Published: Sunday, August 19, 2012 at 4:01 a.m. Last Modified: Sunday, August 19, 2012 at 9:26 a.m.

But the county pension that he now receives is based on a much higher figure, his final earnings of $174,857.

The 30 percent boost came from Kerns cashing out $12,850 in accrued administrative leave and the inclusion of nearly $28,000 in other non-salary pay and benefits the county owed him.

Kerns worked 12 years for the county, so his annual pension of $53,542 is not one of the six-figure payments that has fueled public outrage over county retirement benefits. But like the top earners getting those pensions and hundreds of other former county employees, Kerns benefited from a system that allows workers to increase their retirement checks by including a wide range of pay and benefits outside of salary.

He makes no apologies.

"You play by the rules," he said. "I don't begrudge anyone taking what they have coming to them. ... If people find that objectionable, then maybe they need to change the rules."

County pension costs are up more than 400 percent since 2000 and the average annual compensation on which pensions are computed has risen 75 percent during that time to nearly $92,000 for workers retiring in 2011.

The Board of Supervisors, in charge of setting benefits for a retirement system they acknowledge is unsustainable, has made no changes despite public outcry that bloated pensions are compromising essential public services.

But last week, they indicated add-ons like the ones that raised Kerns' pension would be high on their list of fixes. They proposed to eliminate some and exempt others from retirement calculations. Supervisors also proposed to cut pay and make longer-range pension changes, including setting lower benefits for future hires. The moves won't take effect unless unionized employees agree.

A Press Democrat analysis shows that when they retire, Sonoma County government workers boost their final earnings, and thus their pensions, by an average of more than 12 percent over their annual salaries. The average increase for sheriff's deputies and other public safety workers is higher, more than 14 percent.

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Sonoma County employee perks pay off in retirement

By CANDICE M. GIOVE

Bronx Democratic Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera allegedly used a taxpayer-funded nonprofit as her personal piggy bank, installed her unqualified lover as the groups leader and then helped him get a fat raise so he could take her on nice dates.

I had no background in nonprofits, said former boyfriend Vincent Pinela, who detailed the shocking arrangement to The Post.

Pinela, a personal trainer, was executive director of the Bronx Council for Economic Development from 2006, when he started dating Rivera, until 2010, shortly after they broke up.

I shouldnt have been hired, he said.

Angel Chevrestt

BOYTOY #1 Vincent Pinela was named boss of a Bronx nonprofit despite zero experience in the field.

BOYTOY #2 Tommy Torres, with Naomi Rivera, was paid $1,100 a week as a staffer while also a teacher.

Rex Dittman

NAOMI RIVERA, 47 Assemblywoman since 2005, representing Morris Park. Allegedly installed one boyfriend as head of a nonprofit she funded and gave another a job on her staff.

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Bx. pol Rivera hired unqualified boytoy to run her nonprofit, which she used as personal piggy bank

LAWRENCE The son wanted to be a football coach, and the father was skeptical. Football was in the family blood, but the life comes with sacrifices. Charlie Weis knew this. And he wanted to make sure his son, Charlie Jr., did, too.

For Charlie Jr.s entire life, in places such as New York and Boston and South Bend, Ind., he had been the kid on the sidelines. Hed been in the stands for Super Bowls, watching his dad coach the offense for the New England Patriots. Hed been the son whom everybody knew at Notre Dame, the one who shared the same name as his father, the Irishs head coach; the one who often heard his family name mocked as the team struggled.

When I was younger, it was a lot harder, Charlie Jr. says now.

But the son who was always around football kept telling his dad that he wanted to be a coach, that he wanted to be just like him. If nothing else, Weis says, he wanted to warn his son. Coaching a college football team in front of 80,000 fans can be a lonely existence. And did he really want his son to endure the long days, the hours away from family, the nomadic lifestyle? Did he really want to follow his old man?

Maybe Charlie Weis couldnt give his son the advice he needed. But he knew someone who could.

Its a sunny afternoon in early August, and Charlie Weis is watching over KU football practice in Memorial Stadium. Across the field, Charlie Jr. is standing near the sideline and barking out cues for a running-backs drill. Weis, of course, is in his first full season as the Jayhawks coach, and Charlie Jr., a sophomore at KU, has taken a spot on his staff.

Officially, Charlie Weis Jr. is a student manager. But inside the program, coaches and players say hes more than that. After spending last season as a student intern at Florida for Gators coach Will Muschamp, Charlie Jr. followed his dad to Lawrence. When they arrived, Weis says, Charlie Jr. helped running backs coach Reggie Mitchell master the new offensive scheme.

Hes got tremendous knowledge of the game, KU quarterbacks coach Ron Powlus says. He knows our plays. He knows our playbook. He knows defenses. He knows coverages and fronts.

Earlier this year, Charlie Jr. helped teach KUs graduate assistant how to break down film, a skill he had learned from his dad, and Weis says his son has become the perfect go-between for players and a valued consultant for dealing with recruits.

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Weis can’t stop son from following him into coaching

Coaches tend to retire and then drift back. You do something for so long, it gets in your blood. So you have to take what they say with a lot of salt. Not a grain. A lot. But Don Nelson is talking like theres no question about it, hes not coming back.

Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com reports that Nelson has said he is permanently done with coaching, not interested, even if called.

Nelson was in talks for the Timberwolves job before they went with Rick Adelman. Hes been rumored here and there for a variety of jobs, and will continue to be. But if hes loving life sitting on beaches sipping drinks with umbrellas in them, more power to him. Hes earned it.

Its interesting, though, that theres not more interest in Nelson returning, considering the positional shifts we see going on in the league. Versatility and smallball is all the rage right now, and that fits right in with what Nelson does. While defense is still at a premium for winning in the playoffs, his ingenuity could do a lot with some of the rosters that are out there. Or it could crash into the ocean. Thats the risk with Nelson.

But it looks for now like we wont be seeing Nellieball again, even as it tenets seem to be roaming the landscape.

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PBT: Nellie's done with coaching — he's earned it

I'm a big fan of the Withings line of personal health devices -- over the years, I've purchased one of their Wi-Fi Body Scales and a Blood Pressure Monitor. The devices are great, and it's nice (and sometimes frustrating) to see how your health is doing over time. But the stats that were provided did little to motivate me to really exercise more, eat less, and even care about taking my blood pressure daily. The completely new Withings Health Companion app (free) is designed to not only monitor your health, but motivate you to do something about it.

Unlike the previous WiScale app, which just tracked weight and BP and is the tool with which you take your blood pressure, the Withings Health Companion app lets you set goals and reminders. Upon launching the app, you see a "butterfly" with four wings -- one cyan, one orange, one magenta, and one green. Each wing is associated with a different health factor -- sleep, activity, heart, and weight. The idea is that you should try to eventually "fill" each wing with color, indicating that you're managing sleep, activity, your heart health, and your weight.

To do this, the Withings Health Companion tries to "turn long-term goals into small achievable targets, and monitor your weekly progress toward your goals." In my personal case, I am able to monitor my heart health (BP and heart rate) using the Withings Blood Pressure Monitor and add my weight to the app every day using the Wi-Fi Body Scale. For capturing activity, I have now set up RunKeeper to report my activities to the app. I wish that there was a way to send info from my FitBit, which I wear constantly, to the app.

The last item, sleep, requires input from other devices made by BodyMedia and Zeo. Once again, I'd prefer to have my sleep information sent to the Withings Health Companion app from the FitBit, which also tracks that info. There doesn't appear to be a way of adding my nightly sleep information to the app manually, which is somewhat irritating. Since I'm not exactly thrilled about having to spend a minimum of US$149 for yet another monitoring device, I'm hoping that FitBit and Withings will work out a way for the FitBit data to be used by the Health Companion.

Of course, I could use the FitBit website to monitor all of this, since I could get activity readings and sleep information from the FitBit and weight data transferred from the Withings scale, but there's no way to track blood pressure. Sigh -- it's like these companies all want to get you tied into their particular ecosystem and don't want to make it easy for you to choose the combination of apps and devices to track your health.

At this point, one of the "wings" of the butterfly will always be withered, since this app won't let me add my sleep information. I do, however, like the way that the app displays all pertinent health information on one screen and reminds me to take readings or to exercise.

Do you have a favorite app or mobile website for tracking your health and personal fitness? Tell us about it in the comments.

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Withings Health Companion app: A new way to look at personal fitness

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZcVh1soFmA

18-08-2012 07:12 Veteran Indian batsman VVS Laxman announced on Saturday that he would be retiring from international cricket with immediate effect.

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VVS Laxman announces retirement - Video

GORHAM The most successful women's mountain cyclist in Mount Washington history, Marti Shea, is now the second fastest.

A Manchester native, Shea, 49, now of Marblehead, Mass., turned in a personal best performance of 1:03:14 and won her third consecutive Mount Washington Bicycle Hillclimb here Saturday.

Shea, a standout athlete at Manchester Memorial High School and a former all-America distance runner at Boston University, is also the only women's winner the Newton's Revenge competition, staged here annually in July, has ever known. She now has nine bicycle triumphs over the 7.6-mile Auto Road to the mountain's 6,288-foot summit. Shea's Saturday time was second only to the 58:14 turned in by course record holder Jeannie Longo in 2000.

Times were quick in the men's field as well, as 2012 Revenge winner Cameron Cogburn, 26, of Cambridge, Mass., became the first male to sweep the summer races on the mountain and the second fastest man ever, winning in 52:28.

Tom Danielson, of East Lyme, Conn., is the lone male who has pedaled quicker. His course record of 49:24, set in 2002, is one of three faster times that he has posted.

The race featured seven different cyclists completing the steepest mountain bicycle hillclimb in the world in under one hour.

Leroy Popowski, 37, of Colorado Springs, Colo., was second in 53:47 and Peter Hurst, who started in the second wave, finished third in 54:03.

Race results coolrunning.com.

New Hampshire's top male finisher was 17-year-old Chad Young of Newmarket whose bid to finish under one hour was denied by two seconds. He was eighth.

Weather conditions were ideal as a slight breeze barely stirred the 45 degree summit temperature.

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Shea is queen of the mountain once again

When I work with clients on creating a strategic plan, the first meeting is focused on developing their goals. Frequently, almost always, the initial answer is "make more money," usually delivered with a "duh" smile.

When pushed to move past "more money," the next set of goals will usually be increase revenue, increase the bottom line, expand, get more business from current clients or, perhaps, increase market share. These are obviously all variations on the "more money" theme. As a matter of fact, without exception (and I've been doing these plans for close to 20 years), the answer is always tied to increasing the bottom line.

Of course, increasing the bottom line is critical, but it's not a particularly strong goal for a strategic plan. Push yourself to think beyond the obvious and generic. What about increasing employee retention by 15 percent from last year a sure sign that people like working for you? What about increasing customer satisfaction, which means your customers are happy and will also probably increase business? How about a goal tied to community service or donations to nonprofits?

Tie goals to success and spend some time defining success for you, your division and your company. Maybe you don't need more money or a larger bottom line. Maybe you need less stress, more time off, increased challenges, new markets to explore, new products or services to sell. Before you commit your goals to paper, take some time to define success. This is different for each company, and can be a combination of personal and private.

Once you have defined success, you are ready to define goals. Understand that the goals still have to be quantifiable and have a timetable, but that if you achieve your goals, you should also achieve your success. Having these two areas of your professional life goals and success working in the same direction should be fulfilling, rewarding and dramatically increase the odds of being successful.

So, take some time, reflect on your life, your job and your business. Come back when you have a tangible definition of success that you can articulate to those around you and use as a platform for developing your business goals.

Scott Harris is the owner of Mustang Marketing, a full-service marketing agency serving Ventura County and the San Fernando Valley for more than 25 years. You can reach Scott at Scott@MustangMktg.com or visit Mustang's website at http://www.MustangMktg.com.

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To create a strategic plan, first define success

Time for another lesson in the ABCs of Success. Think about these definitions in terms of your goals for your career and personal life.

Audience rating A measure of the proportion of people tunedin to a specific program at a specific time. People listen to winners, not whiners. How many coworkers really listen to you?

Benchmarking Comparing performance against that of others, typically competitors in the same industry. Be aware of the skills of your coworkers, so you can identify and fill holes in your skill set.

Change management An aspect of management that ensures the firm responds to changes in its operational and competitive environments. The skills of 2012 wont be the only ones youll need to thrive in 2017.

Differentiation The development of distinct and unique benefits in a product. If you are Brand YOU, what value does work product bring that your coworkers brands dont?

ERP An acronym for Enterprise Resource Planning. Numerous studies have shown that people with written career plans are far more successful. Its never too late to start writing.

Fortuity Chance occurrence. Let-it-happen people believe theyre unlucky. Make-it-happen people make their own luck.

Group think Everyone thinks alike. Dont be afraid to express a different opinion. Diverse opinions spur creativity and innovation.

Hub-and-spoke arrangement A process for distributing products. Ones network uses the same techniques to acquire and share knowledge.

Idle time The time a machine is not operational. Everyone needs time to relax; just not too much time.

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ABC's of Success

THE lecture at the centerpiece of higher education since Johannes Gutenberg's printing press in 1455 is about to get a massive upgrade.

The University of Washington is partnering with an elite group of top-tier schools to offer free online classes through Coursera. And it's only part of a larger change taking place in higher education.

The move to online classes is natural given the digitization of society. Before the printed books, students got their education by sitting in a classroom while the professor read to them from a handwritten book. That was the lesson -- taking dictation. The wide availability of books that Gutenberg ushered in brought in the lecture. Now the lecture is about to give way to the TV show.

If this sounds crass, in a way it may be. We are creating hierarchy in education with far-reaching implications.

Universities need the revenue that online courses will bring. The courses are free for now, but probably will not be in the near future. Like all of modern life, education is becoming increasingly monetized.

The college degree may soon be divided into three options: on-campus degree, hybrid on-campus/online degree or online degree. This gives more choices to students as well as to family budgets. If students still value direct interaction with professors, then they must pay for it. It's a pay-as-you-go model.

What young learners miss in direct contact with human professors, they will make up for by learning at their own speed and in the time of their own choosing. This will liberate us from the dreaded 8:30 a.m. lecture class.

It also forces professors to be much more tech savvy. And here we may find resistance from purists. They will argue, effectively and in many ways rightly, that education cannot be industrialized. It is an altogether different experience to teach someone face-to-face then via a software program and an online video.

But for many students who can't afford to attend a campus class -- because they work, or are far away, or simply don't see the need for it -- should they be cut off from quality education?

This is not a simple elitist-versus-populist argument. Education in any form, whether it's a children's cartoon or a lecture on astrophysics, is ultimately an elitist activity. Almost all of human history is about working and slaving away under a hot sun. Education is a privilege and it always will be.

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Pro: Are online courses good for higher education?