tagged w/ raise
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Film Producer, Consultant, and Teacher Norman C. Berns explains the long road it truly is to bring a cinematic vision to screen. http://www.baselineintel.com/research-wrap?detail/C8/marking_time_in_making_filmsFilm Producer, Consultant, and Teacher Norman C. Berns explains the long road it truly... more
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Independent Film Finance Consultant Louise Levison explains why a business plan for your film is necessary when seeking money from investors.Independent Film Finance Consultant Louise Levison explains why a business plan for... more
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Film Finance Attorney, Author, and Lecturer John Cones explains the important elements to consider when using finders to raise investment capital for your film.Film Finance Attorney, Author, and Lecturer John Cones explains the important elements... more
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Film Producer, Consultant, and Teacher Norman C. Berns explains how to put together a well-crafted and tightly-focused pitch deck for meetings with investors.Film Producer, Consultant, and Teacher Norman C. Berns explains how to put together a... more
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Independent Film Finance Consultant Louise Levison explains the fundamentals of how to deal with equity investors when raising money for your...Independent Film Finance Consultant Louise Levison explains the fundamentals of how to... more
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Film Producer, Consultant, and Teacher Norman C. Berns explains why it is critical to approach film investors only after you know how your project will solve their needs.Film Producer, Consultant, and Teacher Norman C. Berns explains why it is critical to... more
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Film Producer, Consultant, and Teacher Norman C. Berns explains the basics of what you must do for an investor to take you seriously as a film producer.Film Producer, Consultant, and Teacher Norman C. Berns explains the basics of what you... more
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Specialty Film Researcher Jeremy Juuso explains why a well researched business plan minimizes the risk of money being lost out of the gate due to sheer ignorance or incompetence.Specialty Film Researcher Jeremy Juuso explains why a well researched business plan... more
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The Senate voted Thursday to block the annual cost-of-living adjustment for members of Congress in 2011.
The measure (S 3244), sponsored by Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., passed by voice vote. It would continue a congressional pay freeze in place for 2010. According to Feingold, the normal cost-of-living adjustment would give senators a $1,600 raise in the 2011 calendar year.
"Not many Americans have the power to give themselves a raise whenever they want, no matter how they are performing," Feingold said, "Yet Congress has set up a system whereby every year members automatically get a pay increase without having to lift a finger."
Senators standing on the floor when Feingold called up his bill quickly asked to added as cosponsors of the measure. With the nation's unemployment rate hovering near 10 percent, few want to be seen as reaching for a pay increase.
President Obama's proposed budget for fiscal 2011 would allow a $2 million increase in spending on salaries for lawmakers, but House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., indicated shortly after the budget came out that his chamber was likely to retain the current pay freeze for 2011.
Rank-and-file members receive annual salaries of $174,000. Top leaders get more.
Feingold pledged Thursday to push the House to consider his measure, while indicating that his long-term goal remains ending the automatic increases permanently.
"I'll keep fighting so that in the future the burden will be on those who want a pay raise, not on those who want to block one, to pass legislation," he said.The Senate voted Thursday to block the annual cost-of-living adjustment for members... more
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An estimated 15,000 teachers and union workers from throughout Illinois descended Wednesday on the state Capitol, chanting "raise my taxes" in an attempt to pressure Gov. Pat Quinn and lawmakers to avoid major budget cuts.
But the biggest Capitol rally since the era of the Equal Rights Amendment more than a quarter-century ago met the reality of a jittery General Assembly where lawmakers are leery of voting for a tax increase in an election year and lurching toward an early exit from Springfield as soon as May 7.
Local teachers at the rally included Lisa Lafrank, of Collinsville.
"It gives me goose bumps," said Lafrank, a second-year special education teacher who is bracing for a second round of layoff notices at her school district. "You realize there are so many other organizations facing the same cuts and have the same problem."
Henry Bayer, who heads the largest union covering state employees, warned lawmakers "if you try to leave town without doing your job, we're going to chase you."
"These 177 people who have a job don't want to do their job," said Bayer, executive director of Council 31 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. "Yes, people are hurting. That's why we need a tax increase."
But what exactly that job is has 177 different definitions in the House and Senate, and the signs of any income tax proposal passing the legislature this spring are hard to find.
Quinn is out front pushing his 33 percent increase in the income tax rate, but he's mostly alone. Many lawmakers don't want to take more money out of people's wallets as unemployment remains high in Illinois, while groups that get tax money say Quinn's proposed tax hike isn't big enough to help bridge a deficit that's expected to reach $13 billion if nothing is done.
Complicating the matter is that Quinn faces Republican state Sen. Bill Brady of Bloomington in this fall's race for governor, and Brady is taking the position that no tax increase is needed.
ShiAnne Shively, union president for the teachers of Highland District 5, said in six years of attending Lobby Day in Springfield she had never seen such a turnout. Standing at the Capitol beside her superintendent, Mike Sutton, she said they were all concerned about money in a year that saw 20 of their fellow teachers and 20 more staffers laid off.
"I believe the message is very clear here today that we need a budget that will work for Illinois, save our schools and our public service programs," Shively said.
Read more: http://www.bnd.com/2010/04/22/1226118/ralliers-cry-raise-my-taxes.html#ixzz0lrKC0UT4An estimated 15,000 teachers and union workers from throughout Illinois descended... more
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Has a cost hike by a health insurer in California given new life to the Democratic healthcare-reform legislation in Washington?
But the decision by WellPoint to raise rates for some California customers by as much as 39 percent has given top Democrats a perceived villain they can rally supporters against.
Calling the WellPoint decision “reckless,” Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D) of Nevada on Thursday said it showed why healthcare reform is needed.
“We don’t have to let greedy health-insurance executives drag down our future,” Senator Reid said.
President Obama made a similar point, using less-harsh language, at his Tuesday press conference. Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of Health and Human Services, said Thursday that “it remains difficult to understand” how such premium increases could be justified when WellPoint reported a $4.75 billion profit in the last quarter of 2009.
Earlier this week, Secretary Sebelius ordered a federal probe of the increase. A subcommittee of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce scheduled a hearing on the rate hike for Feb. 24, and it asked WellPoint’s chief executive officer, Angela Braly, to appear.
Mr. Obama has asked Republicans to join him and Democratic leaders in a televised conference on healthcare on Feb. 25.
WellPoint defends the hikes as a prudent business move. In a letter to Sebelius, Brian Sassi, head of WellPoint’s consumer business unit, said that because of the recession, healthy people are dropping insurance or opting for cheaper plans. That lowers premium revenues, reducing the amount of money available to cover claims from those who remain.
WellPoint overall may have made money, but the unit that sells individual policies to people who don’t get insurance through employers lost money, Mr. Sassi said.
In addition, he said, insurance rates are going up because health costs are continuing to rise.
The increase is probably actuarially defensible, writes health-insurance industry consultant Bob Laszewski in his popular health-policy blog. But it is also a real-life example of what happens when national healthcare spending takes up a bigger and bigger share of the economy.
“When the day is done this probably says more about why systemic health care reform is so critical than about any one company’s behavior,” writes Mr. Laszewski.Has a cost hike by a health insurer in California given new life to the Democratic... more
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In Vancouver thousands of people who have been touched by breast cancer banded together over the weekend to take a stand against the disease.
In Vancouver thousands of people who have been touched by breast cancer banded... more
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