Students and faculty from Anthem College in St. Louis Park near Minneapolis helped pack 32,832 meals for the food emergency service group Feed My Starving Children (FMSC). Last year, the College raised more than $ 5,000 for the group at its annual charity carnival.

It was an amazing experience to pack meals for Feed My Starving Children, said Shantel Schmale, an Anthem College employee. To know that a small amount of volunteer time can make such a huge difference in the lives of children is a humbling thingit puts our lives and our woes into perspective.

Schmale added that Campus President Elizabeth Beseke is presently in Haiti on a volunteer mission.

It took just two hours on October 28 for 35 volunteers to package the meals, which filled 152 boxes of food that were later shipped to the Philippines. FMSC group targets children in the most severe circumstances, particularly those suffering from extreme malnutrition and at risk of starvation. It serves about 70 nations, including the United States, where it has fed child victims of Hurricane Katrina and children living on a South Dakota reservation.

FMSCs MobilePack food meets the nutritional needs of four- to eight-year olds. The food is also culturally appropriate; for example, no pork products are sent to Muslim nations, or meat products to vegetarian populations. More information is available at fmsc.org.

The College plans to continue its fundraising for FMSC.

Anthem College is located at 5100 Gamble Drive in St. Louis Park, where students train to work in the healthcare field. It awards Diplomas and Associate of Applied Science degrees in Limited Scope X-Ray Technician, Massage Therapy, Medical Assistant, Medical Billing & Coding, and Pharmacy Technician programs. The Associate degree is offered for a Surgical Technologist program as well. For more information, visit the Colleges website at anthem.edu/minneapolis-minnesota or call 952-417-2200.

About Anthem College-St. Louis Park

Originally established in 1996, Anthem College-St. Louis Park is part of Anthem Education, a Phoenix, Arizona-based family of schools and colleges that provides career-focused training and education programs at 23 accredited institutions in 15 states as well as online. Anthem Education includes Anthem College, Anthem College Online, Anthem Career College, Anthem Institute, Morrison University, and The Bryman School of Arizona. For more information, visit http://anthem.edu.

For more information about our graduation rates, the median debt of students who completed the program, and other important information, please visit our website at http://www.anthem.edu/disclosures.

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Every year Village Realty employees and agents engage in a spirited competition for charity at Christmastime. Each department holds a fundraiser of its choice to raise money for families who need extra help during the holidays. Departments enjoy competing to see who can raise the most money for the Christmas fund. Project chairperson Emily Lewis says “It’s always fun to see the original fundraising ideas and watching everyone come together to help out the Outer Banks community.”

In addition to holiday fundraisers, the dress code is relaxed allowing everyone to wear blue jeans in exchange for a $ 1 per day donation to the Christmas Fund. Village Realty matches the employees and agents dollar for dollar on all the money raised. Last year, over $ 7,800 was donated to the Angel Tree Project.

Due to Hurricane Irene, the need for assistance during the holidays is greater than ever on the Outer Banks.

This year auction and raffle items include a week off season at the beautiful Croatan Surf Club on the oceanfront in Kill Devil Hills; a tandem Ultra-Light trike trip; private wine tasting for fifteen people at OBX Trio; a Weatherby model shotgun; a week in an Ocracoke Island vacation rental, a flat screen TV, and a Lenovo ThinkPad Notebook.

For the first time auctions are open to anyone, not just employees of Village Realty and their families. To see a list of items and register to bid please go to CharityAuctionsToday.com.

Village Realty is a full service real estate company offering over 600 OBX vacation rental homes and professional services for buyers and sellers of property in this popular vacation area. Locally owned and managed this Outer Banks firm has been in business for over twenty years and focuses on exceptional customer service to clients and customers.

With check-in offices in Nags Head and Corolla, they represent premier properties ranging from oceanfront condos to large, oceanfront and soundfront estates. They were the first vacation rental company in this coastal community to provide bed linens and bath towels for guests and the first to “go green” by eliminating a large, paper brochure.

The “Inner Banks” real estate needs are serviced by an office location in Columbia, NC. and there is also a sister company; Ocracoke Island Realty which manages over 300 vacation rentals there.

In addition to their holiday fund raising efforts Village Realty maintains an active Facebook page with weekly giveaways and contests. Followers have opportunities to win gift certificates to an Outer Banks restaurant, stays in an Outer Banks vacation rental and even helicopter rides over the beach.

For more information please call the Nags Head office at 800.548.9688 or the Corolla office at 877.546.5362.

7.546.5362. Village Realty is open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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New Englands wicked weather has pulled some punches in the past months with visits from Hurricane Irene delaying openings for hundreds of schools, and the surprise Noreaster that dropped nearly three feet of snow and delayed trick or treating for thousands of ghosts and goblins.

For some large electricity users, however, the wicked weather has brought welcome relief. Energy managers like Michael Vail, Site Services Manager of South Portland, MEs Fairchild Semiconductor, report they could have had up to 23 hours of free electricity delivered from the New England Power Pool during Irene, and 4 hours during last months snowstorm.

Fairchild is a customer of Manchester, NHs Freedom Energy Logistics (FEL Power), taking part in its unique Direct to Grid electricity program. The company worked with FEL Power to become an energy self-supplier in 2005 and has had several occasions when it has reaped rewards when demand is suddenly cut by weather-related outages in large portions of New England.

Customers of Halifax American Energy Company, a wholesale power provider and member of the FEL Power family of companies, were also affected positively by the drop in demand caused by the two storms. Those buying electricity from the real time bulk power market saw a drop in overall demand and consequent drop in their price per kWh.

Says Mark Wilson, Chief Operating Officer of New England Wood Pellet and HAEC customer, During last months sneak Noreaster, we were buying power on the real time market at the moment of least demand. Thats just not a choice you have with a traditional utility. It definitely worked in our favor.

Being supplied hours of electricity at no cost is a perk we dont necessarily expect, but its a happy surprise when it happens, says Brian Mikol, co-President of Spectrum Marketing Companies, Inc.

The Freedom Energy Logistics family of companies obtains power at the lowest possible price for New England consumers. FEL Power (felpower.com) provides high-end energy management services in electricity and natural gas. Its unique Direct to Grid (or Self-Supply) model guides large-scale users into New Englands wholesale electricity market, guaranteeing them access to electricity at the lowest available cost. Halifax American Energy Company (haecpower.com) is a retail electric energy marketer which, in partnership with South Jersey Energy, specializes in transactions converting wholesale and bulk power products into shapes and durations suitable for industrial, commercial, institutional and governmental end users. Its newest division, Resident Power (residentpower.com), is New Hampshires first competitive electricity aggregator to focus exclusively on residences and small businesses.

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A significant and fast moving fire erupted damaging parts the Fire Island Pines commercial district as well as at least one private residence.

Late in the evening on Monday, November 14, 2011 20 fire departments were called to support the Fire Island Pines Fire Department. According to early reports the Fire destroyed numerous landmark buildings including the Pavilion, the towns premier nightclub, LaFountaines, Sip N Twirl, and the Pines Bistro. Unconfirmed reports suggest the fire started around 9:00 pm at the Sip N Twirl before igniting gas tanks at La Fountaine which spread to the Pavilion. It is very likely heavy wind apparently played a role in the spread of this Fire. If these reports are valid this could be the worst Fire in the community since 1959.

The Fire Island News reported that Walter Boss of the Pines Fire Department confirmed late Monday night that the fire destroyed the Pavilion, La Fountaine and a bay-front home. Businesses north of the Pavilion along the harbor appear to have been unscathed, he told The News.

Unfortunately, Fire Island has seen its share of disasters from fires to flooding, hurricanes to noreasters. Fire Island is a very sensitive environment and disaster can be elevated by the very things we love most about it, in particular the lack of roads and the beautiful isolation. As one local resident pointed out When a fire breaks out on the island, it spreads quickly and access to it is limited

With a very limited off season population, the pines Fire department was joined by other fire island firefighters from: Ocean Bay Park, Davis Park, Point O Woods, Cherry Grove, Ocean Beach, Fair Harbor, Saltaire, Kismet, as well as mainland departments including Bay Shore, East Islip, West Islip, Sayville, Bellport, Green River, to name just a few.

The news of this fire spread quickly through social media outlets. The Fire Island Facebook page that reaches over 12,000 people had 100s interacting late into the evening and early hours Tuesday morning. Fire Island related tweets were also on the rise. Josh Ocean re-tweeted on the Fire Island Pines & Cherry Grove page Omg! RT @cherry_grove: A fast moving fire destroyed Pavilion and at least two other structures in the Fire Island Pines DJ James Anthony tweeted @fireislandnews – my thoughts and prayers are with the FIP community this evening on the Fire Island News Twitter page, and Jess Freund tweeted: Thoughts with the OBFD. Be safe! @fireisland on the Fire Island twitter page.

However, nothing was as moving as what was posted on Facebook by Andrew Kirtzman co-owner of FIP Ventures, which owns the Pavilion, Blue Whale, Canteen, Hotel Ciel, Deck, Rack Gym, Pines Supply Co. Sugar Shack Spa and who is largely responsible for the Pines major redevelopment over the past few years. Mr. Kirtzmans message resonated out to the community it both touched and informed so many concerned Fire Islanders. His message was so important I felt it best to attach it in its entity.

This is obviously a very difficult night for all of us, and I wanted to give everyone a status report from the scene of the fire. I am outside the Pavilion building, surrounded by over 100 firefighters from across Long Island. The fire is under control but is not completely out. Both the Pavilion and LaFountaine buildings are still standing, but they have been completely gutted by fire and water. Sip n Twirl, the Bistro and the stores below them are in ruin. Then roof over the Pavilion is gone, and the high tea deck has been destroyed. Small fires are still burning inside the Pavilion the dance floor and its too dangerous for firefighters to enter inside. The department has called for bulldozers to be brought here from across the bay, as it may be safer to destroy the Pavilion altogether rather than fight the remaining blazes. It is an unfathomable moment. The air in the harbor is still thick with smoke, but the fire has not spread anywhere else, thanks to the incredible work of the Pines Fire Department and the departments that raced to its aid. Firefighters will be here through the night to ensure that no flames re-ignite and create a new threat to the other properties. Canteen, Blue Whale, the hotel and Pantry are all fine. The Suffolk Country Fire Department believes the fire began outside the LaFountaine office, engulfed that building and then spread to the Pavilion. Officials tell me they dont believe the fire to be suspicious. Seth, Matt and I want to thank you all for your notes and phone calls. Everyone has a stake in these properties, and the love and passion we all feel for them are ringing loud and clearly this painful evening. Tomorrow morning, Seth, Matt and I will begin the process of renewing this beautiful property and making it even more spectacular than it was before. Our hearts go out to Nicole LaFountaine, Patrick, PJ, Bob Howard and others in the LaFountaine building, and we will help one another get the commercial district ready for summer 2012. There is a lot of hard work ahead for all of us. We feel blessed that no one was injured, and proud to be part of this beautiful community. Andrew

It was a long night for all Fire Islanders. Most of all it was a long night for the hundreads of Firefighters who worked into the night risking their lives to protect our beloved Island. I want to personally give thanks to each and everyone of you and special thanks specifically to the Fire Island Pines Fire Department.

We will rebuild.

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Related 2011 Hurricane Press Releases

InfiniteGraph, the number one commercial, distributed and scalable graph database, announced today the winners of its latest developer challenge. The contest challenged developers to create next-generation social and information network analysis applicationswhether a better social network or a solution for more relevant advertising and location-based servicesleveraging InfiniteGraph’s API. Final submissions were due before Monday, October 17, 2011. The first prize winner will be awarded $ 12,000 worth of Apple products, computer equipment and entertainment gear, with runners-up receiving $ 1,500 Apple Store gift cards.

Winners include:

(1.) FIRST PRIZE: “InfiniteCommits” was developed by William Cheung and allows users of GitHub to quickly obtain useful information that isn’t currently available through the GitHub web interface. This application uses Play (a rapid Java and Scala web development framework) to generate a report of the most active files in a GitHub repository, while using InfiniteGraph’s Data Visualizer to see the latest changes and notes associated with each change.

GitHub is among the most popular services providing commercial organizations and open source developers with a secure, hosted, Git version control system. Git was originally developed by Linux creator Linus Torvalds, and hosts numerous high profile projects including the Linux kernel, Ruby on Rails, jQuery, Diaspora and thousands of other projects, including some originating from the development efforts of Amazon, Facebook and other notable companies.

William Cheung says, “As a busy developer, I often don’t have time to keep up with all the changes in my favorite GitHub projects. Knowing which files have had the most commits in the last week helps me zero in on the pulse of the project.”

A public screencast tutorial for InfiniteCommits is available here:

http://screencast.com/t/GYI7dz9Jh9B

(2.) Second prize: “Find a Safe Home to Live” by Mustafa Musa Ulker and Huseyin Mert. Anyone looking to buy a new home may also be interested in this application, which allows users to search real estate listings and see a risk score associated with each property. Using this system, prospective buyers could obtain a complete insight of a home, through the near real-time calculation of risk scores based on state law enforcement and criminal records, crime statistics, environmental data including earthquakes, hurricanes and other natural disaster information, traffic and accident statistics, and virtually any other data available.

(3.) Third prize: “Call Graph Analysis” by Vimal Kumar. This application is another developer-focused tool that helps analyze call graphs extracted from large code-bases. Call graphs are a basic program analysis result that can be used for human understanding of programs, or as a basis for further analyses, such as an analysis that tracks the flow of values between procedures.

Vimals application uses InfiniteGraph to explore millions or billions of lines of code, and then quickly find all the connections and relationships between countless functions contained within the code. This gives developers the ability to quickly understand and visualize the most complex structures and interactions among different software modules, which is incredibly useful not only in their work, but for training new code contributors, or as a visual aid for debugging and testing purposes.

More details on this entry can be found here:

http://igsubmission.heroku.com/about.html

“The winners of our Developer Challenge were able to build very interesting applications in a very short amount of time, which highlights the value of finding and leveraging complex relationships between virtually any type of object or thing,” said Jay Jarrell, president and CEO of Objectivity, Inc. “With InfiniteGraph’s simple yet powerful API, organizations can more easily connect the dots hidden in virtually any type and amount of data, and obtain the deeper insights they need, in real-time. Whether these connections are between people, topics of interest, etc., social graphs, network data, and large amounts of data are having a major impact on how our customers need to analyze information. That’s where we can help.”

About Objectivity, Inc.

Objectivity, Inc. simplifies complex data enabling organizations to discover hidden relationships and develop applications with significant time-to-market advantages and technical cost savings, achieving greater return on data related investments.

InfiniteGraph is a unique distributed, massively scalable, graph database that facilitates large-scale, fast graph processing, data analytics and discovery of information around mission critical enterprise requirements by connecting the dots on a global scale. The companys core data technology, Objectivity/DB, provides distributed and scalable data and object management.

Objectivity, Inc. is committed to their customers success. The company has offices and representatives worldwide, and works directly with organizations, integrators and technical teams to recommend solutions and support options specifically tailored to each customers project and technical requirements. Please contact Objectivity, Inc. online or call (408) 992-7100 for more information.

Note to editors: Objectivity, Objectivity, Inc., Objectivity/DB and InfiniteGraph are trademarks of Objectivity, Inc. All other company, organization, product or alliance names mentioned herein remain the property of their respective owners.

For more information contact:

Kristi Kilpatrick

kristi(at)strategiclee(dot)com

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Well known for their charitable endeavors, Harrington Moving & Storage has recently completed a huge donation project for the residents of Owego. The small town in Tioga county, upstate New York was devastated by floods following hurricanes Irene and Lee in September this year. The company rose above and beyond expectations by providing two truckloads of furniture as well as delivering wrapped toys for the children.

The company jumped into action after it was contacted by a NYC resident, Jennifer Hill, who grew up in Tioga. Upon seeing the damage and subsequent suffering of the residents, she began contacting N.J. companies requesting assistance and donations for the small town. Jen approached Harrington Moving & Storage to see if they would donate furniture to the ravaged town and the president Jeff Harrington did not hesitate in pledging his companys support. Tioga is not close by, but we were keen to help, says Mr Harrington.

Rallying up support from local residents, Harrington Moving & Storage arranged for the collection of donated furniture which it then transported to the Tioga Center Fire Department which is 3.25 hours away. From there it was distributed to victims of the floods. Furthermore, Harrington Moving & Storage delivered wrapped presents for the children of Owego. These will be given at a Christmas party held by the Tioga County Open Door Mission for 1000 of the towns children.

Jennifer had initially contacted several N.J. Movers who unfortunately failed to respond to her requests for help. Well known for their charitable reputation and frequent efforts to raise aid for those in need, Harrington Moving & Storage quickly agreed and arranged for two truckloads of furniture to be delivered. In addition to the furniture and toys, the president of, Mr. Jeff Harrington, also made a video he posted on YouTube to raise awareness for the destroyed town. I can not thank you enough, and the people of Tioga/Owego are so appreciative of your thoughtfulness, says Jennifer in response to all the welcome efforts made by the charitable moving company.

About Harrington Moving & Storage

Harington Moving & Storage has been a leading moving and storage company since 1996. With extensive experience and an excellent reputation, the New Jersey based company offers reliable, efficient and affordable moving and storage services for individuals and businesses alike. Harrington Moving & Storage plays an active role in the community and organizes monthly (and sometimes weekly) charitable services to help a range of local organizations, schools and members of the community. Harrington Moving & Storage prides itself on its philanthropic role and strives to increase charitable activity from local businesses and residents alike. For more news on Harrington Moving & Storage, and all their charity projects, please visit http://www.harringtonmovers.com/about/news/portal.php.

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Related 2011 Hurricane Press Releases

While the catastrophe property market continues to transition away from soft market conditions, ample capacity is giving insurers limited pricing power and the lethargic economy is likely to keep insurance demand weak, according to a new State of the Market report by NAPCO LLC, a wholesale broker specializing in catastrophe property coverage.

The bi-annual report, which combines insights from top brokers with an analysis of recent catastrophe property market statistics, also assesses the terrorism insurance market 10 years since the September 11 terrorist attacks. The full report can be found at: http://www.napcollc.com/articles/NAPCOInsuranceInsights-TheStateOfTheMarket-2011-Nov.pdf

The industry has weathered a tough year, and though it has plenty of capital to pay claims, profitability has been deteriorating, said David Pagoumian, CEO of NAPCO LLC. Insurers are under even greater pressure to make a profit on underwriting as investment yields, which have been shrinking for years, reach historic low levels.

The report provides detail on key catastrophe property trends:

The interior designers at Lamps Plus, the leading online home d

In recognition of International Construction Equipments (ICE) outstanding commitment to promoting U.S. manufacturing, the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) awarded ICE the first annual Pillar of Industry award. ICE is a manufacturer of pile driving equipment, crucial to the U.S. infrastructure needs. Their equipment is used to build bridges, skyscrapers, dams, levees and other projects requiring deep anchoring for structure safety. ICE has been active in increasing awareness of both Congress and the public-at- large of the vital role manufacturing plays in the economy through the AEM developed the I Make America campaign

I Make America is a national grassroots campaign to dramatically increase jobs for America’s equipment manufacturers. The message of I Make America is simple: there is a need for a new manufacturing policy that creates jobs by rebuilding and modernizing America’s infrastructure, and by helping our farmers and manufacturers sell their products to new markets around the world.

According to AEM, 1 in 6 private sector jobs are in manufacturing. For every $ 1 Billion invested in highways and bridges, approximately 27,000 jobs are supported or created and the expenditure generates $ 6.2 Billion in economic activity. Today America is investing only one half of what it did in infrastructure spending 50 years ago. This reduction in the amount of spending has directly and indirectly led to the loss of 4.7 million jobs in the manufacturing sector.

ICE is the worlds largest manufacturer of drilling rigs, pile driving equipment and vibratory hammers. ICE equipment is used around the world to build bridges, skyscrapers, and large marina piers as well as levy construction in the effort to rebuild New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

For more information, contact Pollyanna Cunningham via email at info(at)iceusa(dot)com

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Wyclef Jean is the host of the recently released Coast 2 Coast Mixtape Vol. 183, another in its weekly mixtape series hosted by a major artist. The series is now the most downloaded of its kind worldwide. This installment, hosted by renowned hip hop artist and philanthropist Wyclef, co-hosted by Power 96 Miamis LA Smooth, and mixed by DJ Ben Hop, is available for free download from Coast 2 Coast Mixtapes. The project features remixed and original tracks from some of the hottest artists in the industry like Mary J. Blige, Drake, Pusha-T, Nelly, T.I., Lloyd Banks, Kendrick Lamar, and Tone Trump. Vol. 183 also features numerous other up-and-coming artists in hip hop.

Wyclef Jean is well known for his musical start as part of The Fugees, who exploded onto the scene with their Grammy-award winning second album, The Score in 1996. Wyclef has gone on to have a hugely successful solo career as well, and has released nine solo albums to date, as well as being featured on albums and singles with many top artists in the industry, including Shakira, T.I., Akon, Lil Wayne, and more. Hatian-born and heavily active in relief efforts and support of the country, Wyclef founded Y