JEWISH FOUNDATION OF MB TO DISTRIBUTE MINIMUM RATE MANDATED BY REVENUE CANADA OF 3.5% FOR NEXT 2-3 YEARS AT LEAST

The Jewish Foundation of Manitoba? is now distributing 3.5% per annum to the beneficiaries of its endowment funds.

Further, in answer to inquiries made by the Winnipeg Jewish Review, CEO of the Jewish Foundation Marsha Cowan has written that, "Although we can?t predict the future of the investment market, we foresee the Foundation maintaining an annual distribution rate at 3.5% over the next two to three years at least. This is the minimum distribution rate currently mandated by the Canada Revenue Agency."

In an interview in her office, Cowan told the Winnipeg Jewish Review that Jewish Foundation, whose investment committee chair is Howard Morry, received a 9% rate of return on its investments for 2012. This number has not yet been published since the Jewish Foundation's 2012 Annual Report is not yet out.

Additionally,?the Jewish Foundation in answer to inquiries made by the Winnipeg Jewish Review?indicated that "During 2012 the Board of Directors approved a recommendation from our Investment Review Committee to move from an ?active? to a ?passive? investment philosophy." (Editor's note: more detail on this is given below).?

FULL INTERVIEW BY EMAIL WITH MARSHA COWAN CEO JEWISH FOUNDATION OF MANITOBA

[Questions were sent by the Winnipeg Jewish Review on April 17, 2013?and answers received ?April 22, 2013.]

SPIVAK: Question 1. I have been hearing from a number of different sources within the community that the Jewish Foundation is now paying 3.5% interest to the beneficiaries of its funds in the Foundation this year. My understanding is that last year this amount was 4%. ( Cowan was asked to confirm the numbers for the last several years.)

COWAN: Answer 1: JFM is currently distributing 3.5% per annum to the beneficiaries of its endowment funds. In November 2012, we sent a letter advising of this change to Fund Administrators of permanently designated funds, organizational endowment funds, donor-advised funds, and field-of-interest funds.

SPIVAK: Question?2. I wanted to ask if you could explain the reason that 3.5% is now being paid and whether this was something that the Foundation anticipated?

COWAN: Answer 2. The dual objective of a community foundation such as JFM is to (both) distribute income and grow its endowment funds. These objectives are by nature in conflict, especially in a challenging market environment which has been, and is currently, volatile. The objective regarding the annual distribution of income is to provide as predictable and reliable a cash flow as possible to our beneficiaries from year to year so that they can plan their budgets. Indeed, there were community foundations in Canada that ceased to distribute for a year or so after the 2008 crash. JFM took the perspective that it was vital to ?be there? for the community during periods of flat or negative market returns and maintained a distribution.

The growth objective reflects the fact that JFM?s mandate is over the long term. It is our absolute responsibility today to ensure the long-term growth of JFM for the benefit of future generations. If the distribution rate is too high for the market conditions, it is certain such growth will be impaired.

Therefore, the Board has determined that a distribution rate of 3.5% for 2013 reflects the best balance to address both the short- and long-term objectives of a reliable annual income distribution and continual growth. It is not as much as we would like to distribute, but for the time being it is the best course of action (and is still above one-year market rates).

SPIVAK: Question 3: Also, do you foresee that next year the Foundation will be paying 3.5 % or could reduce this?

SPIVAK: QUESTION 4. Does the Foundation foresee having to cut expenses in the next year in order to ensure the rate it pays out doesn't go below 3.5? (If so, could you elaborate on the types of expenses that could be cut? Would this potentially mean a restructuring and/ or reduction in number of staff?)

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COWAN: ANSWER 4: The appropriate level of resources for a given asset base is a delicate balance of providing a sufficient level of excellent stewardship and service to the constituents of JFM; its donors and beneficiaries. Again, JFM is here for the long term ? and over the long term there have been more positive markets than negative markets. At times it is difficult to be optimistic when we are living through a negative or ?sideways? period as we are now.

We do not foresee having to restructure in terms of staffing during the next year to maintain a 3.5% distribution rate. Notwithstanding, JFM has already reduced its expenses in a significant fashion ? not because it was required to maintain its distribution rate ? but simply because it was appropriate to do so. The Foundation recently completed a two-year due diligence review of its investment management processes.

During 2012 the Board of Directors approved a recommendation from our Investment Review Committee to move from an ?active? to a ?passive? investment philosophy. (The words ?active? and ?passive? have nuanced meanings in the investment community and you are encouraged to learn more about what these words mean in an investment context.) This approach will prove more consistent with our long-term investment objectives and will result in significant savings in management fees.

Editor's note: I asked?an individual who has?an MBA in Finance to write to the WJR to explain the difference between active and passive as an investment strategy.The following is the response I have received from the individual:

The meaning depends on the context, but generally as follows:

Active management is when they research individual stocks and bonds and make specific investment choices. They may give money to an active manager that comes up with a customized portfolio and makes changes through time based on their assessment of what makes sense. They are trying to beat the bond or stock market through active decisions.

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Passive usually means they invest to track an index or overall market. They may invest some amount in an exchange traded fund that tracks the TSX index, Dow Jones Index and/or a bond index. They are not making calls on individual securities, but investing passively to just track an index. A tsx index fund will own all the securities in the TSX index in the same proportion as they are held in the index. In your RRSP, you might own a TSX tracking fund.

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When you are passive, you are just trying to track an index [or indices], but not trying to beat it through active management.

A passive investing strategy generally results in lower management fees

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Source: http://www.winnipegjewishreview.com/article_detail.cfm?id=3533&sec=2&title=JEWISH_FOUNDATION_OF_MB_TO_DISTRIBUTE_MINIMUM_RATE_MANDATED_BY_REVENUE_CANADA_OF_3.5%25_FOR_NEXT_2-3_YEARS_AT_LEAST

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Obama declared health care law 'is here to stay'

President Barack Obama tours Applied Materials Inc., with Rick Gesing, left, Mike Splinter, center, and Mary Humiston, right, during a visit to the facilities in Austin, Texas, Thursday, May 9, 2013. (AP Photo/Austin American-Statesman, Rodolfo Gonzalez, Pool)

President Barack Obama tours Applied Materials Inc., with Rick Gesing, left, Mike Splinter, center, and Mary Humiston, right, during a visit to the facilities in Austin, Texas, Thursday, May 9, 2013. (AP Photo/Austin American-Statesman, Rodolfo Gonzalez, Pool)

President Barack Obama turns around and pauses before entering his car at Austin Bergstrom International Airport, Thursday, May 9, 2013, in Austin, Texas. Obama visited Austin to give talks on technology development and the economy at Manor New Tech High School and Applied Materials. (AP Photo/Marisa Vasquez, The Daily Texan)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Caught between nervous Democrats and emboldened Republicans, President Barack Obama on Friday stepped up the sales pitch on his health care overhaul as the final elements of his top domestic achievement go into effect. With his legacy and the law's success at stake, Obama said: "The law is here to stay."

Behind the scenes, the White House readied a campaign-style effort to get healthy young people to sign up for the insurance "exchanges" in order to keep premium costs from skyrocketing. On Capitol Hill, House Republicans are planning yet another vote to try to try to repeal the law.

The insurance exchanges are the centerpiece of the landmark overhaul of the nation's health insurance system and the White House mobilization is crucial to the success of the health care law and, by extension, to Obama's place in history as the first president in decades to expand health care coverage.

"There's a lot that this law is already doing for Americans with insurance," Obama said during a Mother's Day-themed event at the White House. "There's a lot more that's going to happen for folks who don't have insurance."

But he cautioned: "We still have a lot of work to do in the coming months to make sure more Americans can buy affordable health coverage."

And he urged the public not to be swayed by what he said were scare tactics from critics of the law who might blame it for rising premiums.

"Don't be bamboozled," he said.

Underscoring the policy and political consequences, the White House plans to employ both the resources of government as well as those of his reconfigured political operation as it aimed to enroll 7 million people in health insurance exchanges between Oct. 1 and the end of March. The goal is to get 30 million people to sign up within five years.

However, the composition of those signing up for the new exchanges matters just as much as the overall totals. In order to keep premium costs down, officials say they must register 2.7 million healthy people between the ages of 18 and 35 in order to counteract the costs of ensuring seniors and people with health problems.

The effort comes as the public remains divided over the health care law. As a result, the White House is planning an election-like campaign to target those uninsured or individually insured young people, an effort reminiscent of the sophisticated voter outreach that helped Obama win twice win the White House. The administration has identified where many of the healthy and uninsured young live and will be working with health clinics, hospitals, churches and other groups to sign them up for the exchanges.

Organizing for Action, an outside political group supporting Obama, will also be involved in the effort to promote the exchanges.

Administration officials say one-third of the young people they need to sign up for the exchanges live in California, Texas and Florida. Just over 50 percent are minorities and 57 percent are men.

The administration's challenge is to overcome both confusion and lack of awareness about the law. A new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation showed more than 4 in 10 Americans didn't know the Affordable Health Care Act was still law or was being implemented, and about half feel they don't have enough information about the law to know how it will affect them.

However, the officials said they expect some of those views to shift after the exchanges are fully operational, in part because many Americans will realize their health didn't change and those that are uninsured will see the benefits of the law.

Besides enrolling needed participants, the White House effort is designed to rally the public around the health care law to stave off yet another challenge from Republicans. Three years after it became law, the health care overhaul remains a target of GOP lawmakers determined to overturn it.

"Women and families don't need Obamacare's higher costs, 20,000 pages of red tape and regulations, or to be forced off plans they currently have and like, in order to get cancer screenings or other preventive care," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a statement ahead of Obama's remarks. "As implementation draws closer, the president owes it to these women and all Americans to be straight about those consequences. Rather than another campaign-style event, the President has an obligation to warn all Americans about the train wreck that's headed our way."

___

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Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-05-10-Obama/id-0efc0e47497d4e5c90edb4f08bf966c4

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IAG, parent of BA, loses 630 million euros in 1Q

LONDON (AP) ? International Airlines Group, which owns British Airways and Iberia, says it is still struggling to integrate the Spanish airline into its operations as it reported a deepening first-quarter net loss of 630 million euros ($827 million) compared to a 129 million euros loss last year.

CEO Willie Walsh says that despite 10 days of industrial action and the weak economic situation in Spain, IAG is adapting ? though he acknowledged much more needed to be done.

The company, Europe's third largest by market value, posted an exceptional charge of ?311 million in the quarter, principally relating to restructuring at Iberia.

The results come after unions accepted a mediator's proposal reducing the number of planned layoffs to some 15 percent of Iberia's workforce.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iag-parent-ba-loses-630-million-euros-1q-092702097.html

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Hackers steal $45M from ATMs in just hours

NEW YORK (AP) ? A worldwide gang of criminals stole a total of $45 million in a matter of hours by hacking their way into a database of prepaid debit cards and then draining cash machines around the globe, federal prosecutors said Thursday ? and outmoded U.S. card technology may be partly to blame.

Seven people are under arrest in the U.S. in connection with the case, which prosecutors said involved thousands of thefts from ATMs using bogus magnetic swipe cards carrying information from Middle Eastern banks. The fraudsters moved with astounding speed to loot financial institutions around the world, working in cells including one in New York, Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch said.

She called it "a massive 21st-century bank heist" carried out by brazen thieves.

One of the suspects was caught on surveillance cameras, his backpack increasingly loaded down with cash, authorities said. Others took photos of themselves with giant wads of bills as they made their way up and down Manhattan.

Here's how it worked:

Hackers got into bank databases, eliminated withdrawal limits on pre-paid debit cards and created access codes. Others loaded that data onto any plastic card with a magnetic stripe ? an old hotel key card or an expired credit card worked fine as long as it carried the account data and correct access codes.

A network of operatives then fanned out to rapidly withdraw money in multiple cities, authorities said. The cells would take a cut of the money, then launder it through expensive purchases or ship it wholesale to the global ringleaders. Lynch didn't say where they were located.

It appears no individuals lost money. The thieves plundered funds held by the banks that back up prepaid credit cards, not individual or business accounts, Lynch said.

She called it a "virtual criminal flash mob," and a security analyst said it was the biggest ATM fraud case she had heard of.

There were two separate attacks, one in December that reaped $5 million worldwide and one in February that snared about $40 million in 10 hours with about 36,000 transactions. The scheme involved attacks on two banks, Rakbank in the United Arab Emirates and the Bank of Muscat in Oman, prosecutors said.

The plundered ATMs were in Japan, Russia, Romania, Egypt, Colombia, Britain, Sri Lanka, Canada and several other countries, and law enforcement agencies from more than a dozen nations were involved in the investigation, U.S. prosecutors said.

The accused ringleader in the U.S. cell, Alberto Yusi Lajud-Pena, was reportedly killed in the Dominican Republic late last month, prosecutors said. More investigations continue and other arrests have been made in other countries, but prosecutors did not have details.

An indictment unsealed Thursday accused Lajud-Pena and the other seven New York suspects of withdrawing $2.8 million in cash from hacked accounts in less than a day.

Such ATM fraud schemes are not uncommon, but the $45 million stolen in this one was at least double the amount involved in previously known cases, said Avivah Litan, an analyst who covers security issues for Gartner Inc.

Middle Eastern banks and payment processors are "a bit behind" on security and screening technologies that are supposed to prevent this kind of fraud, but it happens around the world, she said.

"It's a really easy way to turn digits into cash," Litan said.

Some of the fault lies with the ubiquitous magnetic strips on the back of the cards. The rest of the world has largely abandoned cards with magnetic strips in favor of ones with built-in chips that are nearly impossible to copy. But because U.S. banks and merchants have stuck to cards with magnetic strips, they are still accepted around the world.

Lynch would not say who masterminded the attacks globally, who the hackers are or where they were located, citing an ongoing investigation.

The New York suspects were U.S. citizens originally from the Dominican Republic, lived in the New York City suburb orf Yonkers and were mostly in their 20s. Lynch said they all knew one another and were recruited together, as were cells in other countries. They were charged with conspiracy and money laundering. If convicted, they face 10 years in prison.

Arrests began in March.

Lajud-Pena was found dead with a suitcase full of about $100,000 in cash, and the investigation into his death is continuing separately. Dominican officials said they arrested a man in the killing who said it was a botched robbery, and two other suspects were on the lam.

The first federal study of ATM fraud was 30 years ago, when the use of computers in the financial community was growing rapidly. At the time, the Bureau of Justice Statistics found nationwide ATM bank loss from fraud ranged from $70 and $100 million a year.

By 2008, that had risen to about $1 billion a year, said Ken Pickering, who works in security intelligence at CORE Security, a white-hat hacking firm that offers security to businesses.

He said he expects news of the latest ring to inspire other criminals.

"Once you see a large attack like this, that they made off with $45 million, that's going to wake up the cybercrime community," he said.

"Ripping off cash, you don't get that back," he said. "There are suitcases full of cash floating around now, and that's just gone."

___

AP Technology Writer Peter Svensson in New York, AP National Writer Martha Mendoza in San Jose, Calif., and Associated Press writer Ezequiel Abi? L?pez in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/feds-nyc-hackers-stole-45m-atm-card-breach-155109500.html

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Cleveland man arraigned on rape, kidnap charges

Ariel Castro appears in Cleveland Municipal court Thursday, May 9, 2013, in Cleveland. Castro was charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape. Ariel Castro was charged while his brothers, Pedro and Onil Castro, were held but faced no immediate charges. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

Ariel Castro appears in Cleveland Municipal court Thursday, May 9, 2013, in Cleveland. Castro was charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape. Ariel Castro was charged while his brothers, Pedro and Onil Castro, were held but faced no immediate charges. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

Ariel Castro appears in Cleveland Municipal court Thursday, May 9, 2013, in Cleveland. Castro was charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape. Ariel Castro was charged while his brothers, Pedro and Onil Castro, were held but faced no immediate charges. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

Ariel Castro appears in Cleveland Municipal court Thursday, May 9, 2013, in Cleveland. Castro was charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape. Ariel Castro was charged while his brothers, Pedro and Onil Castro, were held but faced no immediate charges. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

Gina DeJesus gives a thumbs-up as she is escorted toward her home Wednesday, May 8, 2013, in Cleveland. The three women held captive for about a decade at a run-down Cleveland house were apparently bound with ropes and chains, police said Wednesday, while charges were expected by the end of the day against the three brothers under arrest. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

A member of the FBI evidence response team carries out a bag after searching a house near the home where three women were held Wednesday, May 8, 2013, in Cleveland. Amanda Berry, 27, Michelle Knight, 32, and Gina DeJesus, about 23, had apparently been held captive in the house nearby since their teens or early 20s, police said. (AP Photo/Roadell Hickman)

CLEVELAND (AP) ? A Cleveland man was arraigned Thursday on charges of rape and kidnapping after three women missing for about a decade and one of their young daughters were found alive at his home earlier in the week.

Ariel Castro looked down at the ground for almost the entire court proceeding, biting his collar and signing documents with his handcuffed hands. He didn't speak. Bond was set at $8 million.

The women found alive after a decade in captivity endured lonely, dark lives inside a dingy home where they were raped and allowed outside only a handful of times in disguises while walking to a garage steps away, investigators say.

The 52-year-old former school bus driver has emerged as the lone suspect.

While many questions remain about how Castro maintained such tight control over the women for so many years before one of them made a daring escape Monday, the horrors they suffered are beginning to come to light.

Police say the women were apparently bound by ropes and chains at times and were kept in different rooms. They suffered prolonged sexual and psychological abuse and had miscarriages, according to a city councilman.

Castro has been charged with four counts of kidnapping ? covering the captives and the daughter born to one of them ? and three counts of rape, against all three women.

The women and Castro have given lengthy statements to police that have helped build their case, said Deputy Police Chief Ed Tomba.

None of the women, though, gave them any indication that Castro's two older brothers, who've been in custody since Monday, were involved, Tomba said. Prosecutors brought no charges against the brothers, citing a lack of evidence.

"Ariel kept everyone at a distance," Tomba said.

One thing that remains a mystery, he said, is how the women were kept in the house so long.

"As far as the circumstances inside the home and the control he may have had over those girls ... I think that's going to take us a long time to figure that out," he said.

The women, now in their 20s and 30s, vanished separately between 2002 and 2004. At the time, they were 14, 16 and 20 years old.

At a news conference, authorities would not discuss the circumstances of their kidnapping and captivity.

City Councilman Brian Cummins earlier said: "We know that the victims have confirmed miscarriages, but with who, how many and what conditions we don't know."

"It sounds pretty gruesome," he added.

They never saw a chance to escape over the last 10 years until this week when Amanda Berry broke through a door and ran to freedom, alerting police who rescued the other two women while Castro was away from the house.

In newly released police audio tapes, a 911 dispatcher notifies officers on Monday that she's just spoken to a woman who "says her name is Amanda Berry and that she had been kidnapped 10 years ago."

An officer on the recorded call says, "This might be for real."

After police arrive at the house, women can be heard crying in the background. Then an officer tells the dispatcher: "We found 'em. We found 'em."

Tomba said of Berry, "Something must have clicked and she saw an opportunity and she took that opportunity."

He said the women could remember being outside only twice during their entire time in captivity. "We were told they left the house and went into the garage in disguise," he said.

Also in the house was Berry's 6-year-old daughter. A paternity test on Castro was being done to establish whether he fathered the child.

While prosecutors announced charges against Castro, federal agents searched a vacant house near where the women had been held. Officials would only say their search was an attempt to get evidence in the case against Castro, but they refused to say what they found or what led them there.

Castro was in custody and couldn't be reached for comment. A brother-in-law has said the family was shocked after hearing about the women at the home.

Few people in Cleveland, outside the families of the women, thought there was any chance they were still alive.

Berry, 27, and Gina DeJesus, who is in her early 20s, were welcomed home Wednesday by jubilant crowds of loved ones and neighbors with balloons and banners. Family members hustled them inside, past hundreds of reporters and onlookers.

Neither woman spoke.

"This is the best Mother's Day I could ever have," said Nancy Ruiz, Gina's mother. She said she hugged her daughter and didn't want to let go.

Ruiz said she spent time with all three women after they were rescued. "There's no word to describe the beauty of just seeing them," she said.

DeJesus' father pumped his fist after arriving home with his daughter, and urged people across the country to watch over the children in their neighborhoods ? including other people's kids.

"Too many kids these days come up missing, and we always ask this question: How come I didn't see what happened to that kid? Why? Because we chose not to," he said.

The third captive, Michelle Knight, 32, was reported in good condition at Metro Health Medical Center, which a day earlier had reported that all three victims had been released. There was no immediate explanation from the hospital.

The Associated Press does not usually identify people who may be victims of sexual assault, but the names of the women were widely circulated by their families, friends and law enforcement authorities for years during their disappearance.

Police submitted four affidavits detailing the allegations against Castro ? four kidnapping charges and three rape charges.

The affidavits say Berry, DeJesus and Knight each were lured into Castro's vehicle and then held captive at the home on Seymour.

"During this time period, the victim was repeatedly sexually assaulted by the defendant," Cleveland police Det. Andrew Harasimchuk wrote in each of the affidavits.

Castro was accused of twice breaking the nose of his children's mother, knocking out a tooth, dislocating each shoulder and threatening to kill her and her daughters, according to a 2005 domestic-violence filing in Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court.

The filing for a protective order by Grimilda Figueroa also said that Castro frequently abducted her daughters and kept them from her. Figueroa died in April 2012 after a battle with cancer.

Figueroa's father, Ismail Figueroa, said Wednesday that Castro would regularly lock his daughter inside a second-floor apartment in the house where they lived when they were first together.

Later, when they moved a few blocks to the house Castro purchased ? the house from which, years later, the women would escape ? he kept a close eye on her and refused to let people come inside to visit her or even let her pick up their children from school, said Angel Villanueva, who is married to Grimilda Figueroa's sister.

Grimilda was "not allowed to go nowhere," said Villanueva. No matter where she wanted to go, "it had to be with him."

___

Associated Press writers Andrew Welsh-Huggins and Mike Householder and freelance reporter John Coyne in Cleveland; Mitch Stacy in Columbus; Dan Sewell in Cincinnati; John Seewer in Toledo; and news researchers Rhonda Shafner and Jennifer Farrar in New York contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-05-09-Missing%20Women%20Found/id-696a0edc34e045459cfa69f80d520f69

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Localytics Adds Features To Complete The Picture For Mobile App Developers And Marketers

Boston-based Localytics is fleshing out its mobile app analytics and marketing platform in a major way today with a variety of new features to help not just with customer acquisition, but also with monitoring and maintaining customer relationships over the lifetime of an app. The three big new areas Localytics now addresses with its platform are Lifetime Value Tracking, Customer Acquisition Management and Real-Time Funnel Management, all of which serve to help determine long-term engagement value.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/gZ4e7NehehE/

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