Newspaper, Turned, A School, Calendar, Into, Something, Special

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An Iowa paper is leaping beyond newspapers with its creation of a niche product that has become a local favorite, lasting for many months and reaching a young audience.

The Fort Dodge Community School Calendar is put together by The Messenger, a 17,000-circulation daily newspaper that serves Fort Dodge, Iowa.

The full-color calendar, with a glossy front and high-quality newsprint pages, begins in August and ends in August of the following school year, said David Jakeman, advertising director for The Messenger.

The idea originated at a sister publication, Jakeman said, where it was shown to local school officials. “We said, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to do something in full color, that has that durability to last all year?’”  Content

Although most of the calendar is made up of the month grids and the opposite photo pages, the first three pages contain school information. In addition to a phone directory  of school employees, the calendar includes school buildings and addresses, school procedures, lunch program information, student fees, vacation days, tardiness policy information, bus transportation information and legal notices.

The school district supplies that information along with all of the scheduling information that is included on the month grids, such as when a sporting event, board meeting or dance takes place, Jakeman said. The schools also provided some of the classroom photos featured on the photo pages, he said.

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Posted in: Newspaper turned a school calendar into something special

What, People, Search, For, Most, Popular, Keywords

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Millions of searches are conducted each day on popular search engines by people all around the world. What are they looking for? A number of major search engines provide a way to glimpse into the web's query stream to discover the most popular search keywords or topics. These are:


AOL Hot Searches: Top current queries, or see those in the last hour, last day and within particular categories.




Ask IQ: See top searches at Ask.
Dogpile SearchSpy: Choose to see either a filtered or non-filtered sample of top, real-time search terms from this popular meta search service. Sister site MetaCrawler offers a similar MetaCrawler MetaSpy service.




Google Trends: Allows you to tap into Google's database of searches, to determine what's popular. View the volume of queries over time, by city, regions, languages and so on. Compare multiple terms, as well. See our review: 




Google Trends: Peer Into Google's Database Of Searches.




Google Zeitgeist: What people are searching for at Google and its associated specialty services in a variety of categories. There are versions for various countries, as well.




Lycos 50: Long-standing service showing top searches at Lycos each week.




MSN Search Insider: Top 200 queries on MSN Search (annoyingly in random order), top "movers" in TV, sports and music, and a "duels" feature pitting top queries in a race against each other.
Yahoo Buzz Index: Shows you what's hot and what's not in terms of search topics at Yahoo.

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Posted in: What People Search For - Most Popular Keywords

Extreme, Couponing, Latest, Trend, For, Area, Shoppers

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The latest "extreme" activity brought into homes by TV and is a sign of current economic times. It is extreme couponing, or the practice of using coupons to obtain goods for free or next to nothing.


With penny-pinching the new norm and a slow economic recovery keeping budgets tight, the overall use of coupons by consumers has increased. Around 3.3 billion coupons were redeemed in 2010, according to trade marketing company Inmar. That was a 27 percent increase over 2008. But that amount only represents 2 percent of all coupons yearly issued nationwide, said Autumn Thomas, president of Pa. Coupon Redemption Services in Harrisburg.


While the number of extreme couponers isn't tracked, John Morgan, executive director of the Association of Coupon Professionals, based in Havertown, and Thomas say the practice hasn't had a noticeable effect on the issuance or redemption of coupons; rather overall increased use of coupons by the general public is changing the acceptance standards at most stores.
"Consumers overall are using more coupons and challenging the retailers," he said, "and manufacturers are causing enough of an issue that retailers and manufacturers are tightening up their policies in response."


Stricter or constantly changing policies haven't deterred two local couponers who picked up the practice to make their money go further.


Related Stories:


Sunday paper is still best place to find coupons


Coupon apps for your Smart Phone


Publisher: Pilfering coupon inserts is theft


A self-professed "extreme" couponer, Jennifer Guldner of Reading said she was inspired to start using coupons six months ago by the cable show on TLC. Guldner and her husband, Sean, were already operating with a small household budget, but the birth of their second child made finances even tighter.

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Posted in: Extreme couponing latest trend for area shoppers

Morgan, County, State, Erases, $440000, Debt

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Morgan County State erases $440 000 debt commissioners have been operating under the financial dark cloud of the state’s claim that the county owed more than $440,000 for overspending on children’s services back in the 1990s.


But that monetary storm cloud blew away late last week when state officials erased the county’s so-called debt.


State officials concluded that the $440,000 for which they threatened legal collection measures – ranging from garnishments and sheriff’s sales to canceling liquor permits – is not a debt at all, and that the county owes nothing.


In fact, the so-called debt turned out to be an accounting error on the books of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, according to letters from two state agencies, the Ohio JFS and the Attorney General’s office.


“If the state had forced us to pay that, it would have put us in fiscal emergency,” Commissioner Tim VanHorn said Monday. And, even if the state allowed a multi-year repayment plan, he added, “this county wouldn’t have been able to pay it off for years and years.”


Exactly as the commissioners and Vicki Quesinberry, director of the Morgan County Department of Jobs and Family Services, maintained from the start, the $440,000 in question was an old debt of the county’s which a previous director of Ohio JFS had forgiven, but had never taken “off the books.”


Early this year, when Ohio JFS staff saw that old debt, with no indication that it had been forgiven nearly 15 years ago, they had the Attorney General’s office initiate collection proceedings against Morgan County.


Mike Reed, president of the county commission, said taxpayers have several county administrators to thank for getting the county off the hook for more than $440,000 that it didn’t owe, but could have been forced into paying.


“A lot of credit goes to our current and past directors and fiscal officers (of Morgan County JFS) for keeping that letter,” Reed said. He was referring to a letter from Wayne Shoals, former director of the Ohio JFS, who “forgave”  the county’s $400,000 over spending back in the late 1990s.


“That letter was our ‘get out of jail free card,’ so to speak,” Reed said.


If that letter had been lost, Reed said, the county might have wound up in litigation and might have been forced into paying all or at least part of the alleged debt.


“We’re certainly thrilled that it has been corrected and (the alleged debt) dismissed,” Commissioner Dean Cain said.


Reed said Ohio JFS officials, in negotiations with the county over this issue, never pushed hard for collection of the so-called debt, but rather sought ways to resolve the discrepancy in its ledgers.

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Posted in: Morgan County State erases $440 000 debt