Legal Rebels - Ross Essay Contest Winner Announced - Image by vpickering via Flickr

The Ross Essay Contest has annouced a winner for its 2010 Legal Rebels Essay Contest.

Kirk Halpin of the Law Offices of Kirk Halpin & Associates, P.A. has been selected the winner. The contest is a national contest that is open to all solo practitioners and that are members of the American Bar Association (ABA) in good standing.

The contest started over 75 years ago in 1934, as a result of a bequest made by the late Judge Erskine M Ross from Los Angeles. 2010 was the first year the contest was tied in with the Journal’s Legal Rebels project.

The topic this year for the essay was “What innovation will be most valuable to you in your future practice as a solo practitioner?”

Mr. Halpin’s winning essay described an integrated system that will allow for: 1) customized daily telephone greetings based on the contents of the user’s daily electronic calendar, 2) the ability for the voicemail message to change automatically based on the activities in the calendar, 3) the ability for clients to schedule appointments via this system, and 4) the ability to use a social networking site to know when others that you are connected with are available in order to minimize voicemail phone tag.

The ABA Journal’s  weekly newsletter will publish the winning essay and it will also be online at www.LegalRebels.com

What Is Normal? - The New Normal, A Paradigm Shift In Global Investing - Image via Wikipedia

What is the new normal?

Worldbridge Publishing gives a picture of how your views shape your world, and how does it shape your investment stratigies. If your liberal, they say the lefts dedication to government spending seems to dictate apathy on the part of the investor. But if your conservative they say the Right’s incessant doomsaying sees to dictate abdication from productive investment. the flight to gold dna guns, the ultimate retreat: behind the walls of a fortress.

They say that investing in what they are calling the new normal gives an alternate view of the landscape. The new normal looks at the hard facts of banking, credit, assets and money. One has to look at the world and see it for what it actually is. Check yourself and see how much your views affect how you see the future.

In any economy there are opportunities that are available if your eyes are open to seeing them and your not afraid to pull the trigger.

Is the new normal for you? That’s something you’ll have to decide for yourself.

Decision Maker Database - Reach The Key People And Stop Wasting Your Time - Image by SheepGuardingLlama via Flickr

Uzurp, a company based in Wilminton, Delaware has announced that they have added a new database of Broker Dealers to their line of databases. Based in Wilmington Delaware, Uzurp has databases for Registered Investment Advisors and the new Broker Dealer database.

They say their new database will help users find the best fit in a broker dealer. Information provided will include full contact information of the key person your wanting to contact.

“No matter what type of business you have, when it comes to teaming up with a Broker Dealer, you need to be able to reach the decision-makers,” explains Christopher Joyce, CEO of Joyce Co., the private equity company launching Uzurp (www.Uzurp.com). “But if you do it the old-fashioned way, by searching through SEC files for names and contact information, the process can become quite time-consuming and overwhelming.”

Uzurp says this database will save time and allow search specific searches for business type, ownership, location and affiliates. It will also provide data on the owners, and key people so you can reach the ones that make decisions.The database includes over 4,500 broker dealers.

“Any time you can use an effective and comprehensive tool like our Broker Dealer database, it just makes good business sense,” adds Joyce. “It’s affordable, it saves you time, and streamlines the entire process.”

Legalized Marijuana - Is Its Prohibition Unconstitutional? - Image via Wikipedia

Will marijuana soon be legalized everywhere? Haom Rogh thinks so and documents his findings in his new book which is titled after a case called U. S. v. Yerbas.

“The only reason cannabis has been outlawed this long is that people don’t know its true story,” says the book’s author, Hoam Rogh. He brought an earlier version a few months out ago, but decided to take a different direction once a major distributor came along.

The case of the U.S. versus Yerbas was a trial in federal court. According to Mr. Rogh, the case ruled against the prohibition of cannabis or marijuana and that prohibiting marijuana is unconstitutional.

“He wrote a great book, but the presentation chilled many potential readers,” says James Liam, CEO of Shady House Publishing Company, the work’s publisher. It believes that for the injustice to end as soon as possible the lessons from the book need to reach as many people as possible. Shady House Publishing Company retired the fair use parody of the “Assassins of Youth” propaganda movie poster and came up with a more direct title and cover.

It doesn’t end there. The people at Shady House Publishing are organizing 4/20 Flood. “We want to take our activism to a whole new level,” says Rogh. He wants people to take what they learned from the Case of US v. Yerbas and hold Congress accountable. 4/20 Flood has a tag line, “If 1 million people tell Congress they’re not criminals, will Washington D.C. listen?”

So will marajuana soon be legal in a town near you? We’ll have to wait and see.

Nexus NX32H60 - HDTV For The Hotel Industry - Image via Wikipedia

Hotels have been supplying HDTV to their customer base for quite awhile now. Do people who stay at hotels and motels make their choice based on the amenities the hotel supplies?

CTL’s Nexus division, has just released a new HDTV designes specifically for the hotel industry. This is the first HDTV that has been made for this specific industry. The new NX32H60 HDTV is a model that has been made to serve the unique aspects and needs of the hotel marketplace.

The NX32H60 has what Nexus calls a Hotel Feature Pack. The Feature Pack includes RS232 terminals, a stand that swivels, and a USB clone. The USB clone is and interesting add on. It provides easy and quick set up for the hotel. Hotel staff can do initial set up and then transfer those settings from a master Nexus TV to an unlimited number of sets that are identical all at the same time. This in itself cculd saves hours of time programming individual sets. Some of the settings that can be transferred from the master set are channel mapping, volume settings and the intial start up channel.

“The Nexus NX32H60 is CTL’s first HDTV dedicated to the Hospitality industry. This 32″ HDTV features a robust Hotel Feature Pack that addresses the unique needs of this industry. Nexus has successfully partnered with hotels previously, and with the NX32H60 we will be expanding our offering and influence in this arena,” says Gary Welk, Director of Development for CTL and Nexus.

The Nexus NX32H60 meets the Energy Star requirements. It comes with digital audio output, VGA input 3 HDMI inputs, composite and component inputs and a feature that allows the hotel to set the maximum volume on the unit and lock menu settings.

Healthcare Law - Stratford Fidelity Poised with New CEO and President - Image by doug88888 via Flickr

Stratford Fidelity who recently separated from Integrated Healthcare Strategies, has announced a change in leadership. Bill Palmer was the former CEO and left the company when the separation took place. He was replaced by Tom Walberg who is the new President and CEO.

Stratford Fidelity is  a company that works with health care professionals, offering benefit solutions.

Tom Wamberg has been in the financial services industry for over 30 years. He has served in many roles. President of the 25 Million Dollar Forum, a member of the American Society of Pension Actuaries and a FASB subcommittee, chairman of the Nonqualified Benefit Plan Committee and Legislative Task Force.

Mr. Wamberg also was the Chairman and CEO of Clark Consulting, a firm focused on working with companies  to keep their key people through benefits, funding solutions, and integrated compensation.

Mr. Wamberg has written many articles and is author of a book “The Theory and Practice of Bank Owned Life Insuratnce.

“Stratford Fidelity is poised for strong growth in the midst of a rapidly changing healthcare marketplace. Our talent and expertise in delivering comprehensive solutions for our clients is being met with increased demand, and we will continue to be a leader in providing benefits to physicians, executives and healthcare professionals,” said Tom Wamberg, CEO and President.

Salary Surveys - Reach Small and Medium Sizes Enterprises - Image by ynse via Flickr

The Employer Associations of America (EAA) members now have the opportunity to be able to reach out to both small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). In the past, survey providers only focused their efforts on large companies and provided only surveys on a national level.

Dr. Pawan Singh, a compensation survey expert and the CEO of PeriscopeIQ delivered this message in Philadelphia at the 2010 Fall CEO Conference.

“Today’s SME market is underserved due to inadequate benchmark job designs and job descriptions, limited job matching guidance, sample size issues and poor data quality ” to name a few,” said Dr. Singh. “With a core focus on improving overall data quality, EAA organizations that have the largest access to SMEs can tap into a growing market opportunity.”

“Market-appropriate compensation decisions are a big challenge for SMEs. Now thanks to a handful of EFM providers, EAA organizations can provide leading edge compensation solutions at a fraction of what the large survey providers charged in the past for custom-built solutions,” added Singh.

Providers of salary surveys can use on demand salary data systems that are capable of handling several surveys with many designs to pricing by utilizing a centralized system. With this data they can meet the needs of SMEs and thus reach a neglected market segment.

Boyer Candy - Check Out The New Dark Chocolate Mallo Cup - Image by revrev via Flickr

Boyer Candy Company from Altoona, PA,  has long been famous for their delicious Mallo Cups. Now they are bringing out a dark chocolote version of their famous Mallo Cup.This is in response to an overwhelming demand from loyal Mallo Cup customers, says Deborah Forgione, Director of Marketing.

Production of the new dark chololate Mallo Cups will begin in October. Retailers shelves will be carrying the new dark chocolate Mallo Cups in November.

The Mallo Cup is the very first cup style candy that was made in the United States. Boyer Candy Companies Peanut Butter Cups are the only Peanut Butter Cup that is made today in the US.

Boyer carries a complete product line.

Lead Generation For Entrepreneurs Video Course - Image by mtsofan via Flickr

Is the solution to all the current problems with the economy and high unemployment something best left to the government to solve? Businesses need to be in a position to employ more people, and to do that they need an environment that is friendly to marketing more of their products and their services. When businesses increase sales they tend to hire more people to fulfill those sales. This results in greater sales tax and income tax revenue.

Bob Cavanaugh, an financila planning professional for 40 years and Internet marketer for 10 years has created a course for entrepreneurs. The course is in video format and is focused on lead generation techniques to show businesses how to get more leads via the internet, and how to qualify those leads into good solid leads that can lead to a higher number of sales.

According to Mr. Cavanaugh, “Most business’ web sites get little or no traffic,” In the videos series, there are 12 lead generating techniques covered  that are designed to teach a business owner how to implement several internet marketing tools to increase sales by a substantial margin.

Many people learn better by watching a video and having access to watch several times. This also allows an entreprenuer to assign an employee to handle lead generation or even to outsource the tasks.