The Ballen Group, A Las Vegas Short Sale Specialist Team, known for their Las Vegas Real Estate experience in Short Sales, have just closed another Short Sale in Nevada. Using their comprehensive Short Sale System, The Ballen Group is able to handle a large volume of short sales and accomplish the goal at hand, to close the short sale.

The property, located on Indian River in Nevada was listed with THE BALLEN GROUP of Keller Williams Realty Las Vegas. The process was not easy, but with the strong negotiating powers, a bit of magical problem solving, and a comprehensive marketing process, Ballen achieved the difficult approval to close the home. The Indian River home was only on the market for 20 days before a ready, willing, and able buyer contracted on the home. It took a total of 85 days for approval and 123 days from listing to close. Although the banks are working on their timelines and speeding up the short sale process, The Ballen Group says this is a common length of time for the short sale to complete. This was a bank of America short sale in Nevada and the deficiency was waived.

“There are no promises or guarantees in a Las Vegas short sale whether the lender(s) will approve the short sale or forgive the debt, but Short Sales offer an alternative to the damaging effects of a Nevada foreclosure,” says Richard Ballen, Listing Specialist with The Ballen Group. “A short sale is a complicated process for all parties involved. There are so many details involved (more than what the average homeowner is aware of). Make sure to consult a Las Vegas Short Sale Specialist with a proven history of success with short sales like The Ballen Group.”

Ballen uses a comprehensive Las Vegas Short sale system for sellers. Homeowners who are facing Las Vegas foreclosure can request that The Ballen Group, consult with them about their needs. In addition, The Ballen Group has created a custom hardship package allowing the homeowner to complete the documents required by the bank to ease the process.

“It takes more than an agent to properly work short sales. It takes a Team,” says Lori Ballen, Leader of The Ballen Group. “We have surrounded ourselves with talent from our administrative staff and Listing Managers to our processors and escrow. We want a lot of eyes on the transaction so it keeps moving down the timeline. Our short sale team is skilled, experienced, determined, and driven. They get the deal done.”

For help with your Las Vegas Real Estate, Equity or Negative Equity – Contact The Ballen Group – They will work Magic with your Las Vegas Short Sale, Henderson Short Sale, or North Las Vegas Short Sale. 702-482-7739 or on the web at http://www.TheBallenGroup.com.

Technorati Tags: Keller Williams Realty Las Vegas, Las Vegas short sale, Nevada, The Ballen Group

Senior Health & Fitness Day is the nation’s largest health and fitness event for older adults. It promotes the goal of keeping seniors healthy and fit. It is always held the last Wednesday in May.

The event is organized as a public-private partnership by the Mature Market Resource Center, a national information clearinghouse for the older adult market. Sponsors include the Arthritis Foundation, the National Council on Aging, the National Recreation and Park Association, Humana, UPMC for Life, and the American Custom Publishing Association.

National Senior Health & Fitness Day events are organized by local senior centers, retirement communities, hospitals, health clubs, park and recreation departments, shopping malls, businesses, places of worship, and other local organizations.

Any local organization interested in senior fitness is eligible to host an event. Each local group must register by purchasing a registration packet, which can be obtained by calling 1-800-828-8225.

Registrants receive an official program manual filled with ideas for organizing events. The manual includes activity suggestions, posters, press releases, reproducible health information handouts, and tips for obtaining local financial support. The registration fee includes a manual, program posters, and a t-shirt, button, and balloon for sample incentive items. Other incentive items that can be purchased include participation certificates, tote bags, handout bags, pens.

Questions about National Senior Health & Fitness Day can be answered by calling 1-800-828-8225 toll-free on weekdays from 8 am to 6 pm CST; by faxing 847-816-8662 at any time; or by emailing info@fitnessday.com.

For registration details, visit http://www.fitnessday.com/senior/register.htm.

Technorati Tags: health screening, low-impact exercises, National Senior Health & Fitness Day

The first half of the show focused on resolving Lois and Clark’s romantic subplot, set against the wider backdrop of Darkseid’s plot to bring Apokolips to Earth. As Lois struggles with cold feet, Darkseid’s agents possess Green Arrow and use him to slip Clark a surprise wedding gift, in the form of a gold kryptonite ring that removes his powers. The couple’s wedding plans are rudely interrupted by bigger events that threaten the whole world, setting the pattern that will define the status quo of their relationship.

After resolving Lois and Clark’s wedding crashing crisis, the second half of the show turns towards dealing with Darkseid and the Luthors and Clark’s larger destiny. Darkseid possesses Lionel Luthor for a final showdown with Kal-El, and Lex Luthor confronts Tess for the last time. Ultimately, in order to confront Darkseid’s threat, Clark must confront his own father Jor-El, and declare his decision to embrace his independence and carve his own legacy. In this moment of decision, Clark finally puts Smallville behind him, and Superman is born, streaking to the sky in his full uniform to display his full power to the world for the first time.

The final scene flashes forward to 2018. A TV clip announces Luthor’s election as President, tying the plot into the continuity established in other versions of the storyline. Lois and Clark are still carrying on their office romance, which is once again interrupted by a cry for help and the call of duty. Clark takes to the room, snapping his glasses off and revealing the “S” that fills the screen as the show’s final emblem. The closing music shifts to John Williams’ theme song from the classic Christopher Reeve Superman movie, underscoring the final merging of Smallville with the history of the character, who turned 73 this month.

Where will the show’s legacy go from here? While fan expectations of a TV spinoff remain unconfirmed, Warner Brothers executives recently confirmed that a Justice League movie is planned for 2013, following the 2012 release of Superman: Man of Steel. On this note, Smallville executive producers Brian Peterson and Kelly Souders posted a farewell message to fans hinting that although Smallville has ended, the story may not be quite over:

To the Greatest Fans We Could Have Wished for. . .We won’t say ‘goodbye,’ we’ll say ’til next time’. . .

The first nine seasons of Smallville are currently available on DVD. Smallville: The Final Season will be released this fall, and is currently available through pre-order from Amazon at a 30% discount for $41.99. Smallville: The Complete Series is available on preorder for $224.99, a 34% discount off the regular price of $339.88.

Technorati Tags: Clark Kent, Michael Rosenbaum, Smallville, Superman

Wacom’s Bamboo line offers an input device that feels and responds like a pen or pencil. Users can print or write in cursive on the surface of tablet devices, with greater precision than a mouse and better leverage and speed than a finger. The Bamboo also includes pressure and tilt sensitivity features that allow control of line darkness and thickness, enabling drawing with shading techniques like those used in pencil drawing. Digitally entered data can then be manipulated in other software programs like Photoshop.

This type of capability has won Bamboo and other Wacom devices favor with professional artists and graphic designers, making Wacom the industry standard in that market. Video gamers also find the Bamboo works well as a game control device. As of 2009, Wacom held 85 percent of global shares in that market, and nearly 94 percent in Japan, where the company is based.

The Bamboo Stylus for iPad currently retails for $29.95. It is available from Wacom or from Amazon.

Technorati Tags: Bambook Stylus, game control device, ipad, Wacom

EFHM encourages employers and employees to participate in:

• Daily Healthy Moments: occasions of healthy eating or physical activity such as cooking a healthy meal, going for a walk, participating in an exercise class, or going to the doctor
• Periodic Healthy Group activities: group activities that can extend beyond the month, such as healthy lunch groups, healthy recipe groups, walking or jogging groups, or sports teams
• An end-of-the month Culminating Project: a healthy activity involving the whole company or community, such as a company or family fitness event

Participating employers receive a free toolkit guide for coordinators, promotional items to advertise events, and access to an area of the EHFM website where they can log healthy activities throughout the month. Employers and employees can track, share, and promote individual and group activities, and even engage in friendly challenges and competitions.

Employee Health & Fitness Month was created in 1989 by two non-profit organizations, the National Association for Health and Fitness (NAHF) and ACTIVE Life. The National Association for Health and Fitness is the networking body for State and Governor’s Councils on health and fitness. ACTIVE Life is a nonprofit organization with a mission to make healthy the norm by enlisting and equipping people and places to build and sustain healthy communities.

Employee Health & Fitness Month was National Employee Health & Fitness Day from 1989 to 2010. This year the event’s sponsors decided that in order to extend the day’s activities into lifelong health habits, National Employee Health & Fitness Day would be expanded into a month-long sustained initiative.

For more information visit http://physicalfitness.org/nehf.html or contact:

Brenda Loube
Principal/Founder, Corporate Fitness Works
bloube@corporatefitnessworks.com
240-462-3553

Diane H. Hart
Hart to Heart Fitness
President and Eastern Regional Director, NAHF
aerobic2@aol.com
518-456-1058

Technorati Tags: EHFM, Employee Health & Fitness Month, National Association for Health and Fitness

Participants in the Arthritis Walk can recruit family, friends, and coworkers to form teams. Teams work together to motivate each other to walk and to raise funds.

Arthritis Walk teams form part of a larger team through alliance with the Arthritis Foundation’s Let’s Move Together program. Let’s Move Together promotes health and empowerment through everyday movement.

In addition to the Arthritis Walk, other Arthritis Awareness Month activities include:

• Giving Hope Through Heroes donations in honor of parents to promote arthritis research and services
• Reading Arthritis Today and other publications that provide information about arthritis
• Joining in Let’s Talk RA Town Hall Meetings to facilitate patient-physician communication between local rheumatologists and the general public
• Participating in regular walking and other activities to counter arthritis

The Arthritis Awareness Month and the Arthritis Walk are organized by the Arthritis Foundation, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to fighting more than 100 types of arthritis and related conditions. The Arthritis Foundation has funded more than $380 million in arthritis research since 1948. The Foundation promotes public health education, legislation, and programs to improve the quality of life for those living with arthritis.

For more information, visit the Arthritis Foundation’s Arthritis Awareness Month page at http://www.arthritis.org/arthritis-awareness-month.php.

Technorati Tags: Arthritis Awareness Month, Arthritis Walk, Let's Move Together

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is the long-awaited eighth and final film in the cinematic adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s seven-book fantasy series. In Part 1, Harry, Ron, and Hermione set out to find and destroy Lord Voldemort’s secret to immortality, the Horcruxes. In the process they learned about three legendary magical objects called the Deathly Hallows. In Part 2, after destroying one Horcrux and discovering the secret of the Hallows, the trio must face a final showdown with Voldemort, who is now armed with the virtually unbeatable Hallow called the Elder Wand–also known as the Deathstick–and threatens the existence of both the magical and non-magical worlds.

Produced by Heyday Films, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is directed by David Yates, who has directed the previous three films in the series. Screenwriter Steve Kloves, who wrote most of the previous Harry Potter screenplays, returns as scriptwriter. Stars Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Ralph Fiennes, Alan Rickman, Helena Bonham Carter, and the rest of the cast all return for the series’ final installment. The film is distributed by Warner Brothers.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is due in theaters July 15. A Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Combo Pack of Part 1 with an opening scene preview of Part 2 in Blu-ray format is already available.

Technorati Tags: Deathly Hallows, Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling

“I am, with great regret, tendering my resignation as a member of the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York given the increased demands of my time, including as Chair of the President’s Jobs and Competitiveness Council,” Immelt wrote in a resignation letter to Federal Reserve Bank of New York president and chief executive officer William Dudley, dated March 9, 2011. “I have greatly enjoyed my service on the Board and working with you and the superb professionals at the Bank.”

Immelt had served as a director at the New York Fed since January 2006. President Obama announced his appointment to head the President’s Jobs and Competitiveness Council on January 21, 2011. The announcement prompted criticisms by those concerned the appointment risked a conflict of interests between Immelt’s commitment to GE and his new duty to serve the public interest in matters such as corporate tax breaks and foreign policy.

Criticism of Immelt heated up Wednesday with Tea Party groups in Utah organizing a “Fire Jeff Immelt Rally” protest at a GE annual shareholders meeting. Immelt’s critics complained about GE allegedly benefiting from increased fuel prices as a result of lobbying in support of President Obama’s economic stimulus plan and cap-and-trade energy policy. Protestors won Securities and Exchange Commission support in favor of requiring GE to include a business risk disclosure statement to shareholders, advising them that GE’s financial projections about renewable energy profits depend on government support for the Obama administration’s global warming policies. Announcement of Immelt’s resignation from his New York Fed position comes a day after this protest.

Technorati Tags: Federal Reserve Bank, GE, Jeffrey Immelt, Jobs and Competitiveness Council, Tea Party

The controversy began last Wednesday when security researchers Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden announced discovering a privacy problem with iPhones. Allan and Warden reported that ever since iOS 4 was released in summer 2010, iPhones and iPhone computer backups have included a file that tracks data about the user’s location and personal habits. They stated that the data is stored unencrypted by default and is simple to access. This raised concerns about the potential risk of security breach and privacy invasion.

Upon hearing about this, Senator Al Franken sent Apple CEO Steve Jobs a letter echoing citizen concerns and asking Apple to respond to specific questions. Congressman Jay Inslee, Congressman Edward Markey, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, and European lawmakers also began inquiries.

Meanwhile, as investigations expanded to include other smartphone products, Google disclosed that its Android smartphone uses a location data caching system similar to Apple’s.

After a week of heading an internal investigation, Jobs replied Wednesday in an interview with the New York Times. Jobs acknowledged Apple had “made mistakes,” but assured Apple users, “We haven’t been tracking anybody. . . Never have. Never will.” He and other Apple representatives attributed security concerns to Apple failing to educate the public about the “incredibly complex” technology involved. The response was generally dismissive of concerns researchers and critics have raised, but did acknowledge a “bug” Apple says it will fix in a few weeks.

Apple emphasized that the iPhone file in question does not track users’ locations directly, but instead tracks the locations of Wi-Fi hot spots and cell towers surrounding the iPhone’s location, which Jobs said in another interview with All Things Digital “can be over 100 miles away from where you are.” This enables data to be cached and analyzed more quickly than if it were coming directly from GPS satellites.

Apple also stressed that while it uses customer phones as sensors to update its database of Wi-Fi hot spots and cell towers, it collects this data in an anonymous and encrypted form. It cannot use the data to identify or locate users, Apple said.

Apple did acknowledge some programming errors that stored the data for a year, kept the file unencrypted, and continued storing the data even after users had chosen to turn off location services. The company promises that updates will address this problem by limiting the iPhone location cache to seven days, ending cache backups onto personal computers, and deleting the cache entirely when users turn off location services.

Jobs said Apple will comply with Senator Franken’s request to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law. Google has agreed to testify at the hearing.

Some commentators called this a step in the right direction. Others had more mixed reactions. Franken thanked Google and Apple for agreeing to appear, but said he still “has questions about what exactly happened here and why Apple didn’t tell users about what it was doing.” Senator Patrick Leahy and Representative Markey had similar responses.

Representative Joe Barton was more direct, telling the Wall Street Journal that what Apple is acknowledging now contradicts what it told him in a letter last July. “When a member of Congress asks a straightforward question, reputable members of the business community should give a straightforward answer,” Barton said. “Apparently, they lied to us.”

The Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law hearing on Protecting Mobile Privacy: Your Smartphones, Tablets, Cell Phones and Your Privacy will be held in the 226 Dirksen Senate Office Building on Tuesday, May 10 at 10:00 am.

Technorati Tags: Android, cell phones, iphone, privacy, smartphones, tablets

Alabama was hit hardest. A Toomer’s for Tuscaloosa Facebook page has been created to coordinate information and assistance for tornado survivors in the Tuscaloosa area.

In other parts of the South, Mississippi has so far reported 32 fatalities, Tennessee 33, Georgia 10, and Virginia eight. Hundreds of injuries have also been reported.

The estimated 164 tornadoes that struck yesterday exceeded the number reported during the 1974 Super Outbreak, which saw 148 tornadoes claim 315 lives and injure more than 5,000 over a 24-hour period from April 3 to April 4. The worst outbreak on record was on March 18, 1925, when 695 people died.

Southern tornadoes are especially dangerous because they are harder to see coming than their counterparts on the Great Plains. Tornadoes in the south often loom suddenly out of nowhere over trees and hills. They also frequently strike at night, making them even harder to see. Rain can also cloak them from sight.

Tornadoes are especially threatening to people who live in mobile homes and manufactured homes with weak walls or foundations. A large percentage of tornado-related deaths and injuries occur in mobile homes.

The US Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) gives the following tornado safety tips:

• Know the difference between a tornado watch, which means that conditions are ripe for tornadoes to form and you should remain alert, and a tornado warning, which means that a tornado has actually been sighted in the area and you should take shelter immediately.
• Before a tornado, stay alert by listening to NOAA Weather Radio or following local news, watching for approaching storms, and looking for danger signs such as dark or greenish skies, large hail, dark or low-flying clouds, or a loud roar like a freight train. If you see storms or any of these signs, be prepared to take shelter immediately.
• During a tornado, seek shelter appropriate for the area you are in. If you are in a structure such as a building, go to a predesignated shelter area such as a cellar or an interior room on the lowest floor, putting as many walls as possible between you and the outside, stay away from windows or dangerous structures like corners, get under a sturdy table, and use your arms to protect your head and neck. If you are in a vehicle or mobile home, get out and seek shelter in a sturdy building, because mobile homes offer little protection from tornadoes. If you are outdoors with no shelter, avoid overpasses or bridges, and seek a low spot like a ditch where you can lie flat and cover yourself for protection from flying debris, which is the major cause of injury during tornadoes.
• After a tornado,follow appropriate health and first aid and home clean-up procedures. If your home has been damaged by flood or fire, wait for local authorities to declare the area safe before re-entering. Do not enter if you smell gas. Turn on flashlights before entering the home to avoid the battery spark igniting leaking gas. Keep an eye out for injured parties, wildlife that may have taken shelter from the storm, leaking gas, electrical damage, structural damage, damaged appliances, water or sewage problems, contaminated food, or spilled chemicals. Call your insurance agent and carefully document any damages with photos and good records.

For more information, updates, and relief resources, visit http://www.fema.gov/index.shtm.

Technorati Tags: Tornado super outbreak, tornadoes, Tuscaloosa