As a proud member of NAED, BHS looks forward to working with fellow members to engineer industry solutions.

Baladna announced the signing of an agreement with "Muntajat" to supply plastic raw materials used in the manufacture of milk

City-Owned Parcel Cited as Motivation to Go Against the Neighbors

A Good Dialogue and Chance to Clear Up Open Items Concerning the Kennedale Alliance of Business Owners

Innovator & Multi-Genre Composer, Blythe Abigail 黄淑仁 Schulte, Gets Inspiration from Public-Private Partnerships Amid COVID-19 Crisis

JVD Marketing, an outsourced marketing agency, today announced its corporate name change to GoldTree Marketing effective immediately.

Designer Sportswear Company from Chicago "D2 Wear" has teamed up with FashionBar for a sportswear apparel fashion show on July 28th at 3:00 pm at the Northbrook mall, Illinois; Admission is free for visitors.

Designer Jonathan Marc Stein announces the debut of his latest collection at Arab Fashion Week in Dubai, October 2019 for S/S2020 RTW

New Page Designed for Fans of the Iconic Designer to Share Favorite Pieces and eBay Finds

Mr. Guttman has been endorsed by Marquis Who's Who as a leader in the fields of communications, art and sales

Karl Truman Law Office focuses on high-quality client service in and around Louisville, Kentucky, and Jeffersonville, Indiana

Discussion Will Spotlight Why Women Should Take the Lead in Politics Awards Presentation Will Honor Local Notables

bestmarijuanaguide.com, the premier online directory for cannabis products, suppliers, and dispensaries has announced it launch on the morning of April 1st, 2020.

Annual feature celebrates graduating business students for achievement and impact.

(Bloomberg) -- Wall Street’s biggest firms are divided on where markets are heading to next.While most risk assets are well off their mid-March lows, when uncertainty about the global impact of the coronavirus outbreak was at its peak, there is little consensus on what is to follow. At the core of the debate is the long-term effectiveness of the massive stimulus from central banks and governments.When $8 Trillion in Global Fiscal Stimulus Still Isn’t EnoughCitigroup Inc., for one, doesn’t get the “puzzling” rise in stocks.“Extensive policy response, led by ample liquidity provided by central banks, likely contributed to the move in the markets,” economists including Igor Cesarec and Catherine Mann wrote in a note Thursday. “However, since it is not clear that markets can be propped up indefinitely, caution is warranted. Risk assets could be fragile once the cold, hard economic reality hits again.”On the other hand, JPMorgan Chase & Co. sees the stock market advance as justified -- and one which can continue.“While the collapse in economic activity is historic, so too is the global policy response to cushion the impact and support a recovery,” strategists led by Marko Kolanovic wrote in a note Thursday. “We expect risky assets to continue to recover as economies reopen and given the unprecedented policy support, though we expect a moderation in the pace of gains.”Read about JPMorgan’s call in late March that markets were probably past the worst.The MSCI AC World Index has climbed about 25% since March 23 as investor sentiment warmed toward a slew of worldwide policy measures to offset the economic impact of the pandemic. The global gauge had fallen as much as 34% from its February high, when concerns about the virus reached a peak.Looking ForwardGoldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley largely see gains remaining intact, with caveats.Goldman attributes the market rise to a stabilization in virus infection rates and an improvement in measures of funding and liquidity stress. The firm has already said that equities price in macroeconomic performance over a two-year time horizon and investors may look past huge economic damage.“Markets will continue to look through bad news about the depth of the economic downturn if they can continue to hold on to their view that a sizable chunk of the recent damage will be reversed by the end of next year,” strategists including Zach Pandl wrote in a note Tuesday.And Morgan Stanley is also comfortable with the disparity between asset price performance and fundamentals, noting that markets tend to lead the economy and care more about rate of changes than absolute levels.“Divergences between the market and economy are common at economic extremes,” wrote strategists including Andrew Sheets in a note Thursday. “Rate of change is key – a ‘U’ shaped recovery is fine, a ‘W’ is not.”For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) -- Kingsoft Cloud Holdings Ltd. rose 40% in the first major trading debut by a Chinese company since the accounting scandal at Luckin Coffee Inc.The affiliate of Hong Kong-listed Kingsoft Corp. raised $510 million in its initial public offering, pricing its shares at the midpoint of a $16 to $18 targeted range. The shares closed at $23.84 in New York trading Friday, giving the company a market value of $4.77 billion.The Beijing-based cloud computing service company, which had marketed 25 million shares, increased the sale to 30 million American depositary shares.The IPO is the biggest by a Chinese company in the U.S. this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It’s a tricky time for Chinese companies listing in the U.S. after the poster child of Chinese startups, Luckin, was accused of accounting fraud. Luckin’s shares had fallen 74% from its IPO price last year when trading of its stock was suspended in April.Read: Luckin Coffee Scandal Deals Blow to China Inc.’s Reputation“Given the context regarding China ADR, it’s actually good for quality companies,” Henry He, Kingsoft Cloud’s chief financial officer, said in an interview Friday evening in Hong Kong. “The capital has to be deployed and quality long-only investors will pay more attention to quality companies like us.”Tense MomentFinancial performance of Kingsoft Cloud has been consolidated with its Hong Kong-listed parent since its inception and there are publicly available track records for investors to analyze, he added.Its IPO comes at a tense moment for the U.S.-China relationship, after President Donald Trump and Chinese state media have exchanged heated criticisms regarding the origin of coronavirus responsible for the pandemic that has killed more than 269,000 and brought much of the world’s economy to a standstill.China Liberal Education Holdings Ltd., a Beijing-based educational company, fell 18% in its U.S. trading debut Friday after raising $8 million in its IPO. A third company that went public Friday, Ayala Pharmaceuticals Inc., rose 0.2% after its $55 million offering.Kingsoft Cloud is the third-biggest cloud services provider in China by revenue with a market share of 5.4%, according to its filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Last year, it lost $160 million on revenue of $568 million. Its chairman, Lei Jun, was a co-founder of smartphone-maker Xiaomi Corp., which will own about a 14% stake in the company after the offering, according to the filings.The offering was led by JPMorgan Chase & Co., UBS Group AG, Credit Suisse Group AG and China International Capital Corp. The company’s shares are trading on the Nasdaq Global Select market under the symbol KC.(Updates with closing share price in second paragraph)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

Investors in Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (NASDAQ:CLNE) had a good week, as its shares rose 6.3% to close at US$2.11...

What happened to my stimulus money? Many who receive government benefits and others continue to wonder in early May.

General Electric (GE) shares have been on the decline as of late. As a result, many investors have been understandably worried. Such sentiments have placed the American manufacturing giant on the market spotlight, and begs the question: is it still worth investing in at current levels? Traversing turbulent market conditions, the outlook seems bleak for the 128-year-old conglomerate. Is there no way up for the aviation unit of General Electric? What about its other subsidiaries? Investor James Richman bets GE is likely to touch down $5-level. From there, the tech investor is bullish that the price will double in value and hit $10 again.Source: Flickr GE: a legacy of over 120 yearsAmid the impact of coronavirus specifically in both travel and hospitality industries, GE's esteemed aviation unit has been feeling the most pressure. The demand for airplanes has shrunk tremendously forcing the company's management to schedule a 25% workforce reduction globally. This is in consonance to the 10% layoff in its US workforce which was announced in March. These difficult cost-cutting measures are deemed necessary by David Joyce, CEO of the GE Aviation Unit that employs a workforce of around 52,000 people.Significant drops since coronavirusGE Aviation supplies jet engines to giant aircraft makers like Airbus and Boeing. The projection of Boeing, a 10% workforce drop amidst its $641m loss, certainly adds up to GE's current woes.  Investor betting on the company bouncing backHowever, one investor who is known to take a different outlook is Latvian-born investor James Richman. With investments in both public and private companies, and his most notable investments including tech giants such as Uber, Tesla, and Facebook, his approach is understood to be contrarian. Yahoo! Finance reports he is taking the opposite approach when compared to Warren Buffet as Richman bets GE's price to temporarily touch upon $5-level. From that level, it is projected to climb its way back to $10, making the 100% rally. The Monaco-based investor has also made headlines when he reportedly pledged $18m in the fight against coronavirus as he mobilizes his biomedical investments in the said efforts. Richman has been historically known to take the contrarian approach in investing. With investments that seemed unorthodox at one point, he has earned respect in the finance field because of his firm's outstanding performance during the 2008 financial crisis. Not open to the general public and mainly dealing with ultra high net worth individuals (UHNWI) and institutional investors, his clients have reported impressive annual earnings for over a decade.Comparison to the last financial crisisIt is not the first time GE had felt the backlash of market recessions. In 2008, the company's shares dropped by 78% tracing the period of the global recession. In 2 years, GE's shares dropped from $27 to $6. The broader S&P also fell that time, but with a conservative 51%.Still worth buying at current levels?GE recovered from the 2008 recession with tremendous momentum. After being bailed out by the federal government to the tune of $139 billion, it experienced an 82% uptick between March 2009 and January 2010. This is more than the 48% bounce back the S&P managed over the same period. Generally, the performance of its stock will still hinge on the developments in the handling of coronavirus pandemic, considering that the aviation division of the company is being hammered as a result. Efforts of which have been showing positive signs of recovery. Meanwhile, the demand for healthcare, government interventions, and the continuous development of treatments and vaccines is seen to help push the shares towards upwards direction in the long run: provided that its wings can weather the storm like it did in 2008.  More recent articles from Smarter Analyst: * RBC: 2 Strong Value Stocks to Buy Now * Look Beyond 2Q, General Motors Will Outperform the Sector, Says Analyst * Coronavirus Vaccine Could Add Massive Value to This Small-Cap Stock, Says Analyst * Can Seanergy Maritime Stock Add 150% Over the Next Year? This Analyst Says 'Yes'

Investors are still uncertain just where the stock market is headed. Essentially, there are two competing opinions right now. One says that we’re just in a bear market rally, and that the worst is yet to come. The other thesis states that the current rally is real, and will mature into a new bull cycle as the economy restarts in the second half.Writing from JPMorgan, Marko Kolanovic, the investment bank's quant analyst, holds fast to that optimistic view. Kolanovic believes that epidemiological data suggests we are past the worst of the coronavirus spread, justifying the lifting of social and business restrictions. And that will open up economic activity, which will then find stimulus from low Fed interest rates and increased government ‘pump priming’ spending.Kolanovic sees the stimulus policies as more important than Q1’s weak earnings, writing, “The combined suppression of the risk free rate and credit spreads by the Fed likely has a bigger positive impact on equity valuation, compared with the negative impact of the temporary earnings loss.”Kolanovic is not the only JPM analyst who sees potential in the stock markets. The firm’s equity analysts have been working overtime to find the stocks best positioned to lead a potential bull rally. We’ve used the TipRanks database to pull up three of their stock picks, to find out why the JPM experts are tapping them for over 30% growth.KAR Auction Services (KAR)The first stock on our list belongs to a company in the second-hand vehicle market. KAR Auction Services operates a marketplace – both online and in the physical world – for used vehicles. The company sells to both individual and business buyers, people looking for a car to drive and garages looking to source parts for the shop floor. KAR sold over 3.7 million vehicles in 2019, bringing in $2.8 billion in auction revenue.KAR shares have been hit hard by the coronavirus epidemic. The combination of economic shutdowns and social lockdowns have not just put a hold on car sales – they have simply reduced the need for vehicles.Q1 earnings showed a 6% reduction in revenue, to $645.5 million, and a collapse in net income to $2.8 million from $15.3 million in the year-ago quarter. As noted, these steep reductions are attributable to the effects of the pandemic response. KAR shares are still down 38% year-to-date, badly underperforming the broader markets.However, JPM’s analyst Ryan Brinkman believes the current downturn is the time to buy in to KAR shares. The low price offers an attractive point of entry, and the stock has a clear path forward when economic activity resumes. Brinkman writes, “We believe that once stay-at-home orders are lifted and the situation moves from being one of a unique public health crisis to that of a more familiar economic downturn, aftermarket end-markets, including auctions, will earn their reputation for resiliency. People will drive again substantially similar to before, and volumes will return to salvage auctions.”Along with that optimistic assessment, Brinkman upgrades KAR from Neutral to Buy. His $19 price target suggests a strong 46% upside potential in the next 12 months. (To watch Brinkman’s track record, click here)Overall, KAR shares hold a Moderate Buy rating from the analyst consensus, which breaks down into 4 Buy reviews and 3 Holds. While the analyst corps is somewhat divided, their average price target is in line with Brinkman’s. (See KAR stock analysis at TipRanks)J2 Global Communications (JCOM)Next up is an internet communications company. J2 Global owns a diverse portfolio of 40+ online content brands, including IGN, Mashable, PCMag, BabyCenter, Everyday Health among others. In addition, J2 also runs a Cloud Service business, offering eFax and eVoice among other online services. The company boasts nearly $1.5 billion in annual revenue, and saw Q4 earnings rise to $2.19 per share.The Q4 earnings were the highest in two years, and capped a full year of rising earnings. Q4 is typically J2’s strongest quarter, while Q1 is typically the weakest, so the $1.35 estimate for Q1 earnings is less indicative of poor performance than one may think at first. On an important note, that Q1 estimate represents a modest increase of 1.5% year-over-year.JCOM shares’ price performance has roughly mirrored the broader market’s during the past three months. JCOM lost 35% in the initial slide, and has risen 21% from its trough.Initiating coverage of the stock for JPM, Cory Carpenter set a Buy rating, with a $105 price target that indicates room for 32% upside growth. (To watch Carpenter’s track record, click here)Supporting his stance, Carpenter notes the company’s strong Cloud position, writing, “We believe Cloud Services is well positioned to capitalize on growing security & privacy needs, with bundling & cross-sell potential, and we like that Digital Media monetizes through multiple rents—ads, subs, & affiliate commerce.”Key drivers for Carpenter's bull thesis include: "1) Total growth strategy drives sustainable growth, with $1B+ capital to deploy [...] 2) Diversified portfolio of leading Cloud Services & Digital Media brands. [...] 3) Strong FCF generator with M&A flywheel. JCOM prioritizes FCF, not growth at all costs, which it largely redeploys into M&A. JCOM’s 40% EBITDA margin is driven by Cloud Services’ ~50% margin and Digital Media’s ~35% margin."Carpenter is broadly in line with the rest of Wall Street, which has assigned JCOM more "buy" ratings than "holds" over the past three month -- and sees the stock growing about 26% over the next 12 months, to a target price of $101.30. (See J2 Global stock analysis on TipRanks)Montage Resources Corporation (MR)Last on our list is a small-cap hydrocarbon exploration and production company. Montage is based in the Appalachian region of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, where it operates natural gas and crude oil drilling wells. Montage holds over 195,000 undeveloped core acres, and operates 325 actively producing horizontal wells. The value of the company’s holdings is clear from its stock performance; in the last three months, while the markets have generally slid into a bear cycle, MR shares have gained 55%.Even with the COVID-19 epidemic and the collapse of oil markets, MR was able to increase its net daily production during Q1, reaching 6610.7 MMcfe. This was above both company guidance and analyst estimates. Quarterly income of $62.7 million also beat the expectations. The company has curtailed some production in low-margin crude oil, to compensate for the soft oil market prices.Analyst Arun Jayaram, reviewing MR for JPM, upgraded his stance on the shares from Neutral to Buy. His $8 price target implies a 43% upside growth potential for the coming year. (To watch Jayaram’s track record, click here)Jayaram is clear on his reasons for upgrading this stock. He says of MR, “We expect the market to largely look through negative estimate revision risk to 2020 forecasts to the emerging bullish natural gas narrative in 2021… Meanwhile, the company’s FCF yield of 23% leads the peer group and is well above the peer group average of 10%...”The Strong Buy analyst consensus on MR shares is based on 5 recent reviews, including 4 Buys and a single Hold. The company’s strong natural gas production is tangible asset, and its enviable free cash flow is attractive for investors. Shares are selling for $5.59, while the average price target of $6.22 suggests a modest upside of 1.6%. (See MR stock analysis at TipRanks)To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks’ Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks’ equity insights.

Motorcycle Rally Grows

This marks the 3rd consecutive award the Houston personal injury firm has received for the quality of service it offers clients.

Columbia attorney Mark Evans encourages drivers and lawmakers alike to improve Missouri's poor record on road safety.

Chip Evans said that the innovative design was focused on usability and improved client interaction.

Jinggu Energy, a leading inverter supplier in China, announced the publication of their website content: The Ultimate Buying Guide of Power Inverter.

Roadsport Honda is a 14-year Consumer Choice Award Winner. The company has been in business since 1974 and it is GTA's leading Vehicle Service shop, Vehicle parts sales, Body shop & Automotive Sales & Leasing Service Provider.

Schachter, Hendy & Johnson (SHJ), a personal injury law firm with a long heritage of serving clients in Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and nationwide, is now Hendy | Johnson | Vaughn | Emery (HJVE) - "Justice Starts Here."

Southern California: Just thinking about our vast region (larger than many states), diverse population (numbering in the millions), and its unique role in the historical and cultural development of the state and nation boggles the mind.

(Click on all images to enlarge)

How the Los Angeles region became what it is today is a long and complex story. Much of our local history is preserved in libraries, museums, and other cultural institutions. Other valuable and unique collections - those that reveal the stories of neighborhoods, families, influential Angelenos - are scattered across the region, and are curated by smaller institutions and individual enthusiasts.

Our own collections at Metro's Dorothy Peyton Gray Transportation Library and Archive are also an integral part of the history of the Los Angeles area. In order to promote the rich legacy of transportation history in Southern California, we play an active role in L.A. As Subject, a research alliance of more than 250 separate collections dedicated to preserving and improving access to the unique history and culture of Los Angeles. L.A. As Subject is hosted by Unversity of Southern California, and has announced the program for its marquee event of the year.

On Saturday, October 23, 2010 during American Archives Month, L.A. As Subject holds its 5th Annual Archives Bazaar in USC's Doheny Memorial Library.

The event runs from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., features more than 70 historical collections and archives, and is free of charge.

History comes alive at this wonderful event where you can browse rare collections, consult with experts, and learn about researching Los Angeles and Southern California history, online tools, how to preserve your own personal history collections and images, and many other topics.

The full program for 2010 can be found here. The Special Guest Speaker will be KPCC host and L.A. Times columnist Patt Morrison, discussing how libraries and historical archives have informed her work. Morrison was a member of two Los Angeles Times reporting teams that won Pulitzer Prizes for coverage of the 1992 riots and the city's 1994 Northridge earthquake.

The Archives Bazaar is a great opportunity for the public to interact with these member institutions and individuals who bring their unique collections together in one place. This event allows scholars, researchers, archivists, librarians, students, history enthusiasts, documentary filmmakers and "L.A. Nerds" the opportunity to visit several institutions at once - to network, explore, ponder, and marvel at the many fascinating facets of Los Angeles and Southern California.

Imagine all those fascinating libraries, archives, museums, historical societies and cultural institutions from throughout Southern California sharing their collections and stories in an "Antiques Road Show" type of setting. It would cost a small fortune in admission and transportation costs to visit just some of the more than 70 participating institutions (including us) which have reserved their exhibit space so far. On October 23, they're all on display for you to peruse, ask questions, and explore...for free!

Other programming for the 5th Annual Archives Bazaar includes:

PANEL DISCUSSION: EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!
Today, the iconic newsboy hawking a newspaper on the street corner is only a memory. When will the newspaper and the newsstand also become memories? When will newspaper morgues become just that, or are they still a viable source for researchers? Join a panel of newspersons and newspaper archivists who will discuss the past, present, and future of the newspaper industry in Southern California.

PANEL DISCUSSION: BLOGGING L.A.
In recent years, blogs have become an indispensable source of news and information about the Los Angeles region. But what is their role in promoting Los Angeles history and investigating the city’s identity? Join three Southern California bloggers as they discuss how blogs can interpret the region’s past, present, and future.

PANEL DISCUSSION: UNCOVERING THE LEGACY OF DAVID ALFARO SIQUEIROS
Join Luis C. Garza, Oliver Mayer, and moderator Liza Posas for a conversation about the ongoing legacy of Mexican mural artist David Alfaro Siqueiros (1896–1974). In 1932, Siqueiros traveled to Los Angeles and painted three murals, which were met with resistance—two were whitewashed shortly after their creation. Despite the efforts to censor his artistic vision, his work has inspired artists from the 1930s to the present day and contributed to the development of the modern mural movement in Los Angeles and beyond.

PANEL DISCUSSION: L.A. TAKES FLIGHT
From aviation pioneers to daring test pilots to space shuttle assembly plants, human flight has long played an important role in Southern California. Learn how Los Angeles took flight as panelists Kenneth E. Pauley, Linda McCann, and Michael Palmer share the hidden aviation stories they have discovered in the region’s libraries and archives.

DOCUMENTARY FILM SCREENING: BRIDGING THE DIVIDE: TOM BRADLEY AND THE POLITICS OF RACE
This documentary is the first to tell the story of Tom Bradley, the first African-American elected mayor of a major U.S. city without a black majority. It is the story of an extraordinary multiracial coalition that transformed the city and in, the process, changed American politics. We will be screening a 20-minute trailer of this work-in-progress.


DOCUMENTARY FILM SCREENING: THE LEGEND OF PANCHO BARNES
Florence “Pancho” Barnes was one of the most important women in twentieth century aviation. A tough and fearless aviatrix, Pancho opened a ranch near Edwards Air Force Base that became a famous—some would say notorious—hangout for test pilots and movie stars. Known as the Happy Bottom Riding Club, it became the epicenter of the aviation world during the early Jet Age. Since then, Pancho herself has become something of a legend, a fascinating yet enigmatic icon whose swagger is often celebrated, but whose story has been largely unknown—until now.

EDUCATIONAL SESSION: PRIVATE PASSION — PUBLIC RESOURCE
A personal fascination and individual zeal can create a collection that has value to the wider world. Such focus can illuminate details and connections that more general collections might miss. Local collectors will share their personal insights into history, and how they have assembled materials that might otherwise be dispersed and potentially never available to researchers.

EDUCATIONAL SESSION: RESEARCHING LA 101
Ever wondered how to get started with your Los Angeles research, or research in general? This presentation will provide a detailed overview of how and where to start, including researching basics useful for anyone working with primary and secondary source material. Topics will include researching from home, visiting the archives, the ins and outs of reading rooms, and more.

The Transportation Equity Network (TEN) has released More Transit = More Jobs: The Impact Of Increasing Funding For Public Transit (31p. PDF). TEN is a coalition of more than 350 grassroots organizations in 41 states that has worked since 1997 to build a more just, prosperous, and connected America.

This study asks two key questions:

What would be the effect on jobs in each metropolitan area of shifting 50% of the money spent on highways to public transit?

How many jobs would be created in each metro area if we increased funding on public transit at the rate indicated by the Transportation For America proposal for the next transportation authorization act?

The report highlights several statistics in answering those questions based on data from Transportation Improvement Programs (TIPS) in 20 U.S. metropolitan areas. For example, 1,123,674 new transit jobs would be created over a 5-year period for a net gain of 180,150 jobs without a single dollar of new spending.

However, if federal spending on transit increased as proposed by TEN and Transportation For America, an estimated 1.3 million jobs over the life of the law would be created, as well as almost 800,000 more jobs than under present federal transporation law (SAFETEA-LU).

The Federal Highway Administration published the 2009 Urban Congestion Trends (8p. PDF) document last week. This brief report utilizes a dashboard format to convey year-over-year changes in key traffic measures: daily hours of congestion, time penalty for eqach trip, worst-trip time penalty. Some key observations include:

• Overall, congestion had declined in almost all monitored regions between 2008 and 2009
• Less wasted time and fewer hours of the day were devoted to stop-and-go traffic in 16 of the 23 monitored regions
• At least one of the three measures improved in 20 of the 23 monitored regions
• Congestion is lowest during the summer vacation season

The report goes on to explain how operational improvements can mitigate congestion and promote smooth, safe and consistent traffic flow.

Examples provided from around the country include high-occupancy/toll lanes, freeway ramp metering, improved information coordination, work-zone management, and traffic signal system improvement programs.

In Managing Increasing Ridership Demand (32p. PDF), The FTA's Transit Cooperative Research Program presents an overview of a study mission investigating how several transit operators and agencies in Latin America accomodate sudden and significant growth in the number of riders and increasing demand for service.

Case studies from Guayaquil (Ecuador), Santiago (Chile), Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Porto Alegre (Brazil) were selected because they have faced and successfully dealt with challenges similar to recent ridership grown in the United States.

Each city's responses offer unique insight into managing increasing transit ridership and providing various perspectives on serving the mobility needs of their communities.

Two International Transit Studies Program study missions such as this are conducted each year. They have three objectives: To afford team members the opportunity to expand their network of domestic and international public transportation peers, to provide a forum for discussion of global initiatives and lessons learned in public transportation, and to facilitate idea sharing and the possible import of strategies for application to transportation communities in the United States.

This week, we highlight three new titles from the ASPA Series in Public Administration and Public Policy.

Market disruptions, climate change, and health pandemics lead the growing list of challenges faced by today’s leaders. These issues, along with countless others that do not make the daily news, require novel thinking and collaborative action to find workable solutions. However, many administrators stumble into collaboration without a strategic orientation.

Using a practitioner-oriented style, Strategic Collaboration In Public And Non-Profit Administration: A Practice-Based Approach To Solving Shared Problems provides guidance on how to collaborate more effectively, with less frustration and better results.

Linking collaboration theory to effective practice, this book offers essential advice that fosters shared understanding, creative answers, and transformation results through strategic collaborative action. With an emphasis on application, it uses scenarios, real-world cases, tables, figures, tools, and checklists to highlight key points.

The appendix includes supplemental resources such as collaboration operating guidelines, a meeting checklist, and a collaboration literature review to help public and nonprofit managers successfully convene, administer, and lead collaboration. The book presents a framework for engaging in collaboration in a way that stretches current thinking and advances public service practice.

A guidebook through the minefield of government contracting and procurement, Government Contracting: Promises and Perils describes the dangerous practices commonly applied in the development and management of government contracts and provides advice for avoiding the sort of errors that might compromise their ability to protect the public interest.

It includes strategies for increasing profits for government contractors, rather than incurring burdensome costs, through compliance with government mandated subcontracting and financial management systems.

Drawing from his in-depth investigation of government agencies across the country, the author examines present-day scenarios that regularly lead public servants and government committees to manage contracts with tools that are less than optimal and to select contractors that may not be the best qualified. He then delineates practical processes, contracting documents, and contract management tools to mitigate detrimental outcomes and alternative approaches to supplant the imperfect methodologies.

The author includes a CD-ROM with the book that provides a number of practical tools that you can apply as well as examples of contracts and templates that are the best he discovered during his research. The book also outlines an approach for performing advance contract planning, conducting contract negotiations, and administering contracts useful when planning for the management of the contracting process throughout the contracting cycle, negotiating a contract that protects the interest of all contracting parties, and ensuring successful contractor performance.

Filling a gap in project management literature, Managing Public Sector Projects: A Strategic Framework for Success in an Era of Downsized Government supplies managers and administrators—at all levels of government—with expert guidance on all aspects of public sector project management.

From properly allocating risks in drafting contracts to dealing with downsized staffs and privatized services, this book clearly explains the technical concepts and the political issues involved.

In line with the principles of Total Quality Management (TQM) and the PMBOK^® (Project Management Body of Knowledge), David S. Kassel establishes a framework those in the public sector can follow to ensure the success of their public projects and programs. He supplies more than 30 real-life examples to illustrate the concepts behind the framework—including reconstruction projects in Iraq, the Big Dig project in Boston, local sewer system and library construction projects, and software technology.

This authoritative resource provides strategic recommendations for effective planning, execution, and maintenance of public projects. It also:

• Highlights the differences between managing projects in the public sector versus the private sector
• Explains how to scrutinize costs, performance claims, and the backgrounds of prospective contractors
• Presents key safeguards that should be included in all contracts with contractors, consultants, suppliers, and other service providers
• Details the basics of project cost estimation, design and scheduling, and how to hold contractors responsible for meeting established project standards

In an age of downsized government and in the face of a general distrust of public service, this book is a dependable guide for avoiding management practices that are common to projects that fail and for adopting the practices common to projects that succeed in terms of cost, schedule, and quality.

One the most exciting new books in a long time has been released this month: Glen Creason's Los Angeles In Maps (New York: Rizzoli, 2010).

Creason is the Map Libraran at Los Angeles Public Library and co-curated the landmark 2008-2009 exhibition L.A. Unfolded: Maps From The Los Angeles Public Library.

This new work guides the reader through the variety of maps created for Los Angeles, from the 1849 Plan De La Ciudad De Los Angeles ("Ord's Survey") to modern day interactive maps.

The book works on a number of levels: as history lesson, as a beautiful coffee table book with intriguing graphics, as a thought-provoking work showing how spatial depictions have changed over the past century and a half, and how Los Angeles can be viewed in historical context in ways other than chronological.

It is organized into chapters that tell the various stories of Los Angeles, such as Early Growth, Social Life, Water, Age of the Automobile, Tourism, etc.

Fortunately for us, there is a Transportation section, where we learn the story of Laura J. Whitlock, official mapmaker of Los Angeles County - and the only female map publisher in the United States when she was working in the early 20th century.

Pirated copies of her work were widely distributed without her consent, and she filed suit for copyright infringement. We'll leave it to you to discover what happened with this landmark case, but it did set a precedent for map copyright -- an important contribution to American map history made here in Los Angeles.

The rest of the transportation maps and information are equally interesting, as are the other subject areas covered, but you'll have to read the book yourself to find out more.

Beginning today, Northwestern University's Transportation Library begins its Google Books Digitization Project.

The University Libraries and Google are partnering to digitize hundreds of thousands of print volumes from their collections, rendering the contents readily available to scholars and researchers worldwide.

This is no small undertaking. The Transportation Library alone is one of the most extensive in the United States, containing over 500,000 items.

The Committee on Institutional Cooperation, a consortium of the Midwest's Big Ten Schools' plus the University of Chicago, signed on to digitize their libraries in June, 2007 but the process is just getting underway this Fall.

The project is expected to take several years, but the Transportation Library is one of the first campus libraries to send library items to Google for digitization. Google covers the transportation and digitization costs and Northwestern has received a generous donation from the Office of the Provost to help cover other technical costs.

We are told that books sent to Google for digitization may be off the shelves for up to three months. Once everything eligible for converting into electronic format has been digitized, those searching the library catalog will have the choice of borrowing the original print item or accessing the full-text document online.

Results from Google Book Search show up in both general Google searches as well as through the dedicated Google Books site.

The entire Google Books project has been a source of controversy over the last decade. Some hail the initiative's capacity to provide "anytime, anywhere" access to all of human knowledge. Others question the application of copyright laws for works published in one place but accessed around the world.

The Google Books enterprise is a complicated endeavor. While access to the ever-increasing (and increasingly digitized) world of knowledge is great, how can Google maintain a high-level of retrievability from a growing pool of millions of items? A recent article in The Atlantic highlights this challenge, with a concise overview of "Rich Results," Google's latest search algorithm that helps users find what they're looking for...even when they don't specifically ask for it.

Last month, Google speculated that it had scanned more than 15 million books from more than 100 countries in over 400 languages since 2004. Google Books' Engineering Director James Crawford went on to state:

"Our shared vision of bringing all the incredible content stored in the world's books online depends on working with libraries, publishers, authors and book lovers.

The greater the diversity of content on the web, the more useful it becomes. And the more people who can access the information cataloged in books, the more enlightening those works become."

Our goals are the same. Here at Metro's Dorothy Peyton Gray Transportation Library & Archive, we have embarked on a digitization project of our own (sans Google) as outlined here. We want to provide greater access to our rich collections, make items more easily findable and retrievable, and preserve information and knowledge for generations to come.

Wow beautiful projects there Nima. Peacock is one of my fav subjects to stitch too.

This is quite a project to finish! And you did! Impressive! Merry Christmas and the best to you in 2020!!!

Enjoy the new year and let's leave the pressure of life to others! I'm taking one day at a time...no more stressing and just enjoying my artwork, life, family and friends.

Hey friends, I thought today I’d just spend some time chatting about how life in isolation is really going around here. A brain dump of sorts. Maybe some of it will help you, maybe some of it will entertain you or maybe if nothing else it’ll distract you for at least 5 minutes. Since I […]

If you're seeing Catching Up with Org Junkie ~ How Life in Isolation is Really Going anywhere other than on I'm an Organizing Junkie (or via my email list or a feed reader) it is being used by someone else without my permission. Please let me know, thank you!

The following is a guest post with simple closet organizing hacks from regular contributor, Morgan from Morganize with Me. Well, with a little more time on my hands, or should I say a lot more time on my hands, I decided to tackle my son’s closet. This was a bit of a spring cleaning/reorganizing project […]

If you're seeing Simple Closet Organizing Hacks to Get the Job Done anywhere other than on I'm an Organizing Junkie (or via my email list or a feed reader) it is being used by someone else without my permission. Please let me know, thank you!

Paulson brings more than 30 years of commercial real estate brokerage experience, including investment sales, and landlord and tenant leasing.

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Data related positions are considered the hottest in the job market during the last couple of years. While everyone wants to join the party and enter this fascinating field, it is essential to first get an understanding. In this quick guide, I’ll do my best to dispel the confusion by crystalizing the essence of the different positions.

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