Akita Dogs

Did Losing His Dog, Saki, Detonate the 'Killer Santa' Bruce Jeffrey Pardo?

One of the creepiest pieces of news about mass-murderer Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, an aerospace software technician who lived in Montrose, among Los Angeles' most charming, quiet and friendly suburban neighborhoods, was that he lost his "beloved" dog, Saki, to the estranged wife Pardo so viciously and methodically killed on Christmas Eve.Was losing his brown Akita dog the final push that sent this increasingly unbalanced man secretly and quietly over the edge, causing him to wipe out nine innocent lives, giving Los Angeles the kind of global and national press it doesn't exactly hope for?Here's the timeline: Pardo was ordered by a Los Angeles Superior Court in June to begin paying $1,785 to $3,166 in monthly alimony (the Associated Press says the lower amount, the L.A. Times the higher amount), but Pardo was just two or three weeks later fired from a very lucrative $120,000-plus job at ITT Electronic Systems - Radar Systems in Van Nuys. Then, he was just a couple of weeks after that denied the usual state unemployment benefits because of the still-unknown nature of his July firing from ITT Electronic Systems. And then -- one week before his blazing, bloody rampage in Covina -- the apparently financially wiped out Pardo was ordered by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge to pay his wife, Sylvia, an additional $10,000, and hand over to her his Akita dog, Saki. If that was the final straw that caused Bruce Pardo to lose his mind and kill nine innocent adults and children in a blaze of gunfire and high-octane racing fuel, the next media story on this gruesome affair should look at the superior court judge, what the judge decided in this ruinous divorce case, and why he decided it. Nobody can foresee the beginnings of insanity. Nobody knows what happens when somebody believes they have lost everything. Maybe that is what happened in the demented mind of Bruce Jeffrey Pardo. A Google search of the words "murder divorce" turns up more than 8 million references.
http://blogs.laweekly.com/ladaily/did-losing-his-dog-saki-detona/


Akita Breed Information

Breed Group: Working

Weight: male: 85-130, female: 65-110 lbs

Height: male: 25-28, female: 23-26 inches

Color(s): any color, including white, pinto, or brindle

Coat: The Akita is a double coat, waterproof breed. The outer coat is harsh, straight, and stands slightly off the body. The under coat is dense, soft, and close to the body. The hair on the head, legs, and ears is short, while the hair on the tail is long and profuse. They typically shed their coat twice a year. The Akita coat colors include pure white, red, sesame, and brindle.

Overview: The Akita originated in Japan. Unchanged for centuries, this breed is considered the national dog of Japan and a natural monument. They were highly prized, revered, and only owned by nobility and aristocracy. They were used in various capacities such as Imperial guards, hunter of bear and boar, and waterfowl retrieving. They are the largest of the Spitz-type breeds. Today, the Akita is a faithful companion, therapy dog, and guard dog.
Character: Akitas are large, sturdy, and muscular. The paws are webbed which makes them excellent swimmers. They have a reserved manner and carry themselves with great dignity. They are powerful and alert, responsive and courageous. The Akita is a noble and dominating breed.

Temperament: The Akita is highly intelligent, fearless, and spontaneous. They thrive on human companionship. They are extremely loyal to their family and those they know, but are wary and aloof of strangers. They are exceedingly protective of their family, their territory, and of their food. They are particularly aggressive toward other dogs and pets. They will get along with older, very well behaved children within their family unit, but will not tolerate children they don't know. They make excellent guard dogs, although they are not excessive barkers. They do not do well if left alone for extended periods of time. For this reason, they are not well suited for a two career family. They require an inordinate amount of attention. Akitas are not recommended for the novice dog owner, or owners who are placid and submissive.

Care: The Akita requires significant grooming with a firm bristle brush on a daily basis. Bathing should only be done when absolutely necessary with a mild shampoo to prevent stripping the coat of the natural oils. It is important to keep the hair on the bottom of the paws trimmed to preserve their characteristic of webbed feet. They are prone to hip dysplasia, hypothyroidism, eye problems, and lupus.

Training: The Akita requires intensive and extensive socialization and obedience training. It is absolutely imperative that they know who their master is or they will take charge. They do not respond to harsh or heavy-handed training methods. They do best with patience, kindness, firmness, fairness, and consistency. Akitas typically prefer to be clean and is easier to housetrain than many other breeds.

Activity: The Akita does not require an over-abundance of exercise. They are moderately active indoors. They enjoy play sessions with their family or other family activities. However, they will become bored and destructive if left alone for extended periods of time either inside or outside. They enjoy a daily walk, but it is vitally important they are very securely leashed and kept from encountering other dogs. They are not well suited for apartment dwellings and do best in a home with a large securely fenced yard.

Ownership: If you are looking for Akita puppies for sale from reputable Akita breeders or to adopt an Akita from an Akita rescue then make sure you understand as much about the dog breeds you are interested in as you can. Every puppy breed is different. Begin your research by reading the breed information about the Akita puppy above. Search our dog breeds section to find Akita puppies, dogs and puppies that make great pets.
http://www.nextdaypets.com/directory/breeds/1100005/

Lingerie Football Player Sues Ex-Lover Over Nude Photos

A lingerie football league player is suing her ex-lover after he allegedly posted nude pictures of her on the Internet and emailed them to her mother.

Melissa Berry, a 24-year-old rookie linebacker with the Tampa Breeze franchise of the Lingerie Football League, is seeking $15,000 in unspecified damages from her ex-boyfriend Mark Dawson, a 45-year-old safe dating expert, whom she dated earlier this fall.

According to Berry’s lawsuit against Dawson, she took nude photographs of herself with his cell phone. Another photo of her engaged in a “particularly private, intimate sexual act,” was also allegedly taken without her permission, the Tampa Tribune said.

Berry claims that she never intended on the photos being shown to anyone else. But shortly after their break-up, Dawson showed two of the pictures to Berry’s friends at a nightclub, the Tribune said.

Berry then destroyed Dawson’s phone. In return, Dawson sent a text message to Berry’s mother on Nov. 10 demanding $500 for the phone’s damages, or he would publicly release the photos. Berry refused, and Dawson then posted the pictures and emailed them to her mother.
“I could have had her arrested and I didn’t,” Dawson said, defending his actions. “All I wanted was this phone back. I am a decent guy … It’s girls like this I fight against in the work that I do.”

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,473528,00.html

Eric Mangini fired as Jets' coach one day after season-ending loss

Less than 24 hours after losing to the Dolphins and completing a bitter collapse down the stretch, the Jets announced that they have fired Eric Mangini.
Owner Woody Johnson and GM Mike Tannenbaum both said they had been discussing a coaching change for some time now and told Mangini of his fate this morning.
"We just felt that we could get a better fit moving from this point," Johnson said. "I don't think it was one thing. It was just Mike's and my judgment that we had to go in a different direction. There's nothing specific. It's just a call that we made and hopefully it is correct."
"Eric has done some amazing things and nobody has been a harder worker. This is not a decision that we reached yesterday. We respect Eric for what he has done but we want to build on this successful foundation that he has laid. We will quickly start this process."
Both Tannenbaum and Johnson said they will start the search for a new head coach immediately and will consider all options. When asked about a report that said the Jets could be interested in Bill Parcells to join the team's braintrust should he become available due to a clause in his Miami contract that allows him to opt out if new ownership takes over in Miami, Johnson said all talent will be considered.
Tannenbaum was also asked if the Jets will consider talking to former Steelers coach Bill Cowher but the GM declined to discuss specific names.
When asked if Mangini lost the team and the locker room, Tannenbaum said he thought the Jets were still playing hard for the head coach despite losing four of the last five games after an 8-3 start.
As for Brett Favre, Johnson and Tannenbaum said they want the quarterback back but have yet to talk to him about his future.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/jets/2008/12/29/2008-12-29_eric_mangini_fired_as_jets_coach_one_day.html

2009 NFL Draft Order

With the regular season almost over, some fans are already looking at the 2009 NFL Draft. For fans of teams like the Detroit Lions and Seattle Seahawks, a high spot in the 2009 NFL draft order is pretty much the only thing they have to look forward to. Here is a tentative list of the 2009 NFL Draft Order. This list is not official as the regular season is not officially over.

1. Detroit Lions (0-16)
2. St. Louis Rams (2-14)
3. Kansas City Chiefs (2-14)
4. Cleveland Browns (4-12)
5. Seattle Seahawks (4-12)
6. Cincinnati Bengals (4-11-1)
7. Jacksonville Jaguars (5-11)
8. Oakland Raiders (5-11)
9. Green Bay Packers (6-10)
10. Buffalo Bills (7-9)
11. San Francisco 49ers (7-9)
12. San Diego Chargers (7 -8*)
13. New Orleans Saints (8-8)
14. Houston Texans (8-8)
15. Washington Redskins (8-8)
16. Denver Broncos (8-7*)
17. Dallas Cowboys (9-7)
18. Chicago Bears (9-7)
19. New York Jets (9-7)
20. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (9-7)
21. Arizona Cardinals (9-7)
22. Philadelphia Eagles (9-6-1)
23. Minnesota Vikings (10-6)
24. New England Patriots (11-5)
25. Atlanta Falcons (11-5)
26. Baltimore Ravens (11-5)
27. Miami Dolphins (11-5)
28. New York Giants (12-4)
29. Indianapolis Colts (12-4)
30. Carolina Panthers (12-4)
31. Pittsburgh Steelers (12-4)
32. Tennessee Titans (13-3)

NFL Playoff Schedule

The National Football League released the times for next weekend's wild card round of the playoffs, and the NFC West champion Arizona Cardinals (9-7) will get the slate started with a 4:30 p.m. (et) game on Saturday against the Atlanta Falcons (11-5).
Indianapolis (12-4), the fifth-seeded team out of the AFC, will play at either Denver or San Diego on Saturday at 8 p.m. (et). The Broncos and Chargers are currently battling for the AFC West title, while the Colts are in the postseason for a seventh straight year. That extends the longest streak in the NFL.
The Baltimore Ravens (11-5), seeded sixth in the AFC, play at AFC East champion Miami (11-5) on Sunday at 1 p.m. (et), and the final game on the slate will be at 4:30 p.m. (et) as the Philadelphia Eagles (9-6-1), seeded sixth in the NFC, take on NFC North champion Minnesota (10-6).

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/scorecard/nflnews.asp?articleID=248004

38% of U.S. Adults Use Alternative Treatments

An estimated 38 percent of U.S. adults and 12 percent of children use some type of complementary and alternative medicine, a new U.S. government survey finds.
Complementary and alternative medicine -- sometimes called CAM -- is an umbrella term for a collection of wide-ranging medical and health care systems, practices and products that aren't generally considered conventional medicine. It includes herbal supplements, meditation, chiropractic treatment and acupuncture.
The question about CAM use is really the same as that for conventional medicine -- is it safe and effective? For CAM, the answer has been mixed. Some remedies have been found to be safe and effective, some are safe and not effective, and others are unsafe.
"If you are going to use CAM, you should always let your conventional [health care] provider know about it," said survey co-author Richard L. Nahin, acting director of the U.S. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine's division of extramural research.
For the survey, more than 23,300 adults were interviewed about their use of CAM, and, for the first time, more than 9,400 were asked about their children's use of CAM.
The survey found that use of CAM among adults remained about the same from 2002 to 2007, with 36 percent using alternative therapies in 2002 and 38 percent in 2007.
However, use of techniques such as deep breathing, meditation, massage therapy, and yoga increased significantly.
The most common supplements used by adults are fish oil/omega 3/DHA, glucosamine, echinacea, flaxseed oil or pills, and ginseng. The most popular alternative techniques are deep breathing exercises, meditation, chiropractic or osteopathic manipulation, massage and yoga, the survey found.
Adults use CAM most often to treat pain, including back pain, neck pain or problems, joint pain, arthritis, and other musculoskeletal conditions.
Nahin offered some advice for those looking at CAM for their health needs.
Do your homework first, he said. "It's a little bit 'buyer beware' in buying products and getting information," he added. "Be sure you get reliable information."
Most techniques, such as acupuncture, massage and yoga, are safe, he said. "But herbal supplements may interfere with conventional medications. So let your conventional doctor know, so they can be monitoring you for any unexpected events," he added.
Other findings from the survey showed that more women than men use CAM (42.8 percent versus 33.5 percent), as do older and more educated and wealthier adults, and those living in the west.
Among children, nearly one in nine uses CAM. And, children are five times more likely to use these therapies if a parent or relative uses them.
The most commonly used products by children are echinacea, fish oil/omega 3/DHA, combination herb pill, flaxseed oil or pills, and prebiotics or probiotics (foods containing supplements). A small number of children use chiropractic or osteopathic manipulation, deep breathing exercises and yoga.
Therapies were most often used by children to treat back or neck pain, head or chest colds, anxiety or stress, musculoskeletal problems, and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, according to the survey.
And CAM use to treat head or chest colds dropped from 9.5 percent in 2002 to 2 percent in 2007, according to the survey.
Mark Blumenthal is founder and executive director of the American Botanical Council, an independent, nonprofit research group that says it's dedicated to helping people live healthier lives through the responsible use of herbs and medicinal plants. He said he views the use of CAM is a positive trend.
"People are using these products to enhance wellness," Blumenthal said. "The dietary supplement increase reflects consumer trends toward improving and increasing their sense of wellness and their own self-empowerment with respect to their health."
The increasing use of CAM among children is also positive, Blumenthal added. "Look at children's diets. We are seeing more childhood obesity, we are seeing people who want to give statins to children because of higher cholesterol -- I think that's deplorable," he said.
Dr. David L. Katz, director of the Yale University School of Medicine Prevention Research Center, said people turn to CAM to enhance vitality, and to relieve pain, discomfort or fatigue.
"The continued popularity of CAM highlights the importance of physicians being knowledgeable, because it is here that patients most need expert guidance," he said. "Doctors and patients alike should approach the many offerings of CAM with open-minded skepticism, to take advantage of what is likely to help, and be on guard against what may cause harm."

http://www.forbes.com/forbeslife/health/feeds/hscout/2008/12/10/hscout622169.html

Wal-Mart to start selling Apple's iPhone on Sunday

Wal-Mart on Friday confirmed one of the worst-kept secrets in technology: It will begin selling Apple's iPhone on Sunday.
But the retail giant officially knocked down one other rumor that had been making the rounds: It won't be selling a special 4-gigabyte version of the iconic phone for $99.
Instead, the retail giant will offer the same two standard iPhone models that are already sold at Apple, AT&T and Best Buy stores. Wal-Mart customers will be able to buy the phones at a discount, but not much of one.
The retailer's stores will sell the 8-gigabyte model for $197 and the 16-gigabyte for $297. Both of those prices are $2 less than they can be found at other outlets.
The phones will be available in about 2,500 Wal-Mart stores. That means they won't be available in every Wal-Mart store: All told, the chain has about 4,000 discount, supercenter and Sam's Club outlets.
Rumors have been circulating since at least last month that Wal-Mart would soon sell the iPhone, becoming the fourth major retailer to carry the device in the United States. The Mercury News reported earlier this month that store employees had confirmed that the retailer would begin selling the device by the last week of December.
Some of the buzz about Wal-Mart selling the iPhone focused on the $99 model. A Wal-Mart employee seemed to substantiate those rumors when she told the Mercury News earlier this month that the company would indeed sell such a device. No other Wal-Mart employees the Mercury News spoke with at the time were aware of such a plan to sell a $99 device.
While no new iPhones will be offered at that price, AT&T is selling refurbished 8-gigabyte iPhones for $99 with a two-year service plan.

At least 160 dead as Israel hammers Hamas-run Gaza

Israel blitzed Hamas targets in Gaza on Saturday with a wave of air strikes that killed at least 160 people in the besieged enclave in retaliation for ongoing rocket fire, officials said.
Another 300 people were wounded, some 120 of them seriously in the attacks.
And an Israeli died as Hamas swiftly responded to the air raids by firing several dozen rockets on the Jewish state.
The European Union and its current president, France, urged both sides to stop to the violence , as did Britain and Russia.
The United States said Israel should avoid civilian casualties, while the Arab League and a number of Middle Eastern states singled out Israel for blame.
Israel warned that the attacks, in which army radio said around 60 aircraft bombed the impoverished, overcrowded territory of 1.5 million people, was "just the beginning."
Hamas told Israelis living near Gaza to "prepare the funeral shrouds."
In Gaza, thick clouds of smoke billowed into the sky, with mangled, bloodied and often charred corpses littering the pavement around Hamas security compounds, television images showed.
It was not immediately clear how many of those killed were civilians, with medics saying that the majority of the victims appeared to be members of Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since seizing power there last year.
Dr Moawiya Hassanein, the head of Gaza emergency services, at least 160 people were killed and 300 wounded, and that rescuers were still searching for bodies in the rubble.
The attacks came after days of escalating violence, with militants firing rockets and Israel vowing a fiery response.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas told AFP from Saudi Arabia that he was in "urgent contact" with numerous countries to stop "the cowardly aggressions and massacres in the Gaza Strip."
Egypt, which brokered a six-month Israeli-Hamas truce that expired on December 19, slammed the bombardment.
"Egypt condemns the Israeli military aggression on the Gaza Strip and blames Israel, as an occupying force, for the victims and the wounded," President Hosni Mubarak said in a statement.
He order the Rafah terminal -- the only one that bypasses Israel -- to be opened to allow wounded Palestinians to be evacuated for treatment in Egyptian hospitals.
Dozens of wounded had passed through by mid-afternoon, Egyptian state news agency Mena reported, with public television saying 200 were expected in the coming hours.
Hamas called on its fighters to "avenge with force against the enemy" while its militants warned Israelis living near the border to "prepare the funeral shrouds," vowing that the Islamists' response "was on its way."
One rocket hit the southern Israeli town of Netivot, killing a man and wounding four other people, according to the Magen David Adom, Israel's equivalent of the Red Cross.
Israel, which put communities around Gaza on a state of alert, warned that the deadly strikes were "just the beginning," said an army spokesman.
"The operation will continue and will be expanded as necessary in accordance with the assessments of the army and the defence establishment," Defence Minister Ehud Barak's office said.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office said the Israeli onslaught was launched "following... the incessant attacks on Israeli citizens in the south of the country ..." in order to "bring the rocket fire to an end."
The bombing hit and destroyed Hamas security structures across Gaza, the group said. A training base of the Hamas military wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, was pounded in the north.
Hamas said three of its senior officials -- the Gaza police chief, the police commander for central Gaza and the head of the group's bodyguard unit -- were killed in the blitz.
The mid-morning air raids followed days of rocket and mortar attacks on Israel by militants inside Gaza, which the Jewish state had warned would be met with harsh reprisals.
Violence in and around the Gaza Strip has flared since the ceasefire ended. It escalated dramatically on Wednesday, when militants fired more than 80 rockets and mortar rounds in response to air strikes on Gaza.
Israel had responded to earlier attacks by tightening the blockade it imposed after Hamas seized Gaza from forces loyal to Abbas.
However, dozens of truckloads of supplies were delivered to Gaza on Friday after Israel decided to temporarily allow in humanitarian aid.
Hamas is sworn to destruction of the Jewish state and has warned that it would retaliate to a major Israeli operation in Gaza by resuming suicide bombings inside Israel. The last such attack claimed by Hamas was in January 2005.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iEw3Q2ENehCbAO98LaZk3WqMJchQ

Gift of the Season? 2009 Palin Calendar Tops Best Seller List

She didn’t make it to the White House, but Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is a leader on Amazon.com’s best-seller list.

A 2009 calendar of the former Republican vice-presidential candidate is currently the top item on the Web site’s list of “Office Products and Supplies.” (Palin beat out “Fiskars DuraSharp DeskWorks Preferred Scissors” and “Brother PT-80 P-touch Electronic Labeling System” for the distinction.)
Washington Wire reported in October that the calendar was the product of former Wasilla deputy mayor and friend-of-Sarah Judy Patrick, an Anchorage-based photographer who culled from her professional and personal photos of the governor and her family to create the calendar.
Patrick’s motivation for the calendar was less political and more financial—she was hoping to sell enough of the $15.95 calendars to put a down payment on a new home. Patrick did not immediately respond to an e-mail about calendar sales.
According to a Gallup Poll released today, Palin is the second most admired woman in America, behind New York Sen. Hillary Clinton but ahead of media mogul and talk show host Oprah Winfrey.

Click Here To Buy One!
Sarah Palin Calendar 2009

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/12/26/gift-of-the-season-2009-palin-calendar-tops-best-seller-list/

Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen Engaged

Congrats to Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen, who are officially one step closer to walking down the aisle. Tom proposed to Gisele on a private jet yesterday that took off from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey and landed in Boston--and she said YES! He proposed with four-dozen white roses and a bottle of champagne, reports TMZ. Gisele and Tom's parents were also on board the flight. Rumors of a possible Brady/Bundchen wedding started to spread back in October when the NY Post reported that the couple was planning a wedding reception at Tavern on the Green in NYC. "They were recently there, and Brady had a long chat with Broadway Joe Namath," a spy said. Well at least now we know where the wedding's going to be. While both camps are thrilled about the news, it probably killed Bridget Moynahan's Christmas. Brady famously left Moynahan while she was 3 months pregnant with their son.

http://www.hollyscoop.com/gisele-bundchen/tom-brady-and-gisele-bundchen-engaged_18843.aspx

New Web site a network for nonprofits

If you want to pick an auto mechanic or hair dresser, you can go to Yelp.com. A restaurant - go to Zagat.com. A college class - ratemyprofessors.com.

But what if you want to donate to charity?
Taking a cue from the online field test movement, a group of Stanford University students created greatnonprofits.org - where volunteers, nonprofit workers, donors and the needy rate the charities they encounter. "These days people don't go to a movie or buy a book without first checking the reviews," said greatnonprofits.org founder Perla Ni. "Nonprofits need a forum to create that same type of trust." Especially now, Ni said, as the recession makes it harder for people to give, while also creating more demand for nonprofit help.

Most of the charities reviewed on her site are small, with an average of two people on the payroll, 30 volunteers and an annual budget of $180,000. They don't have the money for marketing, and their work goes largely unnoticed, she said. After a beta test, Ni's Web site went live in June. To date, 400 nonprofits have been reviewed, the bulk of them in the Bay Area. More than 1 million U.S. charities are in the Web site's database, waiting to be reviewed.

So far on the site, a Buddhist teacher who volunteers for the Liberation Prison Project in San Francisco wrote about the powerful letters he received from inmates. Someone who adopts abused rabbits through House Rabbit Society in Richmond lauded the program. When a gay couple was banned from a ballroom dance class in San Mateo, they wrote about the advice they received from the National Center for Lesbian Rights in San Francisco: Write to the mayor. Shortly thereafter, the couple was invited back to the ballroom class.
"It's an extremely beneficial tool for nonprofits like ours that are young and still trying to create name recognition in the community," said Caron Tabb, who provides new clothes to homeless children for their first day of school through her 2-year-old Burlingame nonprofit, My New Red Shoes.

Some of her first reviews were from professionals who work in homeless shelters and send her requests for children's clothes. "We welcome anybody's inquiry, and we want people to go to our Web site and read our annual report and strategic plan," Tabb said. Nonprofits that are not so great also get noticed. Reviewers have written about outdated computer equipment and staff shortages, as well as nonprofits that exaggerate their need to get more funding. Ni removed one nonprofit that is the subject of a federal investigation, from the Web site.

Roots in Hurricane Katrina
Ni, 35, got the idea for greatnonprofits.org after Hurricane Katrina. The then-publisher of the Stanford Social Innovation Review, she was considered by her friends the go-to person to find out which New Orleans relief agencies to fund. She didn't have an answer, and realized she couldn't find any sort of measurement system for charities online, beyond the basic income/expense ratios. She sent one of her reporters to New Orleans to walk the streets and find out. The five charities the reporter found providing most of the shelter, food and water were small, obscure ones that weren't getting any media attention, she said. She found the same was true in the Bay Area. "There is so much innovation in the nonprofit world here, so much amazing intelligence and hard work, but those aren't the kind of charities that have time or money to promote themselves," she said.

In general, donors give to their church first and their alma mater second, Ni said. Overall, the poor receive about 12 percent of national giving. It's not because people have an aversion to helping the needy, she said. It's that they are just unfamiliar with which groups are making a difference.

Greatnonprofits.org and GiveWell.net, an online charity evaluator and funder that puts its ranking system online, are seen as the front-runners to bring transparency to the charity world.
"What greatnonprofits is doing is quite unique; there are only a couple other experiments happening but it's the largest," said Jacob Harold, program officer in the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation's philanthropy program. "These sorts of constituency opinions provide insight but do not in and of themselves get to the question, 'Is the nonprofit creating social impact?' " Harold said. "But it can be really useful in context with other information."

Holiday book
For the holiday season, Ni culled the Bay Area charities that ranked four stars or higher on her Web site and compiled them into a book: "Great Guide to Giving and Volunteering - San Francisco Bay Area 2009." Each entry includes a review from the Web site and examples of what the charity could do with a donation of $50 or two volunteer hours.
Ni distributed 10,000 guides with San Francisco Chronicle subscriptions in late November, is passing them out at beauty salons, and sells them for $2.95 on her Web site. She hopes to create a new guide every year in December.

Four community foundations in other cities have contacted Ni about replicating the site.
GuideStar, a Web site that allows users to examine charity tax records, plans to add reviews from greatnonprofits.org to its site in February. "The concept works because yes, you want to know that the charity is not bilking you out of your donation, but more importantly, you want to know if it's having an effect on someone's life. We are allowing nonprofits to tell their narrative story," Ni said.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/26/BAEP14OGI4.DTL

How To Get Your Free Credit Report

You're entitled to one free credit report per year, here's how to go about getting it.

Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you're entitled to one free credit report every year. Here's how to go about getting it.
They say the best things in life are free, and these days, a free credit report is just what we need. Many people are finding that in order to get a good deal on a loan, they need a pretty stellar credit score. And the only way to know your credit score is to check your credit report.

Not only will reviewing your credit report help you get an idea of what your credit score may be (you do have to pay for your actual credit score), it will also allow you to confirm that all the information is correct. One small mistake on your credit report could seriously affect your credit score and potentially cause your rates to skyrocket.

There is only one place to get your free, federally mandated credit reports, also called an "educational credit report," which this is AnnualCreditReport.com. You are allowed a free credit report from the three major consumer reporting agencies in the U.S." Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. These sites also offer credit reports, but you have to pay for them. When you go to AnnualCreditReport.com, you are given the option to get all three reports at once or one at a time. Choose to get all three reports at once. Gerri Detweiler, author of the book Stop Debt Collectors, explains that when you apply for a loan you probably won't know which report a lender will use. So if there is a mistake on one, you'll want to know.

You've probably seen commercials for a "free credit report" (you may recall that guy playing his guitar in the seafood restaurant lamenting his predicament). Be aware that these companies will give you a free credit report and/or credit score initially, but they will also most likely also ask for your credit card number. If you don't cancel within a certain time, they'll charge you for membership.

Checking your credit report is called a soft inquiry, and you can check your credit as much as you want without it negatively affecting your credit score.

http://www.forbes.com/personalfinance/2008/12/05/free-credit-score-pf-ym-in_avb_1205youngmoney_inl.html