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WhatToExpect.com, the online home for Heidi Murkoff’s world-renowned What to Expect(R) parenting and pregnancy brand,tiffany Pendant, and Hallmark Cards, announced today the launch of their joint online baby bump photo contest (www.whattoexpect.com/hallmark), celebrating the pride of pregnancy – and bellies. Starting August 9,

Boy Scout Steve Stulock is making good on his promise to spruce up a veterans’ memorial in Washington Township.

About a year ago, Stulock met township supervisor Jamie Miller during a safety day at the community fire hall.

The two spoke about ways to improve the area. Upon Miller’s request, the 16-year-old Lynnwood resident promised to enhance the war memorial in the township’s Gillespie section for his Eagle Scout project.

A midget league football team’s swim party turned tragic Saturday when one of the boys drowned in a backyard pond. Allen County sheriff’s deputies were called to 230 N. Copus Road just after 2 p.m. Saturday after one of the boys at the party went missing in the pond. Deputies were joined by American Township police and firefighters and dive crews from Delphos and Allen County.,necklaces

Sometime this fall, Target will begin offering a 5% discount to customers who use its credit card for their purchases at the chain. So is this a good deal–or not?

Just about every discount offer raises the same question, since it is genuinely difficult to assess what a fair price really is. In most cases,Bead bracelet, discounts are intended to en

Clothing retailer Boden plans to more than double the size of its facility in CenterPoint Commerce and Trade Park East.,tiffany

The expansion will create 60 new jobs by February 2011 and preserve the 140 jobs at the call center and distribution facility on Armstrong Road, announced Julian Granville, managing director of Boden, at a press conference Wednesday.

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The renewal of the one-cent Capital Projects Sales Tax will be decided in November by voters.,Charm bracelet

Despite the urging of several who spoke during the public hearing on the issue, Aiken County Council approved by a majority to put the referendum on the ballot this year instead of postponing it until 2011. And, in turn, approved the lengthy list of projects that would be funded by the sales tax revenue if the referendum passes.

Several members of Council, by their own admission, were undecided on the referendum’s timing up until the moment the vote was taken. Ultimately,necklaces, however, they said they had no desire to spend taxpayer money on a 2011 special election. Nor did they want to risk low voter turnout, for which special elections are notorious. More people are expected to be drawn to the polls this November eager for the chance to shape state leadership in races for governor, lieutenant governor, superintendent of education and others.

"I don’t believe we should ever have a vote on a tax in a special election," Councilwoman Kathy Rawls said.

Yet, the majority of those who addressed Council Tuesday, encouraged the body to delay the referendum for one year citing the electorate’s frustration with perceived government mismanagement of money — more specifically on the state and federal level — and with taxes in general.

"We’re all very much aware of how angry people are. They are frustrated with taxes … and the loss of individual rights. I recommend holding off one year. The taxpayers’ attitude may change," said Pete Seaha, chairman of the Aiken County TEA Party.

Others took issue, not only with the very idea of the tax, but with the projects it proposes to fund. One woman scoffed what she called "fluff" projects.

"Playgrounds. Why do we need new playgrounds? It is not the job of government to provide those things,earrings," she said.

Councilman Gary Bunker argued that one man’s fluff is another man’s needs but did note he was "dismayed" the City of Aiken chose to keep the Railroad Depot on its list.

Councilman Willar Hightower voted in opposition to the ordinance proposing the tax’s continuation.

"I don’t like a sales tax to fund basic government functions," he said. "When I look at the list, for the most part it is good. But, there seemed to be a mood this year of, ‘We don’t want to fund certain organizations.’ Railroad Depot funding is not what you want to do. But there are other worthy organizations, like the Cumbee Center."

Councilwoman LaWana McKenzie was absent.

The Capital Projects Sales Tax is a special one-cent option sales tax applying to the gross proceeds of sales in Aiken County, excluding unprepared food if it is purchased with food stamps. County Administrator Clay Killian has estimated the total take from round three would be anywhere between $130 million to $145 million.

This will be the third renewal. Each reimposed tax must not exceed seven years from the date of reimposition. It will not be another penny collected on top of the current one.

If voters do not pass it in November,cuff Links, the referendum cannot be reintroduced until 2012. The current round is expected to expire in the first quarter of 2012.

"I am not so sure the next four years are going to be a heck of a lot of fun without the Capital Projects Sales Tax," said Councilman Scott Singer.

Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control issued the following news release:

The Kent Conservation District invites you to join them for a rompin’ stompin’ good time, from 6 p.m. to midnight,necklaces, Friday evening,Beads necklace, Sept. 17, for its 13th Annual Barn Dance fundraiser to be held in the Dover Building on the Delaware State Fairgrounds in Harrington. Activities include a down-home barbecue pork and chicken dinner, live and silent benefit auctions, and dancing to music provided by Just Kidding Around Entertainment.

Guests are encouraged to be prepared to kick up their heels! Tickets are $15 per person or $25 per couple. Reserved tables with seating for eight are again available for $110 (one name – one check).

Funds raised through the Barn Dance are used to support the Delaware Envirothon, a competitive, problem-solving, natural resource challenge for high school students. The goals of the Delaware Envirothon are to test the environmental knowledge of high school students and to cultivate within the students a desire to learn more about their natural world. The students compete in the following categories: soils/land use, aquatic ecology, forestry,key rings, wildlife, and a current environmental issue.

The experience gained through the competition will prepare individual students and teams to make sound conservation decisions. The 2010 Delaware champions from the Charter School of Wilmington just returned from Fresno, Calif.,bangles, and brought home the second place title after competing against other students from across the U.

S. and Canada.

A limited number of tickets to the Barn Dance are available and can be purchased by mail or in person at the Kent Conservation District office located at 800 Bay Road, Suite 2, Dover. Last year’s event sold out in advance, so hurry in to purchase your tickets today! For more information, please call the District at 302-741-2600 ext. 3. For any query with respect to this article or any other content requirement, please contact Editor at htsyndication@hindustantimes.com

Every year when I head to the Rio for the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas,tiffany my goal is obviously to win some gold bracelets, but my main focus is on winning the player of the year award, which is an accomplishment that is much more draining and difficult than winning one tournament.

In 2004, I was named player of the year, and since then have knocked on the door consistently but have failed to repeat. Last year, my buddy Erick Lindgren won the honors with a total of 245 points. That’s an impressive total, but with the Main Event yet to be played this year, five players have 240 points or more.

It has been just an amazing series on many levels. While I have cashed in eight tournaments — a personal record, as well as the highest number at this year’s WSOP — my accomplishment pales in comparison to what we’ve seen over the last month.

*Jeff Lisandro: He established a triple crown for the ages, winning three gold key rings bracelets in the same year. That feat has been done before, by Phil Ivey, Ted Forrest and Phil Hellmuth, but there was something extra special about Lisandro’s feat. He won three bracelets in three different forms of stud poker: Seven-Card Stud, Razz and Seven-Card Stud high/low. In total, Lisandro has cashed six times for 355 player of the year points, good enough to give him the lead going into the Main Event. He’s not in the clear yet, because there are several players in striking distance.

*Ville Wahlbeck: Who? Exactly. Wahlbeck has taken the WSOP by storm this year, racking up 320 POY points by showing off his overall poker skills in several different disciplines from Razz to 2-7 Draw to two final tables in mixed-game events. Wahlbeck is a professional poker player who has had lots of success with online poker, but this year’s WSOP was his coming-out party onto the world stage. Wahlbeck made four final tables with first-, second-, third- and sixth-place finishes; the sixth place came in the prestigious $50,000-buy-in H.O.R.S.E event, which requires excellence in five different disciplines.

*Phil Ivey: If poker were to have a Tiger Woods, he would be that man, and it has nothing to do with the vague resemblance. Ivey is widely regarded as the best all-around poker player in the world. And when he’s motivated, he wins gold bracelets. This year, he has won two for a career total of seven. At 33, he is the youngest player to win that many.

The all-time leader is Hellmuth with 11 gold bracelets, but the only thing stopping Ivey from necklaces surpassing that total is motivation. Ivey is a high-stakes gambler and makes most of his money playing in high-stakes cash games in Las Vegas. Winning bracelets is more of a hobby for Ivey. If there is any player in the world who can win 20 bracelets in a lifetime, Ivey is clearly at the top of that list.

Ivey and Lisandro have won multiple bracelets this year, but two other professionals have struck gold more than once: Brock Parker and Greg Mueller.

Four players have won multiple bracelets, breaking another WSOP record. The other feat worth mentioning, and it was very close to being truly historic, involved Russian Vitaly Lunkin. He won the 40th anniversary $40,000 buy-in No Limit event, followed that up with a second-place finish in the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha event and then came close to winning the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event, finishing fourth.

This year’s WSOP results should put an end to the foolish debate as to whether poker is a game of Tiffany Accessories skill. The WSOP already will go down as one of the most memorable ever, and the Main Event championship has yet to begin.

Despite economic woes globally, the WSOP thrived and records were broken in several events.

It’s still hard to predict how many players will chase WSOP glory in the Main Event, but here is a safe bet for you: I will be one of them.

Daniel Negreanu is a professional poker player with four WSOP bracelets

Tiffany Decision in Little Switzerland Sale Upheld

A federal judge last week affirmed a $3.6 million award that tiffany & Co. had won at arbitration in a dispute over the sale of its Little Switzerland Inc. business.

tiffany jewelry and NXP Corp., which bought the Caribbean jewelry chain through its Oakland, Mich.-based assignee Dhirim Inc. in 2007, had fought over the final sale price because of balance sheet adjustments.

The two companies entered arbitration, as called for in the purchase agreement. In April, an arbitrator at financial services firm KPMG decided in Tiffany’s favor and awarded it $3.6 million.

Dhirim refused to pay and, several weeks later, brought a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Detroit seeking to have the award vacated. The company alleged KPMG’s arbitrator, Luke Botica, was biased because his firm had separately tried to win Dhirim’s tax and accounting business.

Meanwhile, Tiffany necklaces filed a suit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan in June seeking to have the award confirmed.

In a ruling handed down Aug. 19, Judge Alvin Hellerstein of the New York court certified Botica’s original award to Tiffany.

Hellerstein found that the arbitrator was fair and unconflicted and that Dhirim was aware of [the] alleged fault at the time of arbitration, and waived its right to object by waiting until issuance of an unfavorable award to do so.

A lawyer for Dhirim said Friday she had no comment.

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The only way to survive the recession is to demand more from your employees than ever before. Over the past year, we have mystery-shopped jewelry stores across the country, and the results we witnessed were not encouraging. Aside from a laundry list of retail sins committed by salespeople behind the tiffany jewelry counter, what concerned us most was the general acceptance of substandard performance. The poor economy has forced many businesses to adapt and change their rules and standards, and it doesn’t look as if the situation will improve any time soon. Why so many in the jewelry industry seem afraid to raise the bar in terms of staff performance standards and expectations remains a mystery.

We believe the widespread lackluster commitment to customer satisfaction we have seen, and much of the reason why salespeople are underperforming, is directly due to a lack of training, expectations, and accountability. We believe this points directly to ineffective management and leadership. From our observations, many store owners and managers lack the necessary training and passion to be effective themselves, and this has trickled down to their associates.

Nevertheless, it is possible to put an “A” team in place, performing to the best of its abilities and your expectations. Here’s how:

First, evaluate your staff. Assess whether you have any “A” players worth investing in, and consider replacing those who are not-even if it means restructuring your entire sales staff.

Next, sit down with each staffer individually. Thank them for their previous hard work. Let them know, however key rings, that in this tough economy, you’re raising the performance standards you expect from them. Just because the economy has taken a downturn does not mean your customer satisfaction levels should as well. Set the standard, give them a timeline to achieve it, and inform them of the consequences if they don’t. Set timelines between 30 and 60 days. Stick to the date, or you and the program will lose credibility.

Present expectations in the form of store numbers, performance, and everything that goes with them, including sales, gross margins, profits, average sale, add-on sales, repair sales, average event, largest store sale, training ability, associate accountability, personal sales, conversion rates, employee turnover, shrink, etc.

Both performers and nonperformers know who they are-the numbers don’t lie. Although it’s important for the owner or manager to offer help, encouragement, and solutions as needed, make it clear that it’s up to each associate to achieve the objectives you’ve set forth. Make sure your managers understand and agree with the new standards.

Do a similar assessment with your managers. Raise the bar on your expectations for them as well, both in terms of team leadership and personal objectives. Stress that if the team is not performing, it reflects on them.

Once you have your new goals in place, you should know within a week who will rise to the occasion and who won’t. For the underperformers, put in motion your back-up plan (which you should always have in place) to find their replacements.

The silver lining in this dark economic cloud is that it presents the ideal opportunity to necklaces perfect your staff. Expect nothing less than greatness from them. If they are not performing to your expectations and you have given them sufficient warning (both verbal and written), do not hesitate to replace them.

Make sure replacements are better performers, or you’ll be back where you started. This may mean upping your compensation to ensure you attract the best, or utilizing the services of a recruiting firm. The investment will be worth it. Consider the time and money you would spend trying to jump-start an underperformer who may revert to his old ways after a few weeks or months. Compare that to the increased sales and opportunities that recruiting and hiring a top performer can generate for your business.