Girl Scouts of California's Central Coast Girl Scout Council today announced that local Girl Scouts will be offering customers a premium selection of the six best-selling Girl Scout Cookies of all time during this year's Cookie Program starting January 15--March 20, 2011. Girl Scout Cookie Rallies and Bake-Off events will be held throughout the council in celebration this weekend. "The Girl Scout Cookie Sale is America's cookie sale," said Sherry Sybesma, Chief Executive Officer, Girl Scouts of California's Central Coast. "For girls, the cookie sale is an opportunity ...

New statistics released by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) and reported by the Insurance Information Institute show that the average cost of car coverage for Massachusetts residents dropped significantly between 2004 and 2008. The Bay State coverage market saw the largest year-to-year decrease between 2007 and 2008, a drop that has been attributed to the transition from a "fix-and-establish" regulatory system to one of "managed competition." According to the NAIC, the average cost of coverage dropped 8 percent during 2008, the year that managed ...

Professional Business Bank and California General Bank, both commercial banks headquartered in Pasadena, Calif., jointly announce completion of their merger effective December 31, 2010. The merger was approved by each bank's respective shareholders and bank regulatory authorities. The combined bank will retain the name Professional Business Bank and continue its mandate of serving small to mid-sized business banking customers. The new Professional Business Bank now represents a community banking network with six locations in Los Angeles and Orange counties. Mary ...

DECRA Roofing Systems and Lakewood-based HomeSphere, Inc. announced today they have entered into a joint agreement to offer DECRA stone coated steel roofing products to HomeSphere's network of builders using HomeSphere's technology-driven solutions. DECRA joins more than 75 manufacturing brands currently using HomeSphere's BRI lead generation and marketing program to produce new builder leads and strengthen existing business, thus growing their market share through increased homebuilder sales. "This partnership provides a number of new opportunities for over 1,100 ...

Long-awaited funding came in for the G.W. Exotic Animal Park located in Wynnewood, Oklahoma and the park was able to purchase land to open the first ever lake resort with a zoo. Now not only can you come see the nation's largest collection of exotic animals, including over 150 large cats, you can now enjoy fishing, camping, hiking and ATV trails along with nature hikes for schools and education groups. Joe Schreibvogel says, "You must stay diverse in order to keep the people coming in." Mr. Schreibvogel used to tour doing magic and shows with the animals in order ...

The Nation's largest refuge for exotic animals, open to the public, is starting the New Year out rescuing record numbers of animals and 2011 is only one week underway. Starting the New Year with a sudden trip to Ohio to rescue 11 exotic cats including 2 Mountain Lions, 4 African Servals, 2 Caracals, 1 bobcat and 2 Canadian Lynx. "The owner had a sudden heart attack and was not expected to live," said Joe Schreibvogel, Director of the G.W. Exotic Animal Foundation in Wynnewood Oklahoma. "His wife called the park the day before New Years and pleaded for help to re-home ...

One More Thing...Before You Go, will open your eyes, ears, mind, and heart to the very personal journey that unlocks the ability to say the last words you were never able to say and maybe gain the closure you need to move forward in your own life, smile, be happy again, and leave a positive memory for you to carry with you. This project features spoken word, live music, dramatic expression, art and dance, all centering on our need for closure when losing someone or something close to us. Starting January 10, 2011, the production team will be seeking participants with ...

GraMedica has helped thousands of foot pain sufferers in the US with its innovative HyProCure titanium implant and out-patient procedure. Now, the company is pleased to announce that the product and surgical procedure has been adopted and performed in Germany. The HyProCure implant corrects a common foot and ankle ailment called talotarsal dislocation syndrome. This abnormal motion of the ankle on the heel bone can cause devastating effects for patients, ranging from flat feet, heel spurs and plantar fasciitis, to bunions and hammer toes, leg and knee pain, hip and back ...

taxmOuth, the largest tax site on the Internet, announced that the Third Annual National Tax Help Week will focus on ending Rapid Refund Ripoffs. taxmOuth is hosting a week-long series of free events January 10 through 15, 2011 at TaxHelpWeek.com to help taxpayers file their federal and state income tax returns for the 2010 tax year and get thousands of dollars in rapid refunds for free. "This year, we are focusing our efforts on the 8 million people who are most vunerable to being ripped off by Refund Anticipation Loans (RAL), Payday Loans and other qickie refunds schemes ...

SoloHealth (www.solohealth.com), a recognized leader in self-directed health care, announced today that Rick Voight, former National Sales Manager of Retail Publishing at Hewlett-Packard, has joined the company. Rick will be responsible for market penetration and distribution of the company's SoloHealth Station, an innovative new solution that allows consumers in high-traffic retail environments to test their vision, blood pressure, and body mass, obtain health and wellness information, and store a history of their results that can be accessed at the consumer's convenience. ...

Optex, Inc., a manufacturer of security infrared and laser technology solutions and systems, has signed a partnership agreement with manufacturer's representative firm Intelligent Marketing, Inc. (IMI), Haverhill, MA, to increase its east coast sales support for security integrators and distributors. In conjunction with Optex regional sales managers and technical personnel, IMI will also provide sales, design, and installation support of all Optex Redwall, Redscan and Rednet outdoor detectors for perimeter surveillance. "The partnership with IMI aligns well with Optex's ...

As the company keeps securing its firm footing in Western Europe, the Milan office will bring another dimension to the deVere Group. The office is due to start operating next month. Notably, Milan ranks as the EU's 10th most important centre for business and finance, with its economy being the world's 26th richest by purchasing power. Milan is also recognised as the world's fashion and design capital, with a major global influence in commerce, industry, music, sport, literature, art and media. Mike Coady, deVere Group's Regional Manager for Western Europe, stated, ...

For the second year in a row, Boston Home magazine recognized Didriks, a Cambridge, MA-based retailer of outdoor furniture and housewares, as the Best of Boston Home Outdoor Furniture store for 2011. Boston Home editors wrote: "For a city whose residents spend most of the year indoors, Boston is curiously blessed with an outstanding resource for outdoor living. Didriks stocks just a few lines of furniture, including U.K.-based Barlow Tyrie and California-based Modern Outdoor. Both are matchless in design and weather resilience. And to complete your outdoor-entertaining ...

NAI's Suzhou, China facility announces that it has received Nadcap accreditation for Electronics Cable and Harness Assemblies. According to Joe Kame, NAI's Global Quality Director: "This accreditation exemplifies our commitment to quality and the manufacturing requirements of our customers. NAI's quality management system has achieved the ISO 9001:2008, TL 9000, AS 9100 and ISO 13485 registrations and we are excited to be the first Nadcap registered contract manufacturer in Asia for cable and harnesses assemblies." NAI received Nadcap accreditation for demonstrating ...

MVPExchange.com is excited to announce the launch of a new sports themed stock market. After opening a free account, users are able to buy and sell virtual shares of their favorite professional athletes across several different sports. Athlete share prices change in real-time based on market demand and game performances. MVPExchange.com's new sports stock market gives users or "traders" a chance to do something they have only dreamt about until now. That is to own a piece of their favorite athlete. After opening their free "Sportfolio", traders can buy and sell shares ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Mayo Clinic researchers have shown that proteins on the surface of a cell twist a viral protein into position, allowing the virus to start infection and cause disease, all in a movement as graceful as a ballroom dance. The findings appear in the current online issue of Nature Structural & Molecular Biology. A team led by Roberto Cattaneo, Ph.D., a Mayo molecular biologist, describes the crucial initial steps taken by attachment proteins of the measles virus and related respiratory viruses with their cellular partners, the receptors. To get there, the ...

The surprising discovery of a supermassive black hole in a small nearby galaxy has given astronomers a tantalizing look at how black holes and galaxies may have grown in the early history of the Universe. Finding a black hole a million times more massive than the Sun in a star-forming dwarf galaxy is a strong indication that supermassive black holes formed before the buildup of galaxies, the astronomers said. The galaxy, called Henize 2-10, 30 million light-years from Earth, has been studied for years, and is forming stars very rapidly. Irregularly shaped and about 3,000 ...

The humble ginger root could be the key to conserving the UK's largest and most spectacular terrestrial beetle – the stag beetle. Ecologists from Royal Holloway, University of London and the University of York have developed a series of new methods to monitor stag beetle numbers – including ginger lures to trap adult beetles and tiny microphones to detect sounds made by the larvae in their underground nests. Conservation efforts have been hampered until now because ecologists lacked a reliable way of monitoring stag beetle numbers. The new research, published in the Royal ...

New research indicates the impact of rising CO2 levels in the Earth's atmosphere will cause unstoppable effects to the climate for at least the next 1000 years, causing researchers to estimate a collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet by the year 3000, and an eventual rise in the global sea level of at least four metres. The study, to be published in the Jan. 9 Advanced Online Publication of the journal Nature Geoscience, is the first full climate model simulation to make predictions out to 1000 years from now. It is based on best-case, 'zero-emissions' scenarios constructed ...

An innovative device which cancels out the noise of the dental drill could spell the end of people's anxiety about trips to the dentist, according to experts at King's College London, Brunel University and London South Bank University, who pioneered the invention. It is widely known that the sound of the dental drill is the prime cause of anxiety about dental treatment, and some patients avoid trips to the dentist because of it. This new device could help address people's fears and encourage them to seek the oral healthcare treatment they need. The prototype device ...

Jülich, 9 January 2011 – Although the storage of films and music on a DVD is part of our digital world, the physical basis of the storage mechanism is not understood in detail. In the current issue of the leading journal Nature Materials, researchers from Jülich, Finland, and Japan provide insight into the read and write processes in a DVD. This knowledge should enable improved storage materials to be developed. (DOI: 10.1038/NMAT2931) Information is stored in a DVD in the form of microscopic bits (each less than 100 nanometres in size) in a thin layer of a polycrystalline ...

DURHAM, N.C. – The recipe for making one species into two requires time and some kind of separation, like being on different islands or something else that discourages gene flow between the two budding species. In the case of common Texas wildflowers that share meadows and roadside ditches, color-coding apparently does the trick. Duke University graduate student Robin Hopkins has found the first evidence of a specific genetic change that helps two closely related wildflowers avoid creating costly hybrids. It results in one of the normally light blue flowers being tagged ...

New research from UC Davis Cancer Center has found that whether a person gets screened for colon cancer often depends on where they live in addition to their race or ethnicity. It has long been known that racial minorities have lower colorectal screening rates than whites, presumably because of differences in socioeconomic status, access to care and cultural issues. What hasn't been known, until now, is whether these differences also vary across geographic regions. In a paper published online today in the journal Cancer, medical oncologist Thomas Semrad and colleagues ...

Individuals from certain areas of the United States are more likely to get screened for colorectal cancer than those from other areas, particularly when comparing non-whites living in different parts of the country. That is the conclusion of a new study published early online in Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. Additional research is needed to better understand how colorectal cancer screening disparities develop in some regions and not in others. Racial and ethnic disparities in colorectal screening exist among the Medicare population, but ...

KINGSTON, R.I. – January 10, 2011 -- While most blood tests require shipping a vial of blood to a laboratory for analysis and waiting several days for the results, a new device invented by a team of engineers and students at the University of Rhode Island uses just a pinprick of blood in a portable device that provides results in less than 30 minutes. "This development is a big step in point-of-care diagnostics, where testing can be performed in a clinic, in a doctor's office, or right at home," said Mohammad Faghri, URI professor of mechanical engineering and the lead ...