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LYNN He spends an average 55 hours a year on School Committee business, but the Retirement Board calculated John Fords service as an elected official in years, not hours, last week when it voted to accept Ford as a future city retiree whose pension will be partly paid by local taxpayers.

Board members Buzzy Barton, Richard Biagiotti, Claire Cavanagh and Stephen Spencer voted last Tuesday to credit Ford for eight years service on the committee. Board Chairman Michael Marks only votes to break a tie.

Fords entry into the system expands the number of elected officials entering Lynns public retirement system. The systems 1,200 former city employee members divide up $31 million-worth of pensions annually. Lynn taxpayers foot $23 million worth of that cost.

Board Director Gary Brenner said the board had little choice but to accept Ford into the system because elected officials like Ford qualify for admission into public retirement systems under state law. Ford, said Brenner, is the first local School Committee member to be voted in by the board.

I think were the only people in the city who dont get something, Ford said last Wednesday.

Brenner estimated city taxpayers will eventually pay about 30 percent of Fords pension once he retires from his job as an aide to state Rep. Steven Walsh based on pension worth 25 percent of his aides salary.

Fords legislative salary is listed on the state website as $30,000 a year.

When his pension is calculated, were responsible, Brenner said.

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Retirement board OKs Ford pension

Note: All figures are based on IFRS and are shown in Canadian dollars. All comparisons are with the corresponding period of2011, unless otherwise stated.

Jennifer Gregory - National Vice-President, Business Development, Group Savings and Retirement

MONTREAL , Aug. 27, 2012 /CNW Telbec/ - The Standard Life Assurance Company of Canada today announced the appointment of financial services industry veteran Jennifer Gregory as incoming National Vice-President, Business Development, Group Savings and Retirement. Based in Toronto , Mrs. Gregory will be responsible for creating a strategic vision and a national roadmap in order to grow Standard Life's group savings and retirement business across Canada . Her appointment is effective September 17 .

"The group savings and retirement segment being the cornerstone of Standard Life, I am very pleased to have attracted an executive with such in-depth knowledge and hands-on experience in this industry," said Charles Guay , President and Chief Executive Officer. "Given her extensive involvement in the business community, Jennifer significantly adds to the Toronto office and brings considerable strength to our overall management team. Her arrival ties in perfectly with our continued efforts to be an industry leader in long-term savings and investment solutions."

Prior to this appointment, Mrs. Gregory held several senior positions at Great-West Life Assurance Company since 1993. Most recently, she was Vice-President National Accounts, Group Retirement Services where she gained a strong understanding of the group retirement capital accumulation plan industry in Canada and spearheaded organizational change to provide an exceptional intermediary and plan member and sponsor experience.

Mrs. Gregory has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Economics from the University of Alberta. She also holds designations as a Certified Financial Planner (CFP), Certified Employee Benefit Specialist (CEBS) and Registered Pension Associate (RPA).

Note to Editors In the second quarter of 2012, Standard Life Financial's overall premiums and deposits reached $1.3 billion (up 13% from $1.2 billion in 2011), including $709 million from the group savings and retirement business (up 15% from $616 million in 2011).

About Standard Life Standard Life plc is a leading long-term savings and investment company headquartered in Edinburgh , Scotland. Standard Life has around 6 million customers worldwide and operates in the United Kingdom , Europe , North America and Asia Pacific, and globally with Standard Life Investments Ltd.

In Canada , Standard Life has been doing business for almost 180 years. Standard Life Financial Inc., which wholly owns The Standard Life Assurance Company of Canada and Standard Life Mutual Funds Ltd., is Standard Life plc's largest operation outside the UK. With about 2,000 employees, it provides long-term savings, investment and insurance solutions to more than 1.4 million Canadians, including group benefit and retirement plan members.

As of June 30, 2012 , Standard Life plc had $327 billion in assets under administration, including $42billion in Canada through Standard Life Financial.

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Standard Life hires a seasoned sales leader for its group savings and retirement business

JUPITER, Fla., Aug. 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The Retirement Advisor University (TRAU) announces the formation of The Plan Sponsor University (TPSU), which will offer corporate retirement plan sponsors an exclusive and unique training and certification program designed to improve their retirement plan. The Mission of The Plan Sponsor University is to educate and train employers to better manage their corporate retirement plan(s) on behalf of their participants, help improve outcomes and to introduce plan sponsors to the very best plan advisors who can help them to accomplish these goals.

TRAU, a collaboration with the UCLA Anderson School of Management Executive Education, revolutionized the retirement plan industry in 2010 by offering the prestigious C(k)P - Certified 401(k) Professional designation for plan advisors. TPSU follows suit by offering the first comprehensive and national online and in-person workplace retirement plan certification program to business owners, financial professionals, benefits specialists and other plan fiduciaries.

TPSU offers employers charged with the responsibility of company retirement plan oversight the opportunity to increase their knowledge and expertise in areas such as retirement plan design and operation, management of their fiduciary obligations, improving outcomes for those who participate and, upon completion of the program, awards the enrollee certification as a C(k)PS - Certified 401(k) Plan Specialist.

"Managing retirement plans and helping plan participants has become increasingly complex. Plan sponsors need state-of-the-art training available online and created by a nationally recognized educational organization delivered in person by qualified professionals," said Fred Barstein, Founder and Executive Director, The Retirement Advisor University.

TPSU courses and curriculum will be offered regionally around the country conducted by local plan advisors starting in the spring of 2013. Advisors that present the curriculum and train those who enroll in The Plan Sponsor University must meet strict criteria established to ensure that only the most experienced and qualified retirement plan professionals become Adjunct Lecturers at TPSU. The criterion to become a TPSU Adjunct Lecturer includes:

TPSU is currently recruiting adjunct lecturers to teach in several regions that remain available. Financial professionals who are interested and feel they meet the criteria may apply at http://www.TPSUniversity.com.

About TRAU

TRAU, The Retirement Advisor University collaboration with UCLA Anderson School of Management Executive Education is the first retirement planning certification program associated with a nationally recognized institution of higher learning. Participating advisors and wholesalers can benefit by earning certification that has real meaning to plan sponsor clients, prospects, and the retirement industry as a whole. http://www.TRAUniv.com

About TPSU

The Plan Sponsor University (TPSU), an affiliate of TRAU, offers the first comprehensive online and in-person workplace retirement plan certification program for business owners, benefits specialists and other employer fiduciaries. http://www.tpsuniversity.com

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New Retirement Plan Training Offers Help to Employers & Employees

If you've decided you want to get rid of your debts but are having trouble doing it, that might be because you haven't prepared your brain for it.

To free yourself of oppressive debt, you should treat yourself and make yourself feel good. I'm not talking about indulging yourself once again with the credit card. Rather, you need to give yourself hope that you can really chop away at that debt mess until it's gone.

And research by two assistant professors of marketing from the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management provides the way.

David Gal and Blakeley McShane tested advice often given to people loaded with debt, and found the advice lacking. They concluded you should ignore the popular suggestion that you get rid of debt by paying off your biggest loan or credit card balance first. Going after the card with the largest balance is likely to be discouraging, perhaps making you feel defeated along the multiyear process of paying off all debts and maybe causing you to give up.

Instead, Gal and McShane found it's more effective to give yourself a quick success. Pay off your smallest balance or loan, and then move to the next small one and do the same. Each might take awhile, but the sooner you can get rid of one and move to the next, the more you will feel a sense of accomplishment and control. Your success will help motivate you to stick with your plan and make it to the end of paying off debt entirely.

Gal and McShane dug into the behavior of almost 6,000 people who had gone to a debt settlement company for help in getting rid of debt. Such firms can be sketchy, and individuals must be cautious about trusting some of them. The firms typically have clients make a single monthly payment into an account devoted to the person's debts, and with time the firm tries to negotiate reductions with lenders.

Only about 43 percent of people make it to the end of the process successfully as they make payments over an average period of three to four years. About 30 percent of people give up before the debt settlement firm is able to negotiate a single reduction, and the consequence can be bankruptcy.

By observing the behavior of people dealing with the Freedom Financial Network, the researchers were able to see how individuals respond to paying off debts.

On a numbers basis, it doesn't matter if people pay off small or large debts first, although sometimes a person can reduce his or her overall debt load the most if they get rid of big debts with high interest rates. But, psychologically, people need to feel like they are making progress. That's especially true when a person faces a long process, like paying off debt over a few years.

The researchers also found that people were motivated to keep working on their debts if they consistently paid down the smallest balances. For example, Gal and McShane found that one year after enrolling in the debt settlement program, clients were 14 percent more likely to complete the program after experiencing small successes than people who paid down random balances of various sizes. People were even more motivated if they were eliminating the smallest balances instead of the largest.

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Personal Finance: Provide yourself hope while eliminating debt

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Vidyo, Inc., the first company to deliver personal telepresence, will be showing the currently available VidyoRouter Virtual Edition (VE) along with a technology demonstration of VidyoDesktop running on VMware View at VMworld 2012 in San Francisco, Booth #2530, August 26-30.

"Traditional video conferencing solutions typically rely upon proprietary hardware to perform transcoding necessary for multipoint video calling," said Ira Weinstein, Senior Analyst and Partner at Wainhouse Research and author of the recently published white paper Multipoint Videoconferencing Goes Virtual. Vidyos software solution supports multipoint calling without the need for processor-intensive transcoding, making it well suited for virtualized and distributed environments. By eliminating the need for a transcoding MCU, this architecture significantly reduces the cost associated with large-scale video conferencing deployments.

Vidyo is a leader in virtualized video conferencing infrastructure. VidyoRouter VE, which is generally available, provides enterprises and service providers with unprecedented quality of up to 1440p and deployment flexibility, enhancing their ability to deliver natural video communications optimized for desktop, room and mobile devices at price points comparable to web conferencing.

Virtualization enables efficiency, cost saving and new deployment capabilities, said Ashish Gupta, CMO and SVP of Corporate Development, Vidyo. With support for VMware environments, Vidyo brings increased quality and value to end-users and IT departments by delivering a multimedia solution that is truly scalable and supports a variety of firewall solutions, devices and wide area networks requirements including those for branch offices and small businesses.

End-users using VMware View solutions are looking for uncompromising performance while at scale, said Mason Uyeda, director, End-User Computing Technical Marketing, VMware. Vidyos virtualized solution on VMware View provides access to high quality video communication as an application and an enhanced user experience in a managed, secure environment.

VMware is the leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions that enable businesses to thrive in the Cloud Era. VMworld 2012 US is the industry's largest virtualization and cloud computing event. With more than 300 unique breakout sessions and over 250 exhibitors, attendees will have unparalleled access to the knowledge and tools they need to master the new cloud landscape and transform their business. This year's VMworld theme "Right Here, Right Now" focuses on how attendees will gain the tools and training needed to master the new cloud landscape, with the speed, security and control they've come to expect.

The Vidyo Difference

The Vidyo communication and collaboration platform is software-based, highly flexible and can be easily customized for individual enterprise and vertical market video conferencing needs. The patented VidyoRouter architecture introduces Adaptive Video Layering, which dynamically optimizes the video for each endpoint leveraging H.264 Scalable Video Coding (SVC)-based compression technology and Vidyos IP. Adaptive Video Layering eliminates the MCU and offers unprecedented error resiliency, low latency rate matching thus enabling natural, affordable, high-quality video to work over the Internet, LTE and 4G networks. The platform allows users to quickly leverage the latest hardware innovations and new consumer devices, making it uniquely attractive to partners. Vidyo has been active driving H.264 SVC and SIP videoconferencing interoperability in various standards bodies since 2005.

About Vidyo, Inc.

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Vidyo Brings Scale and Affordability to Personal Telepresence On VMware View®

August 27, 2012

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports Your Universe Online

Sex education has had little to no effect on teen pregnancy rates, which have remained essentially unchanged over the past four decades, claims the author of a controversial new study.

According to Sarah Harris of the Daily Mail, professor David Paton, chair of industrial economics at The University of Nottingham, has said that despite schools attempts to educate students under the age of 16 about sex, annual pregnancy rates from 1969 to 2009 have remained almost exactly the same.

While the rate has seen peaks and valleys over that time, rising and/or falling to between seven to 10 per 1,000 girls each year, Paton said that it tends not to correlate with UK efforts to prevent such occurrences, Telegraph Medical Correspondent Stephen Adams added.

It surpassed nine per 1,000 on three occasions (once in the mid-1970s, once in the early 1990s, and once in 1996) but has been on a general decline since then, the professor argued.

Writing in the journal Education and Health, Paton said that it is very difficult to establish a strong case that standard policy interventions have been at the root of such changes, according to Harris.

To illustrate his point, Paton explained that the all-time highest teen pregnancy rate was reached in 1996, just four years after the introduction of the Health of the Nation initiative that made contraception and information more readily available to young women.

Implicit (and sometimes explicit) in these approaches has been an assumption that access to family planning will reduce pregnancy rates amongst those teenagers who were already having sex but will not cause an increase in the proportion of all teenagers who engage in sexual activity, he wrote, according to the Daily Mail.

Standard economic models, however, suggest that the two factors are irretrievably interlinked. Easier access to family planning reduces the effective cost of sexual activity and will make it more likely (at least for some teenagers) that they will engage in underage sexual activity, he added. In conclusion, despite recent decreases in the overall underage conception rate, unwanted pregnancy amongst minors in England and Wales has proved remarkedly resilient to policy initiatives implemented by different Governments over the past 40 years.

Excerpt from:
Sex Education Does Little To Lower Teen Pregnancy Rates In The UK

HERNDON, Va., Aug.27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --K12 Inc., the nation's leading provider of proprietary curricula and online education programs for students in kindergarten through high school, today announced it has partnered with Cotati-Rohnert Park Unified School District in California's Sonoma County to launch a new, blended online learning program for high school students across the district.

(Logo:http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110113/PH29436LOGO)

Cotati-Rohnert Park Unified School District has designed a multi-faceted online learning program to address the individual needs of its diverse student population, from advanced learners, to struggling students, to students that require alternative learning environments. Eligible students can elect to take some of their required courses, or additional courses, online using the Aventa Learning by K12 curriculum.

Beginning this school year, the online courses are available to students during the daily class schedule and after school in two newly remodelled classrooms, now serving as a math support lab and an independent studies lab, or students can access Aventa courses from home. The District's teachers provide guidance, review and grade assignments, and ensure students remain on track. In addition, the District provides Aventa courses for independent study through its Alternative Education program.

"We see blended learning as the instructional model of the future," said Dr. Robert Haley, Superintendent of Cotati-Rohnert Park Unified School District. "By combining high quality online curricula with the guidance of our experienced teachers in a traditional setting, we are providing our students the best of both worlds."

Aventa is a comprehensive online curriculum of high-quality, standards-based online courses for middle and high school. Covering all core subjects and electives, over 170 Aventa courses feature a rich multimedia format. The curriculum is designed to meet the University of California a-g requirements.

For students who fall behind, need assistance for exam preparation, or remediation, the District uses the A+nyWhere Learning System by K12 (A+) to conduct diagnostic assessments and prescribe lessons according to individual student needs. A+ contains over 5,500 lessons and over 200,000 pages of research- and objective-based, problem solving content all very tightly aligned with the Common Core State Standards.

"We are very pleased be able to offer our high school students the option to learn anywhere, anytime using proven, well-known curricula from K12," said Dr. Elizabeth Kaufman, Assistant Superintendent of Cotati-Rohnert Park Unified School District. "K12 enables us to cost effectively provide a consistent, district-wide program so we can focus our attention on meeting the individual needs of more of our students."

"By maximizing use of their existing technology, leveraging their excellent teaching staff and relying on K12 for world class online curricula and support, Cotati-Rohnert Park Unified School District is better preparing their students for the future," said John Olsen, Executive Vice President of Operations for K12. "We are very pleased to work with the District to implement online learning on a large scale."

Cotati-Rohnert Park USD will soon expand its world language offering by providing access to online world language courses by Middlebury Interactive Languages, a joint venture that combines Middlebury College's proven language pedagogy with K12's expertise in online learning. Middlebury provides schools and districts with online courses in five world languages for grades 3-12, available in multiple levels to help students achieve world language fluency. Middlebury courses are developed using proven academic methods to meet national ACTFL standards.

Excerpt from:
Cotati-Rohnert Park Unified School District Launches District-Wide Blended Online Learning Program with K12 Inc.

GEORGETOWN

Many of these classes, events and meetings are sponsored by Georgetown Memorial Hospital, but some take place at different locations. Call the numbers listed for more information or visit http://www.georgetownhospitalsystem.org.

Chronic kidney disease education | Varying schedule, varying locations in Horry and Georgetown counties. Free. (866) 647-9396 or ultracare-dialysis.com/TOPS

Health screenings | Tuesdays, mall area, Georgetown Memorial Hospital; Thursdays, front lobby, Waccamaw Community Hospital. Finger-stick lipid profiles with blood sugar test: $20; diabetes screening-hemoglobin A1C: $15; blood sugar levels: $3. Free blood pressure screenings from 7:30 a.m. to noon. 546-0623

Community Health BLS-CPR | 6-9 p.m. Monday, Wachesaw Conference Center. $35. Pre-registration required, 520-8490 or online.

Obstetrics tour | 6 p.m. Monday, and Sept. 10, Georgetown Memorial Hospital. Pre-registration required, 520-8490.

Lecture: Current treatment Options for Arthritis of the Hip and Knee | noon Tuesday, Portofinos Restaurant, Georgetown. Free. Lunch provided. 520-7842 to reserve your seat.

Handle with Care | 6-8 p.m. Tuesday, education center, Georgetown Memorial Hospital campus. Free. Pre-registration required, 520-8490 or online.

Sibling Preparation class | 9-10:30 a.m. Thursday, education center, Georgetown Memorial Hospital campus. Free. Pre-registration required, 520-8490 or online.

Obstetrics tour | 6 p.m. Sept. 4, Waccamaw Community Hospital. Pre-registration required, 520-8490.

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Myrtle Beach area health events

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. (AP) -- Love and Pride held off heavily favored Royal Delta by a half-length Sunday in the $600,000 Personal Ensign Invitational Handicap at Saratoga Race Course.

Ridden by John Velazquez and trained by Todd Pletcher, Love and Pride ran 1 1/8 miles in 1:49.22 and paid $22, $6.70 and $3.50 for her third victory in seven starts this season.

''She's a filly that's kind of hinted she had one of those in her, and she's been real tricky to ride,'' Pletcher said. ''She doesn't respond well to an aggressive ride. Johnny gets along with her really well, and she showed up with a big performance today.''

Royal Delta returned $2.70 and $2.10, and It's Tricky paid $2.10 to show.

Royal Delta, the 2011 champion 3-year-old filly and winner of her last two races, bore out and lost momentum leaving the stretch turn. It's Tricky, winner of three straight races and second in the wagering, stumbled badly at the break and failed to fully recover.

''I had her in a pretty decent spot and the other horse kept pushing me to the outside and she got a little more aggressive,'' Velazquez said. ''I just waited there until we got to the three-eighths pole, and when I saw (It's Tricky) get through on the inside, it was time to go and she responded right away.''

Love and Pride earned $360,000 for the Green Hills Farm.

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Love and Pride wins Personal Ensign

NORMAL Heartland Community College leaders are excited about an initiative they think will make students more likely to stay in school and complete their degree by applying principles such as personal responsibility and belief in themselves.

Amy Munson, Heartlands vice president for student success, told the board of trustees earlier this week, We are not able to make them successful, but we can give them the tools to make themselves successful.

The program, called On Course, was developed by educator Skip Downing, who wrote On Course: Strategies for Creating Success in College and in Life.

Fifty faculty, staff and administrators participated in a three-day workshop led by Downing on the Heartland campus in January.

Although the original emphasis was on students in developmental classes those not ready for college-level work in all subjects the concept will be applied more broadly, Munson said.

Heartland leaders have modified a general studies course being offered this fall to incorporate Downings principles: personal responsibility, self-motivation, self-management, interdependence, self-awareness, lifelong learning, emotional intelligence and belief in self.

President Allen Goben said Downings principles fit well with Heartlands Guided Path to Success.

This fall semester, everybody is revved up because its time to test what weve been working on, Goben said.

He described the On Course strategy as a sequential way to interact with students and identify where there are problems. It could be a non-academic issue that is affecting their academic success, he said.

The idea is to point the student to where they can get help, whether its tutoring, counseling or other assistance, he explained.

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Heartland promotes new tools to help students find success