Hand Made Business Opportunity from Wire Art

It started 25 years ago as a hobby, and today it may turn into a profitable business opportunity, states Cliff Ankersen, who is “Resilient, Creative, Innovative, Driven, Determined...” to quote his LinkedIn Profile. This former Regional Sales Manager, sees new opportunities in handcrafting wire art. This recession is causing individuals to reexamine their personal skills and embrace change. Cliff plans on joining the Parker Art Guild and showing his works at an upcoming “Art In the Park”, August 28-29, 2910 from 10 am to 5 pm in O’Brien, Park

The Rhythm of Life is Music to My Ears

by Cliff Ankersen

I am basically doing this as an income stream in these difficult times. Alternatively, this may end up becoming what I most enjoy doing and thus become my full time career.

Begun in the 70's and 80's I produced some of these works, building some sailboats and such as I lived in Michigan and worked closely in the marine industry as well as having many friends who had various types of boats.

Recently, I have built some combination text outline with metal wire art attached to form a portion of a song for display as a wall hanging.

The piece you have seen is for a cardiology office in Skyridge Hospital. There is some direct connection to my building this and my own heart situation ... they fixed my atrial flutter condition, restoring my normal rhythm and my health earlier this summer. I thought the saying "The rhythm of life is music to my ears" was a very appropriate. - You can find Cliff at http://www.wire-artist.com/

Denver Tech Professionals eager to learn Web Application Magic.

Ever wonder what is behind the push button technology that makes web pages appear as a magical experience?

by Gerald Curtis, LeaderQuest Journalist and Systems Analyst.

Developing Web Applications Using Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 & C#

The road to the internet magic starts with a love of the subject matter. New students are given a 1000 page text book, 5 days of intensive instruction and lots of lab work with an endless pot of coffee to top if off.

When the course is completed the student has learned basic ASP .NET skills to develop applications that can query database sources, such as Microsoft SQL Server, SQL Server Express, Access, MySQL, and Oracle. But for the labs, the favored database was Microsoft SQL Server Express, which comes free with the Visual Studio .NET “Express” version of the development software.

The development software contains all of the control objects that make it possible to design a database website with the ease of “Dragging” and “Dropping” controls icons from the Toolkit onto the Form. For example dragging the “Textbox” control from the Toolkit and placing it on the Form will create a object to enter new text. Changing the properties of the Textbox border from a straight line to a “dotted-line” is possible by using the “Properties Toolkit”. The Visual Studio Development Studio creates “code behind” the design. The code is written in the C# programming language or Visual Basic, if you select the proper option when establishing the Project.

The only way to learn the many controls is to practice using them during the many labs provided in the excellent training and reference text book, “Murach’s ASP .NET 3.5 web programming with C# 2008. What makes this text book great is its unique layout. On the left side of the book is the detailed training guide and on the right side is the same concept simplified as a reference guide. Its like getting two books in one.

Without writing a single line of code, it is possible to create professional level dynamic websites that contain drop down menus, radio buttons, and login controls that access SQL, object and LINQ data sources.

Photo: Christina Hargest, MCTS, .NET, SQL student.

QUIZ: What is the Colorado Employment Situation in July 2010?

Amaze your friends by having the answers to the JOB QUIZ:

Q: What is the Labor Rate?

Q: What job sectors are increasing?

Q: What job sectors are declining?

Q: What County has the lowest employment rate? Or the Highest?

(If you have a job, these figures may be a surprise to you. If you are unemployed, its not funny but it is a fact you have to face while looking for work.)

• Labor Rate was unchanged at 8.0 percent in July.
• Unemployment rate (not seasonally adjusted) decrease in 50 of the 64 counties.
• Unemployment rate increased in 11 counties.
• Unemployment rate unchanged in 3 counties.
• Lowest rate was 2.5 percent in Hinsdale County.
• Highest rate was 14.2 percent in Delores County.
• The number of working Coloradans decreased by 7,400 over the month to 2.4 million.
• Employment increased in 5 of 11 sectors over the month.
• Leisure and hospitality employment increased 3,100.
• Education and health services added 1,800 jobs.
• Trade, transportation and utilities gained 1,300 jobs,
• Information 400, and mining and logging 100.
• Construction employment declined 1,800.
• Government and professional and business services each declined 800.
• Other services and manufacturing each declined 500.
• Financial activities decreased 400.

============== Here are the details from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment?

Labor Force[i]

Colorado’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained unchanged at 8.0 percent in

July, according to Donald J. Mares, Executive Director of the Colorado Department of

Labor and Employment. “Four months of stability in the unemployment rate combined

with two months of notable private-sector job growth is encouraging news,” Mares said.

“Our challenge is to sustain this growth over the second half of the year,” he continued.

Last July, the unemployment rate was 8.1 percent.

The unemployment rate (not seasonally adjusted) decreased in 50 of Colorado’s 64

counties, increased in 11 and was unchanged in 3. The lowest rate was 2.5 percent in

Hinsdale County and the highest was 14.2 percent in Dolores County. In July 2009, the

unemployment rate declined in 63 counties and remained unchanged in one. Last year,

the lowest rate was 2.5 percent in Hinsdale County and the highest was 13.1 percent in

Dolores County.

The number of working Coloradans decreased 7,400 over the month to 2,442,300. The

civilian labor force declined 6,800 to 2,655,600. The number of residents unsuccessfully

looking for work increased 600 over the month to 213,300. One year ago, total

employment was 2,484,900 and the number of unemployed was 219,900. The civilian

labor force has declined 49,200 since July 2009.

Wage and Salary Employment[ii]

The monthly survey of Colorado business establishments indicates the number of

nonfarm wage and salary jobs increased 1,900 in July to 2,205,300.

Employment increased in five of Colorado’s eleven major industry sectors over the

month. Leisure and hospitality employment increased 3,100 in July. Education and health

services added 1,800 jobs. Trade, transportation and utilities gained 1,300 jobs,

information 400, and mining and logging 100. Construction employment declined 1,800.

Government and professional and business services each declined 800. Other services

and manufacturing each declined 500, and financial activities decreased 400.

Nonfarm payroll employment decreased 1.1 percent over the year, or 25,200, from the

July 2009 level of 2,230,500.

Employment in four of Colorado’s eleven major industry sectors increased over the year.

Employment in education and health services increased 6,600, government 3,500, other

services 600 and leisure and hospitality 200. The remaining seven industry sectors

declined over the year. Construction, down 17,400, experienced the largest decline of all

industry sectors. Manufacturing declined 4,600, professional and business services 3,800,

and trade, transportation and utilities 3,600. Other losses included information (3,200),

financial activities (2,700), and mining and logging (800).

National[iii]

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the unemployment rate held steady at 9.5

percent in July. Nonfarm payroll employment declined 131,000, reflecting a reduction of

143,000 temporary employees working on Census 2010. Private-sector payroll

employment increased 71,000 due to increases in manufacturing and health care. Private

sector payroll employment has increased by 630,000 in 2010.

[i] Labor force estimates are calculated from the household survey results, using the Bureau of Labor

Statistics Local Area Unemployment Statistics methods. The unadjusted statewide and county level

estimates are available at the following link:

http://lmigateway.coworkforce.com/lmigateway/gsipub/index.asp?docid=363

[ii] Wage and salary employment estimates are calculated from the establishment survey results, using the

Bureau of Labor Statistics Current Employment Statistics methods. The statewide adjusted and unadjusted,

and the unadjusted MSA estimates are available at the following link:

http://lmigateway.coworkforce.com/lmigateway/gsipub/index.asp?docid=364

[iii] The Bureau of Labor Statistics homepage is available at the following link: http://www.bls.gov/

Attachments: Labor Force Summary (Microsoft Excel spreadsheet)

Counties Labor Force (Microsoft Excel spreadsheet)

July 2010 Jobs Report and the Economy

Keith Hall, of the Department of Labor spoke before the Joint Economic Committee about the July 2010 Jobs Report.

Summary:

• The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 9.5% with the economy losing 131,000 non-farm jobs overall, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, mostly due to the decline in Census workers.
• There are differences in employment sectors.
• Employment gains occurred in Manufacturing , health care and mining.
• The Private sector employment gained employment by 71,000. It has increased 7 months in a row.
• Manufacturing increased 7 months in a row after falling 3 straight years.
• Health Care increased by 27,000 jobs.
• Modest Job gains have occurred in the last three months. However, the recovery will take a long time and require patience.
• State and Local governments continue to lose jobs. Since the beginning of the year, 169,000 were lost overall. July, state governments lost 10,000 jobs and local governments lost 38,000 jobs.
• Education: For example: Of the 38,000 local government jobs lost in July, 27,000 were teachers. On the state government level, 2,000 were teachers.
• Update: The Senate passed the State-Aid legislation to extend funding for Medicare cost and funding for teachers this week. It moved the bill to the House. The Department of Education estimates this will save 148,000 teacher jobs, if enacted. The House will reconvene this Tuesday and is expected to pass the bill. The $26 billion bill will provide $10 billion for teachers and $ 16.1 billion for six-months of Medicaid. This will avoid teacher layoffs prior to school opening and aid to the poor, who need help paying for health care.

President Obama: Education is "the" economic issue

"Education is an economic issue -- if not 'the' economic issue of our time," according to President Obama, who spoke about education reform before members of the Urban League. He proposed shifting taxpayer money from bank subsidies to increasing college education funding. He proposed increasing funding for early childhood education. Here are some of the highlights of his speech.

"It’s an economic issue when the unemployment rate for folks who’ve never gone to college is almost double what it is for those who have gone to college. (Applause.) It’s an economic issue when eight in 10 new jobs will require workforce training or a higher education by the end of this decade. It’s an economic issue when countries that out-educate us today are going to out-compete us tomorrow."

"Now, for years, we’ve recognized that education is a prerequisite for prosperity. And yet, we’ve tolerated a status quo where America lags behind other nations. Just last week, we learned that in a single generation, America went from number one to 12th in college completion rates for young adults. Used to be number one, now we’re number 12. "

These are the words of President Obama who said his administration has made a number of reforms to make education affordable to more Americans. He stated:

"Now, because a higher education has never been more important –- or more expensive -– it’s absolutely essential that we put a college degree within reach for anyone who wants it. And that’s why we’re making higher education more affordable, so we can meet the goals I’ve set of producing a higher share of college graduates than any other nation by 2020. I want us to be back at number one instead of number 12. (Applause.) "

"And in pursuit of that goal, we eliminated taxpayer subsidies to big banks. We saved tens of billions of dollars, and we used those savings to open the door to additional financial aid -- to open the door for college to millions more students. This is something that a lot of you may not be aware of, but we have added tens of billions of dollars that were going to bank middlemen, so that that money is now going to students -- millions more students who are getting scholarships to go to college. (Applause.) That’s already been done."

"We’re making loan repayment more manageable, so young people don’t graduate -- like Michelle and me -- with such big loan payments every month."


For the full text of the speech click here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-education-reform-national-urban-league-centennial-conference

C-Span : http://www.c-span.org/Watch/Media/2010/07/29/HP/A/36186/Pres+Obama+Remarks+on+Education+at+Natl+Urban+League+Convention.aspx