personal lives, make them undergo screenings, and force them to attend weight-loss or smoking-cessation programs.

Obamacare allows huge incentives for those taking part in workplace wellness programs of up to 50-percent of their monthly premiums, deductibles and other costs. This means smokers and heavy people and people with pre-existing conditions face major financial discrimination, not to mention the invasions of privacy.

The also remarkably stupid American Disabilities Act of 1990 prohibits employers from discriminating against those with disabilities including blindness and mental retardation. This means they can’t require medical testing of employees. Further, the EEOC considers obesity a disability with regards to the act.

Oh, just watch the train wreck.

And this does not even attempt to address trying to get those with dangerous sex lives to change their ways.

The wise and simple solution is to completely ban the practice of employer-provided health care. Give raises to compensate for the loss of the benefits and let the workers buy their insurance in the same fashion they do their homes and food.

Most employers — the successful ones, the ones you want to work for — don’t care about your personal life. All they want from you is for you to show up on time and do what you are paid to do.

They don’t care about your skin color either or, generally, sex.

Get government out of hiring decisions.

EEOC Sues ACA Wellness Programs

EEOC Sues ACA Wellness Programs

Small Business Saturday Is Nov. 29

Saturday, Nov. 29, is Small Business Saturday, an initiative by the U.S. Small Business Administration that encourages consumers to shop at local, small businesses during the Christmas retail season, reports State Rep. Jim Cox (R-129).

Keeping spending local encourages local economic development.

Cox said that the Pennsylvania House Republican Caucus continues to focus on ways to help small businesses by reducing regulatory burdens; eliminating the inheritance tax for small, family-owned establishments; and providing tax credits for small business start-ups.

For information on Small Business Saturday, click here.

Small Business Saturday Is Nov. 29
Small Business Saturday Is Nov. 29

Sliced Bread, Don’t Take It For Granted

Man has eaten bread for 3,000 years but the slicing was DIY until July 7, 1928. That’s when the first commercially sliced loaf was sold in Chillicothe, Mo., by the Chillicothe Baking Co.

Yes, it was revolutionary. The biggest obstacle was in keeping the pieces tight together after the cutting in order to preserve freshness.

The inventor of the Kleen Maid slicer was Otto Rohwedder who overcame many setbacks to see his dream become reality.

For a great story about it visit Priceonomics.com

Oh, and the phrase the greatest thing since sliced bread? It was an evolution from the phrasing in a full-paid ad in the Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune for the product saying “the greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped”

Sliced Bread, Don't Take It For Granted

Sliced Bread, Don’t Take It For Granted

Sabotage Pipeline Plan Says Dem

A Democrat Pennsylvania state senator is telling opponents of energy to take legalities out of context to sabotage the  Sunoco Mariner East 2 Pipeline plan.

The proposed pipeline would transport natural gas liquids from the shale fields of western Pennsylvania to the Marcus Hook refinery complex on the Delaware River.

Andrew E. Dinniman, who represents the 19th District in Chester County, told members of the Chester County Sierra Club to use  Section 27 of the state constitution to encourage local municipalities to harass construction of the line.

Section 27 reads “the people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment.”

Well, yes. And it has been accepted that the state Public Utility Commission is the agency to ensure that the air and water et al are protected else if left  to every zoning hearing board between Marcus Hook and Houston, Pa., the project would be nickle and dimed into non-existence.

Refinery workers whose jobs and standard of living depend on the natural gas must be made to understand that it is their automatically deducted union dues that fund the campaigns of guys like Dinniman.

Sabotage Pipeline Plan Says Dem

Sabotage Pipeline Plan Says Dem

Apollo-M Sells Music Lesson Via Subscription

Noted Australian musician Gary Turner tells us that we can now get music lessons online via a new Netflix-type subscription service called Apollo-M.Com, which is based just down I-95 in Wilmington, Del.

“Roughly 300 million people in the world play, teach or are learning to play a musical instrument,” Turner said.

Turner is the founder of Koala Music Publications which morphed into LearnToPlayMusic.com.

An Apollo-M subscription goes for $4.95 a month.

An excellent idea.

Apollo-M Sells Music Lesson Via Subscription

Apollo-M Sells Music Lesson Via Subscription