1 killed, 9 wounded in Israeli gunfire near Gaza

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) ? Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian man and wounded nine along Gaza's border fence with Israel on Friday, a Gaza health official said, reporting the first violence since a truce between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers took hold a day before.

The shooting appeared to be an isolated incident and was unlikely to jeopardize the Egyptian-brokered cease-fire, which called for an end to Gaza rocket fire on Israel and Israeli airstrikes on Gaza. The truce came after eight days of cross-border fighting, the bloodiest battle between Israel and Hamas in four years.

The Gaza prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, has urged militant factions to respect the cease-fire.

The man killed Friday was part of a group of people who approached Israel's border fence with Gaza to pick up parts of an Israeli army jeep damaged in the fighting, said Gaza health official Adnan Abu Salmia. He said soldiers opened fire, killing one man and wounding nine.

Israel's military, citing a preliminary investigation, said there have been isolated attempts to infiltrate Israel from Gaza, and that warning shots were fired in the air when the group approached Friday. The military said there was unrest along the border but did not elaborate.

In the past, Israeli troops enforced a no-go zone on the Gaza side of the frontier, firing on anyone approaching in an attempt to prevent infiltration attempts. Since the cease-fire, growing numbers of Gazans have entered the zone.

In Cairo, Egypt was set to hold separate talks Friday with Israeli and Hamas envoys on the next phase of the cease-fire ? a new border deal for blockaded Gaza. Hamas demands a lifting of all border restrictions, while Israel insists that Hamas must halt weapons smuggling to the territory.

In Israel, a poll showed that about half of Israelis think their government should have continued its military offensive against Hamas.

The independent Maagar Mohot poll released on Friday shows 49 percent of respondents feel Israel should have kept going after squads that fire rockets into Israel. Thirty-one percent supported the government's decision to stop. Twenty percent had no opinion.

Twenty-nine percent thought Israel should have sent ground troops to invade Gaza.

The poll of 503 respondents had an error margin of 4.5 percentage points.

The same survey showed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party and electoral partner Israel Beiteinu losing some support, but his hard-line bloc still able to form the next government. Elections are Jan. 22.

___

Associated Press writer Amy Teibel in Jerusalem contributed reporting.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/1-killed-9-wounded-israeli-gunfire-near-gaza-101350532.html

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Teen lifts Thanksgiving spirits in Sandy-hit hometown

John Makely / NBC News

Standing in front of what remains of his aunt's house, Matt Petronis takes in the burned section of Breezy Point, N.Y., where more than 100 homes were destroyed by fire at the height of Hurricane Sandy on Oct. 29. It was his first day back in his hometown from college since the storm.

By Bob Sullivan

Matthew Petronis sat in his dorm room on Oct. 29, watching TV in horror as "my childhood burned down."

Petronis had spent the past three summers working as a lifeguard on Breezy Point beach, and had spent the first 19 years of his life learning how to walk, read, swim and throw a baseball in the idyllic Queens, N.Y., neighborhood. A sophomore at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., he thought he was a safe distance from Sandy's unforgiving storm surge. But as the first reports of a devastating fire on Breezy Point began to circulate, fear gripped him. His schools, his friends, almost everything he knew was there. He'd celebrated all 18 of his Thanksgiving Days with family there.?

As the night wore on, it became apparent that the combination of wind, water and fire had dealt Breezy Point a potentially mortal blow. He felt helpless in his dorm room -- but not for long.

---

A star pitcher at Xaverian High School near Breezy Point, Petronis is now a promising southpaw on the Catholic University pitching staff. So he knows a little about working his way out of trouble.

In a neighborhood hard-hit by Sandy, even people who are storm victims themselves find ways to bring Thanksgiving to others. NBC's Kate Snow reports.

Only a few hours after the near destruction of his community, Petronis set up the first fundraiser to help the neighborhood get off the mat. Before people routed by Sandy could even begin to assess the damage, he had embraced the new form of crowd-sourced charity and set up an online-donation tool at WePay.com.?Within hours, he'd raised a few thousand dollars. He topped $10,000 ?a couple of days later.?

Offers started pouring in, not just money. Accountants and lawyers offered to help him set up nonprofit status, which was granted by the IRS this week. Others offered to come to Breezy Point and help with reconstruction. Architects, carpenters, construction workers and good-hearted volunteers from across the country have offered to come for a week or two to Queens and help anyway they can. Petronis is managing both the money and the volunteers.

"People are running marathons to raise money for us, having free concerts for us. It's just crazy," Petronis said this week. In a way, the teenager has been the most personal link between Breezy Point, the most local of neighborhoods, and the outside world, full of folks desperate to help resurrect this treasured place.??

John Makely / NBC News

Matt Petronis waits for the bank to open in Breezy Point to set up the account for the donations he has received to help rebuild Breezy Point on Wednesday.

By Thanksgiving morning, nearly 1,400 donors had driven the fund above $78,000, all generated by a few creative clicks on a keyboard. Unlike other Sandy recovery funds, the money Petronis is collecting will go directly toward rebuilding Breezy Point.

In some ways, Petronis is lucky. His family ? his parents, two brothers and two cousins they took in who recently lost their parents ? has been squeezed into a studio basement apartment in Brooklyn for three weeks, looking for a more permanent place to live. Petronis' dorm room seems like a luxury accommodation in contrast. Naturally, he feels guilty about that -- but his life is hardly easy at the moment. He's juggling classes, mandatory study hall for baseball, keeping up with his family's rebuilding issues and managing the donations and volunteers.

"In other words, he's using business management major skills in a pretty useful way," said Catholic University baseball Coach Ross Natoli. "He's a free spirit, yet a caring kid. He has that New York can-do attitude. He's a terrific teammate."

In fact, the entire Petronis family knows something about being team players, Natoli said. Not only do they attend many games -- both home and away -- but Petronis' father, without being asked, started buying lunch for the players during long doubleheaders last year. Doubleheaders at smaller colleges tend to be long, inglorious affairs, often lasting 5 hours or more.??

"When you play a sport in college you try to emphasize importance of what it really means to care about teammates and have their back," Ross said. "Matt is one of those guys. What he's done has not surprised me."

Petronis' fund did so well because he set it up quickly, taking advantage of all the publicity that Breezy Point received in the immediate aftermath of the storm. It's now the main gift-giving tool for outsiders who want to help Breezy Point. The money will be given to the Breezy Point Disaster Relief Fund, to be administered by a seven-member board of directors.

"He did all this on his own, it's as simple as that," said Steven Greenburg, who will chair the disaster relief fund. "What he's done is magnificent, and a perfect example of what we do here in Breezy Point. It's just nice to see young people step up like this."

The money will be doled out to people who apply for it using anonymous forms, Greenburg said.

John Makely / NBC News

Matt Petronis gets a hug from Anne-Marie Willis at the Catholic Club, which has been turned into a distrubution center for donated supplies. Petronis celebrated his Catholic confirmation in the building.

"We have to do it that way, because everyone knows everyone on Breezy Point," he said.

For Petronis, the fight is personal.

"The place where I grew up during my childhood is almost gone, but that is not the case for the children that are growing up now," he wrote on the wepay.com page. "They deserve to enjoy the same little piece of paradise I enjoyed when I was younger, so this is not just only for Breezy. It?s for the younger generation as well that I want to have the same childhood, but better."

The last few weeks of the fall semester -- the crush between Thanksgiving and Christmas, tend to be the busiest time in a student's calendar. But despite the papers and exams staring him down, Petronis went home Thanksgiving week to help with the cleanup. It was the first time he'd seen the destruction of his family?s Beach Road house in person.

Read more of NBC News' coverage of Breezy Point

"You just stare at in disbelief. I have so many emotions going through my mind," he said. "But there are so many positive things going on, and I really just want to help out, so I?m going to stay positive."

Petronis, who appeared in three games last year as a Catholic University freshman, had a disappointing end to his fall baseball season, pitching in a 2-1 loss to the Naval Academy. But one gets a sense there are a lot of wins in his future.

Already, Thanksgiving week has brought good things to his family. On Wednesday, Petronis was helping move furniture into a new apartment the family had just scored in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, not too far from Breezy Point. There, they'll be able to find a little more normalcy while they plan to rebuild their home and their lives. But the new apartment isn't nearly big enough for a family gathering so, for the first time, they'll be eating turkey dinner outside New York City ? at an uncle's home on Long Island.

"It's going to be weird, switching it up is odd. But we will be around family, and that's what Thanksgiving is about," he said. And he vows Sandy will be just a bump in the road, that holidays will come to Breezy Point again.

To give to the Breezy Point Disaster Relief Fund, visit Petronis' WePay website at:

https://www.wepay.com/x4c0ok9/donations/hurricane-sandy-raising-money-for-breezy-point

Or http://breezypointdisasterrelief.org/

Or send a check to:

Breezy Point Disaster Relief Fund/C/O The Law Office of Lee and Kane
2175 Flatbush Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11234

Other places you can donate for Sandy relief, or offer help:

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/30/14805994-sandys-aftermath-how-you-can-help?lite

* Follow Bob Sullivan on?Facebook.
* Follow Bob Sullivan on?Twitter.?

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Source: http://redtape.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/22/15341712-what-thanksgiving-is-all-about-breezy-point-teen-raises-80k-lifting-spirits-in-devastated-hometown?lite

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Will Health Care Exchanges Provide Affordable Individual Health ...

Home ? Insurance ? Will Health Care Exchanges Provide Affordable Individual Health Insurance For All That Want It?

Now the election has passed, does this mean affordable family health insurance for all? The intention of reform is to provide exactly this, but actually it may be much trickier than initially forecasted. First of all, each state wishes to carry out a health insurance exchange in the imminent months, which will supply access to affordable family health insurance for all US citizens. Fed. funding and help will be supplied to these exchanges. Whether non-public insurance companies will be allowed into the exchange to supply cheap family health insurance options as well remains to be seen, but many major carriers are fighting for the opportunity to join the exchanges.

The final goal of the health insurance exchanges and medical care reform as a whole is to make certain that everybody has got accessibility to reasonable individual health care insurance. There are at the current time millions who are either uninsured because they cannot afford or qualify for affordable individual health insurance, and face going without critical care or facing extreme hospital bills. The hope is that by offering health insurance to all eligible US subjects, this is often avoided.

The axiom as to what the plan structure will be is basically split into 4 levels; bronze, silver, gold, and platinum. There can also be a ?Cadillac plan? too , but rates and plan benefits are not predicted to be released till June 2013. Will the exchange really provide coverage that is obtainable for most individuals? With the offering of subsidies to help to counterbalance the premiums, it is expected that all can secure affordable family health insurance cover for themselves, and their families.

For those not wishing to purchase health insurance through the exchange, they might have the option to purchase health insurance through a personal insurer, or go without. By not enrolling nevertheless , these individuals will face penalties of either a percentage of their income or a flat dollar amount each year. Some may come to a decision to eschew the so-called affordable individual health insurance and take the penalty, as the premiums may be more than the penalty. This can result in an overflow of only sick people enrolling through the exchange, and driving up the price of care. Many of us fear this eventuality, and assume that this will only drive the premiums higher, creating a threatening cycle.

Supporters feel that people will embrace the exchange, though it might take some getting used to. With guidance from brokers and others trained in the plan structures and enrollment laws, it's hoped that this will be a good thing for our residents. With everybody in a position to get hospital treatment for even the most basic preventive services it is predicted this can have a major effect on our nation's general fitness. With no regard for how one feels about medicare reform and health insurance exchanges, it is approaching on the near horizon and should be understood.

DanielAbrams is the owner of Insuresaver Insurance Firm and has been helping people find
affordable individual health insurance for over 30 years.

Source: http://www.thewaymakers.net/articles/insurance/will-health-care-exchanges-provide-affordable-individual-health-insurance-for-all-that-want-it

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CP Rail Calgary headquarters being relocated to cut costs, sources ...

Canadian Pacific Railway is planning to relocate much of its head office from downtown Calgary, union officials and a source close to the company said, under a restructuring plan that its new chief executive will detail to investors in early December.

Chief Executive Hunter Harrison told U.S. union leaders and a Canadian union president that Canada?s second-biggest railroad will move employees out of its glass-towered headquarters as part of an ambitious cost-cutting plan.

We?re a railroad. What were we doing downtown hanging out with the oil barons? Our place is to be in a rail yard

Harrison, a hard-driving, 50-year veteran of the rail industry, was appointed CEO in June to turn around the underperforming railway after a bruising proxy battle ousted his predecessor, as well as the previous chairman and several directors. He is the hand-picked choice of CP?s biggest shareholder, William Ackman?s Pershing Square Capital Management, who launched the proxy fight.

One union official said the head office move was to a nearby Calgary rail yard that CP owns. Details are expected Dec 4 and 5, along with an announcement of further job cuts, when Harrison outlines his plan to improve efficiency at CP.

?They?re moving the headquarters to Ogden, which just makes sense,? said Bill Brehl, president of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference Maintenance of Way union.

?We?re a railroad. What were we doing downtown hanging out with the oil barons? Our place is to be in a rail yard,? said Brehl, who was told of the plan by Harrison.

Brehl said the company will rebuild the century-old Ogden yard, constructing offices there. CP decided last year to close the Ogden repair shop, constructed in 1912 on land south east of Calgary?s city center. It moved locomotive and train car repair elsewhere.

A CP spokesman declined to comment when asked to confirm the move.

A source close to the company, who asked not to be identified, said CP will maintain a reduced downtown presence consisting of a boardroom and small number of offices.

The change aims to trim the cost of operations over the long term, the source said. ?Downtown is very expensive. There is a lot of real estate around the yards,? the source said.

James Nelson, general chairperson of the United Transportation Union, said he attended a meeting in Chicago with other U.S. labor leaders in late September where Harrison said CP would save $19-million annually from the move.

Downtown Calgary, Canada?s oil industry capital, is the nation?s second, most-expensive office market behind Toronto, according to a July 2012 report by global research firm CBRE.

CP shifted its head office to Calgary from Montreal in 1996, in a company-wide reorganization that eliminated 1,450 jobs.

PLAN TO PICK UP EFFICIENCY

Harrison, the former CEO of CP?s bigger rival, Canadian National Railway Co., has promised to dramatically improve CP?s operating ratio from 74.1% in the most recent quarter to 65% by 2016.

Operating ratio, a closely watched efficiency gauge in the rails, measures the share of operating revenues used for operating costs. The higher the ratio, the less efficient the operation, and CP?s is the highest of North America?s big railroads.

As part of the cost-cutting plan, Harrison told analysts and investors last month that 5 to 10% of the company?s headcount would be eliminated, with a focus on management positions and jobs in the Calgary headquarters. CP had about 14,500 employees at the end of the third quarter.

Harrison told U.S. union officials in late-September that CP was looking at closing costly hump yards, which are used to sort cars, in parts of Canada and Bensenville, Illinois, Nelson said.

At the same meeting, Harrison also said that CP planned to sell the 365-mile section of its DM&E rail line west of Pierre, South Dakota, Nelson said.

? Thomson Reuters 2012

Source: http://business.financialpost.com/2012/11/23/cp-rail-moving-headquarters-from-glass-tower-in-calgary-to-nearby-rail-yard-sources/

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What to watch out for if you're buying a cheap Android tablet today

Today's Black Friday in the U.S., and across the country, turkey-filled Americans will hitting the stores looking for bargains. If previous holiday sales are any indication, there are sure to be plenty of low-cost Android tablets looking to lure buyers in with the promise of a big-screen Android experience on the cheap.

Just because a tablet doesn't cost the earth, doesn't make it bad. The Nexus 7 has proved that you can get a decent Android-powered tablet without breaking the bank. Nevertheless, there are some things you'll want to watch out for if you want to avoid being sold a dud. We went through some of these points a few years back in a post-Christmas tablet guide, but it's time we brought it a bit more up-to-date.

read more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/xbmUDCKj7zk/story01.htm

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Codelco reports higher Jan-Sept profit

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) ? Chile's state-owned mining company Codelco said Thursday its January-September profits rose 27 percent over the same period last year, boosted by the settlement of a long-running feud with British miner Anglo American Plc over control of a promising copper mine.

The world's largest copper company said Thursday it earned $6.77 billion before taxes versus $5.32 billion in the same period a year ago.

Chief Executive Thomas Keller told reporters the miner produced 1.188 million metric tons of copper, 5 percent less than the 1.25 million metric tons a year earlier due to dwindling ore grades, which have dropped 9 percent on average.

Codelco is involved in ambitious domestic expansion plans, such as turning Chuquicamata, the world's largest open-pit copper mine, into an underground operation that would extend its life by more than 50 years.

After a century of exploitation, the mine has become too big, too deep and too old to continue digging in the open-pit method. But Codelco says it still has much more to give with reserves equal to about 60 percent of all the copper exploited in the mine's history still buried deep beneath the crater.

Chuquicamata, however, suffered the biggest drop in ore grades, which plunged 19 percent, Keller said. "These are aspects that are linked to an operation that reaches its final stage, where we're facing important challenges in the mining exploitation," he said.

Codelco and Anglo American settled their conflict in August with a multi-billion dollar deal. The Chilean miner had sued to enforce an option to buy 49 percent of the Anglo American Sur subsidiary with financing from Mitsui & Co. after Anglo American sold a fourth of its Chile subsidiary to Mitsubishi Corp. instead.

Keller said the company's results incorporate an out of the ordinary profit of nearly $3.52 billion from the purchase of its stake in Anglo American's Sur deposit.

The settlement leaves Anglo American with a controlling 51 percent stake, Codelco with 24.5 percent, Mitsubishi with 19.5 percent and Mitsui with 5 percent. The deal helped Codelco increase its holdings at a discount, and both Japanese companies now have a firm foothold in Chile.

__

Luis Andres Henao on Twitter: https://twitter.com/LuisAndresHenao

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/codelco-reports-higher-jan-sept-profit-143240514--finance.html

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Change Management 101 for Business Analysts

Prosci, a leading change management research firm, has developed a model called ADKAR. ADKAR stands for Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement. It describes the sequential steps each person needs to go through in order to be able to accept and support a change. If a person does not have sufficient awareness about why the change is needed, it?s hard for them to support efforts taken to implement the change, even if they would otherwise have a desire to help out. Similarly, if someone has the ability to implement a change but doesn?t have enough knowledge about the particular actions they must take to make the change occur, may exhibit hesitation or fear towards the change. Business Analysts can leverage the ADKAR model to quickly assess stakeholders when they are encountering resistance and identify the step in the model?s process where the individual might be having difficulty.

The Implementation Team Does Not Lead the Change

On almost every project I?ve worked on the group that appears to lead the change is the project team themselves. The Project Manager is at the forefront engaging stakeholders along with the Business Analysts; working to define the need, establish the requirements and support the solution through implementation. The project?s sponsor and steering committee are in the background, reading reports and dealing with escalated issues but aside from their initial announcement about the project they rarely directly interact with the people who are impacted by the change.

Some literature has taken the term ?change agent? to mean ?the person or group leading or driving the change?. This is not consistent with the term ?agent?, which is defined as ?a person who acts on behalf of another?. With this definition, the project team is the change agent, but that does not mean that they are the people who should be leading the change. The person or group who needs to drive the change are the true leaders of the change.

Prosci?s studies have found that active and visible leadership from the executive sponsor is the leading contributor to a successful change. People within an organization naturally look to their leadership for guidance on the importance of activities and to understand the need to perform actions. If the leaders behind the change are not seen to be continually engaged and supportive of the process, the change faces a higher likelihood of failure, as people will naturally believe that the change cannot be as important as it is made out to be if the executives are not regularly promoting its value or stepping up to personally address concerns.

When Business Analysts encounter resistance to change and identify that people are reluctant to believe that the change is really needed, this should be discussed with the Project Manager and escalated as soon as possible to the executive sponsor. While the sponsor may be busy, they need to understand the importance of being visibly engaged throughout the project in order for the project to be successful. Such visibility needs to translate not only into words but actions that help the project meet its goals.

While staff look to executives to understand the need for change and to get inspired to implement the change, the person they rely on the most to understand how the change will affect them and how to work with the change is their immediate supervisor. As a result the supervisors need to first be brought on board with the change, which means they in turn need to have supportive supervisors to explain the change to them. Projects often use broadcast methods of communication and training across all levels at the organization at the same time. As a result supervisors often don?t have any more information than those who work for them, which can result in the supervisor being less likely to support a change or be able to help their staff work through the change.

When Business Analysts are involved in implementation and transition activities, they need to evaluate the approach being taken with respect to supporting the people side of the change and made suggestions on how to ensure all relevant stakeholders are able to successfully effect the change. This may entail a staged hierarchal approach to education, training and support, but it will ultimately reduce the resistance to change and the costs that are incurred when individuals are ill-prepared for a change.

Change Management Goes Beyond Communication and Training

When most people think about helping people adapt to change the two most frequently used techniques are communication and training. Both are valuable tools that are needed to help people work through the change process, and help address the awareness and knowledge/ability areas of the ADKAR model. However, they are not sufficient in most cases to fully support the implementation of a change.

As I mentioned above, managers throughout the organization of the areas that are impacted by a change need to be sufficiently supported so they themselves can get on board with the change before they are asked to help out their staff. These individuals don?t just need training on the solution but need to know what to do to help their staff overcome any issues they face. As a result a coaching plan is needed to make these managers effective change agents with their staff.

Business Analysts often perform stakeholder analysis to track all the groups involved in a project. We often assess things like attitude, influence and engagement. These attributes can be used as part of a larger context to assess how individuals are dealing with change, and what to do if some of them are resistant to change.

A resistance management plan leverages the stakeholder information gathered and maintained to help plan how to successfully manage the people side of the change. An executive sponsor roadmap will focus the sponsor on engaging key stakeholders regularly to ensure they remain on board with the change. If such artifacts are not being produced on your project, the Business Analyst should discuss the need for such tools with the Project Manager based on the scale and scope of the change involved.

Business Analysts as Change Managers

Change management is a different discipline than business analysis, but the two are very complementary. While some organizations now have dedicated change management resources, Business Analysts will often be involved in the preparation and implementation of change management plans given their front-line involvement with stakeholders throughout the project. When there are not dedicated change management resources or defined change management duties, the Business Analyst has an opportunity to help the project successfully meet its objectives by understanding the basics of change management and applying them in their activities.

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BusinessAnalystTimes-BusinessAnalysisHome/~3/IPTyajfPv7s/change-management-101-for-business-analysts.html

Tags: Business Analysis, Business Analysis - Net, Business Analyst Times, Change Management, Leadership, Management, teams, Training

This entry was posted on November 22, 2012 at 11:00 am and is filed under Articles, Business Analysis, Change Management, Leadership, Management, On the Net, Teams, Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Source: http://projectcommunityonline.com/change-management-101-for-business-analysts.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=change-management-101-for-business-analysts

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