Will you be the first P16 Billion Powerball jackpot winner from the Philippines? Major League Baseball a stranger in our shores Gov’t to employ 6,000 displaced by Taal The complications Victolero is talking about looms in the figure of mighty San Miguel Beer, the hottest team in the conference which is making a last-gasp stand to qualify in the top half of the draw and avoid needing to beat a higher-ranked team two straight times.As things stand, the best that the Beermen could do is win seven games and for them to make the top four, they would need to beat the No. 4 team that would not win more than seven games for the last twice-to-beat slot in the quarterfinals.The Aces, Hotshots and the Gin Kings are the only sides with shots at winning nine, although Magnolia and Ginebra will part ways because of their game on Sunday, which makes Victolero’s clash with the Texters Friday critical.The Batang Pier bombed out from further contention on Wednesday after losing a tight one to San Miguel, joining Columbian in the showers, with Rain or Shine having a wafer-thin chance and the 4-6 Meralco Bolts needing to win their last game and hope for some teams to lose theirs for a playoff for the eighth and final slot.Phoenix has seven wins in 10 games and is in the quarterfinals safely, but a loss in its last game against Blackwater could drop the Fuel Masters out of the upper half.ADVERTISEMENT Lights inside SMX hall flicker as Duterte rants vs Ayala, Pangilinan anew ANTIPOLO—Coming off its first loss in weeks, Magnolia coach Chito Victolero feels that they’ve let one golden opportunity slip away.“We want to have our fate in our hands,” Victolero told the Inquirer in Filipino during a break with fellow coaches as they mapped out a final game plan against TNT KaTropa on Friday at Ynares Center here. “Having our fate in our hands means winning against the [Texters].”ADVERTISEMENT LATEST STORIES The Hotshots are tied for the lead with Barangay Ginebra and Alaska at 7-2, and will be battling the Gin Kings Sunday for what could be No. 1 spot should Magnolia hurdle the Texters in the 7 p.m. contest.“Losing [to TNT] could push us into a series of complications if we also lose to Ginebra,” Victolero said. “To make the top four [for a twice-to-beat privilege] in that scenario, we would need to hope for some teams to lose some of their games. It’s better if we control our fate.”FEATURED STORIESSPORTSGinebra beats Meralco again to capture PBA Governors’ Cup titleSPORTSJapeth Aguilar wins 1st PBA Finals MVP award for GinebraSPORTSGolden State Warriors sign Lee to multiyear contract, bring back ChrissAlaska is another side that has control of its fate, with the Aces to take the floor at 4:30 p.m. against NLEX, looking to break out of that logjam and seal the first quarterfinal bonus.The Aces are coming off two straight victories and are favored against the Road Warriors, who welcomed Kevin Alas back last week from a long recovery from knee surgery. Japeth Aguilar embraces role, gets rewarded with Finals MVP plum Sports Related Videospowered by AdSparcRead Next Allen Durham still determined to help Meralco win 1st PBA title Lights inside SMX hall flicker as Duterte rants vs Ayala, Pangilinan anew Tim Cone, Ginebra set their sights on elusive All-Filipino crown Don’t miss out on the latest news and information. Gretchen Barretto’s daughter Dominique graduates magna cum laude from California college Carpio hits red carpet treatment for China Coast Guard PLAY LIST 02:14Carpio hits red carpet treatment for China Coast Guard02:56NCRPO pledges to donate P3.5 million to victims of Taal eruption00:56Heavy rain brings some relief in Australia02:37Calm moments allow Taal folks some respite03:23Negosyo sa Tagaytay City, bagsak sa pag-aalboroto ng Bulkang Taal01:13Christian Standhardinger wins PBA Best Player award MOST READ Nadine Lustre’s phone stolen in Brazil View comments read more

Residents of Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam) are left to bear the heavy cost, paying privately-owned dental offices for services like tooth extractions as the dental department in the region is out of needles.Regional Chairperson (acting) Nandranie CoonjahSpeaking with Guyana Times, Bob Mahadeo, a resident of Charity Housing Scheme said that his daughter, a student of the Charity Primary School, was turned away from the Oscar Joseph District Hospital Dental Department because of lack of dental needles to do the extraction.Oscar Joseph District Hospital at Charity, Essequibo CoastSeveral other residents reached out to this publication regarding the same issue.A check found that all of the Government dental clinics in the region haven’t had any dental needles for over two weeks now.When contacted, acting Regional Chairman, Nandranie Coonjah said that she was on sick leave and only returned to the job on Tuesday but noted that the region’s health department is in what she described as “a total mess”.Councillor Arnold AdamsShe said that the Chairman on the RDC Health Committee, Councillor Arnold Adams informed her of the health situation in the region. When contacted, Councillor Arnold Adams said that for over two weeks, patients have been turned away from all Government dental clinics in the region due to the lack of dental needles. He added also that the biochemistry machine at Suddie Public Hospital is once again out of order and patients who need that service have to travel to Georgetown. The biochemistry analysers are used to determine the concentrations of chemical substances in a biological process. It has its applications in the medical field in which it uses an enzyme, glucose oxidase, to break down the level of glucose in the blood.The poor and needy and those who live in the riverine and interior locations, the councillor added, are the ones suffering the most. Those affected by teeth-related problems, including senior citizens and children, are left to bear the severe pain without any other medical aid, not even a pain killer, said one senior citizen. read more

Queens Atlantic Investment Inc (QAII), the corporate owners of the property which houses the Times Media Group – including Guyana Times newspaper – at Ruimveldt, Georgetown, has called out the State Assets Recovery Agency (SARA) for harassment.State of the complex on acquisition. At the time of acquisition, the entire complex was in a state of disrepair: fences had fallen apart, drains were blocked, roads were inaccessible, vegetation was overgrown, garbage was prevalent, equipment and installations were vandalised beyond repair, the buildings were infested with termites and unfit for occupation, there was also flooding in some sections despite it being the dry seasonThis is in response to the announcement made by SARA on Friday that it has filed proceedings in the High Court seeking Civil Recovery Orders against QAII. The claim is made under the State Assets Recovery Act 2017 and is for the recovery of GY$2,701,619,960.However, QAII in a stinging response on Saturday said that SARA has returned to its practice of political harassment; this time by seeking to directly intimidate QAII.On August 22, a notice was received by the company that SARA is seeking to recover the difference between an outside valuation of the Sanata property and the valuation of the official Government valuation entity at the point of sale.In June 2018, SOCU had charged former Finance Minister, Dr Ashni Singh and former Chairman of NICIL, Winston Brassington in relation to the same transaction. At that time, Guyana Times had received a number of threats to stop publishing news items which are critical of the Administration.SARA continues to press ahead with this political witch-hunting, despite being fully aware that the Act has been challenged in the court.The property was acquired by QAII in a fully transparent manner more than a decade ago, and this was fully ventilated in the press. Billions of dollars have been invested to develop this property and as such, QAII will vigorously defend any issues relating to the transaction.QAII paid in excess of half a billion dollars for the complex, which has since proven to be one of the more successful privatisation ventures in recent times. read more

Struggling mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp. said Wednesday it will cut about 900 more jobs nationwide, primarily from its mortgage production divisions. The cuts followed the elimination of about 500 positions last month. The latest layoffs came in response to the troubled housing market and economic conditions, Calabasas-based Countrywide said in a statement. “Countrywide has always aligned its organization to best serve the needs of its customers and reflect the market and economic conditions in which we operate,” the statement said. The company, the largest mortgage lender by volume in the United States, employs about 60,000 people, with about 34,000 in loan production. 160Want local news?Sign up for the Localist and stay informed Something went wrong. Please try again.subscribeCongratulations! You’re all set! Countrywide has been struggling as the housing slump led to a sharp rise in mortgage defaults and foreclosures, particularly among borrowers with subprime loans. Like other lenders, Countrywide has tightened its credit guidelines and stopped selling some types of adjustable-rate loans. The latest cuts follow the elimination of about 500 positions from the subprime lending unit of its Wholesale Lending Division and its Full Spectrum Lending unit, which handles mortgages given to customers with minor credit problems or who can’t provide full income documentation required for traditional prime loans. In recent weeks, the company borrowed $11.5 billion and sold a $2 billion stake to Bank of America so it could keep operating its retail-banking and mortgage-lending businesses. read more

Tottenham have identified Juventus striker Fernando Llorente as their top transfer target, according to reports in Italy.The north London club are on the hunt for attacking reinforcements this summer as they plan to axe attacking flops Emmanuel Adebayor and Roberto Soldado.Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino is aware that would leave him with just Harry Kane and so he is keen to sign another forward.And, according to TMW, Pochettino has earmarked Llorente as the man to bolster Tottenham’s striking options.The 30-year-old has been in impressive form since joining Italian champions Juventus on a free transfer in July 2013.The Spaniard has hit 20 goals in 53 Serie A appearances and Spurs scouts have backed Pochettino in his decision to pursue the former Athletic Bilbao man. 1 Fernando Llorente read more

Two men have pleaded guilty to stealing and handling 4.5 kms of ESB cabling.Both men appeared yesterday at Letterkenny Circuit Court in Co Donegal.Patrick Joseph Winston of 3 Hawthorn Heights, Letterkenny was charged with theft from ESB Networks Stores on date unknown between April 30 2007 and September 11 2011. Anthony Downes, of The Bungalow, The Crescent, Buncrana was charged with handling stolen property at Carriag Craobh, Letterkenny on September 11, 2011.Both men pleaded guilty to the charges on their arraignment.The court heard the charge related to the theft of 4,500m of network cable, power tools and cable cutters.Judge John O’Hagan ordered a probation report be carried out and adjourned sentencing to the July sitting of the Circuit Court.MEN PLEAD GUILTY TO STEALING AND HANDLING 4.5 KMS OF ESB CABLES was last modified: January 30th, 2013 by StephenShare this:Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window) Tags:ESBLetterkenny Circuit Court Anthony DownesPatrick Joseph Winston read more

A Dublin fan is counting the cash – after betting that two Donegal players would be sent off in last Sunday’s crunch All-Ireland semi-final.Paddy Power paid up after two Donegal players were sent off.True Blue Cyril Eccles, 57, put on a bet with Paddy Power that two Donegal players would be shown the line.He got odds of 10-1 and duly put down €20 on the bet. But when the GAA fan from Tallaght went to collect his winnings, he was given the boot.Although both Neil McGee and Paddy McGrath were given black cards and sent off, the bookmaker claimed they were not red-carded.However, after reviewing the bet, the famous bookmaker agreed to cough up the cash.A spokesman for the bookie said that punters will now have to specify what colour card a player will be sent off for. So Paddy – what’s the odds for Jim McGuinness coming on in the final five minutes and netting a goal in the final?Anything is possible at this stage!  PADDY POWER PAYS OUT IN ROW OVER DONEGAL PLAYERS was last modified: September 6th, 2014 by StephenShare this:Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window) Tags:betdonegaldublinGAAPaddy POwersent off read more

School leavers in Donegal, Cavan, Monaghan are most likely to get a student grant and those in Meath, Kildare and Dublin least likely, an analysis of third level education funding shows.Data from Student Universal Support Ireland (Susi) shows that a significantly higher proportion of students from Border and farming counties satisfy its means-tested criteria for State payments than students in the greater Dublin area.In 2013, 733 out of 1,256 new applicants to Susi in Cavan were successful, a rate of 62 per cent. This compared to 53 per cent in Dublin where 7,721 applicants out of 14,660 were successful. Delays in allocating student grants are leaving young people from low income families ‘locked out’ of third level education, the Society of Society of St Vincent de Paul (SVP) has warned.Student Universal Support Ireland said it had received more than 100,000 applications for 2014-2015 and expected to award approximately 73,000 grants for this academic year.However, given many school leavers self-select and do not applying to Susi on the grounds that they are unlikely to meet the means test criteria, these figures under-represent the disparity between counties.A more accurate reflection of the rate of success among students in applying for a grant is comparing the number of awards with the number of students who applied to higher-education courses from each county. On this measurement, students from Cavan had a 68 per cent success rate and those from Dublin 44 per cent. The county which delivered the next highest rate of first-time grants, per CAO applications, was Monaghan (67.5 per cent) followed by Donegal (66 per cent), and Carlow, Limerick, Longford, Leitrim and Mayo (all 63 per cent).Only 47 per cent of students in Kildare were successful in getting a grant, 48 per cent in Meath, 50 per cent in Wicklow and 53 per cent in Cork.The pattern was similar in 2012 although Monaghan came out on top with an award rate of 71 per cent. Donegal was next at 70 per cent, then Cavan, Carlow, Leitrim and Mayo (all 68 per cent).The award rate in Dublin in 2012 was identical to that in 2013 at 44 per cent.There were more than 68,000 new applicants for grants (as distinct from renewals) through Susi last year and almost 40,000 received awards. The size of award varies according to family income and the distance which students have to travel to college from their ordinary residence.To qualify, a family of less than four children must have an income below €52,240. This will guarantee the minimum level of funding of €1,375, or 50 per cent of the annual student contribution. For the same sized family with an income below €39,875, 100 per cent of the contribution is paid along with a maintenance grant of up to €3,025 and the cost of compulsory field trips.Previous figures from the Higher Education Authority showed that farmers and the self-employed were more than twice as likely to get college grants for their children as PAYE workers.SCHOOL LEAVERS FROM DONEGAL MORE LIKELY TO GET STUDENT GRANT was last modified: December 31st, 2014 by StephenShare this:Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window) read more

Tags:#Location#mobile#news#NYT#web mike melanson Related Posts All Things Digital reports that Groupon has acquired Pelago, the company behind location-based check-in service Whrrl, for an undisclosed amount. Whrrl allows users to check in to locations and discover new businesses nearby, while the Groupon iOS app simply shows nearby deals. Could Groupon – the leader and pioneer in the deals space – overshadow efforts by other LBS services to bring deals to check-ins, by bringing check-ins to deals?According to All Things Digital’s Tricia Duryee, Pelago founder Jeff Holden will oversee Groupon’s product development as part of the acquisition, which was just announced on Groupon’s blog. GroupOn CEO Andrew Mason made the announcement:We’ve always liked CEO Jeff Holden, the Whrrl team and the technology they’ve developed. Their obsession with real-world serendipitous discovery, or “Anti-Search,” is core to Groupon’s mission. It’s about discovering what you didn’t know you didn’t know, right in your own backyard. Jeff intimately gets consumer buying behavior and the importance of a great user experience, and his team is this awesome combination of data-driven creatives…the people who create smart products that are really fun to use.According to the blog post, Whrrl will be “retiring” on April 30, 2011. Holden goes on to describe why the marriage of the two companies is “non-strange” on the Pelago blog.You might think at first that this is strange…  But it actually makes a ton of sense.  Many people think of Groupon as one thing:  the inventor of the daily deal.  But as it often is in such cases, there is an amazing vision behind the company that goes far beyond what is visible on the surface today. Whrrl’s mission has always been to increase the possibility of adventure in our daily real-world lives, and to that end, we invented an idea economy (with Whrrlbot as its inexhaustible champion!)  It turns out that Groupon has a very similar mission, except they approached it by creating a new kind of deal economy.We expect this to mean that, soon enough, the mobile Groupon app will go far beyond simply identifying nearby deals and pointing to them on a map. As Holden notes out, “Groupon’s massive adoption and meteoric growth” made the deal a “no-brainer” and should also put companies like Foursquare on notice. Foursquare asks users to check in for the possibility of serendipitous encounters, points, tips, and possibly, just maybe, a deal. Groupon holds deals at the core and may just use them to convince users to check in. What it Takes to Build a Highly Secure FinTech … Role of Mobile App Analytics In-App Engagement The Rise and Rise of Mobile Payment Technology Why IoT Apps are Eating Device Interfaces read more

NEW YORK — Mookie Betts thinks a little bit of generosity is paying off in powerful ways.Betts homered twice, a night after Blake Swihart connected two times, and attributed their sudden powerl surge to giving away their leftover dinners.Betts’ two drives Sept. 30 helped the Boston Red Sox rally for a 9-5 win over the Yankees, delaying New York from clinching its first playoff berth in three years.“Me and Blake, yesterday, we got to eat, and had (a piece of pizza) left and he said the night before, he had given it to a homeless guy and he hit two home runs,” Betts said. “So, I had a pizza. So, I gave it to a homeless guy and hit two home runs, so maybe, pass it on to the next person.”Just like Sept. 29, the Red Sox raced out to an early lead, going up 3-0 in the first against Masahiro Tanaka on Travis Shaw’s home run. But this time the Yankees came back and took a lead on Alex Rodriguez’s first homer in two weeks, a solo drive off Wade Miley in the sixth.Betts connected against All-Star setup man Dellin Betances with two outs in the seventh to make it 5-all.The Yankees had 11 walks, including four in the eighth — when leadoff batter Jacoby Ellsbury was picked off first — but Boston’s bullpen shut down New York.Then the Red Sox closed out their season-high sixth straight win, with Betts capping the victory with a two-run home off Chasen Shreve.“We hung in there through a lot of different circumstances to hold off that celebration,” interim manager Torey Lovullo said. “It wasn’t our only motivation. We want to win as many games as we can, we’ve been playing really good baseball.”Shreve also yielded a run-scoring sacrifice to Jackie Bradley Jr. Andrew Bailey (0-1) gave up an RBI single to Deven Marrero with one out in the 11th.“That was all Jackie’s idea, absolutely,” Lovullo said. “We all tried to talk him out of it, but I could see that look in his eyes that he was very determined to execute and he wanted to do that, he called the play, he called the pitch and he did his job. Those are special moments.”New York, which dropped to 65-3 when leading after six innings, left 15 on base and was 3-for-14 with runners in scoring position.Tanaka was rusty in his first start in 12 days, returning from a right hamstring strain to make what should be his final tuneup before a likely start in the wild-card game on Oct. 6.The Japanese star entered with a deceptive 3-0 record against Boston. He allowed 10 earned runs in those starts, but the Yankees romped to big wins in each. He had trouble Sept. 30 too, allowing four runs and five hits in five innings on 95 pitches.“He looked rusty,” manager Joe Girardi said of Tanaka. “He looked like a guy who hadn’t pitched in 12 days.” (HOWIE RUMBERG, AP Baseball Writer) TweetPinShare0 Shares read more