Bowl Games: Contest Seeks To Find America's Best Restroom ...

DETROIT (WWJ) -?Have you ever used a restroom that had the WOW factor? If so, the Cintas?Corporation wants to hear about it. Nominations are now open for their annual contest to find America?s best restroom.

The contest is open to any non-residential restroom in the U.S. that is accessible to the general public. Entries will be judged on cleanliness, visual appeal, innovation, functionality and unique design elements.

Contest organizers will choose the top 10 ?places to go when you?ve got to go? and post pictures online in August. The public will then?vote for the best restroom?in an all out battle of the bowls.

Spokeswoman Sabrina Zimring said the restroom can be something elaborate, like the Fox Theater, or something clean and?simple.

?Nominate no matter what type of facility it is. It can be over the top, it can be a gas station, it can be family-friendly, you know, that serves hundreds of people in a day or just one. It?s ultimately about the context of the bathroom, not the content,? she said.

Last year?s winner was Buc-ee?s, a popular truck stop in Texas. It features hundreds of showers and bathrooms that visitors say are spotless around-the-clock.

?It was a gas station, convenience store, shopping center, the size of a Sams Club or a Walmart. It has hundreds of bathroom stalls and hundreds of bathrooms,? Zimring said.

Zimring says the main selling point is that it has to be memorable. She said organizers this year are hoping to find the best stadium bathroom in America.

?We?ve had many other theaters, buildings and historical venues, but we?re looking for stadiums this year. If anybody has been to any great football stadiums, that would be really great to have,? she said.

The winner and runner-up will be revealed this fall during a nationally publicized media event, and the top vote-getters will secure a place in Cintas? America?s Best Restroom Contest Hall of Fame.

The contest runs through the summer. Nominate a deserving bathroom online at www.bestrestroom.com.

For our neighbors across the river, Cintas Canada will launch its annual Canada?s Best Restroom Contest later in April.

Source: http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2013/03/30/bowl-games-contest-seeks-to-find-americas-best-restroom/

Black Ops 2

Coming soon: lockers for shoppers at Walmart

Jessica Wohl and Alistair Barr , Reuters ? ? ? 6 hrs.

SAN BRUNO, California -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc., facing growing competition for quick delivery of physical goods from online retailers like Amazon.com Inc, said on Tuesday it would start using its stores to get Internet orders to customers faster.

While Wal-Mart is the world's largest retailer by overall sales, on the Internet its revenue is a small fraction of Amazon's, adding some urgency to its e-commerce efforts.

Wal-Mart said it would soon test having lockers to hold goods ordered on the Internet in stores until shoppers pick them up. It is also doubling the number of stores that can fill orders placed online, an attempt to match the reach of Amazon's distribution network.

Those tests, along with services such as letting shoppers pay for online orders in stores with cash, are some of the ways Wal-Mart is trying to link its online business with its thousands of stores, executives told reporters at the company's first global e-commerce media day in San Bruno, Calif.

While Amazon had $61 billion in sales last year, Wal-Mart is on track to surpass $9 billion in annual online sales this year, said Neil Ashe, chief executive of its e-commerce unit.

Until recently, Wal-Mart had not broken out its online sales, but Ashe insisted the company would be able to build a competitive e-commerce business.

Starting this summer, it will put lockers in about a dozen U.S. stores to hold goods ordered online until shoppers pick them up.

Lockers are a growing trend in e-commerce. As more packages turn up on shoppers' doorsteps theft has increased, especially in urban areas, spurring demand for secure places nearby to store them.

Amazon, which has no stores, has installed lockers in grocery, convenience and drug stores for several years. Google Inc acquired a delivery locker start-up called BufferBox in November.

Wal-Mart is also planning a small expansion of a running test to ship online orders from physical stores. In 2013, the company plans to double the program to about 50 stores, a fraction of its nationwide footprint.

Using stores as fulfillment centers that are closer to customers lets Wal-Mart offer same-day delivery and next-day delivery of online orders "at very low cost," said Joel Anderson, chief executive of Walmart.com.

Two-thirds of the U.S. population live within five miles of a Wal-Mart store. That said, the company will likely expand this approach to hundreds of stores rather than thousands.

For example, in the Dallas area, Walmart has more than 100 stores. It would only need two or three of those stores to act as distribution centers to get the financial benefit of this approach, said Jeff McAllister, senior vice president of Walmart U.S. innovations.

The expansion is another part of Wal-Mart's efforts to compete with Amazon's successful Prime subscription service, which provides free two-day shipping in the United States for $79 a year. Another front in that battle is the expansion of what Wal-Mart's website sells.

Product assortment on Walmart.com grew 35 percent to 40 percent to two million items in 2012 and the company plans to double that this year, said Kelly Thompson, a Wal-Mart merchandising executive.

But Wal-Mart's digital efforts are not without growing pains.

The retailer asked reporters who were tweeting comments on Tuesday to use the hashtag #WMTinnovate. Along with tweets from the reporters, #WMTinnovate tweets were being sent from groups and individuals speaking out against the retailer.

The union-backed group Making Change at Walmart posted on Twitter: "@WalmartNewsroom Why don't you start by empowering the women in your stores with equal pay for equal work? #equality #wmtinnovate."

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters.

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Coupon clipping declines as shoppers get savvier

Nati Harnik / AP file

Margery Gibbs uses coupons at a store in Omaha, Neb., in 2009. Coupon use fell in 2012 after several strong years.

By Allison Linn, TODAY

The good, old-fashioned coupon ? which surged in popularity in recent years ? appears to be falling out of favor.

Two separate studies show that coupon use declined significantly in 2012.

One study, from coupon industry consulting firm Inmar, found that about 3 billion coupons were redeemed in 2012, a drop of about 14.3 percent from approximately 3.5 billion coupons redeemed in 2011. Another, from NCH Marketing Services, found that coupon use fell by 17 percent in 2012 over the year before.

The drop came after several good years for the coupon, which seemed to indicate that the weak economy had helped bring coupon clipping back in style. The coupon has even enjoyed its 15 minutes of pop culture fame thanks to the reality show ?Extreme Couponing,? which documents people using thousands of coupons to save hundreds of dollars stockpiling diapers, paper towels and other items.

But experts say that while frugality is still in vogue, many shoppers have gotten so savvy at saving money that they've moved past the coupon.

?It was like the training wheels ? to teach people how to save money,? Phil Lempert, the chief executive of Supermarket Guru, said of coupons.

Experts say it?s pretty common for coupon use to rise when the economy goes south, and start falling as the economy gets better.

But the economic gains in 2012 weren?t really strong enough to warrant people giving up their frugal habits. In addition, experts say they saw plenty of other reasons that coupon use has declined.

?It?s sort of a thousand cuts,? said David Mounts, the chief executive of Inmar. ?It?s little things here and there.?

For starters, there were slightly fewer coupons. The industry distributed about 310 billion coupons in 2012, down from 313 billion in 2011 and a big drop from 336 billion in 2010, according to Inmar?s research.

Last year?s batch of coupons also tended to be for smaller discounts and to expire more quickly than in the past, Mounts said.

In addition, shopping habits have changed.

Some customers have started to want more than a one-size-fits-all coupon that you clip out of a Sunday newspaper, Mounts said.??Instead, more shoppers are looking for personalized deals that more closely match their shopping habits. They also want deals that are delivered digitally so they don?t have to manage a stack of paper.

So far, though, those types of coupons aren?t that widespread. Inmar?s data shows that more than four in 10 coupons still come from the newspaper inserts.

Frugally minded shoppers also are finding even more sophisticated ways to save money, said Lempert of Supermarket Guru, which tracks customer shopping habits.

These days, he?s seeing more savvy shoppers going to multiple stores to find the best prices on food and other items. Their stops may include drugstores, dollar stores, warehouse chains like Costco and specialty grocers such as Trader Joe?s.

They?re also turning more to store brands that may be cheaper than name brands, even when there?s a coupon for the branded item, he said.

Many younger customers also are constantly changing their eating and shopping habits, he said, and may not be as interested in buying the items that are traditionally discounted with coupons. They also may be more captivated by new types of ways to save, such as a four-hour sale promoted on Twitter.

?Frankly, the coupons weren?t meeting their needs,? Lempert said.

The extreme couponing fad may not have helped either.

The trend sparked a backlash among some in the industry, who alleged that the TV show set unrealistic expectations.

Lempert thinks it also made some shoppers feel uneasy. He said he receives thousands of emails a week from shoppers, and reaction to extreme couponing was largely negative.

Despite such challenges, experts say?the coupon industry is adapting to changing customer preferences.?Inmar?s early data from the start of 2013 appears to be showing more positive trends in coupon use than last year, Mounts said, which suggests coupon clipping likely won't disappear completely any time soon.

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Do you use coupons?

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Greece: 2 hurt, 11 escape in prison shooting

TRIKALA, Greece (AP) ? At least 11 inmates escaped from a Greek prison after gunmen brazenly attacked the site with grenades and automatic weapons, kicking off a nightlong standoff between police and prisoners. Two guards were injured, one of them seriously.

A police official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, told the Associated Press that two of the escaped inmates had been found and arrested. He said they were hiding in a church not far from the site of the prison. The official added that all the escapees were Albanian.

The incident occurred near the town of Trikala, in central Greece, some 320 kilometers (200 miles) northwest of Athens. As many as six gunmen attacked the prison after driving up to the site in a van and pickup truck, according to officials.

The Ministry of Justice announced that gunmen using "two vehicles and very heavy weapons" attacked the prison's outside guards, as well as a prison patrol vehicle and two police cars.

"During the exchange of heavy fire that lasted over half an hour and turned the area into a battlefield, two perimeter guards were injured in the abdomen, one of them seriously," the ministry said.

Prison authorities were investigating reports that weapons had also been fired from inside the facility. The ministry's announcement said that "no guns or casings confirming the use of an automatic weapon by inmates during the escape have been found. However, the search continues."

At least five grenades exploded, while army experts were expected at the prison to dispose of two unexploded grenades.

The attack started at around 8:30 p.m. (1830GMT) Friday, when a police patrol jeep was fired upon.

"It was like a war was going on. There was so much gunfire," said Trikala city councilor Costas Tassios, who lives in the village of Krinitsa, near the prison.

A bullet fired at the village damaged a coffee shop window in an incident also being investigated by police.

The escaped prisoners used ropes and bed sheets tied together to climb down from a guard tower that had been attacked. They had to go through two more perimeter fences, topped by barbed wire, before they escaped. The same police officer told the Associated Press that wire-cutting tools had been recovered.

Police set up roadblocks near the prison and searched vacant homes and farm buildings, as well as using two helicopters, in the manhunt. Officers from evidence units were also scouring the jail perimeter after dawn.

The attack was the latest dramatic incident at Greek prisons, which are suffering from serious overcrowding and staff shortages as the country struggles through financial crisis and a recession that started in late 2008.

Last month, guards foiled a breakout attempt by four inmates who tried to escape by helicopter from Trikala prison, including notorious Greek inmate Panagiotis Vlastos, who is serving life for murder and racketeering. Gunmen in the helicopter had fired on guards in the Feb. 24 incident and lowered a rope in to the courtyard, but the chopper was forced to land after being hit by returned gunfire.

In a separate incident on March 17, a convicted contract killer, Albanian inmate Alket Rizaj, took several prison guards hostage in an attempt to escape from another prison in central Greece. The attempt was unsuccessful and the hostages were released unharmed following a 24-hour standoff.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/greece-2-hurt-11-escape-prison-shooting-082351897.html

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Energy drinks may increase blood pressure, disturb heart rhythm

Mar. 21, 2013 ? Energy drinks may increase blood pressure and disturb your heart's natural rhythm, according to research presented at the American Heart Association's Epidemiology and Prevention/Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism 2013 Scientific Sessions.

Researchers analyzed data from seven previously published observational and interventional studies to determine how consuming energy drinks might impact heart health.

In the first part of the pooled analysis, the researchers examined the QT interval of 93 people who had just consumed one to three cans of energy drinks. They found that the QT interval was 10 milliseconds longer for those who had consumed the energy drinks. The QT interval describes a segment of the heart's rhythm on an electrocardiogram; when prolonged, it can cause serious irregular heartbeats or sudden cardiac death.

"Doctors are generally concerned if patients experience an additional 30 milliseconds in their QT interval from baseline," said Sachin A. Shah, Pharm.D., lead author and assistant professor at University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif.

"QT prolongation is associated with life-threatening arrhythmias. The finding that energy drinks could prolong the QT, in light of the reports of sudden cardiac death, warrants further investigation." said Ian Riddock, M.D., a co-author and director of preventive cardiology at the David Grant Medical Center, Travis Air Force Base, Calif.

Researchers also found that the systolic blood pressure, the top number in a blood pressure reading, increased an average of 3.5 points in a pool of 132 participants.

"The correlation between energy drinks and increased systolic blood pressure is convincing and concerning, and more studies are needed to assess the impact on the heart rhythm." Shah said. "Patients with high blood pressures or long QT syndrome should use caution and judgment before consuming an energy drink.

"Since energy drinks also contain caffeine, people who do not normally drink much caffeine might have an exaggerated increase in blood pressure."

The pooled studies included healthy, young patients 18-45 years old. "People with health concerns or those who are older might have more heart-related side effects from energy drinks," said Shah.

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/health_medicine/heart_disease/~3/ywBQPBbx0BY/130321205524.htm

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Starbucks seeks to double loyalty card membership

The Associated Press ? ? ? 8 hrs.

Starbucks is planning a big push behind its loyalty program, with plans to double membership by the end of the year.

Starting in May, the world's biggest coffee company says members will be able to earn points when they buy bags of Starbucks coffee at supermarkets. Customers would have to go online and enter a code on the bag to get their point.

Starbucks Corp. had announced the move last year but hadn't said when it would be available. The details on the rollout were to be announced at the company's annual meeting Wednesday.

The Seattle-based company says a number of other marketing campaigns will also help push its membership to 9 million by end of this fiscal year, up from its 4.5 million current members. Starting next month, for example, customers will also be able to earn points at the company's recently acquired Teavana shops.

A Starbucks spokeswoman did not have details on how spending patterns change when people join the loyalty program.

The My Starbucks Rewards program was launched in 2009 and gives people free drinks and food based on the number of points they earn. People earn one point for every purchase, regardless of how much they spend.

Starbucks shares rose 29 cents to $57.12 in midday trading Wednesday.

? 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653351/s/29cbb345/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Cbusiness0Cstarbucks0Eseeks0Edouble0Eloyalty0Ecard0Emembership0E1C89780A82/story01.htm

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Kevin Feige Promises More Pepper Potts in Iron Man 3

To say that Iron Man 3 will have plenty of cooks in the kitchen is an understatement. We get a darker, more serious Tony Stark recovering from a near-death experience; a mysterious villain bent on destroying the billionaire hero; and a bigger role for the Iron Patriot (Don Cheadle). Oh, and a few dozen suits of armor.

That many side characters might usually relegate the relatively well-established relationship between Tony Stark and Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) to comedic relief or classic ?damsel in distress? plot devices. But according to Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige, Pepper won?t be getting less screen time at all; in many ways, Pepper Potts is who Iron Man 3 is all about.

A more important role for the scarlet-haired character is nothing new to fans of the comic books, as Pepper eventually received her own RESCUE armor with which to protect the innocent. Even if the movies have largely strayed from the source material in regards to Pepper and, say, Tony?s bodyguard Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau), the die-hard fans know that the potential for more development has always been present.

When speaking with About.com, Feige opened up about what Iron Man 3 will bring for Potts and how the oft-used convention of a ?love triangle,? despite the added actresses to the cast, will have more to do with Tony?s armor than his heart:

?The love triangle in this movie is really between Tony, Pepper and the suits. Tony, Pepper and his obsession with those suits, and the obsession with technology. And, it?s sort of unique for a big superhero summer blockbuster franchise to have that kind of layers.

?Yes, there?s a bad guy. Yes, the stakes are very, very high?the President of the United States is in danger. Air Force One is attacked. There are big stakes to this movie. But the real stakes are, is Tony going to be able to set aside the obsession to spend all day, every day in that workshop, tinkering with the suits in order to focus on, as he says in the trailer, the one thing that matters most ? Pepper. And that actually is what the entire movie?s about.?

Feige?s comments mirror those of Paltrow and director Shane Black, who previously explained that Tony?s reliance on his armor would be a major point of contention in his and Pepper?s relationship. It may not be the only one, either. The impact that Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall) will have ? beyond her knowledge of the Extremis virus ? isn?t clear just yet, but Feige has hinted that Tony may feel a kinship with her that he doesn?t with Pepper.

All of that comes in addition to a telling shot from the very first Iron Man 3 footage, showing Stephanie Szostak?s character seeming to force herself onto a surprised Stark. Now that Szostak?s character has apparently been revealed, we only have more questions about what that scene might entail. We knew Tony would be dealing with a much larger number of armors this time around, and it?s seeming more and more like the number of women in his life may increase to match.

New love interests may be coming into Tony?s life, but the past films (and The Avengers) have shown that Pepper isn?t the kind of girl to back down from a fight. That resolve and determination make her a poor fit for a ?damsel in distress,? even if the trailers have shown she may undergo one heck of a transformation. Feige explains what a female character that strong brings to the story:

?I will tell you this. In this movie we play with the convention of the damsel in distress. We are bored by the damsel in distress. But, sometimes we need our hero to be desperate enough in fighting for something other than just his own life. So, there is fun to be had with ?Is Pepper in danger or is Pepper the savior?? over the course of this movie.

?In terms of where we go with future movies, we?ll see. In the comic books she does get a taste for the suit and becomes her own hero named Rescue, who doesn?t necessarily battle other people, but is on missions to help people and to save people. Will we do that down the line with Gwyneth Paltrow? Who knows. But her being in the suit is something we have been playing with since Iron Man 2, where we did some designs and it didn?t end up fitting in that movie. But [the idea] is something that we?re certainly interested in.?

CLICK FOR LARGER SIZE

(Pepper?s armor, from ?Invincible Iron Man? #29)

We don?t yet know how Pepper?s relationship with Tony?s armor will impact the series as a whole, but Marvel and Black have teased that a new story could begin with the third Iron Man movie. Nothing will be set in stone until fans see the movie for themselves, but it?s obvious that plenty more stories could be written about Stark and his surrounding associates ? both planetside and in space.

What do you think of the story arc being set up for Pepper Potts? Is this a twist you?ve been waiting to see since the beginning, or would Pepper suiting up feel more like a gimmick than a true evolution? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Iron Man 3?releases May 3, 2013.

-

Follow Andrew on Twitter @andrew_dyce.

Source: About.com (via Collider)

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1927024/news/1927024/

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Paul Ryan's Connections to Insurance Companies - OpenSecrets Blog

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) is back with a new budget proposal that's not so different from his previous ones. Like its predecessors, it repeals the Affordable Care Act and significantly cuts back Medicare, potentially creating more customers for health insurance companies, some of Ryan's top campaign supporters.

So how exactly does Ryan -- GOP nominee Mitt Romney's vice presidential pick in 2012 -- plan to balance the nation's books? Well, it doesn't entirely repeal the Affordable Care Act: It keeps the $700 billion in Medicare and other cuts the law made, which Ryan has also included in previous versions of his budget (though he wasn't so enthusiastic about? those Medicare trims -- which are actually reductions in the program's future growth -- during the presidential campaign).

Ryan would repeal much of the rest of the health care law, cutting $1.8 trillion in new spending, most of which subsidizes private health insurance coverage. Instead, he's reintroducing his controversial proposal to allow those currently under 55 to opt out of Medicare for subsidized private insurance coverage once they become eligible for the program.

In a letter to Ryan analyzing an earlier iteration of his budget plan, the Roadmap for America?s Future Act of 2010, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office wrote that individuals would likely pay higher premiums with private coverage than under Medicare, because they have less negotiating leverage than the federal program; also, administrative costs are higher for individual plans.

Over the course of Ryan's career in Congress, insurance has been the top industry (after retired people) contributing to his campaigns, with $895,928 in contributions since he first campaigned for his House seat, according to OpenSecrets.org data.The Health Professionals and Pharmaceutical industries follow close behind as his fourth and seventh most supportive industries, contributing $626,249 and $350,282, respectively, since 2000.

Major drugmaker Abbott Laboratories and health insurer Blue Cross/Blue Shield are Ryan's eighth and ninth largest contributors, respectively, during his years in federal politics; they've contributed $62,700 (Abbott) and $60,650 (Blue Cross) to his efforts.

Source: http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2013/03/paul-ryans-connections-to-insurance.html

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RF3 ENVi Natural Wood Mono Earbud Mobile Phone Headset ...

RF3 ENVi Natural Wood Mono Earbud Mobile Phone Headset Review

List Price: $39.99

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Best buy RF3 ENVi Organic Wood Mono Earbud Cell Phone Headset On the market

RF3 ENVi Natural Wood Mono Earbud Mobile Phone Headset Review and Specs

Sensory ? Wireless earbuds made from Natural wooden, paired with noise separating rubber ear suggestions capture the substance of sound

Aircom ? The patented sound Shipping process utilizing an airtube to create ?Live? sound with no interference

Microphone ? Specially designed for obvious communication and features the squeeze on/off button

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Product Reviews I as well purchased this headset to reduce exposure to cell phone rays. It worked great for 2 months, then totally quit functioning. Delivered several emails as well as left voice e-mails to the tech support/warranty division, no response in any way, very dissapointing. This product is supposed to be under producers warranty for 12 several weeks. I tried calling once again today Review

and the information states they are not accessible and will not return phone calls. Absolutely no response to my personal 4 emails either. I?ve found this quite unusual and would extreme caution anyone from buying this less than dependable headset from a company that doesn?t stand behind their printed warranty program.

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Source: http://reviewheadset.com/rf3-envi-natural-wood-mono-earbud-mobile-phone-headset-review/

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U.S. drought areas shrinking as snow and rain fall

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Crop-friendly snowfall will be moving from the U.S. Northern Plains into the central and eastern Midwest overnight Monday and Tuesday, leaving up to an additional six to eight inches of snow, an agricultural meteorologist said on Monday.

"Most of it will come tomorrow and cover northern Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky eastward," said Don Keeney, meteorologist for MDA EarthSat Weather.

The melting snow will add valuable moisture to dry corn and soybean areas ahead of spring planting, further shrinking the crop areas affected by last year's drought, the worst in over a half century.

Warmer weather in the drought-stricken U.S. Plains hard red winter wheat region is melting the snow that accumulated during two blizzards in late February, Keeney said.

"That is putting a lot of welcome moisture into the ground," he said. Keeney said drier weather was expected for this week, then normal to above-normal precipitation was expected in the Plains States next week.

There was not threat of cold weather damage to either the soft red winter wheat crop growing in the U.S. Midwest or the hard red winter wheat crop grown in the U.S. Great Plains.

"I don't see anything cold enough to cause any damage," Keeney said.

Commodity Weather Group (CWG) meteorologist Joel Widenor said light snow would spread from North Dakota into the Midwest early on Monday and expand over the next two days, bringing three to eight inches or more of snow from North Dakota into the Ohio Valley.

"This will offer some relief for drought areas in Minnesota, North Dakota, eastern Iowa and a larger storm will bring 0.50 inch to 1.50 inches of rain across the Plains and into Iowa and Missouri next weekend," Widenor said.

Widenor said cold air brought light frost to northern and interior western parts of the Florida citrus belt early Monday, but damaging freeze to flowering was averted.

Meteorologists said the significant winter rainfall and snow have so far eliminated the drought, the worst in 50 years in the United States, in an area roughly from Illinois eastward.

But more moisture will be needed in April and May to nurse the winter wheat crop to maturity and to aid the soon-to-be-seeded corn and soybean crops, meteorologists and crop experts have said.

Keeney said that as of early February, roughly 4 inches to 6 inches of rain were needed in Kansas, the top producer of hard red winter wheat, to bring the state out of drought status.

Up to 8 inches were needed in a pocket of severe dryness in northeastern Kansas, a big corn- and grain sorghum-growing area. Similar amounts were needed in Nebraska, Texas, Oklahoma, Iowa and Missouri and northern Illinois and Indiana.

(Reporting By Sam Nelson; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-drought-areas-shrinking-snow-rain-fall-133243647.html

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Former Wichita chiropractor finds new niche in e-commerce | Wichita ...

For Tracy Norris, the e-commerce business is bread and butter.

?When I made my first website in 1997, I had no Internet or computer training whatsoever,? Norris said. ?I did buy a book for dummies.?

A chiropractor by trade, Norris practiced in Wichita for about 20 years before selling his practice and working full time on his Internet companies in 2007.

What started in a room in the back of his practice grew into Norris E-Commerce Management, which manages several Internet companies, most notably PainReliever.com and iFurn.com.

Pain Reliever sells a variety of medical products directly to consumers as well as to businesses.

Norris said he thinks his background has helped him market his products.

?It?s given me the ability to understand conditions and understand what patients and customers need for those conditions,? he said. ?It allows me to express that through our website and give a little authority to it.?

IFurn.com, which sells home and office furniture, was started in 1998 and had more than $12.5 million in sales in 2012, Norris said. Pain Reliever did about $2.5 million in sales last year, Norris said.

Both companies have been named to Inc?s 5,000 fastest-growing companies list: iFurn.com in 2008 and Pain Reliever in 2010.

In 2011, the company moved to the old Circuit City building, 8405 E. Kellogg, where it housed medical supplies in a 10,000-square-foot warehouse.

Last year, however, Norris decided to change the business model and drop-ship Pain Reliever?s products. That means products are shipped to customers from the manufacturer, instead of from a warehouse in Wichita.

The drop-ship model has made logistics more complicated, Norris said, but the benefit is lower overhead with fewer employees and building costs. The company currently has 19 employees.

?We had $1 million in inventory, and we found that the costs of inventory and products like that and having space and staff and warehouse to support it wasn?t supporting the business model we needed,? Norris said. ?In furniture, we never stocked anything. It?s all been drop-ship model because it?s heavy and big and bulky. The switch to drop-ship model in Pain Reliever turned out quite successful.?

Norris, who thinks most people in the area don?t know much about the company, says they don?t sell many goods within Kansas. The biggest markets are in more heavily populated areas of California, New York and Florida, he said.

?We?re still a homegrown business, a small business atmosphere fulfilling big business needs,? said Erica Woods, director of sales and marketing.

What?s next

Despite having flat growth for the past couple of years because of the economy, Norris said he thinks the company is poised for growth.

?When people don?t build and buy new houses to furnish and businesses don?t open new offices, that slows everything down, but we?ve maintained all the growth that we?ve had,? he said.

?The products for the elderly are really popular now, but I believe it?s just the beginning because all the people who are in their 60s, 70s and 80s right now aren?t necessarily that Internet-savvy. So it?s mostly their children that are online buying for them.

?But within the next 10 to 15 years when people like me reach that age, they?re going to be Internet-savvy, so we?re trying to be well positioned in the market so when that group who buys online and are used to it all their lives will buy from us.?

Norris said he also thinks they are in the position to help other companies get into e-commerce.

?We can multiply the success we have and knowledge in marketing to most any product line we want,? he said.

?There?s a lot of people that want to get into e-commerce but don?t quite know how, a lot of retailers. We could partner with them, create websites for them and handle their sales.?

Most Internet companies have been waiting for years for the hammer to come down on tax-free sales.

Many bricks-and-mortar retailers argue that online businesses have an unfair advantage in the marketplace because most don?t charge sales tax on most of their sales.

?Hopefully that tax doesn?t start being charged,? Norris said. ?I hear it?s coming. It?s been a big benefit for Internet companies for a long time.?

Web marketing

In an effort to reach more customers online, Norris? companies have set up niche websites to drive Web traffic.

?We have PainReliever.com for anybody looking for things like ice packs or pillows, but we also have a site Pillowmart.com set up where we specifically focus on a person looking for a pillow,? Woods said.

?It helps up the conversion rate and is a more targeted marketing strategy, lessening the visibility of all the products on the website so people don?t get distracted.?

Pain Reliever has about a dozen niche sites and iFurn has 15 to 20, said John Kenemer, vice president for marketing.

The company also actively uses search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to increase Web traffic

The next initiative is to start targeting mobile shoppers by creating sites with different layouts for smartphones, making them easier to navigate.

?I think within the industry itself, the crystal ball is toward mobile,? Kenemer said.

Reach Kelsey Ryan at 316-269-6752 or kryan@wichitaeagle.com.

Source: http://www.kansas.com/2013/03/03/2698017/former-wichita-chiropracter-finds.html

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NATO says its troops shot dead two Afghan boys

KABUL (Reuters) - NATO said on Saturday its forces had accidentally shot dead two Afghan boys, in the latest of a series of reports of civilian deaths at the hands of international troops.

The shooting in the southern province of Uruzgan could further strain the relationship between the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who has demanded U.S. special forces leave another province over allegations of torture.

The two boys were shot dead when they were mistaken for insurgents during an operation in northwest Uruzgan on February 28, ISAF commander, U.S. General Joseph Dunford, said in a statement.

"I offer my personal apology and condolences to the family of the boys who were killed," Dunford said.

"The boys were killed when Coalition forces fired at what they thought were insurgent forces," he said, adding that a team of Afghan and ISAF investigators visited the village on Saturday and met local leaders.

The area, Lowar-e-Dowahom, was often patrolled by international troops, a spokesman for provincial governor Amir Mohammad Akhundzada said.

"They saw two young children who were apparently listening to a radio and they shot them - it is not yet clear why," the spokesman said.

Australian forces deployed in Uruzgan said earlier there had been an "operational incident" in the province's northwest but gave no details except that no soldiers were harmed.

On February 13 a NATO air strike requested by Afghan forces killed 10 people - including five children and four women - in the eastern province of Kunar, prompting Karzai to ban his troops from requesting foreign air strikes.

Two weeks later he halted all special forces operations in the central province of Wardak after a series of allegations involving U.S. special forces soldiers and Afghan men said to be working with them.

(Reporting by Mirwais Harooni, Ismail Sameem and Dylan Welch; Editing by Andrew Roche)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nato-says-troops-kill-two-afghan-boys-due-133837052.html

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Play about a pope resigning heading off-Broadway

In this photo provided by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Friday, March 1, 2013, then Pope Benedict XVI, delivers his last blessing from the window of the pontiff's summer residence of Castel Gandolfo, near Rome, after arriving from the Vatican, the last day of his pontificate, Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013. Benedict XVI left the Catholic Church in unprecedented limbo Thursday as he became the first pope in 600 years to resign, capping a tearful day of farewells that included an extraordinary pledge of obedience to his successor. (AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano, ho)

In this photo provided by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Friday, March 1, 2013, then Pope Benedict XVI, delivers his last blessing from the window of the pontiff's summer residence of Castel Gandolfo, near Rome, after arriving from the Vatican, the last day of his pontificate, Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013. Benedict XVI left the Catholic Church in unprecedented limbo Thursday as he became the first pope in 600 years to resign, capping a tearful day of farewells that included an extraordinary pledge of obedience to his successor. (AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano, ho)

NEW YORK (AP) ? The debut of Tom Attea's new play is likely to benefit from some holy timing ? he's written a play about a pope resigning.

The off-Broadway company Theater for the New City said Friday it will produce Attea's "Benedictus," a play written two years about a pope who steps down.

It is slated to run from May 30 to June 16 at the company's home in lower Manhattan. Mark Mercante will direct the production with incidental music by Arthur Abrams.

According to producers, the play is about the fictional Pope Benedictus, who has visions that command him to follow a new calling. Top cardinals must then decide what to do with him.

Attea, a playwright and lyricist, has had eight musicals and one play produced off-Broadway.

___

Online: http://www.theaterforthenewcity.net

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-03-01-US-Theater-Pope-Play/id-1b36361c1b4248c991629657b2e0f021

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