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B. E. Smith’s Sandy Reed Takes on Leadership Role in Interim and Consulting Services

B. E. Smith today announced Sandy Reed, formerly of the firm’s Talent Strategies division, will lead a team of interim and consulting leaders nationwide as vice president/project leader, Interim and Consulting Services.

Lenexa, Kan. (Vocus/PRWEB) January 26, 2011

B. E. Smith today announced Sandy Reed, formerly of the firm’s Talent Strategies division, will lead a team of interim and consulting leaders nationwide as vice president/project leader, Interim and Consulting Services.

A seasonedwith more than 30 years of experience in management, education and numerous senior leadership roles, Reed will assume her new duties immediately.

“Through the years, Sandy has been a trusted advisor to our clients, helping them accomplish immediate goals while putting the infrastructure in place to ensure peak performance for the long-term,” said Deirdre Byrne, senior vice president of Interim and Consulting Services, B. E. Smith. “Her broad-based understanding of clinical operations coupled with a keen ability to understand how to achieve performance improvement will be invaluable in her new role.”

During her years with B. E. Smith, Reed has helped healthcare organizations of all sizes enhance profitability, productivity and performance by leading initiatives in a wide range of services, including program development; benchmarking; operational, construction project and ; multihospital management redesign; and clinical process improvement. Prior to joining B. E. Smith, Reed held corporate, departmental and executive leadership positions at numerous healthcare facilities, including serving as chief nursing officer and vice president of patient care services for a multihospital system.

About B. E. Smith: Founded in 1978, B. E. Smith is a full-service leadership solutions firm for healthcare providers. B. E. Smith’s comprehensive suite of services includes Interim Healthcare Leadership, Permanent Executive Placements and Consulting Solutions. The company is comprised of veteran healthcare leaders who partner with each client to create a solution that uniquely fits that client’s individual needs. B. E. Smith maintains the largest database of skilled leadership and interim executive candidates in the industry and recently placed more than 600 leaders into healthcare organizations worldwide. For more information, visitor call 877-802-4593.

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Christine RicciB. E. Smith(913) 708-8913Email Information

Rockstar's "L.A. Noire" Gets May 23 Release Date

Rockstar Games'latest video-game epic, "L.A. Noire," is set to be released on May 23, according to a trailer that was released on Monday.

The new "Serial Killer" trailer, embedded below, reveals that the player will be after a serial killer - or perhaps a copycat - that murders women and then displays messages on their bodies. Not exactly family friendly, but then Rockstar's games rarely are.

The game uses the , which applies realistic motion capture and facial expressions to the game.

MotionScan is different from traditional motion capture technology in that it utilizes 32 high-definition cameras that capture an actor's expressions in full 3D at 30 frames per second. "L.A. Noire" will be the first video game to utilize this technology by Depth Analysis, which created MotionScan.

"L.A. Noire" is currently slated for release for Xbox 360 and PS3 for $59.99.

Additional reporting by Sara Yin.

India economy grows by forecast-beating 8.9 percent

NEW DELHI (AFP) – India's economy grew a forecast-beating 8.9 percent year-on-year in July-September, data showed Tuesday, underscoring the country's brisk recovery from the global financial crisis.

The healthy numbers brought temporary cheer to the Congress-led government, buffeted by a string of scandals including a damaging telecom corruption scam which could have cost the public treasury up to 40 billion dollars.

The robust growth, propelled by manufacturing, services and a revived farm sector, was significantly above market forecasts of 8.2 percent growth.

The expansion came despite the rapid unwinding of massive fiscal and monetary stimulus steps taken in the last few years that helped shield the country of 1.2 billion people from the global slump.

"These numbers are reassuring, especially with monetary and fiscal stimulus being withdrawn -- it shows the resilience of this recovery," D.K. Joshi, chief economist at ratings agency Crisil, told AFP.

Adding to the good news for the government, first-quarter growth was revised upwards to 8.9 percent year-on-year from 8.8 percent, data from the Central Statistical Organisation showed.

The South Asian country is the world's second fastest-growing major economy, behind regional rival China, which logged growth of 9.6 percent year-on-year in the same three-month period.

Surging vehicle and other consumer product sales helped to power the strong Indian performance, which is underpinned by rising incomes and widening access to credit.

"Private consumption growth of close to 10 percent is pretty close to a historic high," Sujan Hajra, chief economist at Mumbai brokerage Anand Rathi Financial Services, told AFP.

Manufacturing grew by 9.8 percent, construction grew by 8.8 percent while trade, hotels, transport and communication surged 12.1 percent. Farm output expanded by 4.4 percent thanks to a bountiful monsoon.

The government aims to achieve double-digit expansion within the next couple of years to reduce deeply entrenched poverty. It seeks "inclusive growth" to embrace those left behind by India's boom.

Over 40 percent of Indians still live below the poverty line of 1.25 dollars a day, compared with 16 percent in China, according to the World Bank.

The government expects the economy to expand 8.5 percent in the financial year to March 31, 2011, after growing by 7.4 percent last year.

Economists said the economy appeared on track to beat that target.

"The economy is poised to record its first annual expansion in excess of 8.5 percent since the global downturn as domestic demand continues to strengthen," said Matt Robinson, senior economist at Moody's Analytics.

India's finance secretary, Ashok Chawla, said the 1.3-trillion-dollar economy's upturn was broad-based with all sectors recovering.

The country posted average annual growth of 9.5 percent between 2006 and 2008 before the international financial slump.

Global investors have been pouring billions of dollars into India's stock market, seeking exposure to the country's strong growth, as industrialised economies are still struggling to emerge from the downturn.

Economists say India's strong performance could prompt the central bank, which has hiked interest rates six times since the start of the year, to press ahead with monetary tightening -- the most aggressive in the Asia Pacific region -- to curb inflation

Inflation, which is running at more than 8.5 percent, is sharply above the central bank's "comfort level" of four to five percent.

Nader unites us all in the fight against 'federal fondlers'

The X-ray security machines coming to an airport near you have been called “” by seasoned travelers, , and eaten up the Transportation Security Administration’s . In short, no one likes them.

Consumer rights advocate and perennial presidential vote-splitter Ralph Nader is here to help. Not only has he joined forces with the, he also told The Daily Caller that he paid a visit this week to Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform meeting to recruit conservatives in his fight against “federal fondlers.”

“I said to ‘em, ‘I want to say a few words to this group, who are fully employed, fully insured, and fully clothed.’ And I said, ‘Get ready for naked insecurity.’”

Airport X-ray machines, says Nader, are a bipartisan issue. Republican Senators Tom Coburn, Susan Collins, and Richard Burr have all raised concerns that the machines emit a dangerous amount of radiation, “and you should know,” Nader added, “that the Libertarian Party, at my urging, came out with a tough statement last week against them.”

The list of critics is growing by the day.љA group of 11,000 airline pilots have objected to the scanners on the grounds that they could be dangerous. (They’ve also whined that it’s unprofessional for TSA to give full-body pat-downs to pilots who decline to use the X-ray machines in full view of their passengers.)

The travel industry is frustrated because the machines cause delays, pilots are upset because the machines are degrading, consumers are upset because strangers get to see their genitals, and “academic scientists” are upset, said Nader, because the backscatter X-ray machines emit a radiation dose “10 times higher than what the government says.”

Italy, after a 6-month trial period using the machines, is abandoning them. “Italy called them ‘ineffective and slow,’” Nader said.

“Susan Collins has requested information from TSA, but DHS is an exceptionally secretive and inaccessible, unresponsive bureaucracy. So it’s very hard to get information.”

TSA “knows best,” said Nader. Or thinks it does. “They just blew $32 million on puffer machines. You ever see one of those?”

The Daily Caller admitted that we had, in fact, seen the puffer machines.

“They blow air. You get into a cage and they blow air at you. Too many false positives.”

The backscatter X-ray machines are more of the same, Nader argued. “They don’t work how they are supposed to, they are hazardous in terms of radiation, and they are wild invasions of privacy.”

Also: “They store these images of you naked.”

If you don’t want to go through the machines, “they grope you like you would not believe,” said Nader, who has yet to face either an X-ray machine or a pat-down. When asked if he would submit to a groping in lieu of having naked images of himself stored on a machine, Nader said,љ“I don’t think we should have government gropers or federal fondlers.”

Read more stories from The Daily Caller

Hat-trick, century for Messi as Barcelona go top

MADRID (AFP) – Argentine Lionel Messi made it a century of league goals for Barcelona with a hat-trick as the champions crushed Almeria 8-0 on Saturday in the perfect warm-up for their first Clasico showdown with title rivals Real Madrid at Camp Nou in nine days time.

Barca were 5-0 up at half-time as they maintained their perfect away record with a fifth win to go two points ahead of next league opponents Real who can reclaim top spot with a home win over Athletic Bilbao in Saturday's late match.

The 23-year-old Messi opened the scoring on 16 minutes and netted again on 36 minutes to make it 100 league goals in a Barcelona shirt in just 154 games before completing his hat-trick with a tap-in on 66 minutes.

Messi moves to the top of the goalscoring charts with 13 league goals for the season to send a warning to Real Madrid ahead of the Clasico at Camp Nou on November 29.

Messi's first came about after David Villa's clever back heel set up the Argentine who curled a fine shot into the corner.

Spanish World Cup winner Andres Iniesta was on target two minutes later as Barca started at a frantic pace and the visitors pressed the self-destruct button on 26 minutes when Peruvian Wilmer Acasiete put a Maxwell cross into his own net.

Barcelona were slicing Almeria open at will and on 34 minutes a long ball from 21-year-old Andreu Fontas, making his first league start for Barca, found Pedro Rodriguez who slid a shot past goalkeeper Diego Alves.

Messi then brought up his century getting a second bite of the cherry after Alves had saved his initial shot.

Messi notched his treble on 66 minutes and his 101 goals mean he is fourth in Barcelona all-time league scorer's list with Cameroonian Samuel Eto'o the next target with 108 goals.

A brace from substitute Bojan Krkic made it 8-0 and by far the biggest win of the season.

Barcelona now take on Panathinaikos in Greece in the Champions League on Wednesday before hosting Real at Camp Nou the following Monday.

Unbeaten Real Madrid hope to reclaim top spot by extend their perfect home record with victory over Bilbao at the Santiago Bernabeu later on Saturday.

Bilbao lost 5-1 to Real at the Bernabeu last season but will hope in-form Spanish international forward Fernando Llorente can build on his eight goals in the league.

Under Jose Mourinho Real have the meanest defence in the league conceding five goals in their 11 league games.

Earlier Italian international striker Giuseppe Rossi scored his eighth league goal of the campaign to rescue a point for Villarreal in a 1-1 home draw with local rivals Valencia on Saturday.

Villarreal saw their 100 percent home record of five wins at El Madrigal come to an end, however, Rossi's 73rd minute volley salvaged a point and Villarreal stay three points ahead of Valencia in third but seven points behind Barcelona.

Aritz Aduriz had put Valencia into a 20th minute lead to give Valencia the intitiative and the visitors frustrated the home side before Rossi produced a clinical volley to clinch a point.

Valencia had defender Marius Stankevicius sent off for a second booking on 80 minutes but held on for a point and now prepare for Wednesday's Champions League home match with Bursaspor.