kfp138.com

May 12

18

Question by chamtravel: Why would someone rather book travel online, then book with a qualified travel agent?
I have been a travel agent for 3 years and before I became an agent, I ALWAYS booked my leisure travel through an agent. I cross my eyes sometimes with some of the outragous questions I see on here. If people just picked up the phone and spoke to someone that knows the industry and what they were talking about they would be much better off. I?m not talking about transportation. Meaning if you are going from LA to NYC and staying with your aunt, purchasae your ticket online. But if you need a package or leisure vacation you?re robbing yourself of value. I don?t know of an agent that adds service fees unless it?s only airline tickets. Airlines don?t pay commission to agents so they must add on a service fee. But for packages we?re compensated once the client travels. We?re also educated by product seminars and have relationships with vendors that can add value. I just don?t understand why people rob themselves of service. The internet is a great resourse tool and so is a travel agent

Best answer:

Answer by thisisnotdel
You have a good question, you should be given 10 points for this.

I don?t know. They see the fares at their cheapest which are all before taxes. Or they?re in a hurry. But I agree with you on this. I always book with a travel agency for all my trips.

What do you think? Answer below!

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After signing autographs, former Major League Baseball pitcher Roger?Clemens leaves federal court, Thursday, May 17, 2012, in Washington. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

After signing autographs, former Major League Baseball pitcher Roger?Clemens leaves federal court, Thursday, May 17, 2012, in Washington. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

Former Major League baseball pitcher Roger Clemens’ former trainer Brian McNamee leaves federal court in Washington, Thursday, May 17, 2012, after testifying in Clemens perjury trial. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

Former Major League baseball pitcher Roger Clemens’ former trainer Brian McNamee leaves federal court in Washington, Thursday, May 17, 2012, after testifying in Clemens perjury trial. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

Autograph seekers wait for Former Major League Baseball pitcher Roger?Clemens to sign autographs after signing a newspaper , Thursday, May 17, 2012, in Washington, as his perjury trial concluded for the day. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

Former Major League Baseball pitcher Roger?Clemens autographs as baseball as he leaves federal court, Thursday, May 17, 2012, in Washington. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Attacking key prosecution evidence, Roger Clemens’ lawyer went through the items in a Miller Lite beer can one at a time and tried to cast doubt on the syringes and medical waste allegedly used to inject the famous pitcher with performance-enhancing drugs.

Attorney Rusty Hardin expressed shock when Clemens’s chief accuser Brian McNamee acknowledged that some of the items in the can had been used to inject other players. McNamee, Clemens’ longtime strength coach, had testified he collected the materials after injecting Clemens with steroids.

“Haven’t you testified that everything in the beer can was for Roger?” Hardin asked. “Isn’t this a classic example of you making up this stuff on the fly?”

Although Hardin expressed shock that some items in the beer can were not used on Clemens, McNamee told congressional investigators the same thing in 2008, prior to the U.S. House committee hearing in which he and Clemens testified.

The 11-time All-Star pitcher is charged with perjury for telling Congress that he never used steroids or human growth hormone.

Hardin demanded to know how materials from other players “flew” into the beer can. When prosecutors objected, the lawyer said, “Well, how did they get in there?”

“I put them in the can that night” after injecting Clemens, McNamee said.

When Hardin asked if McNamee ever told government investigators that he put the other players’ material in the beer can that night, McNamee said not specifically “that night. It’s never been asked that way before.”

McNamee is the only witness who will claim firsthand knowledge of Clemens using performance-enhancing drugs, and he never wavered from that central accusation during Hardin’s cross-examination.

McNamee endured a fifth day Friday of questioning. He’s now spent some 24 hours in the swivel chair between jury and judge.

McNamee will return to the stand Monday in a trial moving so slowly that U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton ? for the first time in more than 30 years as a judge ? imposed time limits to speed things up: Only 90 minutes per side for witnesses after McNamee and closing arguments limited to two hours apiece.

“I just can’t let this case meander on forever,” the judge said.

The trial was supposed to last four to six weeks, but it’s just wrapping up its fifth week ? and the government said Friday it still has nine witnesses to call, down from the 14 it estimated the previous day. If the trial isn’t done by June 8, Walton said he may have to call a recess for about a month because of various scheduling conflicts.

“And then we’ll have some real unhappy jurors,” Walton said.

Clemens’ attorney Hardin spent three-plus days of cross-examination portraying McNamee as a chronic liar who frequently changes his story. Toward the end, Hardin raised numerous unsavory personal details: McNamee tampered with a dead body when he was a New York City policeman, he lied to investigators looking into a Florida incident in 2001, he had two driving-under-the-influence arrests in 2002, he got caught up in an Internet fraud investigation after ordering diet pills over the Web in 2004.

“Would you agree that you had a severe drinking problem?” was among the many accusatory questions from Hardin. McNamee answered “No, sir” to that one.

Even though McNamee never backed down from his core testimony that he injected Clemens with performance-enhancing drugs from 1998 to 2001, prosecutors have their work cut out for them as they try to rebuild their key witness in front of the jury. The judge said he would allow only 90 minutes of follow-up questioning from prosecutors, and they used up 20 minutes of that allotment before court adjourned for the weekend.

To bolster McNamee’s credibility, the government hopes to win an argument to include previously barred evidence that shows McNamee supplied drugs to other players who have since acknowledged that they were users. Hardin claimed that would open up a “bunch of mini-trials” over each player associated with McNamee and could extend the trial for months.

The judge said he will rule on the matter Monday morning.

Late Friday afternoon, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and its chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa, filed a motion to quash Clemens’ subpoenas for Issa’s testimony and committee documents. That committee held the hearing that Clemens testified before in 2008; Issa, a California Republican, was not chairman at the time.

The motion argues that the subpoenas are barred by the Constitution’s speech or debate clause, which protects elected officials from being questioned in a lawsuit about their legislative work.

___

AP Sports Writer Joseph White contributed to this report.

___

Follow Fred Frommer at http://twitter.com/ffrommer

Follow Joseph White at http://twitter.com/JGWhiteAP

Associated Press

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Several weeks ago, a variety of remarks emerged from influential NFL owners, like Pats owner Robert Kraft, regarding the future of the salary cap under the new CBA.? And it painted a not-so-pretty picture for players who are under the impression that it will continue to increase ? and that it will spike significantly when the new TV deals kick in.

The talk culminated in NFLPA president Domonique Foxworth vowing to ?crunch all the numbers.?? All the numbers apparently have been crunched.

The NFLPA has taken the message directly to the players via a two-page document entitled ?The Economic Truth About The New NFL CBA.?

The first page begins with an all-caps message that ?contrary to recent statements by some NFL owners, the claim that player salaries are flat or are going to remain flat under the CBA are wrong.?

Following that are four bullet points:

1. ?The amount of cash spent on players in salaries an benefits under the new CBA has gone up to nearly 55 percent of All Revenue in 2011. This is a higher percentage of All Revenue spent on players in cash than in any year under the 2006 CBA.?

2. ?Players were paid more than $160 million per team in cash and benefits in 2011, which is well above the $142.2 million in cap plus benefits in 2011, i.e., a lot of cash over cap.?

3. ?Equally significant, because of the increase in signing bonuses in rookie guarantees, the amount of player salaries guaranteed in 2011 increased from about 50% in 2010 to about 57% in 2011. This is the highest percentage of guaranteed compensation the NFL players have ever had.?

4. ?Equally significant, because of the increase in signing bonuses and rookie guarantees, the amount of player salaries guaranteed in 2011 increased from about 50% in 2010 to about 57% in 2011. This is the highest percentage of guaranteed compensation the NFL players have ever had.?

The second page contains two paragraphs: ?The reason for this large increase in cash spending on players is that the new CBA emphasizes and requires cash spending by teams, as opposed to just salary cap dollars. It also removes the mechanism in the old CBA to lower the salary cap when teams spend too much cash above the salary cap. The result is that the new CBA delivers a higher percentage of revenues to players in cash than the old CBA and salaries have gone up ? not remained flat ? under the new CBA.?

And: ?The 47% player share referred to by the owners and others is in cap dollars ? which is an accounting mechanism. In real cash dollars, which go into the players? pockets, the new CBA has so far provided a higher percentage of revenue, a greater percentage of guaranteed money, and more actual dollars, than in any year of the 2006 CBA.?

Here?s our objective assessment of the two-page document:

1.? Ultimately, there?s no difference between salary cap dollars and real dollars.? Every dollar paid to a player eventually hits the salary cap.? The fact that, collectively, the teams spent over the cap by more than 10 percent per club in 2011 means that, eventually, that excess will be reflected by decreased spending, since fewer cap dollars will be available as the cash-over-cap hits the cap.

2.? The two-page document says nothing about future cap growth.? And therefore it does nothing to refute the contention by multiple owners, like Robert Kraft, that the salary cap will grow only slowly over the next several years.

3.? The increased use of guaranteed salaries is significant, but in many cases the salaries being guaranteed are salaries that were going to be paid anyway.? For example, when a player receives an eight-figure signing bonus and fully-guaranteed first-year base salary, there?s no reason to guarantee the first-year salary because it?s going to be paid with or without a guarantee.? And for the first-rounders who now receive three or four years of fully-guaranteed compensation ? under a much more limited compensation formula ? the chances of any of those players being cut within the first three or four seasons already were slim, to say the least.

4.? The best news for players, which isn?t mentioned in the document, is that as of 2013 each team must spend in cash 89 percent of the unadjusted salary cap.? This means, of course, that there was and is no spending minimum per team in 2011 and 2012.

5.? The document also omits reference to or explanation of the union?s decision to agree to remove $46 million in total cap dollars from two teams that like to spend money (the Cowboys and Redskins) and redistribute it to teams that may or may not spend it.

Here?s the bottom line as to, well, the bottom line.? Both sides should feel good about getting a deal done that creates an atmosphere (at least financially) or a true partnership.? And the NFL should refrain from saying or doing anything to suggest that the deal isn?t as good as the players think it is.? The league should want the players to be happy with the deal, and the players should want the league to be happy with the deal.? That?s how a true partnership is supposed to work, and that attitude will help avoid having the NFL slip into lockout or strike status come 2021.

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By Barbara Wood
Special to the Almanac

With the appointment of Ed Flint as police chief, and the approval of a three-year-contract, Atherton finally has a management employee without “interim” at the beginning of his title.

A contract for Chief Flint, who began serving as interim police chief in July of 2011, was approved by the Atherton City Council at its May 16 meeting as part of its consent calendar with no discussion.

Later in the meeting, however, each council member took the opportunity to praise Chief Flint. “Welcome, we’re glad to have you,” said council member Jerry Carlson.

“We’re so pleased that you’re bringing a whole measure of professionalism to Atherton,” said council member Jim Dobbie.

Chief Flint, who had been receiving approximately $3,800 per month in retirement pay while working for Atherton under a temporary contract, will have to give up that money while working for the town. He will be paid $14,500 per month, his current salary, with a housing allowance of an additional $1,200 per month, and insurance and paid leave benefits. He will be eligible for annual cost-of-living increases.

Other benefits Chief Flint will receive include four weeks of vacation per year (with 160 hours credited to start), sick leave at the level given other management employees, starting with 160 hours, and one week a year of administrative leave, with 40 hours credited.

While the contract says the town will give Chief Flint health insurance, dental insurance, vision insurance, long-term disability insurance, and retirement benefits, it also says he will provide his own health insurance.

Chief Flint has 35 years of multi-agency law enforcement experience including serving as police chief in Santa Rosa and Elk Grove. He also worked during his career with the California Highway Patrol in Redwood City and the Sacramento County sheriff’s department, and was assistant police chief in Citrus Heights.

He is a retired Army colonel, and served in the Army Reserves and California National Guard.

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This entry was posted by admin on May 17, 2012 at 1:14pm. It is filed under Current Health News Articles.

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