Combining the two REITs will result in an entity that will have warehouse and distribution centers valued at $21 billion.

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Catellus to Be Bought by ProLogis

Combining the two REITs will result in an entity that will have warehouse and distribution centers valued at $21 billion.

June 07, 2005|Roger Vincent | Times Staff Writer

Catellus Development Corp., one of California's largest private landowners thanks to a lineage that dates to the earliest days of railroads in the West, has agreed to be sold for $3.6 billion in cash and stock to warehouse and distribution giant ProLogis.

Both companies are real estate investment trusts that develop and operate industrial properties. Catellus also owns Union Station in Los Angeles and a portion of the residential and office development at Mission Bay in San Francisco.

ProLogis will continue to develop Catellus' properties, including Kaiser Commerce Center, a 588-acre former Kaiser steel mill in San Bernardino County near truck routes that serve the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Catellus also is constructing office buildings at Los Angeles Air Force Base in El Segundo with Kearney Real Estate Co.

Under terms of the deal, ProLogis would pay $33.81 a share, a 16% premium over Catellus' closing price Friday, or 0.822 share of ProLogis for each Catellus share. The total value of the deal is $4.9 billion including debt, the companies said, and marks the biggest U.S. real estate acquisition of 2005.

The announcement drove Catellus' shares up $3.75, or 13%, on Monday to $32.99. ProLogis' shares fell $1.26 to $40.11.

The combined company would have more than 350 million square feet of warehouse and distribution centers valued at $21 billion.

"Catellus has the best industrial portfolio in the United States," said Jeffrey H. Schwartz, chief executive of ProLogis. The majority of Catellus' holdings are in California, which Schwartz called the top industrial real estate market in the country, with six times more buildable land in the state than ProLogis.
"We wanted a much larger presence in Southern California, and that was a driving reason to do this" acquisition, Schwartz said.

Catellus is "one of the most aggressive of the developers of new industrial land at the moment," Jim Ulmer, a senior vice president at Baltimore-based LaSalle Investment Management, told Bloomberg News. LaSalle owns 3.2 million shares of ProLogis and no Catellus shares.

"It's a good deal for Catellus, and it's a very good deal for ProLogis," he said.

Nelson Rising, chairman and chief executive of Catellus, said, "We believe this is an excellent way for our shareholders to realize the value of the platform we have built and to participate in the future growth of ProLogis."

Rising, 63, has been Catellus' CEO since 1994 and previously was a senior partner at Maguire Thomas Partners, where he was in charge of major Los Angeles projects including the Library Tower and Playa Vista. Rising, whose 1.4% stake in Catellus is worth about $47 million, would join ProLogis' board of directors, but he would not have a management post.

Catellus' president of commercial development, Ted Antenucci, would become president of global development for ProLogis. Schwartz declined to speculate on possible layoffs of Catellus employees.
The union of the two companies "is very complementary in terms of what they bring to the table," said John Long, chairman of the Richard S. Ziman Center for Real Estate at UCLA and a private real estate investor through Highridge Partners and Golden Boy Partners.

Catellus, based in San Francisco, has a huge inventory of land and expertise at getting government approvals for new construction, while ProLogis is a respected large-scale developer, Long said.

Aurora, Colo.-based ProLogis owns and manages 2,043 warehouse and distribution centers totaling 310.8 million square feet in North America, Europe and Asia. Its customers include FedEx Corp., Home Depot Inc., General Electric Co., Sears Holdings Corp., Unilever and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Catellus became a REIT at the start of last year as it shifted its focus to building and operating industrial parks instead of developing urban mixed-used projects such as Union Station and Santa Fe Place in San Diego. It has 40.6 million square feet of property, mainly distribution centers, across the U.S.
Santa Fe Pacific Corp. spun off Catellus to shareholders in 1990.

But the company's roots and gigantic land holdings date to the 1850s, when civil engineer Theodore D. Judah built a 23-mile line called the Sacramento Valley Railroad. It later became the Central Pacific Railroad, the first to conquer the Sierra Nevada. In 1869, the line linked up with the Union Pacific, coming from the East, with the driving of the famed golden spike at Promontory Point, Utah.

As part of its mandate for a transcontinental railway, the federal government gave the railroad builders vast tracts of land as an incentive to complete the historic rail linkage.
Later, with its name changed again, this time to Southern Pacific, the railroad heavily promoted its territory in the West to attract residents and businesses and became one of the most powerful players on the economic scene in 19th century California.

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YOU ARE HERE: LAT Home→Collections→Catellus Development Corp

SOUTHLAND FOCUS

Catellus Buys Former Kaiser Steel Mill

August 17, 2000 | Jesus Sanchez

Catellus Development Corp. said it paid $16 million for the 588-acre property in San Bernardino County that it will develop into a giant industrial park and truck plaza. A subsidiary of the real estate development firm will eventually construct 6 million square feet of industrial space at the Kaiser Commerce Center in the Fontana area. The property, which is located near the intersection of Interstates 10 and 15, was purchased from Kaiser Ventures Inc. An environmental cleanup of the site and completion of transportation improvements are scheduled to be completed by mid-2002, according to the San Francisco-based company.

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City Council Meeting Dec 1st 2015

Please move to 5:30 for my comments
I personally think the conflicts around are coming home to roost. Sadly the pain we've hurled pain around the world.

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The Oval Office - Ashley Turton Lobbyist No More Rhetoric / Back THE President First

Ashley Turton

Wife of Dan Turton Legislative aide to President Obama.  Ashley Turton whose tragic and very unusual fatal accident in the family garage defies logic

Ashley Turton

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ashley Turton
Born	Elizabeth Ashley Westbrook November 25, 1973 Greensboro, North Carolina
Died	January 10, 2011 (aged 37) Washington, DC
Nationality	American
Occupation	lobbyist, political staffer

Ashley Turton (November 25, 1973 – January 10, 2010) was a lobbyist for Progress Energy who was reportedly "likely involved with" the company's merger with Duke Energy.^[1] She had been Special Assistant to Speaker of the House^[2] Nancy Pelosi, chief of staff for Connecticut representative Rosa DeLauro and before that, aide to Missouri representative Dick Gephardt.^[3] She was married to Dan Turton, the Obama administration's liaison to the House of Representatives.^[4] They had three children.
On the morning of January 10, 2011 she had planned to drive to the airport for an air trip related to her work. Instead, a neighbor telephoned at 4:49 a.m. to report Turton's garage was on fire.^[1] Inside the garage, firefighters discovered her body in her 2008 BMW X5 SUV.^[5] Her death was investigated by the Metropolitan Police Department with assistance from the city fire department, two BMW engineers, and the ATF.^[6] The coroner's report found "acute alcohol intoxication" and said she died from "inhalation of products of combustion and thermal burns".^[4] According to authorities, there was no indication of foul play and there were "no obvious signs of trauma".^[7]

References

• Khan, Huma (2011-01-10). "Ashley Turton, Former Hill Aide, Wife of White House Staffer, Found Dead in Burning Car". ABC News. Retrieved 2013-07-22.

• "Elizabeth Ashley Westbrook Turton (Ashley), Congressional Staffer - Salary Data". Archived from the original on 2011-01-13. Employing Office [...] House Office of the Speaker [from] 07/01/07 [to] 09/21/07 Special Assistant $28,246.51

• Gerstein, Josh; Bresnahan, John (2011-01-11). "Officials probe death of former Hill staffer Ashley Turton". Politico. Retrieved 2013-07-22.
• Kondracke, Morton (2011-02-11). "Turton Autopsy Reveals Alcohol Intoxication". Roll Call. Retrieved 2013-07-22.
•  Morrissey, Aaron (2011-03-16). "Police: Ashley Turton's Death Was An Accident". DCist. Retrieved 2013-07-22.
• Augenstein, Neal (2011-02-08). "Headlights focus in Ashley Turton fatal car fire". WTOP. Retrieved 2013-07-22.
• Duggan, Paul (2011-02-11). "Crime Scene - Lobbyist drunk at time of death: Autopsy". Voices.washingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2013-07-22.

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#BRACMurders - Motive: Billions to Trillions

Bennett v. Southern Pacific (Contra Costa County,1987) Parties: Pete Bennett, owner of Mainframe Designs Cabinets and Fixtures Defendant: Southern Pacific Spear Street San Fransisco Subsidiaries:SFN Land and Management Lafayette Defendant; Floyd Brown Sr. Diablo Stairs Related Cases:

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SJSP Officer: Michael Johnson – KIA via shooter no one saw – a/k/a Sniper

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Navy Seal: Ft Hood.Chris Kyle – American Sniper Redo

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BART: Robert Semour South Carolina

HashTag Corner

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San Bernardino Tragedies

Former BART officer and wife from Livermore dead in North Carolina murder-suicide

By Erin Ivie

eivie@bayareanewsgroup.com

Posted:   12/05/2012 11:06:34 AM PST0 Comments | Updated:   3 years ago

A retired BART police officer and former Livermore resident shot and killed his wife and then turned the gun on himself Monday in what the North Carolina state medical examiner is ruling a murder-suicide.

Robert Seymore and Amber Seymore, both 38, were found shot dead by Amber Seymore's mother in an upstairs room of their Holly Springs, N.C., home, according to a report from the News & Observer. The woman reportedly discovered the grisly scene when she went upstairs to tell the couple, who have three children, that she was taking their daughter to day care.

The woman, whose name has not been released, told 911 dispatchers when she found her daughter's body that her "son-in-law killed her. He killed her, she's dead." Medical examiners' reports later confirmed the woman's suspicions.

Amber Seymore's mother reportedly grabbed the youngest child and ran to a neighbor's house to call 911, police said. The couple's older children were at elementary school at the time of the shooting.

"He's laying on the floor," she cried into the receiver. "They're not moving, neither one of them. I got the baby. I think they're both dead."

Police did not disclose a possible motive, though Amber Seymore's mother told 911 dispatchers that her son-in-law had "just been caught" having two affairs, the news report said. Amber Seymore also called 911 the day after Thanksgiving for a domestic violence incident in which she planned to confront him for his infidelities, and reported that he "had a gun on him and a really bad temper."

Robert Seymore worked for the BART police department as a canine officer from 2001 to 2011, BART Police Operations Deputy Chief Benson Fairow said. According to his LinkedIn page, the retired canine and explosive detection handler had settled into the role of stay-at-home father since moving to North Carolina.

Grief counselors have been made available to all members of the BART police department, Fairow said.

"We're dealing with the loss of one of our own," Fairow said. "Any time there's a situation like that, it is a tragedy for all those involved, all left behind. Our thoughts go out to the friends and the family."

Amber Seymore, a graduate of Monte Vista High School in Danville, worked in sales at Anixter. a communications supply company with offices in Pleasanton, for 12 years before moving to North Carolina in March 2011.

Contact Erin Ivie at eivie@bayareanewsgroup.com. Follow her at Twitter.com/erin_ivie.

What's Inside The "Cloud"

Add Test

The Murder Suicides are Murders

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Nobody was home at Harry Bowman's apartment in Upland on Thursday evening.
A package was tucked neatly under the welcome mat on the concrete landing. It had been sent "priority express" by his mother from York, Pa. The postage was $44.95.
It was addressed to "Hal."
Bowman's name had been released by authorities earlier in the day, along with the 13 other victims of the mass shooting Wednesday in San Bernardino. He was 46.
Bowman was one of the earliest contributors to CREATE, a USC center that studies national security and terrorism, the director said in an email. Bowman, who left the center for a job with the San Bernardino Unified School District, was an expert in spacial data and mapping.
Neighbors said they didn't really know much about him, or anybody else at the Stoneridge Apartment Homes for that matter.
"There's not a lot of socializing," said Gina Lugo, 54, who lives in the one-bedroom next door with her mother. "People just go to work and come home."
She said they had talked only once, when he advised her to call the management about a problem with the hot water.
Across the hall, Dr. Guillermo Saenz, a 29-year-old medical resident, said he knew Bowman had at least one daughter.
"He would come out to the pool and teach her how to swim," he said.
Reached by phone in York, Bowman's mother, Marion, said that her son had grown up there and moved to California for work more than 15 years ago.
He had two daughters, she said, adding that the family wanted to protect their privacy.
The package, she said, contained Christmas presents.

— Alan Zarembo

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Visa's use provokes opposition by techies / L-1 regarded as threat to workers

Pete Bennett - founder of Nomoreh1b appeared on TV and Media with Mike Emmons.  By 2010 his son was dead, by witnesses in Bennett's long battle with police were dead but then they killed his nephews.

Bennett dealing with potential fracture vertebra 

James Powell former Longs Drugs POS System Manager 

Son of Pete Bennett after Bennett appeared on TV, Radio and Print.  

His father went up against Siemens on Lou Dobbs Outsourcing America.

The Family of Pete Bennett and his relatives relentlessly attacked, murdered and destroyed. 

Roommate of Bennett - father involved in Target POS Rollouts at NCR 

Jared and Heidi Tucker
The American Killed in Barcelona 

Brandon Marshall

One of Five Class Action Litigants
Apple, Oracle, Google
Shot Dead in Santa Clara

Rylan Fuchs 

Grade School Friend of sons of Pete Bennett 

Harve and Kieko Ringheim

Customers of Mainframe Designs Cabinets and Fixture

Brutally Murdered in their Dublin CA home

1986

Pittsburg Police Department

Officer Ray Giacomelli

Fatal Police Shooting of Bernard Bynum

employed at Mainframe Designs Cabinets and Fixtures 

Susan Kennedy, brutally murdered in Concord CA, long time friends of 

Frank and Fredrick Howard 

This is a family member related to my brother, his wife and but also many from Mountain Lakes NJ as basically we're all from New Jersey.

The unknown connection to Pete Bennett former resident of Danville and Alex Bennett (brother) is the stolen trust investigation where Contra Costa District Attorney Mark Peterson, his underlings and the Walnut Creek Police Department repeated actions of blocking police reports lead to the deaths of Bennett once removed relatives.

The other connection is going to upset several former 49ers located in the Bay Area. There is a straight path to Mormons from Alamo 1st leading to stolen legal papers that occurred during December 2004.

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By Carrie Kirby

Published 4:00 am, Sunday, May 25, 2003

An obscure work visa known as the L-1 has become the center of a bitter controversy in the technology industry.

Much like the H-1B before it -- an equally obscure visa that rose to prominence when American workers complained they were being displaced by its recipients -- the L-1 is catching the ire of tech workers and the eye of government regulators who disagree on whether the visa is being used legally.

In the middle of the spat are Indian firms that undertake tech projects for U.S. companies, including many in the Bay Area, on a contract basis.

The L-1 visa was originally intended for multinational companies that need to transfer key employees to U.S. divisions. But in recent years, outsourcing firms such as Wipro Technologies, Infosys Technologies and Tata Consultancy Services have stepped up their use of the L-1 visa to bring programmers and other professionals from India to work at the offices of U.S. clients.

In the Bay Area, the firms' clients include Hewlett-Packard, Cisco Systems, Visa International, ChevronTexaco and Sun Microsystems.

Some U.S. tech workers, frustrated by growing unemployment, say the L-1, like the H-1B before it, creates unfair competition and eliminates jobs of American workers. In fact, the workers like the L-1 even less than the H-1B because L-1 lacks the abuse-prevention clauses and annual limit that H-1B has.

A bill introduced by a Florida congressman last week seeks to ban the visa's use in outsourcing.
But the outsourcing companies, multimillion-dollar concerns with thousands of employees in the United States and abroad, say their use of the visa is legal and appropriate.

The companies make no secret of their visa use. Wipro and Infosys, both listed on U.S. stock exchanges, disclose the number of L-1 and H-1B visas they get in financial filings.

U.S. worker groups, including the AFL-CIO's Department for Professional Employees and the Seattle technology union WashTech, say outsourcers are using L-1 to get around what they call the minimal worker protections attached to H- 1B visas.

"We think it's the secret stealth visa," said Marcus Courtney, president of WashTech.
L-1s "seem to be sprouting up all over the Bay Area, and they're totally off the radar screen," said Peter Bennett, a former computer programmer who works as a mortgage broker in Danville. Because he runs a Web site protesting the H-1B visa program (www.nomoreh1b.com), Bennett gets 50 to 500 e-mails a day from tech professionals who are out of work or fear losing their jobs. An increasing number of them complain that L-1 workers have shown up in their offices.

Restrictions that apply to H-1B, but not L-1, include an annual limit on the number of visas issued and a requirement that the visa applicant have a bachelor's degree or higher. H-1B visa applicants have to pay a $1,000 fee toward training American workers; L-1 applicants don't.

Visa law also requires workers with H-1Bs to be paid the prevailing wage in the region where they work, although the Department of Labor does not routinely check up on this.

The L-1 visa carries no salary requirements, theoretically allowing a foreign worker to continue drawing the salary he was paid at home while working side-by-side with or replacing Americans earning two or three times as much.

PROGRAMMERS EARN LESS

Outsourcing firms say they pay their L-1 workers wages comparable to what American workers earn. But Tata acknowledges that when it took over a project at Siemens Information and Communication Networks in Lake Mary, Fla., it paid some programmers only $36,000 a year -- below the average local range of $37, 794 to $69,638 for a basic programmer (determined by Department of Labor surveys) and far below the $98,000 that one U.S. programmer there said she was paid.

Tata spokesman Tom Conway said taxes, Social Security and other withholding bring the salaries up to the average range.

After Tata took over the project, Siemens let a dozen employees go, said spokeswoman Paula Davis.
Some of those employees were outraged that they could be replaced by foreigners. It especially stung that they were asked to train Tata's workers before they left, a procedure that Tata calls knowledge transfer.

"This is what they call outsourcing. I call it insourcing. Import foreign workers, mandate your American workers to train them, then lay off your Americans," said Michael Emmons, who left Siemens last fall just before his job there was to end. Emmons had worked as a contract computer programmer for the company for six years, first in San Jose, then in Florida.

Davis said Emmons and other workers were not directly replaced by foreign workers. "We actually outsourced a function. It wasn't replacing this employee with that employee," she said.

What happened in Florida follows the general pattern of how Indian outsourcing firms use L-1 visas: The Indian firms take over a project, such as software maintenance, at low rates for an American client and send in a team of visa holders to learn the company's procedures. As much of the work as possible is then transferred to the company's headquarters in India, where wages are much lower. But some visa holders continue working at the client's office.

INTERPRETATIONS VARY

Whether this is a legal use of the L-1 visa is a matter of interpretation. An official at the Department of Homeland Security, now responsible for immigration, said this kind of use is fraudulent because the L-1 is designated to let workers move from one office to another within a company -- not from a company to a client.

"If an L-1 comes into the United States to work, they're coming to work for their specific company that petitioned for them, not for another company that they're being contracted out to. That would be a fraudulent use of an L-1 visa, " said Christopher Bentley, spokesman for the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, a division of the Department of Homeland Security that replaced Immigration and Naturalization Services. The bureau is assessing the L-1 and other visa programs for fraud, he said.

The companies say they would never risk using the visas if officials had not assured them it is legal. Wipro immigration attorney Terry Helbush said she is puzzled by Homeland Security's statement. "The L-1 visas are all approved by the consulate or by the INS. In our submissions, we're very clear that . . . some of the employees are on site at the client."

Tata also said it complies with visa law. Infosys declined to comment because it is in a quiet period before a financial transaction.

The way the outsourcers see it, they are complying with the law because their employees are ultimately working for them, whether sitting in a cubicle in Silicon Valley or sitting in one in Bangalore.
Tata and Wipro both strive to differentiate themselves from what they call body shoppers, firms that provide nothing more than inexpensive workers for clients.

Wipro Chief Operating Officer Lakshman Badiga said it is precisely because the company has moved from just bringing in workers to running complex global projects that it has increased its use of L-1 visas.
The State Department says the outsourcers are within the law.

"The fact that someone is on the site of (a client) does not make them ineligible for an L-1 as long as . . . the company they actually work for is truly functioning as their employer in terms of how they're paid and who has the right to fire them," said Stuart Patt, spokesman for the State Department's Consular Affairs Bureau.

ATTORNEYS CAN'T AGREE

Not even immigration attorneys who specialize in procuring work visas can agree.
Memphis immigration lawyer Gregory Siskind said, "It's largely inappropriate for companies to be using the L-1 to bring in workers that are being contracted out to other companies. I would be very surprised if it continues for very much longer without a crackdown."

If using L-1s for outsourcing is legal now, it won't be under legislation introduced last week by Rep. John Mica, R-Fla. Calling L-1 "a back door to cheap labor," Mica said his bill would ban L-1 visa holders from being transferred to client companies.

It's not clear whether the legislation would actually ban Wipro, Tata and others from using the visas just as they have been because the companies say the workers are their employees even when they are doing work for clients.

L-1 visas have been used in relative obscurity since 1970. But during the past two years, an increasing number of the visas are going to workers from a single country: India. Thirty-three percent of the 32,416 L-1 visas issued so far in 2003 went to Indians, up from 20 percent in 2001.

At Wipro and Infosys, L-1 visa use rose considerably during the same time. Wipro, for example, had 624 H-1B employees in 2000 but only 289 L-1 workers. Since then, its L-1 count has soared to 1,157, while the number of H-1B employees has increased to 705.

The limit on that other contentious tech visa, the H-1B, is scheduled to go from 195,000 to 65,000 in the fall unless Congress intervenes. Worker groups are gearing up to fight industry lobbyists to make sure the limit is lowered.

Some say the L-1 visa could make the H-1B limit irrelevant.

"If the H-1B becomes more difficult to get, (companies) will just adapt and go to L-1s," said Ron Hira, a volunteer on workforce policy issues at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-USA. Hira is also a Columbia University researcher on science and technology policy.

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Breakfast with Fine Crime - Pete Bennett is Seeking Constituent Services

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Fremont Private Holdings (FPH)

OVERVIEW

Fremont Private Holdings (FPH) is the private direct investment arm of Fremont Group, the investment office for the Bechtel family. Bechtel has been in the engineering and construction business for 117 years. Members of the Bechtel family have managed the Company for five generations.

We typically make initial investments of $25 million to $100 million per transaction in private operating businesses generating $10 million to $50 million in EBITDA. We will consider both majority and minority investments.
Target businesses share the following characteristics:

• Attractive industry segment
• Strong, defensible market position
• History of growth and clearly identifiable future growth opportunities
• Experienced and proven management team
• Consistent profitability and cash flow
• Limited technology risk 
• We are industry agnostic, but we have significant experience in the following areas:
• Industrials/Manufacturing
• Business Services
• Consumer/Retail

We generally avoid businesses where we perceive there to be technology or business model risk over a medium to long-term horizon.

•  

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OBIT: Matthew Miller Ratliff '80 - Pete's best friend commits suicide -- no warning?

The Playtex Connected Suicide

Pete Bennett's relocated to Mountain Lakes NJ. Back in 1968 the Vietnam war was developing into a national issue. My next door neighbor Matt Ratliff became my best friend along with his family we all got along.

Then the goodfellows at the AFL-CIO a division Contra Costa Politics

Matthew M. Ratliff

Matthew Miller Ratliff '80, a longtime resident of Vero Beach, FL, was born on February 14, 1958. The youngest son of Dale Ratliff, a corporation executive vice president, and the former Bettie C. Messer, an antiques dealer, Matt Ratliff grew up in Mountain Lakes, NJ, where he was graduated from Mountain Lakes High School in 1975. He entered Hamilton that year and, interested in radio broadcasting, became a disc jockey for campus radio station WHCL. He also served as a staff photographer for The Spectator and was an ultimate-frisbee enthusiast. His interest in filmmaking led him to take several courses in that field. Having majored in sociology, he was awarded his diploma in 1980.

Matt Ratliff returned to New Jersey but later settled in Vero Beach, where he held a series of property caretaking jobs. He also conducted an antiques and collectibles resale business on the side. He was a dedicated sports fisherman and scuba diver, and an avid beachcomber.

Matthew M. Ratliff, who had returned to New Jersey just last year, died on March 20, 2008, in Montclair. Unmarried, he is survived by two brothers, Mitch and Mark Ratliff, and a sister, Lynn Hove, as well as nieces and nephews.

My best friend, my nephews, Girl Friend and Daughter, my former employee and his wife, a neighbor in Danville CA, my Roommate, My Attorneys Son, City Clerk from San Ramon and local Contra Costa Board of Realtors and the band played.

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The Max Factor Connection

Max Factor & Company, the cosmetics concern, has turned to Revlon, its high‐class competitor, for its new president and chief executive officer. It named Dale Ratliff, one of Revlon's ranking sales executives, to succeed Sam Kalish, who resigned as Max Factor's top executive last July 1.

Mr. Ratliff, 47, executive vice president of sales for the Revlon domestic cosmetics and fragrances division, will assume his new title at the $350 million company on Jan. 1 and will report to Timm Crull, president and chief operating officer at Norton Simon Inc., Max Factor's parent company.

Max Factor has seen its operating profits decline dramatically over the last year. Its cosmetics and fashion division (which includes Halston fashions and the McCall Pattern Company) had pretax profits of $34.1 million for the year ended June 30, 1977. Just 12 months later that figure had slipped to $12.6 million.

A sore spot has been Its domestic cosmetics division, greatly weakened by last year's disastrous introduction of the fragrance “Just Call Me Maxi.” David Mahoney, chairman of Norton Simon, said at the annual meeting this month that the company had withdrawn funds from its basic cosmetics lines to support the “Just Call Me Maxi” introduction and found these regular lines suffered in the process.

“Ratliff is a good choice,” said one industry expert. “He knows sales and he knows the domestic cosmetics market. But he has little marketing background.” (Mr. Ratliff has been a group president at the B.V.D. Company and senior vice president and general manager of the apparel division at International Playtex.)

Just last week a cosmetics marketing executive was named to a senior post at Norton Simon. Robert Kamerschen will resign his position as president of Chanel Inc. to become senior vice president and assistant to Mr. Crull in December. Mr. Ratliff and Mr. Kamerschen worked together at Revlon.

Meanwhile, Sam Kalish, whose resignation was announced last May 30, remains on the Norton Simon payroll as a consultant. His annual salary as president of Max Factor was $190.000.

Then the goodfellows at the AFL-CIO a division Contra Costa Politics

Memorial services will be held Saturday in Mountain Lake, N.J., for Dale Ratliff, president of Max Factor & Company, who died last Saturday in Los Angeles of a heart attack.

Mr. Ratliff, 47 years old, joined Max Factor in January following six years as executive vice president of the domestic cosmetics and fragrances division of Revlon Inc. Previously, he had been group vice president with the BVD Company Inc. and had also served as senior vice president and general manager of the apparel division at International Playtex Inc.

Born in Hinton, W. Va., Mr. Ratliff was a graduate of Duke University. He served in the Marine Corps, attaining the rank of captain.

Mr. Ratliff is survived by his wife, the former Bettie Messer; three sons, Mitchell, Mark and Matthew; a daughter, Lynn, and his mother, Augusta J. Ratliff. The memorial services will be held at P.M. at the Community Church in Mountain Lake.

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That's right, @USAFBand struck again...this time at @UnionStation_DC. #USAF #holidays https://t.co/pM2effhpTq

— U.S. Air Force (@usairforce) December 4, 2015

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Jennifer Hudson Family Murder Trial: Guilty on All Counts

• By Alex Perez
• ANDREW FIES
• MICHAEL S. JAMES
• Christina Ng

CHICAGO, May 11, 2012

A jury has found William Balfour guilty of murdering actress Jennifer Hudson's mother, brother and 7-year-old nephew in 2008.

Balfour, 31, was accused of killing the three in a jealous rage, believing that his estranged wife, Julia Hudson, Jennifer Hudson's sister, was dating another man.

Jennifer Hudson, who sat between her fiance and Julia Hudson, silently cried as the verdict was read. Her fiance held her hand and rubbed her back. As Jennifer Hudson started to cry, her sister reached over and grabbed her hand and they looked at each other for a few seconds.

Balfour appeared to sit expressionless.

After the verdict, Balfour's attorney, Cook County Public Defender Amy Thompson, again characterized the case against Balfour as circumstantial and maintained his innocence. She said there would be an appeal.

"We are disappointed in the verdict, but we do appreciate all of the hard work the jury did in this case," she told reporters. "We're hoping that the appellate court will take a look at this case with a very critical eye."

The Hudson family left the courthouse out of the public's view without addressing the media. Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez spoke with Jennifer Hudson moments after the verdict and said Hudson was "emotional, but relieved."

Later, Jennifer and Julia Hudson issued a statement of thanks to police, prosecutors and others involved in the trial, according to The Chicago Sun-Times.

"We have felt the love and support from people all over the world and we're very grateful," the statement said. "We want to extend a prayer from the Hudson family to the Balfour family.

"We have all suffered terrible loss in this tragedy," the statement added. "It is our prayer that the Lord will forgive Mr. Balfour of these heinous acts and bring his heart into repentance someday."

The announcement that there was a verdict came shortly after the jury told Judge Charles Burns that it was split but wrote in a note, "We are trying." Burns ordered a resumption of deliberations in hopes of the jury's reaching an agreement. In a second note, the jury requested testimony about Balfour's cellphone records.

Soon afterward, after some 18 hours of deliberations over three days, the jury found Balfour guilty of all charges against him -- three counts of first-degree murder, home invasion, residential burglary, aggravated kidnapping and possession of a stolen vehicle.

Jurors said later that they overcame what was a 9-3 split in the jury room favoring a guilty verdict to come to a unanimous decision.

"There were three of us who just needed to see the picture a little clearer," said Jacinta Gholston, 35, who works for a Chicago-based chocolate company and initially was among the dissenters. "There were some holes or some gaps, per se, that just needed to be filled in."

Jurors said the mild disagreement was resolved by putting together a timeline of Balfour's movements, largely from the testimony about his cellphone records.

"He could not be in two places at one time," said Paula Halcomb, a teacher in Chicago's southwest suburbs. "The cellphone records were key, actually."

Despite the focus on Jennifer Hudson, jurors said the actress, her testimony and the attention she drew to the case and courtroom did not factor significantly into their deliberations.

"No, that didn't weigh in on our [deliberations], what Jennifer said, because, really, she didn't say anything," juror Tracie Austin said.

"This wasn't a case about Jennifer Hudson to us," Gholston added. "This was a case about William Balfour."

"We absolutely felt some empathy for him," she added later.

Asked if the jury had any message for Jennifer Hudson, jury foreman Robert Smith, a bus aide for the Chicago public schools, said, "To be perfectly honest, I really don't have anything to say with her. I just hope she can put this behind her and really get on with her life."

More Than 80 Witnesses Over Three Weeks

The trial began on April 23 in Chicago. Prosecutors called more than 80 witnesses over two weeks, and the defense rested its case after 30 minutes, calling only two witnesses to the stand. Balfour did not testify.

Prosecutors alleged that Balfour fatally shot Hudson's mother, Darnell Donerson, 57, in her living room, and then shot Hudson's brother Jason Hudson, 29, as he lay in bed. He then kidnapped Hudson's nephew Julian King, who was 7. Investigators believe the boy was shot in the head as he lay behind the front seat of an SUV.

Prosecuting State Attorney Veryl Gambino said Balfour was in a state of rage over Julia Hudson's dating another man, and said Balfour had issued several threats against her and her family. Balfour allegedly was enraged on Oct. 24, 2008, after he saw balloons another man sent to Julia Hudson and punched them.

Julia Hudson found her mother's body in her home and initially thought she had fallen. It wasn't until she saw blood that she realized something worse had taken place. Julia Hudson ran screaming from the house and called 911.

The killings happened in the family home in Chicago's tough Englewood neighborhood, where Jennifer Hudson grew up.

In Assistant State Attorney Jennifer Bagby's closing arguments, she said that Balfour "was fueled by his obsession, his jealousy, his determination to catch his wife, Julia Hudson, with another man. She didn't want him around, her family didn't want him around. But in his mind, she was his wife, and if he couldn't have her, no one could."

Bagby punctuated her narrative by frequently quoting Balfour's allegedly repeated threat to his estranged wife: "If you leave me, I will kill you. I will kill your family first. You will be the last to die."

While the defense argued no physical evidence linked Balfour to the murders, prosecutors spent significant portions of their closing arguments focusing on what they said was important physical evidence in this case.

The evidence included cellphone records that put Balfour near the scene at the time of murders, gun residue found on Balfour's clothing and on the steering wheel of his car, and the key to Jason Hudson's SUV found on Balfour when he was arrested.

Prosecutors spoke about the "overwhelming circumstantial evidence."

Balfour's attorneys say there is no evidence or DNA linking him to the murders.

Thompson said in her closing arguments that police "weren't trying to figure this out. They had their man. They spread it across the news. They were just trying to prove it by building a case any way they could."

Thompson emphasized that Balfour's fingerprints were not found on the gun or the car where Julian was killed.

"The one constant in this case is that every piece of DNA evidence absolutely excludes William Balfour," Thompson said. "The one person in all of Chicago who didn't do it is him. That's what the evidence showed."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Watch: President Obama Addresses the Nation on terrorism

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OBAMA: Good evening. On Wednesday, 14 Americans were killed as they came together to celebrate the holidays. They were taken from family and friends who loved them deeply. They were white and black, Latino and Asian, immigrants, and American born, moms and dads, daughters and sons. Each of them served their fellow citizens. All of them were part of our American family.
Tonight I want to talk with you about this tragedy, the broader threat of terrorism and how we can keep our country safe. The FBI is still gathering the facts about what happened in San Bernardino, but here’s what we know. The victims were brutally murdered and injured by one of their co-workers and his wife. So far, we have no evidence that the killers were directed by a terrorist organization overseas or that they were part of a broader conspiracy here at home. But it is clear that the two of them had gone down the dark path of radicalization, embracing a perverted interpretation of Islam that calls for war against America and the West. They had stockpiled assault weapons, ammunition, and pipe bombs.
So this was an act of terrorism designed to kill innocent people. Our nation has been at war with terrorists since Al Qaeda killed nearly 3,000 Americans on 9/11. In the process, we’ve hardened our defenses, from airports, to financial centers, to other critical infrastructure. Intelligence and law enforcement agencies have disrupted countless plots here and overseas and worked around the clock to keep us safe.
Our military and counterterrorism professionals have relentlessly pursued terrorist networks overseas, disrupting safe havens in several different countries, killing Osama Bin Laden, and decimating Al Qaeda’s leadership.
Over the last few years, however, the terrorist threat has evolved into a new phase. As we’ve become better at preventing complex multifaceted attacks like 9/11, terrorists turn to less complicated acts of violence like the mass shootings that are all too common in our society. It is this type of attack that we saw at Fort Hood in 2009, in Chattanooga earlier this year, and now in San Bernardino.
And as groups like ISIL grew stronger amidst the chaos of war in Iraq and then Syria, and as the Internet erases the distance between countries, we see growing efforts by terrorists to poison the minds of people like the Boston Marathon bombers and the San Bernardino killers.
For seven years, I’ve confronted this evolving threat each and every morning in my intelligence briefing, and since the day I took this office, I have authorized U.S. forces to take out terrorists abroad precisely because I know how real the danger is.
As commander in chief, I have no greater responsibility than the security of the American people.
As a father to two young daughters who are the most precious part of my life, I know that we see ourselves with friends and co-workers at a holiday party like the one in San Bernardino. I know we see our kids in the faces of the young people killed in Paris.
And I know that after so much war, many Americans are asking whether we are confronted by a cancer that has no immediate cure.
Well, here’s what I want you to know. The threat from terrorism is real, but we will overcome it. We will destroy ISIL and any other organization that tries to harm us. Our success won’t depend on tough talk, or abandoning our values or giving into fear. That’s what groups like ISIL are hoping for. Instead, we will prevail by being strong and smart, resilient and relentless. And by drawing upon every aspect of American power.
Here’s how. First, our military will continue to hunt down terrorist plotters in any country where it is necessary. In Iraq and Syria, air strikes are taking out ISIL leaders, heavy weapons, oil tankers, infrastructure.
And since attacks in Paris, our closest allies, including France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, have ramped up their contributions to our military campaign which will help us accelerate our effort to destroy ISIL.
Second, we will continue to provide training and equipment to tens of thousands of Iraqi and Syrian forces fighting ISIL on the ground so that we take away their safe havens.
In both countries, we’re deploying special operations forces who can accelerate that offensive. We’ve stepped up this effort since the attacks in Paris, and will continue to invest more in approaches that are working on the ground.
Third, we’re working with friends and allies to stop ISIL’s operations, to disrupt plots, cut off their financing, and prevent them from recruiting more fighters.
Since the attacks in Paris, we’ve surged merged intelligence sharing with our European allies. We’re working with Turkey to seal its border with Syria, and we are cooperating with Muslim majority countries, and with our Muslim communities here at home, to counter the vicious ideology that ISIL promotes online.
Fourth, with American leadership, the international community has begun to establish a process and timeline to pursue cease-fires and a political resolution to the Syrian war.
Doing so will allow the Syrian people and every country, including our allies, but also countries like Russia, to focus on the common goal of destroying ISIL, a group that threatens us all.
This is our strategy to destroy ISIL. It is designed and supported by our military commanders and counterterrorism experts, together with 65 countries that have joined an American-led coalition. And we constantly examine our strategy to determine when additional steps are needed to get the job done.
That’s why I’ve ordered the Departments of State and Homeland Security to review the visa waiver program under which the female terrorist in San Bernardino originally came to this country. And that’s why I will urge high-tech and law enforcement leaders to make it harder for terrorists to use technology to escape from justice.
Now, here at home, we have to work together to address the challenge. There are several steps that Congress should take right away. To begin with, Congress should act to make sure no one on a no- fly list is able to buy a gun. What could possibly be the argument for allowing a terrorist suspect to buy a semiautomatic weapon? This is a matter of national security.
We also need to make it harder for people to buy powerful assault weapons, like the ones that were used in San Bernardino. I know there are some who reject any gun-safety measures, but the fact is that our intelligence and law-enforcement agencies, no matter how effective they are, cannot identify every would-be mass shooter, whether that individual was motivated by ISIL or some other hateful ideology.
What we can do, and must do, is make it harder for them to kill.
Next, we should put in place stronger screening for those who come to America without a visa so that we can take a hard look at whether they’ve traveled to war zones. And we’re working with members of both parties in Congress to do exactly that.
Finally, if Congress believes, as I do, that we are at war with ISIL, it should go ahead and vote to authorize the continued use of military force against these terrorists.
For over a year, I have ordered our military to take thousands of air strikes against ISIL targets. I think it’s time for Congress to vote to demonstrate that the American people are united and committed to this fight.
My fellow Americans, these are the steps that we can take together to defeat the terrorist threat.
Let me now say a word about what we should not do. We should not be drawn once more into a long and costly ground war in Iraq or Syria. That’s what groups like ISIL want. They know they can’t defeat us on the battlefield. ISIL fighters were part of the insurgency that we faced in Iraq. But they also know that if we occupy foreign lands, they can maintain insurgencies for years, killing thousands of our troops and draining our resources, and using our presence to draw new recruits.
The strategy that we are using now — air strikes, special forces, and working with local forces who are fighting to regain control of their own country — that is how we’ll achieve a more sustainable victory, and it won’t require us sending a new generation of Americans overseas to fight and die for another decade on foreign soil.
Here’s what else we cannot do. We cannot turn against one another by letting this fight be defined as a war between America and Islam. That, too, is what groups like ISIL want.
ISIL does not speak for Islam. They are thugs and killers, part of a cult of death. And they account for a tiny fraction of a more than a billion Muslims around the world, including millions of patriotic Muslim-Americans who reject their hateful ideology.
Moreover, the vast majority of terrorist victims around the world are Muslim.
If we’re to succeed in defeating terrorism, we must enlist Muslim communities as some of our strongest allies, rather than push them away through suspicion and hate.
That does not mean denying the fact that an extremist ideology has spread within some Muslim communities. It’s a real problem that Muslims must confront without excuse.
Muslim leaders here and around the globe have to continue working with us to decisively and unequivocally reject the hateful ideology that groups like ISIL and Al Qaeda promote, to speak out against not just acts of violence, but also those interpretations of Islam that are incompatible with the values of religious tolerance, mutual respect, and human dignity.
But just as it is the responsibility of Muslims around the world to root out misguided ideas that lead to radicalization, it is the responsibility of all Americans, of every faith, to reject discrimination. It is our responsibility to reject religious tests on who we admit into this country. It’s our responsibility to reject proposals that Muslim-Americans should somehow be treated differently. Because when we travel down that road, we lose. That kind of divisiveness, that betrayal of our values plays into the hands of groups like ISIL.
Muslim-Americans are our friends and our neighbors, our co- workers, our sports heroes. And, yes, they are our men and women in uniform who are willing to die in defense of our country. We have to remember that.
My fellow Americans, I am confident we will succeed in this mission because we are on the right side of history. We were founded upon a belief in human dignity that no matter who you are, or where you come from, or what you look like or what religion you practice, you are equal in the eyes of God and equal in the eyes of the law. Even in this political season, even as we properly debate what steps I and future presidents must take to keep our country safe. Let’s make sure we never forget what makes us exceptional. Let’s not forget that freedom is more powerful than fear. That we have always met challenges, whether war or depression, natural disasters or terrorist attacks, by coming together around our common ideals as one nation and one people.
So long as we stay true to that tradition, I have no doubt that America will prevail.
Thank you. God bless you. And may God bless the United States of America.

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Major Defense Logistics Agency Contract Awarded to Accenture

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Major Defense Logistics Agency Contract Awarded to Accenture

By: Global Logistics & Supply Chain Strategies | May 01, 2007

Accenture has been awarded a contract by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) to provide business systems integration, systems engineering and application management services.
The base contract is for five years and is said to be valued at $155m, with options to extend the agreement by another five years that are valued at $97m. The so-called Enterprise Business System (EBS) integration and sustainment contract continues DLA's modernization efforts and provides application management support for the agency's enterprise systems.
Under the new contract, Accenture will work with DLA to deliver new capabilities that are focused on providing more efficient, effective and reliable supply chain support to the military services. Accenture will continue to modernize DLA's multiple logistics systems into a single, integrated end-to-end system, extending business functions based on leading practices and replacing legacy software systems with commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) software.
Accenture says it will also work with DLA to help implement its strategy and direction for future modernization efforts. The first initiatives that DLA has identified to be performed under EBS are the implementation of a new SAP-based e-procurement system and upgrading the SAP application suite to the latest version. 
In addition, Accenture will assist DLA in performing its expanded mission under the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) 2005 Commission recommendations, where DLA will assume specific procurement responsibilities for the military services.
Accenture will also provide application-management services, supporting DLA's mission-critical supply chain systems.
"As a result of the United States' growing military obligations as well as Base Realignment and Closure requirements, DLA's global mission continues to expand," said Eric Stange, managing director of Accenture's Defense practice. "Our supply chain expertise and unique understanding of DLA's technical environment make us well positioned to help the agency achieve its mission of supporting America's warfighters around the globe."
Accenture previously had won the DLA Business Systems Modernization contract in 2000 and delivered a new SAP-based system. The new EBS integration and sustainment capability will build upon DLA's modernization efforts to enhance the agency's supply chains.
Visit www.accenture.com.

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Milne Trust

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Accenture and Microsoft Launch New Hybrid Cloud Platform to Accelerate Enterprise-Wide Adoption

Accenture and Microsoft Launch New Hybrid Cloud Platform to Accelerate Enterprise-Wide Adoption

NOTE: The most unusual event occurred back in December 2013 - the CEO of Accenture viewed my profile wow I'm flattered and still homeless (2016). 

• You can not win 
• You lose against them 
• You are considered acceptable losses on their battlefield 
• ENRON Execs stole millions, 
• PG&E and Accenture project was a huge failure. 

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Accenture and Microsoft Launch New Hybrid Cloud Platform to Accelerate Enterprise-Wide Adoption

This posting is presented to portray how Microsoft, Fremont Group (Real Estate Investments) Attorney Rick Kopf who funded Mitt Romney.

The problem for Romney is a witness in Bennett v. Southern Pacific was murdered and connected to me is the Strack Murders, The Driscoll Murders, The David Bremer Murder, The Officer Youngstrom Murder and many other murders or accidents.  Try Contra Costa Murders

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