SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Wright Express Corporation (WXS), a leading global provider of value-based business payment processing and information management solutions, today announced its chairman, president and CEO, Michael E. Dubyak, was selected by the Maine Development Foundation as the 2012 Champion of Education, Training and Leadership Development. The award honors an individual or organization that has gone above and beyond to spark Maines economy and help all Maine citizens reach their highest personal potential.

I am humbled by this award and recognition, said Dubyak. I am passionate about trying to align higher education and now K-16 with Maine businesses and the growing need for STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) graduates. Maine businesses and the state educational systems must work in partnership if we are to properly train and retain our high school students that come through our college and university systems.

With over 600 employees in the greater Portland area, Wright Express takes an active leadership role in supporting organizations that promote economic, educational and personal development opportunities. Dubyak is currently the Chairman of Educate Maine, a business-led organization whose mission is to champion college and career readiness and increased education attainment.

We greatly appreciate all that Mike does for Maine, said Ed Cervone, Maine Development Foundation interim executive director. He has demonstrated the ability to collaborate and create successful partnerships across business and academic sectors. His ideas and leadership are truly making a difference in Maine.

Dubyak sits on the University of Southern Maine Foundations Board of Directors. Previously, Dubyak served as chairman of the University of Southern Maines Board of Visitors. Dubyak has also served on the United Way of Greater Portlands Board of Directors, the Governors Council on Competitiveness and the Economy, the New England Advisory Council of the Boston Federal Reserve, and the Maine Chamber of Commerces Executive Board. Additionally, Dubyak served on the Center for Grieving Childrens Board of Directors and co-chaired its Capital Campaign.

A special reception to honor the five 2012 Maine Development Foundation Champions will be held on September 21 at the Holiday Inn By The Bay in Portland, Maine, during the organizations 34th annual meeting.

About Wright Express

Wright Express is a leading international provider of B2B physical, digital and virtual card product solutions. The Companys fleet, corporate and prepaid payment solutions provide its more than 350,000 customers with unparalleled security and control across a wide spectrum of business sectors. The Companys operations include Wright Express Financial Services, Pacific Pride, rapid! PayCard, Wright Express Prepaid Cards Australia, Wright Express Fuel Cards Australia and CorporatePay Limited, England, as well as a majority equity position in UNIK S.A, a Brazilian company. Wright Express and its subsidiaries employ more than 900 associates in six countries. For more information about Wright Express, please visit wrightexpress.com.

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Wright Express Chairman, President and CEO Michael E. Dubyak Selected as Maine Development Foundation’s 2012 Champion ...

NEW YORK, Sept. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Reportlinker.com announces that a new market research report is available in its catalogue:

The Global Body Armor and Personal Protection Market 2012-2022

http://www.reportlinker.com/p0963173/The-Global-Body-Armor-and-Personal-Protection-Market-2012-2022.html#utm_source=prnewswire&utm_medium=pr&utm_campaign=Aerospace_and_Defense

Product Synopsis

This report is the result of ICD Research / Strategic Defence Intelligence's extensive market and company research covering the global body armor and personal protection industry. It provides detailed analysis of both historic and forecast global industry values, factors influencing demand, the challenges faced by industry participants, analysis of the leading companies in the industry, and key news.

Introduction and Landscape

Why was the report written?

"The Global Body Armor and Personal Protection Market 2012-2022" offers the reader detailed analysis of the global body armor and personal protection market over the next ten years, alongside potential market opportunities to enter the industry, using detailed market size forecasts.

What is the current market landscape and what is changing?

The demand for body armor and personal protection equipment is anticipated to be driven by internal and external security threats, territorial disputes, modernization initiatives, technological innovations, and a general shortage of body armor across the world. Cumulatively, the global market is expected to value US$19.4 billion during the forecast period. The market is expected to be dominated by North America, followed by Europe and Asia-Pacific. Despite the economic downturn in Europe, the region's share of the global market is projected to increase during the forecast period due to the scheduled deployment of various modernization programs that have been initiated in previous years.

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The Global Body Armor and Personal Protection Market 2012-2022

Mike Keefe, Cagle Cartoons

TheyreOnline

In our highly praised age of information infinities, educated citizens ought to be able to learn about presidential candidates with ease, and learn about their specific views on important questions of the day. Few questions of national import rival the problem and promise of public education in Americatoday.

The United States needs a much better system of public education than it now has. Our American children deserve a superior no! a great public education. In an age of globalization, as we hear so frequently, our daughters and sons will compete for good jobs and positions with the best and brightest from the whole world. However, so many international tests confirm the decay of American public education that we need not debate this depressingfact.

Our young people their health and intelligence, and their educational training are our greatest source of capital. Today we shamelessly gut public education funding, trash the teachers, ignore decrepit buildings, and try to find ways to amend the teachers public pensions. Teachers, like firefighters and cops, know that reform meanscut.

In this climate, it seems important to ask what presidential contender Mitt Romney and his team say about the sorry state of public education in these United States. While Paul Ryans education plan has gotten scrutiny, lets look atMitts.

Harnessing the power of the Internet and Google Chrome, I looked up the ex-governors white paper, A Chance for Every Child, May 23, 2012 (scroll down to A Chance for Every Child). At 34 pages it was quick to print, and, like a thoughtful citizen and longtime teacher, Ive carefully studied Mr. Romneysideas.

Early on in Romneys white paper (page 4), he concedes the pathetic state of public education today: Sadlyacross the nation, our school system is a world leader in spending yet lags on virtually every measure of results. Its true, and actuallytragic.

A Chance for Every Child contends, remarkably, that no new funds are needed for public education in America. Mitt Romney understands that more spending is the last thing our schools need. (Page 34). Mitt presumably would not vote for Proposition 30, a tax to help schools inCalifornia.

What is needed, according to the Romney playbook, is a redirection of the monies the states and the federal government already spend on education: He wants more taxpayer money to go to on-line education, especially for-profit colleges, as well as charter schools and school vouchers. (However, since vouchers have been rejected throughout most of the nation, A Chance for Every Child never uses the term voucher, just constantly impliesit.)

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What About Romney’s Education Plans?

A few months ago, as I drove my daughter to the airport on Interstate 240 for her summer internship in Boston, I read the overhead message sign: "TN ROADWAY FATALITIES 371 PLEASE DON'T BE NEXT" The same day, walking into my hospital's ICU, I saw a sign stating "104 Days Without a Fall"

Providing data is one way to change behavior. It can be used for the purpose of reducing roadway fatalities or decreasing medical injuries. But is it effective? I wasn't sure.

As we drove farther, I saw the speed monitor on the road to the airport terminal flashing my decelerating speed from 50 mph down to 25 mph, which is the speed limit on the terminal road. Providing data with individual feedback was effective in making me slow down, but I saw other cars overtaking me.

That is when I saw a police car with a radar gun pointed at oncoming traffic, and another officer giving a motorist a likely speeding ticket for not decelerating. It seems that where data and individual feedback failed, regulation and enforcement were effective.

As a doctor, I treat patients, and I also work as a public health educator, encouraging preventive practices among health care workers, such as washing hands, providing vaccinations and avoiding unnecessary urine or blood catheters. I encourage patients to eat less, exercise more and adhere to their medication regimen.

The more effective we are in changing health care worker behavior, which is a major cause of medical errors, the lower the rate of infections and adverse events, such as improper drug dosing.

The more effective we are in changing patients' health behavior, which is 30 percent of the cause of underlying illness, the lower the burden of heart disease, diabetes and strokes.

Yet behavior change is hard to accomplish. Even with data, feedback, regulation and enforcement. Sometimes, something more is needed like a coach.

QSource, Tennessee's Medicare Quality Improvement Organization, is providing quality improvement coaches to reduce hospital infections and readmissions. Also, Healthy Memphis Common Table, in its new initiative to improve the quality of care, is providing nurse coaches to im

prove office processes and patient care.

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Dr. Manoj Jain: Data, coaching important in changing behavior in health care and life

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vAHDGljbd4

09-09-2012 01:57 © MMV Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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The Suite Life of Zack en Cody - Season 2 Episode 34 Part 1/3 - Health and Fitness - Video

The US obesity epidemic is pushing more Americans to pay attention to their health and leading a healthier lifestyle. Reuters pic

Employment of fitness trainers and instructors is expected to grow by a brisk 24 per cent in the decade to 2020, according to the US Bureau of Labour Statistics, as businesses, health professionals and insurance companies take sharper aim at the sedentary lifestyle.

The obesity epidemic has produced a lot of noise and talk and chatter, said Cedric Bryant, chief science officer of the American Council on Exercise (ACE), which has certified more than 50,000 fitness professionals.

Helping individuals be more active is important and fitness professionals can be at the centre of that, he said.

Obesity rates have skyrocketed in the last 20 years. More than one third of adults in the United States are obese, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

Bryant said the health crisis is strongly linked to the lifestyle choices that fitness professionals, such as personal trainers and group fitness instructors, address.

Despite the shaky economy, health club membership is up more than 10 per cent over the past three years, according to IHRSA, the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association.

Exercise physiologist and ACE spokesperson Jessica Matthews said workplace wellness campaigns also increase demand for fitness professionals.

Bryan said the average salary for a certified personal trainer is about US$53,000 (RM164,000) and rising. A high school diploma is sufficient to begin a career in fitness, he added, although more than two-thirds of professionals have college degrees.

Matthews said the industry attracts career changers driven by the downturn to reinvent their working selves.

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US obesity epidemic propels fitness as career

Feature Article of Monday, 10 September 2012

Columnist: Abugri, George Sydney

Source: Sydney Abugri Writing and Editing Services

Health experts are unanimous in their warning that whatever is not used atrophies or wastes away and dies slowly and that this is particularly the case with the human body.

If you want to keep physically fit and healthy, regular exercise is the answer. This basic law of health if broken or violated, leads to sickness emphasizes Dr. Edward Narh of the Narh-Bita Hospital in Tema.

Most members of keep fit clubs and patrons of gymnasiums confirm that they are usually clear-minded and alert after exercising. This, Dr. Narh explains, is because exercise makes the heart and brain work better as they receive adequate supplies of oxygen.

Since joining a keep fit club, I eat better, sleep better and no longer suffer frequently from colds, fever and bodily pains as I used to, concedes a female bank official in her fifties who belongs to a fitness club in Accra.

Unfortunately, informal surveys suggest that many Ghanaians in vocations and professions which do not require any physical have not engaged in physical exercise for many years.

As a result, according to the Ministry of Health, about 60 per cent of adult deaths in Ghana are attributable to heart-related and other non-communicable diseases resulting from sedentary life styles.

The good news is that a fitness craze appears to now be in vogue in many parts of Ghana and large numbers of people are joining keep fit clubs and enrolling with gymnasiums for regular exercise.

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Health: Ghana’s new era of gyms and keep fit clubs.

For a notion once synonymous with the"golden years," the idea of retirement today conjures up at least as much anxiety as pleasant anticipation for many of the baby boomersfast approaching it.The financial crisis took a hefty toll on both their 401(k)s and their confidence, with a host of articles warning about the unpreparedness of the next generation of retirees.

And it's not just a perception issue.Elevated unemploymentanda housing market still well off its highscombine withinflationary health-care costs and stubbornly low yields to paint a difficult picture for retirement, just about any way you slice it.

This week, Morningstareditors and strategists, including our director of personal finance ChristineBenz, as well as notable outside expertswill tackle the issues head-on,with a practicallook at controlling retirement expenses, anticipatingnew spending patterns, playing catch-up, and prepping a portfolio for drawdown mode. We'll cap off the week with a live Q&A where you can pose your own retirement-related questions to our expert panel.

Though the retirement landscape is challenging,we believe investors can gain some comfort and control by assessing their current situation and crafting a sensible plan to maximize their saving and investing efforts.This week, we aim to stack the deck in your favor. Be sure to bookmark this page and return each day, asnew reportsare posted. And don't forget to tune in Friday for our live Q&A webcast; we look forward to hearing from you!

Monday, Sept. 10: How Much Do You Need in Retirement? Digging Into the 80% Rule for Income Replacement in Retirement Consider these swing factors to create a customized income-replacement rate.

Will Your Income Needs Trend Down as You Age? The data may say yes, but there are some important considerations to bear in mind.

What Unexpected Expenses Crop Up in Retirement? Dental care, as well as skyrocketing health-insurance premiums and property taxes, top readers' lists of unwelcome in-retirement costs.

Don't Discount Inflation When Planning for Retirement As seniors' spending patterns change, so too does their exposure to rising prices.

Related Reports from Morningstar's Archives:

Tuesday, Sept. 11: Are You on Track?

Follow this link:
Morningstar's Retirement Readiness Week

For years, the financial-services industry has drilled the "80% rule" into pre-retirees' heads, suggesting that they'll need to replace 80% of their pre-retirement income when they retire.

Other variations on setting an income-replacement ratio--simply the retiree's gross income from all sources in retirement divided by his or her pre-retirement income--come in around the same ballpark. For example, T. Rowe Price has proposed 75% as a good threshold for planning purposes. As the firm's senior financial planner Christine Fahlund discusses in this video, retirees will no longer have the "expense" of saving a portion of their income for retirement. And that factor is not insignificant: According to T. Rowe's recommendation, 15% of pre-retirees' income should be saved for retirement.

Nor will retirees have to pay FICA taxes for Social Security and Medicare, which amount to another 7.65% of incomes. (The Social Security component of FICA has been temporarily reduced to 4.2% through the end of 2012, but it is set to go back up to 6.2% at the beginning of 2013; the Medicare component of FICA is another 1.45% of income.) That assertion is corroborated by Aon Consulting's Replacement Rate Study, which concludes that in 2008, a 78% income replacement rate would allow a 65-year-old with $60,000 pre-retirement income to retire in 2008 with the same standard of living he or she had while working. In that scenario, reduced taxes during retirement account for much of the difference between the amount of pre- and post-retirement income required to keep the standard of living stable.

These savings come without even redeeming a single Groupon, let alone taking bigger-ticket measures to reduce costs in retirement. Indeed, others spend substantially less than 75% or 80% of their working incomes during retirement, as many retired readers noted in this Discuss forum thread. Yes, there may be the often-discussed reductions in commuting costs, lunches out, and clothes that come along with quitting work. But retirees can also reduce their in-retirement income needs by making bigger-ticket changes such as downsizing or paying off their homes. And as Laurence Kotlikoff and Scott Burns assert in this blog post, retirees are also likely to be off the hook for child-related expenses like college tuition that they might have had while they were working. Moreover, retirees who were saving much more than the 15% pre-retirement savings rate that underpins the 80% rule also may be able to get by on much less than they did while they were working, simply because they're not saving as much, if anything.

Does that mean the 80% rule is just a plot by the financial-services industry to get people to sock more away than they actually need to, thereby increasing the assets on which they can charge fees? Not necessarily. After all, health-care costs have the potential to swing substantially higher during retirement than they were when a person was younger, so a conservative retiree might use a rate even higher than 80% for planning purposes. People with lower incomes before retirement should, by and large, also employ a higher income-replacement rate than higher-income workers. At the same time, very high-income earners will want to plan for a replacement rate that's well above 80%, for reasons Ill outline in a moment.

The fact is, any "rule of thumb," like the 80% rule for income-replacement, is a blunt instrument--a reasonable starting point, but one that can be refined with consideration of your personal circumstances. A useful starting point, especially if you're getting close to retirement, is to prepare an in-retirement budget. Here are some of the key swing factors to bear in mind when deciding how to set your own income-replacement rate.

Level of Pre-Retirement IncomeThe Aon study showed that a retiree earning $90,000 prior to retirement would need to replace 78% of his or her pre-retirement income during retirement to maintain a steady standard of living, while one who retired with a $20,000 salary would need to replace 94%. A retiree with a working salary between those two poles--$50,000--would need an 80% replacement rate to maintain his or her standard of living.

Why the big variation? For starters, less-affluent workers don't typically save at the same level as wealthier ones while working, given that living expenses consume a big share of the former group's budgets during the working years. They also pay less in taxes as a percentage of their incomes than their wealthier peers while working, so tax savings will provide less of a benefit to them in retirement than it will for wealthier retirees. Another factor driving higher replacement rates for less affluent retirees is that they're not likely to have as much leeway to bring their living costs down during retirement as their more affluent peers, because spending on basic needs is a bigger share of their budgets than discretionary items such as dining out and travel. Meanwhile, less-affluent retirees' health-care costs may be every bit as high as their wealthier counterparts. Thus, although it may seem counterintuitive, it's wise to nudge your replacement rate above 80% if your income falls toward the lower end of the levels described above, and perhaps slightly below it if your pre-retirement income is at or above $90,000.

At the same time, it's worth noting that those with very high pre-retirement incomes--$150,000 and above--may need higher income-replacement rates than those with pre-retirement incomes of $60,000 or $90,000. Taxes are the reason, because a greater share of their in-retirement income will come from taxable sources of income such as traditional IRAs and 401(k)s.

Savings HabitsYour pre-retirement savings habits should also figure into the assumptions you use. The Aon study assumed an average rate of savings--about 5% for those earning $60,000 and about 6% for those earning $90,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Expenditure Survey data employed in the Aon study. If you were making $90,000 when you retired but saved less than 6% of your salary, you'd want to use a higher replacement rate for planning purposes than would otherwise be typical for your income band. Meanwhile, a $60,000 earner who was saving 25% of his or her salary while working could obviously get by with an income-replacement rate of 75% or even less.

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Digging Into the 80% Rule for Income Replacement in Retirement

When should people start saving for retirement?

Although the economy is still showing unsteady legs, an individual can plan for retirement. Whether you can contribute money to a savings account now or create a plan for when you can start contributing, any step toward a future retirement goal is better than doing nothing.

When determining the total amount needed to retire, professor LaRoe suggests using a financial planner. If you do not have one, start searching for one immediately. The sooner you start planning for retirement, the more you can begin making your future retirement plans.

If you can't afford a financial planner, there are many ways to stash away even $50 per month to get you into the routine of compiling your nest egg. Automatic payday bank transfers into an account earmarked for retirement is one technique individuals use. This can help ensure you begin your journey to a stable, long-term retirement.

Some individuals use investment plans and put their money into 401(k) accounts or individual retirement accounts while others are still not able to do so. The first step can be the hardest, but don't give up.

We would like to thank Ross LaRoe, associate professor of economics at Denison University, for his insight.

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Retirement planning: Start saving now