MACON, Ga., Aug. 22, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --MidCountry Financial Corp., a financial services holding company with organizations serving customers around the world, today celebrates its 10th anniversary of service and success. Founded August 20, 2002, MidCountry, headquartered in Macon, Ga., made its first acquisition that same month.

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Each company in the MidCountry Financial family is focused on a unique, niche market opportunity. The banking subsidiary, MidCountry Bank, provides community banking services through branches in southern Illinois, central Minnesota, and Las Vegas, Nevada. In addition, the Bank offers consumer loans in Minnesota through its MidCountry Finance division, investments through its MidCountry Investments subsidiary, mortgages through the MidCountry Mortgage division, and leases through MidCountry Equipment Finance, Inc. It also offers customers the benefit of insurance services through its wholly owned subsidiary Insurance Planners. Pioneer Services, the military banking division of MidCountry Bank, has been providing the military community with unsecured personal loans and award-winning financial education for more than 25 years. Heights Finance Corporation provides civilian consumers with consumer loans in small communities throughout Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, and Wisconsin.

"This 10th anniversary milestone speaks to the service, commitment, and dedication of today's 1,000-plus team members around the country," said Bob Hatcher, President and Chief Executive Officer of MidCountry Financial Corp., "and to the continued focus on our core values, doing what's best for customers, and giving back to the communities we serve."

MidCountry organizations have received numerous national and local awards over the last decade, including recognition for their commitment to corporate social responsibility, focus on financial education, commitment to the military community, as well as volunteerism and philanthropic leadership in their local communities and around the country. In 2011, the company was presented with the Torch Award for Marketplace Ethics from the Better Business Bureau (BBB) of Central Georgia.

MidCountry Financial Corp. is a financial services holding company with subsidiaries that deliver diversified financial services to targeted markets. Since 2002, its team members have been dedicated to building a high quality financial services organization respected by its constituencies, and characterized by a commitment to the values of integrity, fairness, honesty, excellence, and compassion. For more information, visit http://www.MidCountryFinancial.com.

Contact: Scott Cahill, Public Relations 816-756-2020

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MidCountry Financial Corp. celebrates 10 years of service and success

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA--(Marketwire -08/22/12)- Symantec Corp. (SYMC) today announced Symantec Data Loss Prevention, Symantec Control Compliance Suite and Symantec Endpoint Protection have achieved Federal Service for Technical and Export Control (FSTEK of Russia) certification.

The Federal Service for Technical and Export Control (FSTEK of Russia) is a federal body of executive authority responsible for implementing national policy, ensuring inter-departmental cooperation and coordination, and special and control functions in state security. According to FSTEK Order 58, a mandatory certification is required for the security products deployed for protecting the government confidential/classified information and/or personal data and information of restricted access. The personal data and information of highly confidential nature and of restricted access is categorized by FSTEK as K1-category personal data. Institutions and companies processing K1 personal data are required to use only NDF certified security technology. TU certification involves testing the product functionality to validate its compliance with technical conditions (black box testing) and NDF certification establishes the absence of undeclared capabilities in the product such as buffer overflows, debug passwords and covert channels (source code testing).

In addition, Symantec PGP Whole Disk Encryption has achieved CEGS/CAPS certification in the United Kingdom. CEGS, which operates as the National Technical Authority for Information Assurance (IA) for the UK's wider public sector (including the Health Service, law enforcement and local government) and the essential services that form the UK's Critical National Infrastructure (such as power and water), provides policy and assistance on the security of communications and electronic data, working in partnership with industry and academia in the United Kingdom.

These certifications enable governments to enact regulations intended to protected personal data. Compliance with personal data protection regulation is the responsibility of the organization, governmental or commercial, who store and process personal data. The compliance with these regulations is controlled via audits carried out by the government appointed entities. Symantec's certifications enable organizations to meet the requirements of compliance by using certified security products.

Symantec Control Compliance Suite, the company's enterprise-class IT governance, risk and compliance (GRC) solution, provides a comprehensive compliance and risk management solution that enables security leaders to communicate IT risk in business-relevant terms, prioritize remediation efforts based on business criticality, and automate time-consuming manual assessment processes to improve their organization's overall security and compliance posture while reducing cost and complexity. Symantec Data Loss Prevention solution delivers a proven, content-aware solution to discover, monitor, protect and manage confidential data wherever it is stored or used. It allows organizations to measurably reduce their risk of a data breach, demonstrate regulatory compliance and safeguard customer privacy, brand equity and intellectual property. Symantec Endpoint Protection solution provides integrated antivirus, antispyware, firewall, and intrusion prevention as well as device control and application control.

"With the increasing amount of data that exists in IT environments, it is essential that protections are in place to guard against intrusions from unauthorized users," said John Bordwine, chief technology officer of Symantec's Public Sector organization. "These certifications provide assurance that organizations like banks, telecommunications, and health companies that handle personal data are using technologies that uphold the standard of protecting critical personal data."

Symantec Corporation Worldwide Public Sector Enablement Program is committed to providing IT security products that provide significant value to private and public sector customers. As part of that program, Symantec is continuously improving its internal development efforts and business processes to ensure that it meets and/or exceeds requirements from Common Criteria, Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS), CEGS/CAPS, VPAT/Section 508, Security Technical Implementation Guide (STIG), Security Content Automation Program (SCAP), Federal Service for Technical and Export Control (FSTEK of Russia), and other local, state, government, and worldwide requirements. Additionally, Symantec maintains active participation in various government working groups and policy development organizations.

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About Symantec Symantec is a global leader in providing security, storage and systems management solutions to help consumers and organizations secure and manage their information-driven world. Our software and services protect against more risks at more points, more completely and efficiently, enabling confidence wherever information is used or stored. More information is available at http://www.symantec.com.

NOTE TO EDITORS: If you would like additional information on Symantec Corporation and its products, please visit the Symantec News Room at http://www.symantec.com/news. All prices noted are in U.S. dollars and are valid only in the United States.

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School district is offering Great Lakes Online Education program

by Dan Sanderson-Staff Writer

Wednesday, August 22, 2012 10:12 AM EDT

Home-schooled and parochial school students will be able to take advanced placement courses and students that don't do well in a traditional classroom setting will be able to take classes through a new online program offered by the Crawford AuSable School District.

The Crawford AuSable School District is rolling out a new online program called Great Lakes Online Education (GLOE).

Changes in federal and state education laws allow students to gain credit toward graduation by taking online courses.

One popular online education program claims it is non-profit and is a free virtual school. The program, however, collects state funding for the student, gained from the fourth Friday student count in September, but does not continue to mentor the students, said Brian Banda, the director for GLOE.

Often, students return to public schools, but the school district are not getting reimbursed for costs incurred.

"They're dropping the ball on these students once they receive the funding and that's our concern," Banda said. "We want to be able to provide that education for everyone."

Banda stressed that school officials want to keep students enrolled in the schools since the district has received high state and national recognition.

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School district is offering Great Lakes Online Education program

TORONTO, Aug. 22, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --A top online continuing education provider, eCornell delivers online professional and executive development programs to over 50,000 students worldwide in more than 200 countries. By partnering with Destiny Solutions, eCornell will transition from its homegrown enterprise system onto Destiny One, allowing the company to focus on the implementation of a strategic expansion plan, including curriculum development and corporate engagement.

"eCornell's unique approach to eLearning requires sophisticated software to administer students and manage programs throughout the customer lifecycle," said Rob Kingyens, Chief Technology Officer of eCornell. "By shifting away from our homegrown system and onto the Destiny One platform, we are able to focus our technology efforts on new product development and solutions that enhance the learning experience and engagement with our global customer base."

eCornell eLearning combines the most effective elements of a world-class, Ivy League classroom with the flexibility of an online learning environment. eCornell courses -- self-paced and 100 percent online -- are "instructor-facilitated" and "cohort centric" helping guide participants in each course through challenging, real-world exercises with practical on-the-job application. Destiny One will allow staff to manage the scheduling and capacity of courses while providing students with rich, contextual portals and the tools to track their progress to certificate completion.

Destiny One will also support and streamline eCornell's direct and online sales to both retail and corporate customers, which occur locally and through a network of international resellers. Furthermore, the solution will fully integrate with the organization's financial, customer relationship, and learning management systems.

"eCornell is an award-winning leader in online professional certificates in a wide variety of business disciplines," said Shaul Kuper, President and CEO of Destiny Solutions. "Destiny One will enable eCornell to reimagine its market potential and provide organizational agility to further accelerate growth and streamline operations."

For more information on Destiny One, please visit: http://www.destinysolutions.com/product/destinyone-overview

About Destiny Solutions

Destiny Solutions is the leading innovator of lifelong learning business solutions. Since 2001, Destiny Solutions has delivered breakthrough technology designed exclusively to meet the divergent needs of non-traditional higher education. Our flagship product, Destiny One, is the only business solution that offers integrated constituent, enrollment and administrative management on a single software platform so educators can grow revenue, enhance student experience and success, and improve operational efficiency.

For more information, please visit: http://www.destinysolutions.com.

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eCornell Partners With Destiny Solutions to Further Accelerate Growth and Streamline Operations

KALISPELL, Mont. -

FWP officials in Northwest Montana are reminding folks that online registration is now required for many towns holding hunter education courses. FWP officials say online registration helps streamline the process, allowing students to register on their own time.

The process also allows people to pick up a manual and other pre-course materials at an FWP office without attending an orientation session. FWP staff say folks without access to a computer can stop by a library or an FWP office to sign up.

Some classes required online registration last year, and this year online registration is required for virtually all the local classes in Northwest Montana, including courses in Kalispell, Bigfork and Polson.

Folks looking to find more info on registration and classes can visit http://fwp.mt.gov. Everyone born after January 1, 1985 is required to take a course before obtaining a hunting license.

Copyright 2012 by KECI, KCFW, KTVM. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Online registration kicks off for hunter education courses

When I was living in Arizona a few years ago, I lived within walking distance of a yoga school. For a few months, I attended class a couple times a week and loved it. Since then, I've wanted to get back into yoga, but cost and scheduling prohibited it.

The solution comes in the form of Pocket Yoga, which gives you a good, basic yoga workout on an iOS device. While you can use it on the iPhone, it's best suited to the iPad. You also can use the AirPlay support to transmit it to an Apple TV.

Pocket Yoga has three practices that can be done for 30 minutes, 45 minutes or an hour. There's an extensive library of poses to check out if you're not familiar with them, and two sun salutation routines. The poses are represented by a cartoon avatar with a voiceover narrating the workout. Whoever did Pocket Yoga's narration did a fantastic job, for it and the accompanying music are easy to listen to during the workout. If you don't care for the default soundtrack, you can customize it using tracks from your music library.

One of the things that Pocket Yoga lacks is the ability to do shorter exercises. I'd love to see a 15-minute version of the main exercises. I'd also like to see the example poses be animated to help beginners along. It won't take the place of a good yoga class, but it's a great supplement if you want to workout on your own.

Pocket Yoga is on sale for $1.99. If you're a pro and want to build your own practices, Pocket Yoga - Practice Builder is $4.99. Or this week, head to Starbucks and pick up a promo card to download Pocket Yoga - Practice Builder for free as part of its "Pick of the Week" program.

Developer Sergio Tacconi said that Starbucks picking Pocket Yoga - Practice Builder happened to be a coincidence. "The original app was created mostly at Starbucks," he said, "since I didn't have an office for the first year I was starting this venture."

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Daily iPad App: Pocket Yoga channels your inner yogi

"Im wiser for being out of the game. I did find it frustrating. I only went to one game during the first year of the ban, and then in the next two years, almost every weekend was spent watching rugby. I love the game.

It is reasonable to assume, too, that just as Richardss love affair with the sport has not diminished, that he too will be held in the same degree of affection as he was before Harlequins wing, Tom Williams, was instructed to bite into a blood capsule to feign injury to get Harlequins kicker, Nick Evans, back on the field. Richards accepts, though, that some will not find it easy to forgive.

If people want to say something, then fine. Ive served my time, done my three years, and thats it, said Richards. If some feel it should have been longer, so be it. Some might feel it should have been less. Ive never been one for the public eye. Its just good to be back in rugby.

Richards intends to move his family to the North East from Surrey. He has no qualms about starting rugby life again in the Championship, a familiar start of affairs given that he took over at Harlequins in 2005 after they had been relegated.

The difference this time is that there is a top four play-off system in the Championship rather than the first-past-the-post system that was in place seven years ago and which saw Quins bounce straight back up.

Its not a set-back for me to be in the Championship, not at all, said Richards who won praise for the way the perceived one-time toffs of the professional game, Quins, conducted themselves in the lower league.

Newcastle were bottom of the pile when I signed. We could go through the season being disrespectful and thinking its a job to be done and thats it. Or the boys can go out and really enjoy the experience. I fell in love with the area when I came up here and I share the vision, too, of owner, Semore Kurdi.

The Falcons will be better equipped than most to tilt for promotion. They have kept a fair chunk of the squad intact and have been boosted by international signings such as Scotland scrum-half Rory Lawson and Italy lock Carlo del Fava.

The RFU on Tuesday announced a four-year funding deal for the Championship, starting at 300,000 p.a for each of the 12 clubs dependent on them fielding 15 England-qualified players in a match-day squad, rising to 380,000 in 2015-16.

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Dean Richards has 'huge regrets' over Bloodgate as he prepares for coaching return with Newcastle

Published: Tuesday, August 21, 2012 at 8:45 p.m. Last Modified: Tuesday, August 21, 2012 at 8:45 p.m.

Rather than pop a pill to alleviate anxiety or spend thousands of dollars on therapies that might never heal a fractured soul, lesser-traveled paths exist that offer more affordable services to "lift the veil" and lead one to optimum mental and physical health.

Some of these alternative options are flourishing in Winter Haven.

The Center for Personal Growth, 151 Second St. SW, offers workshops and private consultations in endeavors in self-discovery, such as life coaching, hypnotherapy, meditation, law of attraction and breath work.

Owner Cara Hewett, a licensed mental health counselor, is trained in cognitive and behavioral therapy. As a psychotherapist, Hewett said she felt that talk therapy, based on a model of change-your-thoughts-and-your-behavior-will-change, was missing a spiritual component.

"By spiritual component, I don't necessarily mean religion," Hewett said. "I mean the soulfulness, the higher self."

Hewett said she wanted to create a conscious community and to connect with other like-minded people. Like a pebble dropped in a pond, Hewett's hope is that the center, which opened three years ago, has a rippling effect on individuals, families and businesses and that will ultimately change the local community as a whole.

"My goal is to create a place where people learn and have wisdom about themselves and their relationships their purpose in life," she said. "I think that if I can be that resource for that, we're going to have an incredible community."

Workshops, at a cost of $10 to $25 each, are facilitated by Hewett and a network of "healing facilitators," including Jai Maa, one of the center's teachers, whose qualifications include being a licensed hypnotherapist and life coach with a doctorate in metaphysics and spirituality.

Born and raised in Auburndale, Lacey Nagy, who goes by Jai Maa, now lives in Gainesville and travels to Winter Haven to teach the Enlightenment Series, which includes various workshops covering alternative topics, such as the law of attraction, EFT tapping and ho'oponopono.

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Winter Haven Practitioners Offer Metaphysical Services

Colt Ford (Photo by Rick Diamond/Getty Images)

As of August 18th, Colt Fords new album Declaration of Independenceis the best selling Country Music album in the nation (Nielsen Soundscan). However,what a soundscan wont reveal, is how Colt Ford managed to get to the top without any radio airtime or support from Country music stations across the nation.

Posing this very question at Chuck Dauphin, editor at Music News Nashville during a #CMchat twitter discussion panel hosted by social blogger Jessica Northey from Finger Candy Media, I got the following response:

If youre new to Colt Ford and you happen to add Declaration of Independence to your digital music library youll quickly find out that he is independently signed with Average Joes Entertainment, his very own label. The genre assigned to this album is Country & Folk, while it probably should be Country & Rap due to the fact that Colt uses spoken word to express himself musically. In an interview held in April of 2010,Colt was asked about the cross-over genre Country-Rap. He was quite blunt about his answer and insisted that he doesnt really like the term country/rap. A lot of people think thats negative where I think theyre confused at, rap is not a genre. Hip-hop is a genre

Since then, rap has influenced many different country stars as well. In fact, Toby Keiths big hit Talk About Me, which includes a spoken word segment, was one of the audience favorites when Toby performed at the San Manuel Amphitheater in Devore, CA last week. Some of artists close to Colt have actually gone ahead and cut his tracks on their own albums. The most successful example is Dirt Road Anthem currently one of Jason Aldeans biggest hits.

Colt Fords success cannot be traced back to Jasons support alone. Other artist on his fresh new album include Jake Owen, Darius Rucker, LoCash Cowboys, Jerrod Niemann, Luke Bryan and Dierks Bentley-all of which not only collaborated with him musically, but also supported Colts marketing strategies most avidly. In a way that is the second reason that makes Colt such a smart guy (borrowing Chuck Daughins tweet once again.) Colt has always been a master in the art of social media marketing and getting fans hyped up about his upcoming releases, shows and exclusive content. Seeing it from one of his die-hard twitter followers perspective, theres hardly anything more exciting than @ColtFord tweeting a thank you note celebrating his No. 1 success.

Colt was not the first artist to fuse a formulaic music genre with hip hop. Many artist had done it before him. Kid Rock, for instance was one of the first pioneers of cross-over rock. In fact he has become so popular that just recently hes managed to make his mark in classical music as well. (Read about how he helped the Detroit Symphony out of a massive slump.) Other artists like Everlast (Whitney Ford) actually crossed over from hip hop to start a career in acoustic blues-rock, using rap as their musical form of expression. While not literally crossing-over Colt found his influences in hip-hop as well. In the same 2010 interview he states I grew up listening to country, so I knew about that. And then, like a lot of kids, I Iiked a lot of the hip-hop stuff. I liked Run-DMC and a lot of different genres, and for me to make a recored, I had to be honest.

In an interview with Detroits 99.5 WYCD, Colt discusses the authenticity of his music. Its just so personal for me, he says of Back. Really, that song is my life right there in front of you. Everything in that story is real. The honest representation of reality he refers to is easily found in his lyrics and the content of his songs, which constitutes the third reason behind his success. The lyrical flow speaks to his young audience, who have artists like LMFAO and Chris Brown on their mp3 playlists along with Colt Ford and Blake Shelton. However, inviting artists to collaborate with him isnt always easy. When asked about this new track Black featuring Jake Owen, Colt mentions that it took quite a bit of convincing Jakes label, that this was indeed the right move.

In spite of the fact that he remains unsupported by radio stations and airplay, he found his way to the top harvesting the genuine friendships with artists like Jake Owen and Jason Aldean. He was carried by the support of his fans using guerilla marketing strategies and the power of social media. Perhaps the story of his success is spinning a larger tale about the future of radio and the art of marketing music in general. Putting it plainly: Its always nice to hear country artists on the radio, but their exposure on Facebook and Twitter directly effects the measure of their success.

Find out when Colt Ford is coming to your city!

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The 3 Reasons Behind Colt Ford’s Success As New Album Becomes #1 Best Seller

SILICON VALLEY, Calif., Aug. 21, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- NessComputing, a California-based startup that is making search personal, today announced the completion of a $15M round of Series B funding led by SingTel Innov8, and including participation from American Express Ventures. The investment supports Ness' continued development of its search technology, a "Likeness Engine" that curates personalized recommendations based on people's tastes and preferences.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120821/LA60500)

The company also announced an update with robust new features to their first product the Ness Dining Guide, a restaurant search and discovery iPhone app. Ness' personal "Likeness Score" predicts how much a customer will like a restaurant based on their unique preferences, making it easier to find a place they'll enjoy. The latest release adds restaurant reservations via OpenTable, as well as hundreds of thousands of menus including prices.

With this round of funding, Ness will incorporate additional user preference signals from new social platforms into its technology, and will expand to new verticals by applying its "Likeness Engine to personal search and discovery for nightlife, events, movies, shopping and more. The company will also continue to build its team of top engineers and computer scientists in systems and interface engineering and machine learning.

Ness' technology learns an individual's taste preferences and combines this with signals from their social networks -- including Facebook, Foursquare and Instagram -- to deliver personalized recommendations. Launched in August 2011 with $5M in funding, Ness users have already generated over 3 million ratings, and the app includes more than 5 million Instagram images for restaurants.

"We want to help people experience more of what they love by understanding why they love the things they do," said Corey Reese, Co-Founder and CEO of Ness. "By enhancing our core technology, we can improve our understanding of what customers are expressing about themselves, and turn that information into something truly valuable for making decisions."

"Ness Computing is developing a platform at the intersection of social, local, and mobile data and paving the way to transform mobile discovery with personalized recommendations," said Managing Director of SingTel Innov8, Jeff Karras. "We are thrilled to be working with the talented and passionate team at Ness."

"American Express is impressed by Ness' vision to create great products that better serve consumers," said Harshul Sanghi, Managing Partner, American Express Ventures. "As Ness evolves and the commerce landscape changes, we believe their preference-based search engine has the potential to deliver differentiated value to merchants and consumers alike."

In July 2011, Ness announced a $5M Series A round of financing led by Vinod Khosla and Ramy Adeeb of Khosla Ventures with participation from Alsop Louie Partners (the original seed investor in the company), TomorrowVentures, Bullpen Capital, a co-founder of Palantir Technologies, and several angel investors. An affiliate of the LeFrak Organization also participated in the most recent round.

About Ness Computing

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Ness Computing Announces $15M Round Of Series B Funding