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Travelers Express Co. in Minneapolis said Friday it will close its office here in a reorganization that will eliminate about 92 jobs nationwide.
Travelers' Anaheim risk-management office employs 19, said Ann Adams, a spokeswoman for Travelers, the nation's largest provider of money orders. The company has 840 employees nationwide.
"The Anaheim employees will be considered for transfer to Minneapolis, and we will offer outplacement services," Adams said. A regional sales office with six employees in the Los Angeles area will not be closed, she said.
The company is shutting down all three of its risk-management offices, including those in Dallas and in Mt. Laurel, N.J. Most of the positions will be transferred to corporate headquarters in Minneapolis, the company said. Jobs in Minneapolis will also be eliminated in the reorganization, but the company did not say ho...
Last year, Travelers cleared and distributed more than $70 billion in money orders, checks and drafts under the Travelers Express and Republic brand names. Travelers is a division of the Phoenix-based Dial Corp., a consumer products and services company.
In Friday's trading on the New York Stock Exchange, Dial's stock closed at $38 a share, up 62.5 cents.
Torah insights for the reader.
Q. Do you agree with the Chabadniks who say, “We want Mashi’ach now”?
A. Most Jews pay lip service to the idea of the Messiah but are not really that interested one way or the other.
A Christian saint is said to have prayed, “God, make me good – but not yet”. I had a congregant who decided to go kosher but not until she had finished all the non-kosher meat in her freezer.
When the Lubavitcher Rebbe spoke of the imminence of Mashi’ach he was concerned with the big global issues.
So many massive events had taken place, the Holocaust, the revival of Israel and Jewish identity, the renaissance of Torah, the defeat of great enemies, the Jewish escape from the Soviet Union, the Divine protection of Israel, which taken together denote that history is moving into a new era. Everyone ought to rise up,...
Whether we want Mashi’ach depends on lifting our sights from the petty and mundane.
Q. Is there a difference between Ecclesiastes and Ecclesiasticus?
A. They are separate parts of ancient wisdom literature.
Both names come from ecclesia, an assembly or congregation. Ecclesiastes (Kohelet), traditionally ascribed to King Solomon, is in the Hebrew Bible. Ecclesiasticus, written several decades later by Jesus ben Sira or Sirach, was excluded from the Tanach, though it is quoted in the Talmud.
Chagigah 13a states, “It is written in the Book of Ben Sira (3:21-22), ‘Do not seek things that are too hard for you, do not search out things that are hidden from you. Ponder the things that are permitted to you; you have no need of the things that are secret’”. There is another version of this passage in Midrash B’re...
Ben Sira wrote in Hebrew; a significant part of his Hebrew original has been found in the Cairo Genizah. The author’s grandson translated the work into Greek. The sages regarded anyone who reads Ben Sira as liable to exclusion from the World to Come (Yerushalmi Sanhedrin 28a) and prohibited a person from having the boo...
The opposition to Ben Sira’s work was probably “due to its epicurean and Sadducean tendencies” (Soncino Chagigah, p.73). Kohelet was also under attack by the rabbis but was allowed into the Tanach because “its beginning and end are Torah”.
Q. Which b’rachah did the Israelites say over the manna in the desert?
A. According to the Talmud (B’rachot 48b), Moses instituted the saying of “ha-zan” (the first blessing of the grace after meals) at the time when the manna descended from heaven. Thus they had to bensch after eating manna.
They also had to say “motzi”, since it is called bread in Exodus 16:4 and elsewhere.
The Toshiba Excite 10 SE is a solid large-screen Android tablet that does almost everything well, but doesn't do enough to stand out from the crowd.
13 Jun 2018, 4:30 p.m.
The Toshiba Excite 10 SE is a solid large-screen Android tablet that does almost everything well, but nothing to stand out from the crowd.
The Excite 10 SE is nearly identical to the original Excite 10, except for one key feature: The SE swaps out the aluminum back in favor of plastic. Even the texture is the same, though, and the plastic is rigid enough to keep the SE from feeling cheap.
The 10.1-inch display is the same 1,280-by-800-pixel IPS panel found on the original Excite 10. That's a good thing, as the screen looks sharp, colors look vibrant, and viewing angle is excellent.
You still get two stereo speakers along the bottom edge, which get loud for tablet speakers, but still sound harsh and lack bass punch.
At 10.3 by 7.1 by 0.4 inches (HWD) and 1.41 pounds, the 10 SE is also a bit thicker and heavier than the original (10.3 by 7.0 by 0.35 inches and 1.32 pounds).
The Excite 10 SE is equipped with the same quad-core 1.3GHz Nvidia Tegra 3 processor found in the original Excite 10.
While there was little outcry at Monday’s school board meeting, critics say the measure is extreme, pointing to an otherwise lax school campus. At Kingsburg High, which enrolls about 1,200 students, there is no surrounding fence, no police officer on campus and students are allowed to leave for lunch each day.
Mary Lou Swenning, who has grandchildren in the district, compared the policy to something from the “Wild West” and said it will create an unnecessary burden for teachers.
You have a split second to decide if you should kill this person or not. I wouldn’t want that responsibility, and I wouldn’t want it for our teachers.
Kingsburg parent Tamara Norris said she is concerned how the policy will affect the student body, and that her daughter feels uneasy about not knowing which teachers will have weapons on campus.
Kingsburg High student Andrew Vorhees said most of the community is in support of the policy, but it came as a surprise.
Morris, the superintendent, said a common misconception has been that the policy was done in reaction to some sort of threat, but the board is being proactive.
My opinion? If a staff member wants to put themselves at risk like that, I’m all for it.
Kingsburg police Chief Neil Dadian helped the district create the gun policy, and referred to the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
State law introduced last year prohibits concealed-weapon permit owners from bringing guns on school campuses unless they have permission from the superintendent.
The state Department of Education does not track which schools have since chosen to allow guns, but Morris pointed to Folsom Cordova Unified, east of Sacramento, as an example. That district has allowed select employees to have guns on campus for several years, but weapons are not allowed in the classroom and are store...
At Kingsburg High, employees will carry firearms in a holster worn inside the pants, around the chest, on the front hip, at the ankle or behind the back.
The policy is effective immediately.
This story was originally published on FresnoBee.com.
The Kingsburg Joint Union High School District school board approved a new policy that will allow teachers to carry guns on campus. The policy went into effect immediately after the board voted unanimously Monday, April 11, 2016.
Better Dividend Stock: Wal-Mart Stores or Costco Wholesale Corporation?
In the discount retail industry, two companies reign supreme: Wal-Mart Stores and Costco Wholesale Corporation . Wal-Mart and Costco both drive sales by offering lower prices than competitors, and both carry huge market values. Both stocks also pay dividends to shareholders.
However, that doesn't mean these two are created equal. Upon closer inspection, it appears that Wal-Mart and Costco are best suited for different types of dividend investors.
Better stock for income now: Wal-MartCostco stock is enjoying a strong, virtually unstoppable ride higher, while Wal-Mart shares haven't risen over the past year.
A lot of this performance has to do with Costco's stronger revenue and earnings growth than Wal-Mart in the past year. Over the first three quarters of Costco's fiscal 2015, comparable-store sales, which measures sales at stores open at least one year, rose 7% excluding foreign exchange and gasoline. In compa...
Looking back further, Wal-Mart's earnings per share declined from $5.01 to $4.99 between 2013 and 2015. Costco's EPS is up 18% over the first three quarters of fiscal 2015, after a 1% increase in the previous year.
The other factor contributing to Costco's superior stock-price performance is that investors are willing to pay a higher premium for Costco's growth. Costco trades for 28 times trailing EPS, whereas Wal-Mart trades for just 14 times earnings.
While Costco investors surely won't complain about their outsized investment returns, the downside is that Costco's dividend yield is much lower than Wal-Mart's. Wal-Mart's current dividend yield clocks in at 2.7%, which is significantly higher than Costco's 1.1%. Put differently, Wal-Mart offe...
Better stock for dividend growth: CostcoOn the other hand, Costco makes up for its yield shortfall in the form of rapid dividend growth. Over the past five years, Costco has increased its dividend by 14% compounded annually. Costco also paid $12 per share in cumulative special dividends during this time, for an additio...
Meanwhile, Wal-Mart's slowing earnings growth has made it difficult to increase the dividend at a meaningful rate. Wal-Mart's trailing five-year compound annual dividend growth rate clocks in at 10%. That looks great -- but it doesn't truly tell the whole story.
Wal-Mart managed double-digit dividend increases for several years, but more recently, its dividend growth has ground to a halt. Wal-Mart increased its payout by just 2% this year, after a 2% bump the year before.
Therefore, with enough time, Costco's dividend may indeed surpass Wal-Mart's. If Costco continues to increase its dividend at 14% per year and Wal-Mart's dividend grows at 5% per year (which may be a generous assumption, considering its recent history), Costco's dividend payment would exceed Wal-Mar...
From this perspective, younger investors with a longer investing time horizon, who can take advantage of the benefit of compounding growth, may be better off buying Costco stock.
The article Better Dividend Stock: Wal-Mart Stores or Costco Wholesale Corporation? originally appeared on Fool.com.
Bob Ciura has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Costco Wholesale. The Motley Fool owns shares of Costco Wholesale. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes...
Germany's Health Minister Monday pushed an initiative to boost the availability of transplant organs by making everyone a potential donor after death unless they have expressly opted out.
The aim of the presumed-consent rule is to reduce Germany's current backlog of about 10,000 patients awaiting transplant organs -- and the about 2,000 deaths a year of those who wait in vain.
Under the new proposal, citizens would be asked to state whether they object to having their organs or tissue harvested after they are pronounced brain dead.
Those who say "no" would be listed in a national registry run by the health ministry, while all others would be considered potential donors -- a principle in place across most of the European Union.
This would spell a reversal of Germany's current rules, which ask people to state their consent, meaning they have to opt-in to become organ donors.
Close relatives would still be able to block the taking of organs if they convincingly argue that the deceased would have objected.
Health Minister Jens Spahn of the centre-right CDU said there are about 10,000 patients waiting for transplant organs and that 2017 had seen a record-low of fewer than 800 donations.
"Anyone of us could be in need of an organ tomorrow," Spahn said at a Berlin press conference, presenting the plan with lawmakers from the conservative CSU, the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) and the far-left Die Linke party.
Spahn said Germany's potential number of organ donors is far higher as surveys had shown that over 80 percent of respondents supported the idea in theory.
Under current rules, people can sign an organ donor card and carry it in their wallets so that if they die, hospitals know they are allowed to harvest their organs. Only about 30 percent of Germans carry such a donor card.
"We have about 10 times more people on the waiting list for an organ than the number of organs that are transplanted per year," said the SPD's Karl Lauterbach.
"Every year about 2,000 people on the waiting list die."
Some lawmakers have objected to the initiative. The CSU's Stephan Pilsinger labelled Spahn's plan "ethically questionable" and said it amounted to turning patients into "spare parts warehouses".
Under the plan, presented jointly with Green party co-leader Annalena Baerbock, citizens would be regularly questioned whether they want to be donors.
This could be done when they extend their identity papers or during routine medical visits.
The successes of our graduates start with the opportunities presented to students at the elementary and middle levels, even prior to entering school.
Another incredible year for Collier County Public Schools.
Congratulations to the Class of 2017! More than $35 million in scholarships were awarded to students in support of their pathways to colleges, universities and technical schools.
This is especially rewarding as it is the first year of partnering with the Community Foundation’s Scholarship Connector as well as having increased Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) numbers with the support of Champions For Learning. Our departing seniors are attending more than 200 institutions, enteri...
We know the unbelievable successes of our graduates start with the opportunities presented early and often to students at the elementary and middle school levels, and even prior to entering school.
Collier County Public Schools has strengthened the professional learning resources provided to early childhood providers and continued the pre-K Stars on Tour initiative.
This past year, middle school programming was enhanced with the first cohort of Cambridge Secondary in grades six through eight. Cambridge Secondary provided students identified as gifted or high achieving with educational programming focused on inquiry-based activities, additional writing opportunities and collaborati...
Ultimately, these offerings lead to numerous advanced studies options at the high school level, all part of multiple pathways for students, and the ability to compete in an increasingly global marketplace.
The annual CCPS STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math) Competition in May marked multiple challenges at all levels with more than 300 students participating at the districtwide event. These champions represented the more than 10,000 students who participated in the school-based competitions.
Furthermore, next year at the middle school level is the addition of robotics through technology courses. These academic competitions and increased course offerings are a great complement to the NAF career academies at the high school level.
Ultimately, work-based learning experiences are offered to support learning in the classroom, and this results in increased college and career readiness for students. The new year will bring even more enhancements to workplace essentials due to our work with the Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce through Future Ready C...
Recently, CCPS received assessment results from the Florida Department of Education and our district now exceeds the state in 20 of 22 (91 percent) of tested areas. The successes can be attributed to the hard work and perseverance of our students, teachers, parents, administrators, district staff and strong community s...
While assessment results are important, the individual successes of our students make us most proud. The systemic and aligned efforts have resulted in more than 2,900 graduates this year pursuing their own pathways.
For this, we are CCPS proud.
Charlie Mullis was 17, a football and basketball standout at Independence High School. He had been hanging out with friends when he dove into the water and didn’t resurface even though “he was a good swimmer,” Holder said. Charlie was a rising senior, and Holder desperately missed watching him play sports and graduate ...
A retired Union County school teacher, Holder gets through Christmas by displaying Charlie’s silver baby cup in the middle of her dinner table and decorating her tree with some of his handmade ornaments, including a reindeer of red yarn and pipe cleaners.
And, like last year, she’ll attend the candle-lighting ceremony. She’ll be one of the many parents, siblings and friends who will step forward to speak the name of their lost loved ones. At last year’s event, when Holder said Charlie’s name and held up her lighted candle, she could feel his presence.
The Bachelor” reality franchise hit the jackpot this season with Andy Baldwin — a real-life Dr. McDreamy.
Baldwin — a 30-year-old doctor, Navy lieutenant, humanitarian and triathlete — is the perfect guy with perfect teeth, and a houseful of wide-eyed, marriage-minded women competing to be his one and only.
But it”s not Baldwin or his predecessors who capture the show”s overwhelmingly female audience. Rather, it”s the catfights, blatant scheming, tears and rejection. Those irresistible dramatic elements have managed to keep the series afloat, observers say, despite declining ratings, an embarrassing track record of failed...
True to form, a villainess has emerged: Stephanie T., an organ donor coordinator from South Carolina, who was got the first one-on-one date with Baldwin. Of course, she rubbed that victory in her competitors” faces.
But that”s its twisted appeal.
“Girls crying is still the backbone of the show,” said Mike Fleiss, who produces the franchise. “You know, because I think women like to see how other girls handle the heartbreak of being rejected, because most women have been rejected, most men have been rejected.
“The Bachelor” was the first of the “rose ceremony shows,” spinning off “The Bachelorette” and inspiring copycats including “Average Joe” and “Flavor of Love.” Despite a slip in ratings over the years — it drew 9 million viewers two weeks ago to rank No. 30 — the franchise has survived the explosion of dating shows and...
To get those ratings, the show milks an unrealistic, retrograde version of romance, often at the expense of some strong personalities who signed on for sincere reasons and are instead served up as water cooler fodder. Then again, the 25 potential paramours must know what they”re getting into when they step out of that ...
They must be aware, too, that reality relationships are far from guaranteed. Only two of the previous nine contestants on “The Bachelor” — Byron Velvick and Charlie O”Connell — ended up with the women they chose on the series, which debuted in 2002.

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