A Face Is Worth 1,000 Words: Reporters and Congressional Insider Trading

U S CapitolLet’s have a review, shall we?

What is traditional insider trading?

According to the very clear definition offered by Wikipedia, insider trading is “the trading of a corporation’s stock or other securities (e.g. bonds or stock options) by individuals with potential access to non-public information about the company.”

Then, what is so-called “Congressional insider trading?”

According to legal analyst Dace Martinez on a recent Fox News report,

“…while Congress [isn’t] a corporate insider, per se, they do have insider information that they’re obtaining in confidential briefings and private hearings, where they’re finding out for example…where the FDA is about to give regulatory authority for a new drug to go on the market…or that a defense contractor is about to receive a large appropriate to build some sort of weapon.  And when you have that kind of information, and you use it to buy and sell stocks, you can be highly successful as you might imagine.”

If you’ve been keeping up on your current events, then you know that “congressional insider trading” has been a problem.  So much so that several attempts to regulate it with bills to make this practice illegal have evolved since 2008 into the current bill called the STOCK Act.

Interestingly, however, this bill only had nine co-sponsors until 60 Minutes did a story on the practice revealing a history of patterns wherein congressional leaders heard about market opportunities, made stock purchases, then made short-term large profits from said actions.  After the story hit, NPR reported the bill had 61 co-sponsors…and counting.

I recently watched this particular re-cap on Fox News because the daughter of one of our authors is Dace Martinez, the legal analyst I mentioned earlier.  Actually, I watched it twice.

I watched a second time because I noticed that when asked the question as to whether, “…you think this is illegal?” Martinez paused, closed her eyes, and her mouth twitched in a very slight smile.  She then answered, “You know…I think there is sufficient ambiguity in the law that congress needs to clear it up.”

A pretty classy answer, considering the highly un-classy topic. Continue reading A Face Is Worth 1,000 Words: Reporters and Congressional Insider Trading

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The Old is Brand New: Urban Agrarian Opens in Farmer’s Market

It feels good to be in the Farmer's Market District again. Thanks, Urban Agrarian.

I’m going to tell you a little story about how you might achieve that “all is right with the world” feeling.  Pay attention because the instructions are specific.

First, you need to drive to the new Urban Agrarian storefront location at 1235 SW 2nd.  It’s important the trip is planned sometime between Wednesday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.  Otherwise, you’ll miss that good feeling I’m telling you about…well, because the doors will be closed.

Once you pull up to the old Farmer’s Market Building and see the “Urban Agrarian” signage outside, you’ll already begin to understand what I’m trying to describe.

Hanging from the ceiling above the wooden entrance and walkway, words like “Meats,” “Greens,” or “Jams” let you know a bit of what you’ll find inside.  Those featured products and so much more greet you when you swing open the door and step at once both back in time, and into the future. Continue reading The Old is Brand New: Urban Agrarian Opens in Farmer’s Market

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On the Horizon: Water for Everyone

Here in the United States, we take water for granted. We turn on a faucet, out comes water. Flush a toilet, more water. Need to wash your clothes, not a problem. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case in a lot of the world. In many places, water, while being a necessity, isn’t an on-hand commodity. Many times, it has to be lugged from a well that could be a mile or two away…daily. There isn’t running water in the home or even close to the home. Women and children are the main people who have to do the lugging as part of their daily life. A lot of times this means that some children can’t even go to school because they have to help bring water to their home which could mean many trips to the well with whatever container they have to haul it in. It’s not a picture we like to think about but one we really shouldn’t ignore.

I wasn’t really crazy about going to do a story on the demonstrations being done about how to dig water wells in other countries. It was a very cold morning and I didn’t know what to expect. What I found was a group of people who were very dedicated to solving the world’s water crisis. They were very passionate about it and many of them had seen first-hand just how bad the need really is. My heart became softened as I realized just how big the problems really is and how many people it affects…especially children. Without clean drinking water, many children become sick and die. It’s a shame really because the need is really about the ability to drill for water and filtrate it to make it clean.

And that’s what this week’s video blog is about, some solutions to drill for water and clean it up in remote areas and as one person put it, available clean water equals people freed up to go to school and learn equals peace in the world. All because of clean, drinking water. My hope is for you to realize the need and that you, too, can help.

Soma no prescription needed overnight ~Alisa Hines

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Within the World of Cyber-Predatorism, Hulu Just Got a Brownie Point

HuluLast year Hulu was recognized by “taking bold steps to charge for internet content.”  I was personally bummed out a bit by this move because I monitor TV and movie content for illustrations to use in my classroom.  A lot.

The day finally had to happen.  I wanted to teach a concept that was so richly illustrated in a recent TV clip I had seen that I decided to subscribe to Hulu and just keep track of my subscription fees.  Was it worth $96 per year to have access to most of the clips I needed to make a point? Maybe.  I was definitely going to give it a try.

However, I didn’t need Hulu that much, and found myself only accessing its content about once every eight weeks or so.  Not enough, I decided, to warrant the continued $7.99 monthly transactions on my debit card.  So, I just signed in to cancel my subscription…and got a surprise.

Not only was the cancellation process quick, the “reasons why you are leaving” survey were derived from real life; not construed with corporate-speak to help them feel better about losing cash.

But the real kicker?  As soon as I hit the “cancel” button, a screen popped up and let me know that a prorated amount of $6.20 would be credited to my bank account for the portion of the month I had not used.

What?  I’m sorry…WHAT?

I have never experienced a prorated return on any internet-based subscription. Of Anything!

Do they have consumer behaviorists working for them?  I’m wondering because now, after seeing that nice gesture on their part, I’m re-thinking my decision.  Perhaps I could use the content a bit more.  Maybe they have content I could use instead of my standard Netflix online streaming habit.

Maybe…they just did a really smart thing.

 

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University FAQs About the World of S-E-X

Photo and project by Kate Dollarhyde

http___www.bigleaguekickball.com_category_press_ cheap discount online soma Note – the content in this post is consistent with a PG-13 rating.  Thanks.

I’ve been teaching “Human Sexuality and the Family” for four years and I still find myself surprised about what seems to surprise my students.

Thinking back to my predisposed assumptions regarding what students would, or would not, think through out loud in the classroom now seems ridiculous to me.

For some reason, I honestly believed college students were more sexually savvy than what I now know them to be.  Perhaps this was because of the overt and raucous behavior I would occasionally witness among groups hanging out together on campus, cracking jokes and making continuous, “That’s what she said” interjections.

Perhaps, my misconceptions were because of insecurities on my own part.  It could be that I was intimidated by their attempts to be intimidating…attempts to set up defenses so strongly reinforced that my own fears would keep me at bay from helping them learn what they were afraid to discover.

This group behavior I mentioned, however, tended toward simply masking the struggles and insecurities of thousands of young academics finding their way to adulthood – the majority of whom have little ease or comfort when it comes to really processing their own learning about human sexuality.

I thought it might be helpful to pass along some of the most tangential questions students tend to dwell on over and over.  Understanding what students in their early 20s think about, find curious to discover, or debate about in the classroom could be helpful for our society to continue a dialogue that students seem willing to have.  Therefore, I’ve prepared a few points drawn only from my single perspective in one classroom about who, what, and how sexuality is deconstructed and then reconstructed throughout a semester.

Students are highly curious about the “next life stage” and what that might mean for them and an intimate partner.

The idea of being in a committed relationship and what that might mean sexually is a curious thing for students.  They wonder how they will negotiate long-term birth control decisions.  They wonder what is fair and not fair about Continue reading University FAQs About the World of S-E-X

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