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  • 07:45 - 01.05.2009 News >> Latest

     Florida Senate briefly bans state Rep. Baxter Troutman A state representative was briefly banned from the Senate floor after a dispute with another lawmaker. By MARC CAPUTO Miami Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau  TALLAHASSEE -- In a rare move that underscored tensions in the Capitol, a state representative was temporarily banned Thursday from the floor of the Florida Senate following a dispute with a fellow Republican lawmaker.Neither Rep. Baxter Troutman nor Sen. Mike Haridopolos would discuss the spat, though their colleagues said the big blow-up involved an argument over a seemingly minor bill to license arborists.Adding to the unusual nature of the event: The dispute took place on the House floor -- yet Troutman was banned from the Senate floor by Senate Sergeant at Arms Donald Severance, who was concerned with reports over the intensity of the disagreement. At first, Troutman knew nothing of the order to deny him entrance. ''If I've been banned from the Senate floor, it's news to me,'' Troutman, of Winter Haven, told a reporter. ``Haridopolos and I had an issue. We still do have an issue.''Troutman had chalked up the disagreement to ``last-minute emotions. . . . Stuff just starts to build up.''Later, Troutman declined to comment. When asked to discuss the concerns that Haridopolos, of Indialantic, might have had about the bill, Troutman made a gesture suggesting the senator was a cry baby. Senators were confused by Troutman's apparent displeasure with Haridopolos' arborist bill. Troutman had carried the legislation the year before, and Haridopolos was trying to add on legislative language that he thought Troutman wanted.''The sergeant temporarily removed Rep. Troutman's Senate floor privileges,'' the Senate president's office said in a written statement. ``He heard about the altercation earlier, does not tolerate such behavior on the Senate floor. So to ensure that does not occur…

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  • 14:32 - 11.05.2010 News >> Latest

      CNN Pundit Draws Ire From All SidesBy SHAILA DEWAN / NY TimesMACON, Ga. — In his seven weeks as one of CNN’s newest contributors, Erick Erickson has made scarcely more than a dozen appearances on the network. But his every utterance — every Twitter message, blog post and radio rant — has been parsed with the rigor usually reserved for a Supreme Court nominee. Liberal detractors have obsessively cataloged his right-wing rhetorical excesses, from calling Michelle Obama a “Marxist harpy” to a flip accusation that the former Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter molested children and animals. Even the White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, criticized Mr. Erickson for suggesting that he would threaten a census worker, saying the comment “should concern CNN.” The Boston Globe protested what it called “one more screamer on cable.” What critics have not noted is that Mr. Erickson, the editor of the influential conservative blog RedState, is as hard on many Republicans and conservatives as he is on Democrats. He has accused Michael Steele, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, of playing the race card; suggested that RedState readers send toy balls to Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, during budget negotiations; and, of late, begun exhorting Tea Party followers (he considers himself one) to move beyond protests and get involved in the nitty-gritty of precinct-level politics. “I always think there are…

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  • 07:17 - 14.04.2010 News >> Latest

     Forget 'Mr. 9/11' Networks are rushing to put Rudy Giuliani on air to criticize President Obama's new nuke policies. But why?

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  • 06:45 - 12.06.2009 News >> Latest

     Madonna allowed to adopt second from Malawi  



     

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  • 15:34 - 17.05.2009 News >> Latest

      Expenses officials colluded over MPs mortgage claims Parliamentary authorities, overseen the Speaker, gave secret permission for some MPs to over-claim thousands of pounds, according to leaked documents seen by Telegraph.co.uk.    

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Comparing Ning amd Facebook for business use. Print E-mail

 

Consider Ning to broaden social networking strategy

Your business Facebooks. It Tweets. But does it Ning? There are about 300,000 active groups on Ning -- many of them brands and interest groups -- and about 40 million users actively participating in them. If your business has a social media strategy (and there had better be a strategy) you might want to consider setting up a Ning network.

It's a place where you can take any topic and make a social network community for it in less than 10 minutes. I spoke with Ning's chief operating officer, Jason Rosenthal, who says every month there is a 14 percent increase of active Ning networks. There about 2.1 million networks in total, but not all are active. That's about 40,000 new and active networks created a month.

Why take the time to create a whole new network on Ning when you can just make a Facebook Fan page? Tracey Udas, a social media strategist at Excelerated Performance, said Ning gives her business clients more value because you can track more data about members.

When a member wants to join a community, the community administrator can set it up so they answer questions about themselves. If it's about a car company, they ask what car they drive, what they want to get out of the community -- even get their e-mail to send newsletters. And her team uses the free Google Analytics tool to measure site traffic.

Her clients are also on Facebook, and she said they realize Ning isn't going to be a Facebook replacement -- nor will it ever be as huge. But if you're a woman-owned business selling auto parts, like AutoTex Pink, the network becomes a place for women to talk cars -- and of course talk about its products.

``They're not going in expecting 20,000 members to sign up,'' she said. ``They're expecting to drive traffic to their corporate site. It shows them as an expert in the industry, so to speak.''

Another perk: Being able to personalize the page design and make it look like a stand-alone site. A Facebook Fan page is displayed within Facebook. But a Ning page can have it's own URL, like the Ning networks MyWorkButterfly.com or MyAutoTexPink.com, and you don't need to be a member to see it.

Ning just launched a way to intergrate with Twitter. If there's an update on Ning, it can automatically alert Twitter followers.

But with Ning's updates came a new navigation system -- which took away the ability to search for topics. It simply suggests networks. Julia Gorzka, a social media consultant who created the Ning network BrandTampa.com, isn't too pleased with the change and hopes it won't stifle the growth of her 1,400-members site, which promotes happenings in the Tampa area.

She's about to create a BrandTampa Facebook Fan page to hit more people, but predicts Ning will continue to have more value.

``If you're on Facebook and Twitter, they're really noisy these days,'' Gorzka said. ``There's a lot of what I call absentee activism. But on this thing, you have people who are truly interested.''

 

 

 
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